After purchasing my 1968 Aloha vintage travel trailer a few weeks ago I started to research information on the Web, curious about the brand, year… how others had decorated the inside. Story of the $200 Vintage Trailer
I was (still am) a bit enamored with my little tin can that I got for a steal… and wanted to know all about her and her history.
The best resource by far was (and is) Tin Can Tourist’s Wiki page: Aloha Travel Trailers.
Quoted from the website:
“Aloha manufactured economic travel trailers from 1954 to 1970. They were a small comapany but quite popular.”
“The smallest trailer they made was 11′ and the largest they manufactured was 28′, at the height of their production in the 1960’s they were making 17-19 trailers a day, had several hundred employees, owned their buildings and even had a night shift to keep up with production.”
“The main areas where they sold and marketed their trailers were OR, WA, ID and BC and at one point held 13% of the regional market which was ‘a remarkable amount’ for a small company. Their most popular trailer was the 15′ Beaver.”
“Because they were making their trailers for the NW market they had a few unique characteristics including a larger than normal drip rail and thicker plywood around the wheel wells to help deal with moisture.”
“Their biggest technological innovation however was wrapping the framing stringers around the frame so there wasn’t just a box built onto a frame, this resulted in much higher stability than other travel trailers at the time.”
I was born and raised in Seattle, WA and also learned that Aloha trailers were sold in mass and used as extra housing for the over-load of tourists that descended upon the city during the 1962 Worlds Fair.
An easy way to search for photographs of anything on the web is to do a Google search and then click on ‘Images’ (default setting is ‘Web’).
When I did this search the first time I got a bit of a kick out of the fact one of my photos pulled in that I had put on this page: My New Vintage Travel Trailer.
More photos of Aloha trailers are here: Old Trailer.com Aloha Pics
This page on ‘My Vintage Travel Trailer’ website didn’t list my year of trailer, but has most other Aloha year, makes and models with information on the weight of the trailer and the hitch weight: Aloha Travel Trailers.
Old Trailer.com has photos of many vintage trailer decals and logos, with years and information (so you can then search to buy online!), fun to scroll through: Old Trailer.com Vintage Decals
Some on eBay: Vintage Trailer Decals.
What an amazing deal! We just bought your exact same trailer today for $600! We are so excited to fix her up! It is in great structural condition and I am just trying to redo to enterior to fit our family. I’m curious, did yours come with wallpaper? Ours has wallpaper covering almost entire enterior and painted white. We started peeling it to discover beautiful birch underneath. So now I’m trying to strip it all off. How is yours going???
That is an awesome deal as well! Mine was just really dirty, took weeks to clean and had a dried out bee hive attached to front window – obviously had been sitting for a long time. I had panneling on walls, not sure what type of wood but that original light-grey color. I painted the whole trailer to clean it up and give it some color (soft yellow/white/blue-green).
On the ceiling not sure what the nice wood (again, thin paneling but very newish) that had wallpapper. Ended up with a fun ‘splash’ painted yellow/white ceiling as was going to use burlap then it was just way too dusty to put up but now loved how it turned out, is funky and fun.
I have some paint touch-ups left and a new futon to buy but have done all the painting (saved original hinges and handles that I did not like then looked awesome with the new paint – score! The floor is the original linoleum, stove orignal Trav’ler (olive color) and works, removed ice box (trashed) to find a hole behind on the lower part of trailer – LOL – easy repair.
Has been fun, I love the trailer, going to put up a bunch of pages on blog about what I did when is finished.
Would be fun to interview you too about what you are doing etc. if you want! I want to see pics!!!
I have a 1961 Ford Motor home made by aloha trailer..
Cool 🙂
Hi Molly! Great to read about your Aloha trailer restoration project. We have some info on Aloha and other vintage trailers at http://www.myvintagetraveltrailer.com/
Keep up the good work!
Thanks and I have come across your site before and think it is great, have a new post coming up soon, would be a good one to include a link as it is about ‘learning about your vintage trailer’. Will send you a note via your site when is up, cheers, Molly
Hi there molly great find i have too alohas one is a 1955 compact and the other is 1955 15 foot.both need restoring.my 15 foot i payed 575 for my compact 950. Looking too sell my compact for 500 if you know any one interested. Love theys trailers i live in portland oregon.
Hi John,
I’m interested in you compact and also live in Portland. Let me know if it’s still available!
Thanks,
Raymond
Hi, sorry so late but we did sell it. I hope you find one, there are many out there just be patient and keep looking!
best, Molly
I loved that little trailer, had to sell her so could help my son get into an apartment for college. Made a little profit, so that was awesome but I did do a ton of work getting her cleaned and cutened up so isn’t like I made a ton of cash. We got to travel in her for a few months, she towed awesome and was nice to have to relax in.
I think for my next trailer project it is going to be a newer model, maybe even a truck camper (I’m a big baby when it comes to towing) – mainly as I may want to stay put in places off and on and it is harder to do that with an older camper.
To sell your camper post on the Glampers on the Loose Facebook group – huge number of folks who are looking for just that type of camper at that price~! https://www.facebook.com/groups/glampersontheloose/
I just bought an 18′ 1967 aloha, but I need a new door and a couple windows. Any suggestions on where I can find them?
Sorry Brooke, I missed this! I had to replace our door (was not cheap, over $800 as it was custom built) – Camping World did the repair and were great. Windows I don’t know, I’d search online as there are suppliers for some parts, and of course you can always custom order windows to fit the trailer.
Have fun, I loved my little Aloha, did not want to sell but had to!
I have a vintage camping trailer for sale I just don’t know were to post it for sale if any one can guide me thanks
Craigslist is excellent – especially if you live near any major city but even in small towns you should get responses, many search the site for statewide listings, other states, etc.
Also – there is a facebook group called ‘Glampers on the Loose’ – and these folks are always looking for trailers to buy, if the price is fair.
Be sure to post there, or send me the info and I can post it for you!
We just bought a 1964, 16′ Aloha trailer. Very cute. Oven has never been cooked in. All the flooring and counter tops r perfect. Sink is (pink) yuck.. lol. Going to Soda blast the outside paint and polish the Aluminum. Were pulling it behind our Hot Rod for car shows.
Awesome and it sounds like you are going to have some fun with her/him/it 🙂
My dad is Glen Gordon he’s still around he was the founder and he and I could tell you more about these trailers then anyone
I have a 63 11’aloha that I was given and need to redo it appears as if the paneling was mailed to the studs and not the studs nailed too the paneling from the out side like I have seen on video, is that true?
Have no clue LOL. I just cutened up mine (paint, etc.) – did not need any major repairs. There are a bunch of Aloha groups on Facebook, for sure check those out and I am sure someone can help you. Best, Molly
Brilliant! I don’t own mine anymore but will pass that info on to anyone who is interested. Thanks for the comment, Molly
Jeff, Do you remember John (Cecil) Johnson?
Mybwige and I restore vintage trailers and just finished restoring a 1962 Aloha 12ft Trailer. It is basically a brand new 1962 Aloha. If I could add pics I would but if anyone is interested please let us know. Joshinsightprint@gmail.com
Hi there, Not knowing if you are still out there, I still want to thank you for starting Aloha. We have a 1962 Aloha King 15’3 ft
And am wondering if you know if the tongue weight of it is. Ive seen the trailer weight as being 1,690 and trailer hitch ( tongue?) weight of 180lbs.
We finished restoring it and are now staring to enjoy the heck out of it . I just love it!
if you know of any other Aloha information I would love to know where I can get it.
thanks!
mario
I need to reinforce the walls of a 1966 Aloha to accommodate the weight of a food cart … Can you tell me what the walls are constructed with?