Another project tackled. This one was a little scary and I’ll tell you why in a moment. But before that I want to tell you about the canvas bunk that is in a Shasta Compact. It consists of two heavy steel poles and a canvas. It was made for sleeping a child I assume and sits in brackets above the bed/dinette area.
I was giving a lot of thought on if that bunk could be used by my pre-teen daughter. She’s tall for her age and weighs about 123lbs. I wasn’t sure if the bunk could handle her weight so we tested it out. (She was perfectly safe with me there (:). Surprisingly, it seemed stable with her up there. I had her toss and turn a bit just to be sure. While I felt pretty comfortable with the idea I kept trying to think how I could reinforce that little shelf like lip that the brackets are installed on.
What I ended up doing is buying some 1 x 2 x 5′ 7″ pieces of wood and painted them to match the interior. Here comes the scary part…The walls in these vintage trailers are very very thin. So you have to be very careful and get just the right length of screws or you might find that your screw goes all the way through the exterior skin of the trailer and trust me that would NOT be good. Fortunately all went well with the screws.
Before Picture:
After picture with the newly installed 1 x 2:
Now the bunk has extra support and should be able to hold more weight with no problems. The next project is to re-do the actual canvas bunk material. Having the canvas bunk available increases our sleeping capacity which is great!
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Oh Kelle,
You don't know how happy I am to see this blog. I will pour through it, word by word. I want a little vintage trailer so badly! I even have it in my profile how I dream of having one and how I will decorate it! So happy to meet someone who also loves them! Thank you for following my blog, I am so glad to meet you. I am your newest follower. Please invite any friends you think might like my blog to come visit! There must be a lot of us out there, we just all need to hang out together!!! Again, so nice to meet you, and hope to see you again soon!
Julie
the sleeping bunk is a great idea…I also think Every camper should have a hammock stashed in the "junk drawer" for surprise guests who dont mind sleeping under the stars, and for lazy afternoons and evenings by the campfire!
Hi Julie,
Nice to meet you too. Glad you found my blog and are enjoying it. It's a bi-product of my obsession…err, I mean love of these little vintage trailers.
Sondra,
Excellent idea on the hammock!
Hello, Great blog, and your trailer is adorable!
I am restoring a 1970 Streamline trailer and trying to do the floors. I just laid peel and stick vinyl tiles and they are not lasting. When it gets hot the edges peel up! Grrr! What kind of tiles did you use?