We're Restoring a Vintage Camper?

Description

1st video of our 1972 Lark Camper Restoration Project!

Music By: Thunder/Dreamer & Dave's ClubHouse with La Lune

Gear Used to Shoot this Video! (CHECK OUT REVIEWS AND DETAILS)

- Camera -

Canon EOS T6i - http://amzn.to/2kACQOU

- Lighting -

Neewer 160 LED - http://amzn.to/2kAEOyO

- Sound -

TakStar Shotgun Mic - http://amzn.to/2kMsAnM

- TriPod -

Targus 360 Trigger Tripod - http://amzn.to/2kMsU5Y

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Tags: Vintage Camper Restoration,Restoring a Vintage Camper,Vintage Travel Trailer,Lark Camper,Off Grid Living,Boondocking,Appalachian Trail,AT,Thru-Hike,1972 Lark Camper,Tiny Home,Camper,RV Life,Arizona Trail,Pacific Crest Trail,Camper Project

Video Transcription

hey guys it's done if you've been following my channel for a while most of you know that in 2015 my wife snuggles and I quit our jobs we sold our house sold about 95% of things that we owned so we could go hike the Appalachian Trail and then live a alternative lifestyle after we got off the trail this meant living smaller living more minimalist living out of a van and then eventually going to work for the National Park Service so in 2015 we did in fact hype dat we were out for four months and that I was bitten by a tick contractor Ely theosis which is a form of Lyme disease and we were forced to get off the trail now we did continue to travel after that but because both some of them I really wanted to finish the trail we decided to put down some roots here in Albuquerque New Mexico work get an apartment save up some money so we could return to the trail in 2016 we did in fact return to the trail we finished our last 600 miles but then we started doing other things other adventures in October I went to bite packs the Arizona Trail which also didn't work out so we were kind of getting off track from our original plans while I was hiking through the Grand Canyon in October I started doing a lot of thinking and thinking about if we didn't do it now when are we going to do it so at the beginning of this year I decided to put the PCT off until next year and then some of them I started looking at how we were going to get back on track of where we left off so in January we started looking for a small travel trailer we knew if we're going to go work for the National Park System that we needed something a little bit bigger than the van we can have its own base but something that we can owned where we wouldn't have to pay rent be able to cook it up for off-grid living and alternative lifestyle Tori wouldn't have to pay for a water bill or an electric bill we started looking at vintage travel trailers number one vintage travel

kind of our style we like older things like that so we started looking for the perfect trailer to move into now since our lease is up here in our apartment in August we knew that we needed to get something soon so we could start doing whatever work we we need to it so we can move into it the first week of August at the beginning of this month we found a 1972 lark travel trailer it is a 15 foot low line which is a low model so it's actually made to fit inside of a garage and the really interesting thing about it is it was made in Indiana which is where snow and I are from so in 1972 it was made in Indiana and then it found itself out here in Albuquerque from traveling across the US and that's exactly what snuggles and I did now we knew buying a vintage travel trailer was obviously going to need some work because you know they have been sitting around in most people's backyards since the 60s or the 70s or you know what había what year it was made so we knew that it was going to need work it was going to have water damage but we were willing to give something that we could spend a small amount of money on and and kind of get what we wanted and be able to redo it to where we can make it arms so as you can see it has a little bitty kitchenette which has a stove and a fridge up front it has a little booth that also folds down into a bed and then in the back it has a couch that goes out into a full-size bed have storage down underneath so we can store our gear in it I'm going to be able to tuck everything nice away and up on the top here above the bed it actually has this shelf that folds down and turns into a bump someone else can sleep up there but some other than I wanted something like this that we could fold down and use it as storage to put more of our gear boxes some of our backpacking gear just you know pretty much just use it as storage it has an awesome little stove in excellent condition that's all propane

it had a icebox which we plan on taking out and putting in a newer fridge a little sink with a pump plenty of storage for our dishes and everything even has the original fan the metal blade fan in it and then when they built it it has a power converter in there that runs all the lights from the inside and the fan off of it but we actually plan on turning it into solar we're doing the whole thing in solar this beat up here is kind of what we were looking for it's great that we can sit down and eat a meal on the inside but also you know these pop-up and their storage underneath there but it also folds down into a bed so but we had the place to kind of snuggle at night and then some storage overhead the last criteria it was it had to have some sort of a toilet in there if we're boondocking which is you can see that's kind of an old-school chamber toilet we plan on taking that out and actually putting a chemical or composting toilet in there so most of the time we will be using like a perc services facilities like their toilet and shower house but in case for boondocking and we're not plugged up to any type of services or anything we wanted to make sure that we can live in it off-grid so with having propane but having solar and then having the toilet we're going to be able to kind of park wherever we want to if we are traveling and still live out of it very comfortably so like I said you know it is an older trailer so we anticipated having some water damage as you can see right here behind the sink there is kind of a hole and it kind of soft there and brittle so obviously there's some water damage around the windows is also some water damage over here in the corner and you know just a handful of spots and really like out of all the trailers that we looked at that was pretty common especially for its year you know they just didn't build them to last through a whole lot of weather so and you know weather stripping and stuff breaks down over the years so we knew that stuff was going to have to be redone and we were ok with that again we picked it up for $1600 so we plan on putting about fourteen hundred dollars worth of labor into it and you know we're right at three thousand dollars which we kind of came up with as being a really good budget for us on the outside you can see there's a kind of a trunk which pulled down and have some storage like a spare tire tool stuff like that in there and then on the other side we kind of have some hookups if we are in a campground so there is the freshwater don't that goes into the tank and then there is an in and out for the water for the sink in case we don't want to use the water tank pump so the hose plugs in there and then water comes out of the other one and then we have this little storage box over here that we're going to be putting two marine batteries in there solar panels on the roof and then we'll be able to charge those to run all our lights off of but also in that storage box we're going to be putting an on-demand water heater so we can have hot water if we are boondocking and so we can take a shower so how we actually found and came across the trailer was we started looking for a vintage trailer and found a company in the East mountains of Albuquerque called Rove trailers a guy named Corey that lives over there on the other side of the Sandia's and he actually drives around and buys up old vintage trailers like air streams and Cardinals Shasta's and Marx and either renovates them and sells them or picks them up and sell them as project trailers to people like snuggle tonight so two weeks ago we went over to his house and rescued it from where it was sitting thanks to our good buddy Zach who brought his Jeep over and got it out of there we couldn't toe it with our van because our van doesn't have good enough tow capacity yet so we'll actually be getting rid of the van and then getting something like a small truck or an astro van that can actually tow up to 5,000 pounds which will be you know pretty much all that we need the trailer weighs in at 1600 pounds so if we can get something that toes up to 5,000 pounds we should be we should have more than enough tow capacity to be able to tow the trailer and any of our gear and bikes and stuff that are inside of it so we had a pretty fun time getting it out of kind of this muddy hole that it was stuck in on his property next to all his other trailers but we did get it out we got it back to Albuquerque and is now parking in our friend's backyard Thanks Alison's here for letting us park it there and letting us do all of our renovations there they're awesome you know we have a little bitty apartment so we can't really put it where we live so it's right across town to where we can go over there and kind of work on it whenever we want to so the first steps in renovating it for us was making sure that we got where we could see the water damage at first which was right there behind the sink so our first step was completely taking out all the cabinets the stove the fridge the bed taking everything off of that wall so then we could go on the outside take all the aluminum off and see where our water damage was to redo our steps so we started taking everything out we detached the stove the fridge the counter all of that we got outside we took it off and notice obviously there is water damage coming throughout the entire wall so instead of just replacing little bitty pieces here and there we kind of decided to go ahead and start redoing all of it one new piece of wood at a time so that's pretty much where we're at now we have been now working on it for about we had it for a week so we've been working on it for about four days out of this past week whenever we can getting over there replacing some wood but it's coming along pretty nice our plan is to get this one side done and then we'll move over to the other side get it done and we'll just kind of button it up from side to side until the whole thing is run amended we also took out the main part of the floor because it did have some rot in it and we did replace that with a new piece of wood so that'll be good to go as well and again like I said it's definitely going to take some time but in the end I think it's going to be super worth it and it you know it's an awesome project I was doing stuff like this snow who doesn't like it as much as I do but I am a project guy I love replacing stuff and building stuff it's kind of my thing so I'm really jacked to completely restore this thing so we have from about now until the first week of August to completely renovate the trailer before our lease is up here in the apartment the first week of August will be moving into it and then will be sent here in Albuquerque for about a month a month and a half to save up a little bit of money before we hit the road for more adventure and before we start looking at getting a job for the National Park Service so I'll be making a lot more videos in the next coming month of our progress in the renovation on the trailer from the beginning all the way to the end so keep an eye out for those if you haven't going to change it go over and check me out on Instagram I'm posting a lot of new photos lately of the trailer and some of the things smells when I have going on throughout the week go ahead and like or dislike this video subscribe to my channel if you haven't already there's always guys thanks for watching [Music]

you

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