Vintage travel trailer weekend rally held

By Chris Spangler

Talk about happy campers …

After a year apart due to the COVID-19 pandemic, travelers from throughout Wisconsin and Iowa gathered in the town of Hebron this past weekend for a vintage camper rally.

Held at the Clearview Lane home of Steve and Mary Mode, just east of Fort Atkinson, the weekend marked the second of what is becoming an annual event.

“Vintage” definitely was the word, as the travel trailers from the 1960s and ’70s were decorated in bright greens, oranges, seafoams and yellows, reminiscent of the decades in which they were built.

From 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, the owners opened their campers to the public to tour and chat about what it took to bring the aging trailers back to life.

Shaded by the awning on their 1965 Airstream International Land Yacht, Melissa and David Sykora of Baldwin said they bought the 27-foot trailer in 2011. 

“We were looking for an Airstream because if we were going to redo a trailer, I wanted something that would retain its value,” David said.

As it turned out, they located one when they least expected it.

“We found this while driving on a back road,” Melissa recalled. “We were trying to find a trailer and came upon a house that had three sitting outside, and David said, ‘who needs three Airstreams?’ So we went and asked if they’d sell one.”

The owner did not wish to part with the Airstreams built in the 1950s, but he took the couple up on their offer to buy the 1965 model.

“We tore it down to the frame and rebuilt it how we wanted it,” David said. “We redesigned how it originally was.”

The Sykoras separated the gray and black water tank into two and increased the 40-gallon freshwater tank to 60 gallons. 

“We can go a week with fresh water from just the one tank,” David said.

David also polished the Airstream’s aluminum exterior to a mirror-like shine. 

“We did all of the work ourselves,” he said. “We did not have anything done by anybody else.”

The project took about five years to complete and the Sykoras have been attending vintage shows in the three years since.

David said he and Melissa now have caught the rehab bug.

“It’s contagious,” he said. “Now we have another one (Winnebago) that we’re trying to redo.”

Parked next door were Melissa’s sister and brother-in-law, Lori and Stuart Peterson of Oxford. Their trailer is a Hi-Lo built in 1976. 

“When we bought it, it had a couple sheets of plywood in it; the guy was going to put trains in it,” Stuart explained. “He passed away, and the grandkids didn’t want any part of it, so we took it and gutted it.

“We took it right down to the studs and brought her back to life,” he added.

Like many vintage trailer owners, the Petersons rehabbed the Hi-Lo themselves, albeit with some help from brother-in-law David.

They also have a 1977 GMC motorhome, along with a 1959 Friendship camper and 1969 Concord they bought with David and Melissa for future projects.

Meanwhile, Kent and Jenni Marquardt of Pewaukee brought their 1966 Holiday Rambler Traveler to the rally. Kent grew up on Frommader Road in the town of Hebron and was a classmate of the Modes at Fort Atkinson High School.

“We were farm kids together and graduated in 1978. I am originally a Hebronite and it is always good to come back,” Kent said.

Their 17-foot Holiday Rambler Traveler was purchased last year and its revamp was completed one month ago.

“It’s a rehab, not a restore; it was a little too far gone to restore,” Jenni pointed out. 

The entire middle section and bathroom are all original, they noted.

“We rebuilt the back and front from the ground up, basically,” Jenni said. “We didn’t have any idea of what we were doing.

“It originally had a couch that folded out in the back,” she continued. “We took that out and put a static bed in because we gained eight inches of bed space. We took out all the plumbing and propane and made it a dry camper.”

For electricity, the Marquardts use a portable solar panel and two 12-volt deep-cycle marine batteries that are hooked to a 1,000 watt inverter. The light fixtures are 12-volt LEDs.

“As long as I’ve got sun, I’ve got power,” Kent said. 

The Marquardts’ camper is named Amelia … and for good reason.

“We’re life members of the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association). I grew up with airplanes — I am not a pilot, just an enthusiast,” said Kent. “I’ve been going to the EAA convention for 51 years now.”

“We needed somewhere to stay, so we were thinking tents, popups. We started looking around. We found this and it was probably one of the better ones of what we were looking for … until we opened it up.”

But the camper had good bones, so the Marquardts restored what needed to be done.

“I was in the demolition business for 20 years. I don’t have the green thumb to put things back together, but I can take it out,” Kent said. “It was a work in progress to put it all back together. We painted it four days before we headed out to the EAA grounds and she put the decals on it the night before.”

The camper was named Amelia in honor of pioneer pilot Amelia Earhart, of course, and the theme continues with the interior décor and Earhart’s airplane tail number painted on an exterior louvre of a jalousie window.

Jenni noted that on hot days, Amelia actually is a lot more comfortable that some of the more modern campers because it was designed for airflow. 

“The new stuff is all air conditioning,” she said. 

Kent echoed his neighbors’ remarks about the love for vintage campers being infectious.

“No matter where you go …, you’re driving down the highway and you see something boxy that’s in the woods and you’re on the brake’, he said. “’What’s that?’ you ask.”

Hosts Steve and Mary Mode had two campers on display — a bright yellow 1961 Mallard made in West Bend and a 1967 Bighorn.

“This camper has been everywhere, from Yellowstone to Colorado to Kansas,” Steve said, pointing to the Mallard. “We dragged this over Bear Tooth Pass going into Montana. We were up above a thunderstorm and saw rain come out of a cloud below us. It was really cool.

“We drag it everywhere. It is our daily driver,” he added.

Unlike their guests, the Modes did not have to fully rehab their campers.

“It’s pretty much as was,” Steve said of the 14-foot Mallard.

They did paint the floor and exterior and redo the cushions.

“We always joke that the outside was painted chalk white, because when you touched it, it came off  on your hands,” he said. “So we cleaned it up, I took all the chrome off and then Lucky B Automotive sprayed it.”

The Bighorn is 13 feet long and nine inches narrower than the Mallard. However, it contains a bathroom.

“That’s our traveler,” Steve said. “That went out to New York last year. We camped Pennsylvania; we camped Ohio.”

He first saw the camper while selling real estate.

“I’m showing a house in Deerfield and in the barn is this camper with a for-sale sign on it that was cracked, but there was a number on it. So when I got done with the showing, I made a phone call and ended up taking the camper home.

“My wife was, like, ‘what do we need another camper for?’, but we needed it. 

“It’s all part of ‘ya gotta save another one.’”

Two months ago, they bought a 1951 Pontiac Chiefton to pull the Bighorn on their trips.

“That came from a guy from Winneconne. … It has a new engine and new transmission, so I don’t fear driving it far.

“We got lucky. That was 100-percent original,” he said of the rest of the car.

Whether on the road or at home, Steve said, vintage camper rallies are all about the people.

“Last year, many of the rallies were canceled due to COVID,” he said. “So we reached out to our dear friends and asked if they would feel comfortable camping in our backyard. Three did. They’ve become great friends.”

This year, it grew, and it appears that the last weekend of August will become the regular date for an annual vintage camper rally at Hebron.

“We’ll keep inviting more people to get together,” Steve said. “It’s a little bit different flavor than other shows we go to because it’s not a campground. It’s just fun.”