Not a camper van, but we've camped in it.

Its a '60s Heilite single wheel tent trailer.

That is a sweet little trailer! Clamps onto the rear bumper and the wheels swivel, huh? What is the turning radius like? Love tent trailers- lots of room when set up!

Here are some pics of our Corvair/trailer rigs...a 1961 Corvair Rampside and a 1962 Corvair Greenbrier pulling our 1961 13' Serro Scotty:











You should consider coming to our all vintage campout. It is called Kampers near Knoebels and it is hosted every Labor Day weekend at Indian Head Campground, Bloomsburg, PA. We caravan to Knoebels Amusement park on Saturday morning- lots of Corvairs and VW buses all lined up. All old vans are welcome!

Will post more info closer to time.

Happy Vairin'! Ben

Sure show me up in my own thread. lmao, just kidding, Ill go one better and tell you I got the trailer for the low low price of $0.00.

Its got the same turning radius as the van, it mounts to the bumper with hitch clamps and 2 1'' hitch balls, the single wheel it has swivels a full 360dg. Backing up is as easy as making sure you dont hit anything, no jacknifing a short trailer.

Thats one cool canned ham ya got.

Your FC's are just as cool as well.

I wasn't trying to one-up you on your own post! I love your rig...and the price for the trailer was right! Gotta love free!

Having the Corvan and the tent trailer at a campsite would give you lots of room to spread out. That is always good when the weather turns bad. Did you have to do any canvas work on the trailer? It looks really good.

Here are shots of our van with a small utility trailer by Reese (the hitch maker) before we had the canned ham. The Backpacker gave us more room in the van by moving all the extra camping gear to the trailer...

No canvas work it was all in pretty good shape. Got lucky with it.

I have a full size '67 Apache pop up as well, and a '57 Sears Allstate. single wheel trailer as well. Ill post a few pics later. I'm on my cell right now.

And I was just messing around about showing me up.

Corvanman wrote:And I was just messing around about showing me up.

No worries! I was just kidding, too. We Corvair van guys play nice!

Keep up the good work. Sounds like you like to collect trailers as much as I do! A 1964 17' Airstream Bambi II is on the driveway- gutted- awaiting restoration. That will be the place for camping with our larger family. The Greenbrier and Scotty are pretty small now!

Ben

I so want a aluminum Twinkie. I'd love to have a single axle shorty.

I'm NOT kidding....You both have very cool set-ups for campin'fun!!

Joel

Thanks.

I also am planning on curtains for the van so it can be slept in also, it already has a rock and roll bench from a late model van.

Ben, can you post up pics of your interior. I want to see what you have in there and the curtain setup, and the pop up as well. did you put that pop up in or was it on when ya got it?

Corvanman wrote:Thanks.

I also am planning on curtains for the van so it can be slept in also, it already has a rock and roll bench from a late model van.

Ben, can you post up pics of your interior. I want to see what you have in there and the curtain setup, and the pop up as well. did you put that pop up in or was it on when ya got it?

I will get some interior shots for you- hopefully by next week. I have owned four of the camper tops, but only have the one on my van now. People seem to like them. I took it off a junker Greenbrier and cut the hole in mine to install it! Very interesting project. Been up there about 16 years now I would say.

Do you have Corvair FC bucket seats in your Corvan? We love the fact that the passenger seat flips forward and we can place the cooler there on the bulkhead when we are set-up. It keeps the thing out of the way! I do have one set of the bucket seats left, but the mounting hardware for the passenger seat is incorrect.

Here is a picture of the Rampside moving the Airstream in the driveway...talk about rear end sag! I need to do some suspension mods if I ever do intend to tow it with the FCs!

No buckets, its bench seat. Its a former Southwestern bell van. It does have a gas heater, Corvair guys seam to like those, unfortunately it doesn't currently work and would be about last on the list of to do"s.

Here is a shot of Ben's Bus interior. I already had this one, but I will take some more. Basically I have the FC bucket seats up front, a reverse facing seat/cabinet behind the driver's seat that houses the spare tire, tools, and the port-o-potty, and a skinny cabinet inside the intermediate doors. This houses the cutlery, lantern, cups, and other cooking supplies.

Along the passenger side of the van is the table cabinet with a fold down table. The back is taken up by the fold out seat/bed. There are clothes cabinets above both rear wheel wells and also a folding table on the front intermediate door and a what-not cabinet on the rear intermediate door.

Due to the skinny cabinet inside the doors, not a lot of floor space is taken up and one can move around when the bed is made. We also use the overhead part above the bed for storage when the camper top is up.

Cool setup. I couldn't do that at this point though. I have my van setup so I can roll my Dad into it in his wheel chair and tie it down. I can't loose that. so everything has to come out easily. I May take him to a car show in it this weekend

I posted a whole set of pictures of the interior now- it is in a different thread. I made all of it- couldn't find a GM kit and did not like how the front cabinet on the originals is too deep anyway.

I like the floor space afforded by the shallow cabinet and jump seat configuration of the interior I came up with.

I just used straight, flat curtain rods for the curtains and my wife sewed the curtains with a pocket to go over the rods. I have seen this done with long springs as well.

I hope it gives you some ideas. The inside of a van is an awesome blank canvas for a camper kit! Ben

I just checked out your thread. Love it.

A VW club member is picking up a very very nice example of a Heilite trailer this weekend. Its still nice and shiny like it was from new! Jealous, but I gotta remember my price. 8-)