Mobile Scouts in Sisters on the Fly

Christi shares the story of how she came to have her Mobile Scout, "Dream Catcher."

We drove to a vintage car swap meet and nearby stopped in a town to get some oil for our vintage VW....and she was parked in a used RV lot for sale.. It was meant to be! The man had traded her in for a newer bigger model (his loss) and our gain! I'm a Sister on the Fly member and this is my sister trailer - http://www.sistersonthefly.com.

Serial number? What? Where?

As far as we know, Mobile Scouts all have a serial number stamped on the metal tongue or trailer base somewhere. It starts with the two digit year, has a letter, and then a two digit number representing the length, then a four digit number which is unique to that series.

Ours is UNDER the camper. This one shown is stamped on top of the tongue.

Remember that back in the day, millions of these were not rolling off the line. They made hundreds, for sure, but nothing like the production of an RV company today.

The serial can also be found on a paper glued to the inside of the upper cabinet doors IF you have the original cabinets and IF someone has not removed that.

Or, thrown it away during the revamp, as we did. I KNEW I should have taken that door off and squirreled it away when I thought about it, before the hammers started flying. But I said I'd get it later. Don't put things off, kids!

Too good to be free...

Since my request, people have been sharing their tales of getting/rehabing/enjoying their Mobile Scouts.

Kevin from Texas says:

My '65 was given to me free! The plates finally expired, so I had to get with the previous owner to get a replacement title. I just had to write him a check for $300.00 because I have enjoyed my camper so much, and It was the right thing to do.

Way to go, Kevin!

What's in a number?

The vintage Mobile Scouts all seem to have the serial number welded into the underside of the frame. The number may look something like this: 

64M154359

This unit would be a 1964. The first two numbers denote the year. We know this because our unit had a sheet glued to the inside of the upper cabinet that had a diagram of the camper and some basic information. It appeared to have come from the factory. The year marked there matched the first two numbers in our serial number on the underside. 

I'm afraid I don't know what, if anything, the rest of it means. And so far, I haven't found anyone else that does, either. If you happened to work at the factory building Mobile Scouts back in the 1950's and 1960's, you'd make my day if you got in touch with me! I have a blue-billion questions to ask you. 

So grab a flashlight, and get on your back under your unit and see what you can find! And if you have a photo of your serial number, send it in so I can show people what to look for and where! 

Mobile Scouts from the 1970's.

It's not just all about our little early 1960's canned hams. Don't forget Mobile Scouts from the 1970's! 

And another!

This summer has caused a few beauties in disguise to arise! Another posting on Craigslist:

http://maine.craigslist.org/rvs/1895605264.html

Any great stories of deals made out there?

The other day it happened again: someone pulled up to our drive as one of us was out in the yard, and asked if we would be interested in selling our Mobile Scout. This despite her being stashed in our back yard behind a 6 ft fence! She used to be sitting right out beside our garage, so perhaps someone had seen her move and thought she was being put out to pasture.

Do you have a story about selling a camper to someone who just dropped by to inquire, or perhaps you scored a great deal by dropping by to inquire?

Let me know and I'll share it.

Nice redo on Craigslist in Morgantown, WV

Found this via a Google alert. I do not know the owner, have no information beyond the Craigslist posting. It's an interesting redo; she was in pretty bad shape and he's done a good job. http://charlotte.craigslist.org/rvs/1874507383.html

Even after the posting is gone, you can see the project here: http://s819.photobucket.com/albums/zz119/tfrep4/timberline%2060/

Mobile Scout in Medford -- definitely a project.

Check it out!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mobile-Scout-vintage-classic-50s60s-cannedham-project-/230493246598

If you can believe it, this looks about the same, perhaps even a little better, then ours did when we started! So yes, it can be done, but it takes a lot of work and you either do it yourself, pay friends in beer to do it for you... or pay out the NOSE.

But it sure is fun, and the results can be awesome!

A '62 beauty.

Dave at Iron Desert (check out their Chili Grill!) got in touch to say how much he liked Mobile Scout Madness. THANKS! He also shared his 1962 redo. Being "an old hot-rodder" (his words, not mine) he stayed true to the original. I like it! Be sure to check it out at his web site. 

How to discern the year of your Mobile Scout?

Many Mobile Scout owners ferret their little darling out of a back lot of some property and there are no papers, little known history, etc. Our Mobile Scout had two helpful tellers of its story.

The cabinets were all original, and on the inside of the upper right cabinet against the outside (over the stove) was a pasted page that showed the unit's model number and year. And if that is missing, you can find the year as part of the VIN, which is welded into the underside of the tongue. So get out your flashlight, lay on your back, and get looking! You need to get under there to see what shape the undercarriage is in, anyway!

A new beauty in the works!

Shortly after making my "spring" post, I received a fantastic story from Jerry. He and his wife, Kristy, have a great story of how they recently came to have their own Mobile Scout!

Driving to and from work, I spotted a canned ham trailer hidden in the weeds behind a vacant house on a rural road and always was drawn to it as I passed by (I love vintage stuff). I finally stopped and asked a neighboring home owner if they could give me any information about the owner of the vacant home and trailer and they gave me a last name.

The name was unusual enough, I had success in locating the owner through the phone book for that area. When I called and asked about the camper the guy gave a long story of a friend of his son who owed money and gave it as payment. The camper was neglected and needed much work. I asked if he would be interested in selling it and worked a price of $100 out of him. He said he didn't have a title and there were no markings on the trailer. He thought it might be home-made. I put tires on it and my wife and I pulled it home, wires and weeds dragging. Luckily we didn't see any cops... ha. The guy never cashed the check...

I looked all over the camper and couldn't find any nameplate or other info... but it has a triangle window on the door with the gasket and glass missing. I love that characteristic.

I've looked all over the net and finally this week, found out it's a Mobile Scout... it has to be. It looks just like pictures I've seen in your blog except all of my windows are two piece louvered glass instead of several pieces like yours... but I can now google "Mobile Scout" and come up with the same pictures. Wow, what an exciting time I'm having.

We totally have to redo the trailer, but that's ok and we're looking forward to it.

I am writing because I am hoping you can steer me to a site or source where I can properly identify the year. I would also like to be able to get a title for it. My wife and I named it TOD... (trailer of dreams). We look forward to using it and pulling it to meets with our '59 Chevy Apache truck (another project).

This morning, I've visited the neat site of Vintagetrailersupply.com and have already found a gasket for my triangle opening in the door! I look forward to bringing the trailer to life.

I'm very excited about this and look forward to sharing more stories and info along the way. I didn't know how to use the blog but will spend more time and learn. Currently, the server I'm useing has filtered and disabled some features against me.

Sorry this is lengthy... but thanks for any help or info you can provide. BTW I love your Mobile Scout!

Thanks for sharing this, Jerry and Kristy, and I look forward to seeing your progress, however that comes about. I love seeing these beauties come back to life. Thanks so much for writing, and check back again often!

Spring is here!

Spring is here... are you making your plans and reservations for your camping trips already? We have plans with friends for Memorial Day Weekend. (Said we'd never go camping on a holiday weekend again, but when a friend calls up and says, "We got you a spot!" how can you say no?) We'll hit the coast a few times, and we'll use it as our base camp for diving trips into Washington this year, too.

So where are you going with your Mobile Scout? Send us pictures! We'd love to see, and to share.