60's Phoenix 16' complete rebuild

We bought this camper last summer for $500, knowing that it would need a lot of work. There was plenty of evidence of water damage, and lots of botched repairs by previous owners. The person we bought it from brought it to Florida from Indiana, and said he put new bearings and tires on it to make the trip. It trailered home just fine, which was reassuring.

This is, to our best guess, a mid-60s Phoenix Rally Sport. After we purchased and drove several hours home, I did some research and discovered that the information on the title did NOT match this trailer. Wrong brand, wrong length. But that's irrelevant, it'll be titled and registered as a "homemade" trailer.

Here's how it sat when we got it home. The roof has rubber sheet on it, in an attempt to stop leaks. The rubber sheet was attached with lots of wood screws through a 1x2 board, directly into the exterior.



We started disassembling and finding water damage and rot everywhere. The good news is that all the windows are in great shape!






Under the rubber sheet on the roof I found where someone had previously added tar paper, and lots of tar.



Then school started for our kids, so between extra-curricular activities, not much got done. This spring I started pecking away at it, and removing more exterior. I found several good sections, and the floor felt solid everywhere, so the plan at that time was to replace the bad parts piece-by-piece, get new skins, and then paint/flooring/new cushions.






My dad has been in the woodworking industry for ~35 years (cabinets, millwork, mouldings, all kinds of custom stuff), so I asked him to come by and give general advice for construction. So after some discussion and putting a lot of faith in his experience, we decided to switch plans entirely. So we took a bunch of highly technical measurements:


and he is drawing it all up in CAD,



and my wife and I proceeded to demolish the whole thing. I found much more rot than I thought was there, but the areas that weren't rotted at all were just so dang flimsy. I don't know if all campers are like this, but I couldn't believe how cheaply this was put together.



The current plan is to finish the CAD drawings, and have a CNC (at dad's shop) cut out all the pieces for the walls from plywood. Dad wanted 2 layers of 1/2" plywood, then I reminded him that this still must be towed, it would weight a lot.

So the walls will be a sandwich of 2 layers of plywood with XPS foam in the middle, and supporting studs (of 1/2" ply) where needed (like original construction, around windows/doors and for cabinets and such). Currently we've settled on 1/2" maple ply with 1/2" XPS in the middle.

I know it will still be heavy, but I'm ok with that in exchange for having this thing bombproof. Also dad is offering his expertise, CAD skills, his shops's CNC, and his drastically reduced cost for materials, so I'm grateful and happy to follow his plan.

While dad's working on his part, my next step will be removing the old floor completely, painting the trailer frame, replacing brakes and shocks, and installing new subfloor and vinyl floor.