Our Limitations
Like every adventure in our house it always seems to start with someone voicing a crazy off the wall idea. Luckily here we have a good mix of “let’s do it”and “whoa logistics” attitudes. This idea was no different. Our grounding grace was my husband’s baby…his Jeep. As tough and manly as it may look, the thing can’t tow. But as fate may have it he found a truck that was love at first sight and I took the opening to circle back to our camper dream! 
 
Our Why
A combination of past infertility making us cherish every second with our babies, COVID bringing some lifestyle changes we hadn’t anticipated and changes to our public education system that don’t align with our comfort or beliefs we decided early on that we would homeschool our two boys. We put in hours of research and discussion on the topic but the decision was relatively easy for us. Knowing that our home is the classroom and all the extra time we’d have as a family also made an alternative lifestyle an easy choice. We are a very active and outdoorsy family already with camping and travel already being apart of our norm. So adding in a second home where we plan to spend a good chunk of our time makes sense. I have such a passion for travel and have tried to incorporate learning into our everyday life. Being able to travel and live and experience as a way of learning about life and our world is such a goal for us! I also set a bucket list goal to see all the national parks before the boys “graduate” so the camper was basically essential (or so I fought to convince my hubs). 
 
Our Needs
We laid out an idea of what we wanted and needed from the camper we’d found and here’s what we came up with…
 
Usable now: We had a trip to see our family in Tennessee and wanted to book an rv for the trip. When we started pricing them out it was going to be $1,000 for our 3 days. Buying a camper that we could use now would save this and justify the purchase a bit more.
 
Retro/Vintage look: We both loved the look and vibe of the older trailers. We also both love projects and breathing life into something. We looked through old and newer campers and were sold on something 40+ years old for the look we liked. 
 
Good bones: While we are both handy and neither of us is afraid of a big project, we also know our limitations. We have no intention of buying something that will need to be fully dismantled in order to make it safe. We need something that is structurally sound (enough) with mostly cosmetic fixes. 
 
Price: This project was relatively spontaneous as far as timing so we didn’t have a separate camper fund for it. To make sure we didn’t go crazy we wanted to keep TOTAL costs under $5,000. This meant that something that needed a lot of work would also need to come in at a very low price point. Keeping the cost low also meant if we got in over our heads we could make up some of the cost by just selling without taking a huge financial hit on the project. 
 
Size & Layout: We are a family of 5 and having a space for everyone was a requirement. The camper having enough interior space for 4 beds that would be out full time meant we needed something at least 15 feet. We also knew it needed enough headroom for 6’3” Brent to be comfortable moving around. The height would also give us options for vertical sleeping and storage spaces. The 
 
Location: Since this was our first ever camper purchase we really didn’t know what to look for or ask sight unseen. So we knew we needed something close enough that we could go and see (as opposed to purchasing and paying to ship it). We also have our 3 year and 18 month olds that would be with us and long car rides are not their favorite. We narrowed our search to within 5 miles of us. 
 
Our Which
We started our search for a short bus thinking it would be easiest to drive and get around in. Our biggest hesitations on this were the motor/mechanics. We aren’t mechanical and the concern with something going out or buying a lemon we’re pretty highly on the list of reasons not to move forward. Enter the trailer that opened Pandora’s box for us. This thing was so cool!! An old short bus that was chopped off to make a trailer. We messaged the owner and as it turns out the thing was basically rusted to pieces. We grieved our lost love momentarily and then hit the gas (HARD) on our quest for an equally cool option. About 100 options shared between us over 2 days later we had it narrowed to 3 real potentials. Take a look at the breakdown of each:
 
Local Yellowstone: This thing looked like the quintessential retro camper. We loved the aqua color and body style. We are camper newbies but “Yellowstone” as a brand felt pretty iconic and it being from 1964 definitely gave us all the vintage vibes. It was in relatively good condition. The current owners were still camping in it. Basically nothing worked inside it (electrical, plumbing, water, propane) but it was still pretty clean. They said they were using it as a “glorified tent.” Even though it was in good shape the layout really didn’t fit our family’s needs. The owners did not have a title for it and would only be able to give us a bill of sale. Our pros were style, the amount of work needed, our ability to use in immediately if needed, and location. Our cons were size of the trailer being a little small, reluctance in removing so much original functional finishes, the price at $5,000 didn’t leave a lot of space for renovations, and the lack of a title.
 
Arkansas Prowler: This camper already had a layout that we could easily work with. From the pictures and talking to the owner we could tel it was clean with working electrical, gas, water, and plumbing. The tires were all new and the frame was in good condition. While it was clean it was also pretty broken. 3 of the doors had broken hinges, only a few of the drawers opened, the screen on the doors and windows were almost all detached, the doors lock was broken and the key was lost, there was no fridge or ac cover and there was a handful of spots with water damage from leaks in the roof. This one also had no title and only offered a bill of sale. Our pros were layout, style of the trailer, condition of its “bones”, amount of work needed, price was $3,000 but we negotiated to $2,500 which gave us room for renovations, and the owners were super helpful (even offering to be a sounding board as we rehab). Our cons were the location being a 4 hour drive for pickup, the missing (totally broken) A/C shroud, prior water damage that apparently had been addressed through waterproofing paint, repair work and patching was needed on the exterior where previous components had lived, and some clear rotting in the wood in a few areas. Of the concerns, the condition of the roof was the single biggest, leaving us wondering how we were going to address it. 
 
1970 Aristocrat: This one came in at $650 and was hands down the option we were most enthusiastic about. It was absolutely NOT usable but had good bones! It looked like an animal had gotten into it and the interior was wrecked. Surprisingly there was minimal rust, frame damage, or dents and dings to the exterior. We had so many visions for what this could be and were overly eager to try our hand at renovating it. It’s always hard when we start new projects not to bite off more than we can chew and with this option we were hungry! Our pros were it basically being a blank slate, the price left plenty of money for renovations, and the shape and look was exactly what we wanted. The cons were it being a huge undertaking for our first attempt at a trailer reno, it’s location in Indiana was really pushing how far we were comfortable traveling, and it was pretty questionable about whether we could tow it back or if it needed to be trailered. 
 
Our Choice
Drum roll please……we opted for the Arkansas Prowler!! At the end of the day it felt like a challenge with a lot of potential without getting us in over our heads. It was clean enough that we were able to work in a mini vacation with its pickup. We also really appreciated the sellers who were so kind and made us feel supported if we needed guidance down the road.