I step away for a year or more and I come back to innovation of the site. I like the concept of this forum. I like alot of stuff related to cars like vintage planes, campers and stuff to clutter my garage. A few yrs back I bought a new Shasta trailer that was a remake of a vintage model after about two years decided to sell it as we were not using it but I still needed something to camp in by myself at away car shows. I was looking for something small and vintage to go behind my wagon. after a year of not finding a decent and affordable camper trailer I ran across an add for a vintage tear drop. never considered on but went to look at it. It was a father and son project and looked to be in good shape, but very small. I thought about it and made an offer. What I ended up with is a late 40s Deanette teardrop camper (titled as a 1956 Dean) built by E.N Dean Co out of San Antonio Texas (504 E Josephine St, San Antonio Texas). After getting it home I dove into researching its history as I knew nothing about it and it did not look like it was made in the mid 50s. It is 10 ft long and 4 ft wide and they say sleeps two. (no way unless on top of each other).. Through my research I have found two others and I found out it was actually built in the 40s as I suspected. During worldwar two, the Dean company manufactures airplane wings for the military but after war they seen a rise if recreational activities and started to use their aluminum talents to build teardrop trailers. I made contact with a relative of the founder but little info remains other than they built them after the war into the late 40s and possibly early 50s. I did find an old add and info from another owner who was restoring their teardrop. I can tell there are features on mine that are not original any more (missing fenders), wheels and some of the rear compartment items. One neat feature which I have never seen is instead of a wall between the sleep compartment and cooking area is a sliding screen. it makes it nice as I will haul a portable AC unit and put it in the cooking area and let it blow cold air thru the screen into the sleep area for those hot nights (when power is available). Another nice feature is it fit inside a 12x12 EZ up to allow for a changing room or outside sitting area if it is to hot or weather turns bad.. The previous owners son did a restoration of the inside for a Senior Highschool project as he added some "Woodie" inspired curtains and redid some wood and added bamboo and added old truck fenders (30s). but never camped in it. After I bought it I had a customer sized mattress made for it and I have been working to add a cooler and other features to the rear compartment, I did remove the 70s sink.. I found a vintage roof rack at a swap meet and it will hold accessories. I plan to add a electrical converter to work with my battery (inside lights) and for a future electric cooler (for the beer).. It has it issues (aluminum damage) in places but after rebuilding the drums it tows great and is light wa I have been on the look out for a set of vintage wheels with a bolt pattern of 5x4.25 (which I believe are 35 or 36 chevy bolt pattern? not sure what else). here are some pictures of the trailer. If anyone knows anything about these trailers let me know or if you have a teardrop. always looking for idea on how to improve its us.
Nice score. My dad just built a modern teardrop. Trying to decide if I keep it or just let him sell it. I had something similar here. I never saw this forum on my mobile app and my desktop in the shop went straight to the General Discussion so I kept missing this sub forum!
Not sure if this is the same, but it looks very close: It wasn't parked in a great spot for photographing, but a very neat trailer nonetheless, located at the WI Auto Museum.
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