A 17-foot trailer with a bathroom (toilet and shower) is all most of us need for a good road trip. This 1969 Shasta Starflyte is light enough that most small pickups or SUVs could easily pull it. The seller has this project trailer listed here on eBay in Derry, New Hampshire, there is no reserve, and the current bid price is just $740.
I would have mentioned cars, as far as being able to pull this trailer, but who drives a car these days?! It’s mostly pickups and SUVs that I see on the road. I drive 40,000 to 50,000 miles a year all over the U.S. and the ratio of pickups and SUVs to cars is huge.
It would take a beefy car to be able to pull this one, with its 2,500-pound weight and 308-pound hitch weight. There was also a 19-foot Starflyte but it had a four-burner gas stove and this one has three burners. Otherwise, there isn’t a lot of information on them online, which is strange.
The dinette area converts to a bed, of course, and there’s a seating area at the opposite end of the trailer that also converts to sleeping quarters. Shasta started out making mobile homes for military personnel in California in 1941, and after the war, things really took off. The company eventually had manufacturing locations in several cities in the U.S. and over 500 dealers across the country.
This was a fancy trailer in its day, with full appliances, a full bathroom with a shower, a gas heater, and a water heater. Here’s an old advertisement for one, pretty fancy! And, another one showing a floor plan. Most of us old hermits could easily live in a trailer this size with these amenities.
There’s the all-important bathroom, although it probably needs some work as the seller says this trailer needs a total restoration. A nice refurbishment would be all I would do, some new flooring, maybe new plumbing and wiring, updated appliances, etc. Could, would, or have any of you lived in a trailer like this 17-foot Starflyte?
Another creepy moment delivered by the master. The author and I go way back,,well, not that far back, but have a kindred connection. Just how kindred amazes me sometimes. Long story short, we share a lot of common interests.
THIS( not actual camper) was my parents 2nd camper after the Friendship step down. My old man ordered it new, unusual for him, just the shell, and he finished the inside himself. Where’s the “wings”? A signature feature of all Shastas into the 70s. Many were removed and adorn something else. I’m not sure about a modern vehicle pulling it either, these are heavy and like pulling a box. You really need a V8 or a diesel, and it’s not the 70s anymore, good luck finding a campground, as many in my area are closing, and many are forced to camp out in Walmart until morning, then “move along”.
I keep a camper and an undisclosed location on the back burner, for WHEN all goes to Hades, but right now, I like my warm apt. bathroom at 3am, but, as the world continues to, um,,,change, probably no surprise, but becoming a recluse in a camper could be a viable option for me.
Nice find, most of these became poker shacks in the woods, and I all but guarantee, the inside has some funk to it, they all do, and building materials prices increase hourly. With new campers pushing 5 figures, EASY, if you can do some work on this, a great find. I don’t think I could live in one, however.
My parents had two small trailers as I was growing up. The first one was in 1964, a small aluminum teardrop, featuring a dinette converts to a single, a kitchenette, two burner stove, small cube refrigerator, small sink, no oven, and a double bed, no bathroom.
The second trailer was a Shasta, slightly larger. Really can’t remember if it had a bathroom or not. This was around 1970.
Ex and I bought a 18 foot trailer around the early 1990s. Again can’t remember the brand, but it had a nice seating area, folds to a double with a double above. Dinette folded to a single, kitchenette had an oven, there was a small bathroom w/ shower and even a small closet.
We pulled it with our 1972 Jeep Wagoneer. Took a trip to Michigan from New Jersey and ended up destroying the transmission on the Wagoneer. That took about 3 weeks at the shop..
As things go, we actually ended up living in it for several months on my father’s farm. The two of us and two cats. Ex added a window a/c, a TV and a couple of other amenities. What I wouldn’t give to have that trailer back. Like Howard, I want something like that to live in during the zombie apocalypse or the end of the world.
Lead image looks like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”
Yes, I lived in a 23′ Timberline double axle camp trailer for three years, after the Great Recession. My standard poodle slept under the table. I had to replace the water heater, and as the original fridge had been removed, I used a small electric fridge. I moved it five times over the years, until I was able to save up enough to buy a house.
I remember pulling a rented trailer similar to this one to Lake Tahoe in the early 70s. We stopped along the Walker River the first night, and when we got up the following day there were icicles on the INSIDE of the windows! Oh, the good old days!
Got a trailer parked in the upper cedar grove its a fall back location when irs comes a knockin i hear they hired 187000 more of the with guns???? I bet that 4×4 buick gn you posted couple days ago might be able to pull it.
I dont think the orange/white suv below (92 in WB) could safely tow (my rig) & would go for the one a page ago instead.
Beddah yet? the oh so weather/water tight scamp, egg, casita.
I hada “tree” house small enuff for the shower/toilet combo here (2 way valve – 1= shower, 1= flush). But that was in the way-back and only reachable 3 seasons (w/o sno mo`chene). Fifteen ft verticle septic pipe to cesspit, stream/lake beside to boil/filter clean H2O. 4 6 x 6 windows (light house? fire tower? no…) get-a-way w/screen porch roof w/water tank box counter.
Nice one, Scotty! I rode out hurricane Agnes in a trailer about this size with the same floor plan, on a trip through New York with my Grandparents. We woke up and there was about three or four inches of water across the whole camp site so we jumped in the 304-powered Scout II and bugged out early. I’d consider a unit like this with the bathroom. Definitely heavier than today’s rigs but, as Howard suggests, the money you save on the purchase will buy a lot of gas or diesel. Thanks for the memories!