Recovery Mission - Camp Verde, Arizona

Last summer we met up with a bunch of friends from L.A. and D.C. who came up here to camp with us.  It was a great trip and our friends Chris and Mirissa brought their pop-up trailer that they have camped in as a family of six for the last several years.  After the trip, they decided to start looking for a vintage aluminum trailer as a replacement for the pop-up.  After a couple months of browsing Craigslist ads, they found this awesome 1969 Silver Streak Contenintal Deluxe Rocket.

 

What a name!  Silver Streak really knew how to glam up a name for a luxury trailer.

Chris went out to Arizona and put a deposit on this trailer back in August after looking it over carefully and we began planning a recovery trip for early October.  

Ray had the trailer at his ranch in Camp Verde, Arizona about 90 miles north of Phoenix.  I'm so glad I went on this recovery trip because in addition to getting to help friends pull an awesome trailer home, Northern Arizona is a beautiful place to visit. 

Of course, our first stop was anything but beautiful.  We met Ray at the local DMV center to transfer the title.  

I've got to say, for a state that doesnt sound too keen on taxes, they sure staff their DMV offices well.  This place ran like a well oiled machine with tons of service windows open and very friendly employees.  

Next stop was Ray's house.  He has a sweet little Ranch with a Southwest style house and a few acres of high desert landscape.  The trailer was parked next to his well house where it had power available.  

We immediately set about getting the hitch adjusted for the drive.  

 And by about 11:00 a.m. we were on the road.

Chris, his father-in-law Bob, and I came prepared for a rough day based on stories I read about difficult recovery trips, but our drive back to L.A. went very smoothly.  Our only difficulty was getting the hitch  adjusted properly to keep the sway to a minimum.  The 28' Silver Streak really wanted to move around - especially in the high wind areas between Phoenix and Los Angeles.  Moving the weight distributing bars up the chains helped a lot, but Chris went ahead and bought a more substantial sway control hitch after we got back to L.A.

The next day we started looking through the mountains of paperwork that the previous owners had compiled and tested out the systems.

It was incredible how well maintained the trailer was.  Several of the major systems worked on our first try.  The fridge lit up on gas and worked just as well on electric.  The water heater fired up and only had a minor leak in the drain valve.  The stove and oven look brand new and fire right up.  The vent fans and vent covers operated as if they were brand new and the water system pressurized and only had a few drips from the winterizing valves and could use some fresh faucets.  Chris even got the furnace serviced and it also works.  

The quality of construction is also very impressive.  Compared to our '59 Airstream, the Silver Streak was much more solid and well thought out.  I was really impressed with the carefully marked wiring - Silver Streak labeled every circuit with printed labels making it easy to trouble shoot.

It couldn't all be perfect though.  Chris and Mirissa still have a fair amount of work to do.  A closer inspection of the black tank revealed a major crack, Chris found a burst water line a couple months later and they have had to upgrade their coupler and some other basic towing items to get ready to go camping.

 

Despite the setbacks, they had it out camping over the Thanksgiving weekend.  Overall, I really love their trailer and can't wait to go camping with the Dunnes again.