On a recent trip up north to visit my mom's side of the family, I lucked out and picked up a family heirloom - 1963 Ted Williams Camper (Red Ted). I've known about it for quite some time but only started to inquire more about it since owning a classic car. The way I understand how this Red Ted's story began was when my great-grandparents bought it in 1963. They bought it to take my great-grandpa Cain's cousin from Isle of Man on a 6 month tour of the U.S. It was then when he got his name "Little Herman" (LH) but for no real reason other than cousin Isabel suggested it. From then on, that's how he has been known. There is a lot more to his story, I'm still trying to dig that up from my family who know of Little Herman.
The info I've found on this camper is spotty. They were supposedly produced by Vesely Manufacturing Co. solely for Sears, Roebuck & Co. Through searching the internet, I have found two (here and here) for sale in the past, but not much more. I did, however, run across a cool build thread on SteeingBoxScrapers.net, but the OP hasn't posted any of the completed photos. My Red Ted is in similar shape to his, but I don't have quite the same plans. Although, I love the route he took his! Seeing as how mine if a family heirloom, I won't cut it up but do plan to flip the axle to lower it a tad. The goal is to make a multipurpose, family camping trailer. I'd like to be able to pull it to show or cruise-in or to do some vintage camping. I'd also want to pull it behind our Odyssey for modern camping. It's still up in the air whether I'll put another tent on it or not. The immediate goal is to put some vintage appearing wooden racks to be able to haul a small boat or canoe or bikes. I'll probably end up making Little Herman his own Casual Blog subblog thing so I can make it easier to follow along with the restoration.
Here are the photos from pulling it out of the woods where it had been stored upside down for probably longer than I'm old.
The info I've found on this camper is spotty. They were supposedly produced by Vesely Manufacturing Co. solely for Sears, Roebuck & Co. Through searching the internet, I have found two (here and here) for sale in the past, but not much more. I did, however, run across a cool build thread on SteeingBoxScrapers.net, but the OP hasn't posted any of the completed photos. My Red Ted is in similar shape to his, but I don't have quite the same plans. Although, I love the route he took his! Seeing as how mine if a family heirloom, I won't cut it up but do plan to flip the axle to lower it a tad. The goal is to make a multipurpose, family camping trailer. I'd like to be able to pull it to show or cruise-in or to do some vintage camping. I'd also want to pull it behind our Odyssey for modern camping. It's still up in the air whether I'll put another tent on it or not. The immediate goal is to put some vintage appearing wooden racks to be able to haul a small boat or canoe or bikes. I'll probably end up making Little Herman his own Casual Blog subblog thing so I can make it easier to follow along with the restoration.
Here are the photos from pulling it out of the woods where it had been stored upside down for probably longer than I'm old.
My dad driving while I videoed us pulling it back to my grandmother’s cottage. You can see how tall it sits and goofy it looks. I even had the hitch turned up on the van. Can you imagine how tall it would look being towed behind a lowered MoreDoor Classic!? I have to figure out how to lower it without cutting anything.
Here are some vintage ads for the Red Ted's back in 1963.
Here are some photos of what LH should've looked like and hopefully will one day.
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Let me know if you have any info on the Ted Williams campers in the comment section below. I want to learn about them and get this one back on the road!
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