We immediately started researching the origins of our new purchase and found that there is very little information about Westerner Trailers. An Internet search returned only a couple of relevant links for us. One of the links was to Repairing Yesterday's Trailers which is a discussion board on YUKU. We searched that and found someone who was restoring a 1958 Westerner and as we looked at it we started questioning that ours was a 1956. After reading several of the posts from this person, we started to realize she lives in Vancouver WA just a half hour from us. I contacted Jan and began corresponding about trailers and comparing notes. We also found two Westerners on Sisters On The Fly, a 1957 and a 1958. Again, ours looked just like the 1958. Another clue was during demolition we found the date stamp on our sink and it was January 1958. Jan encouraged us to search for the VIN#, because it includes the year and month of production, and showed us where it was located on the tongue of her trailer. There was nothing that even resembled stamping on our tongue. Of course there was so many layers of paint of the tongue you probably could have hidden an elephant, so out came the paint stripper and ta da there was the VIN# which confirmed we are the proud owners of a 1958 not a 1956 Westerner.
Where did you find the VIN on the tongue? More accurately, where is the tongue? We just bought a 1957 Westerner.
ReplyDeleteHi Debra,
ReplyDeleteThe tongue is that part in front of trailer where the hitch is. Both ours and our friend, who is also restoring a '58 Westerner, was on the passenger side of the top flat rail, close to the trailer. It took multiply coats of paint stripper to uncover it. You need to join Repairing Yesterdays Trailers forum on Yuku. It is awesome, four or five of us with Westerners. The link to is is located under my favorite links on my blog.
Thanks! We just drove ours back from TX and love it! We are having difficulty with the dinette table, though. Our assumption is that the table slides on to the track with the table bracket fitting outside the one mounted on the wall. Ours gets stuck midway. Are we wrong? If not, I assume we need to replace the hardware because we cannot get it working. We are complete novices and not very handy, so we were lucky to find one is such good condition with little fix ups... so far. Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks for the link, I'll join the forum!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI've got a 1957 Westerner Deluxe called Hammy. Did you know that the Westerners came in at least three models? The Deluxe, the Pony Express and the Sportsman? Not sure what the differences between the Deluxe and the Sportsman but the Pony Express has western upholstery. Jen and I were up in Pismo last weekend and saw two other Westerners. One from Morro Bay and one from Bakersfield.
We knew about the Deluxe and the Pony Express. None of the factory documentation mentions a Sportsman model though...interesting. Ours had the western upholstery too and so did all of the other people we know with Westerners.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to an ad talking about the Sportsman and the Deluxe.
ReplyDeletehttp://hammyingitup.shutterfly.com/pictures/384#381
Unfortunately we don't have the western upholstery :( but our friends Chris and Cheryl do. I was actually able to talk to the son of Howard Irwin, the maker of the Westerner. He lives down in Escondido.
Hi My husband and i just bought one we were told it was a 69 woody westerner but i believe it my be a 59 we were also told only 600 of this model were made we keep you up dated when we find out more.
ReplyDeleteWesterners were only manufactured from 1953-1959 so it can't be a Westfield Westerner if it is a 1969. Have you looked for the VIN number on the tongue. It includes the month and year of manufacturing.
ReplyDeleteKountry, can you post pictures of your trailer? I'd love to take a look
ReplyDeleteHi everybody, to my knowledge the Westerners were only built between 1953 through 1957, in 1957 Westerner ceased production and Production began on the Arrowhead trailer for 1958. 1959 and 1960 Arrowhead ceased and Coastline Trailers were produced. I could be wrong on these dates but I think they are fairly accurate.
ReplyDeleteCorrection Westerner was in production in 1958, then in 1958 Arrowhead Started production, but I din't know what Month.
ReplyDeleteWe just bought a 58 Westerner. Looking forward to this winter to get started on it. 🙂🙂
ReplyDelete