Heilite tent trailer

[Dustin B]

Nice score volkswade. The bunk bed cots were an original accessory for heilites. So if you ever decide to sell
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Wanted Victoria motors licence plate frame.

62 og paint L469 type 1
61 og paint L31 DD panel type 2
64 heilite viscount tent trailer
71 sears clamshell trailer

I <3 Brazilian busses

Original paint and patina extravaganza http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=187156

[59panel]

Type3nut, I have a decent spare rim and tire I'd Let go for $40 plus shipping. Pm me again with phone number for picture. Matt

[MalibuLou]

After looking for many months I found my Heilite. It's a '64 Model 170. I'm the third owner and while worn, it still carries the original canvas. The guy I bought it from had added the spare tire/rear step and a '65 axle to allow the 12" wheels. The aluminum is in excellent shape with not a dent or major scratch in sight. I used NAPA"s Aluminum Brightener on it and it took the dull finish off leaving very bright set of panels. (This is a before photo) I stumbled into this forum and you guys are great. I won't be pulling mine with a VW but will be using my tried and true '75 IH Scout. I'll post more photos as I clean this little guy up and many thanks to all who have posted and provided much useful information. Our maiden voyage looks to be the IH Fall Rally in Grass Valley this October. This will fit right in.

[TroySmith80]

[Kathy J]

We've been busy with this thing. It's been torn down to basic component parts. The body and canvas is over at my brother's in his garage, and all the steel parts came home with us. We used Barkeeper's Friend and elbow grease to remove 55 years of oxidization, followed by rubbing compound and wax applied with an orbital buffer. It could still be brighter, but it looks MUCH better than it did.

Here at home, my husband rigged up an electrolytic process to strip some of the rust off of the steel pieces. It works just like electroplating, only in reverse. It plates the rust off of the parts onto a sacrificial piece of scrap steel. We degreased everything in a bucket of degreaser, then ran everything through the de-ruster including the wheel rim, after we removed the bearings. The process got off about 90%-95% of the rust depending on how thick it was. If anyone wants details on how to do this, I can post that separately. It's not complicated or expensive, but you do need a battery charger.

The entire trailer except for the body and canvas now fits into several plastic grocery sacks.

Over Labor Day weekend, we cut apart eight very heavy 7/16" bolts to rebuild the rusted solid, broken and missing leg grippers. The hardest part of that job was sourcing a small piece of motorcycle chain! I never thought it would be so difficult to find scrap chain, but it's just not available. We finally bought some by the foot from a hardware store that sells off-road ATVs. To make the new grippers, we just drilled a hole in each bolt to hold a cotter pin, then cut off the bolt heads and shortened the bolts to match the old, rusty ones. I shouldn't say "just" because all the sawing was done by hand with a hacksaw...ugh. Assembly took seconds after all the sawing was finally finished.

Yesterday I took a class at Techshop Detroit on how to do sandblasting and powdercoating. Today I went back to Techshop with the two heavy sand-cast textured iron forks from the suspension and tried it by myself.

Here's one fork partly sandblasted.

Here are both forks blasted and ready for paint.

And here's the finished, painted forks. The blue did not turn out as advertised online...it was supposed to be flashier with a hint of glitter.
In person the color is more like Ford engine paint. But it's better than rust, so I can live with it.

The new LED tail lights came today, so as soon as I get the suspension parts all painted, we can rewire it and stand it up. Then we can move on to cleaning the tent canvas, and having a new tire and inner tube put on the rim (after it's been painted). The last step will be getting/making a T-hitch for it so we can actually tow it. But it needs to be vertical, rolling, and self supporting first.

While searching for motorcycle chain we talked to a very knowledgeable guy at a local hardware store, and now we have a clue about how to make a spare wheel for it. I'm all about safety with this thing (thus the LED lights). I'd rather use a new rim and tubeless tire on it, and keep the vintage wheel w/inner tube as a spare. If we can make that happen, I'll post the info on how to make spare wheels for Heilites here.

--Kathy

[kasper]

Replaced the locks on the trailer today. I got these from McMaster Carr. Fit was great. Had to bend the long latch that came with the kit to fit.

I have the original parts left over if anybody is interested.

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Orange Empire Bus Company

[Kathy J]

Excellent find on the cam locks! We need to replace ours too, because we don't have keys for them. I'm looking on the McMaster-Carr site now and can't find them by the part number on the package in your picture. Do you have the McMaster-Carr part number?

--Kathy

[kasper]

Here is the P/N 13105A75 and a link to the page.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/120/2917/=tmswq6
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Orange Empire Bus Company

[Kathy J]

Thanks!

I just ordered a pair of these. You said you had to bend the long cam to make it fit. Do you have a pic of what you did to it? Or could it just be shortened?

[Typ3nut]

[folks55]

[folks55]

[folks55]

[folks55]

[DadsOld74]

Love creative VW camping! Great thread of pics. Eventually, I want to get my '46 teardrop fixed up to pull behind my bug.
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--Brian ('74 standard bug)

"If one does not fail at times, then one has not challenged himself." - Ferdinand Porsche

[Kathy J]

Those of you who have put new tires and inner tubes on original equipment Heilite rims--what size tires did you use? The tire that was on ours was a 16x5.0x8.0. It was pretty old (probably 30 years or more) so we want to replace it. The tire store says that size tire is no longer made, and wants to use a 16x4.8x8.0 tire on our rim. They have to order the inner tube, so we haven't bought the tire yet.
Will that size work on the Heilite rim?

[wythac]

KathyJ,

You might find it cheaper to buy complete rim and tire assemblies from a small trailer supplier. The guys at my local tire store pointed that out to me and I followed their advice.

I store my trailer elsewhere but I can check the tire size for you this week and will drop you a pm with the info if you'd like.

[Kathy J]

Wythac, regular trailer wheels won't work on it. The wheel has to have a center hub with bearings that can handle high-speed freeway use. Believe me, I've tried to find another wheel for this thing. In order to use the trailer at all, I HAVE to put a tire on the rim I have, at least until I can get something else built to replace it.

[wythac]

KathyJ,

I forgot that yours is a singlewheel. I'm sure that complicates things for you. Tire may not be the same as those used on two wheel models either.

[Typ3nut]