1954 SILVERDOME

Silverdome, A division of Kozy Coach, began production circa 1931 in Berrien Springs Mi.

Sometime, post world war II, production was moved to Kalamazoo Mi. They shiped about twenty five coaches a month and in 1961 production was completely discontinued.

Well I guess I'm a little hooked on vintage travel trailers, my eyes are opened for them everywhere I go. Lately though, I have been looking for a very small motorhome. I've thought I could have some fun restoring a motorhome and it would be more convenient to take the boat along with us, rather than using two vehicles. But, when the opportunity came around for me to get this Silverdome, I forgot all about motorhomes and set myself on a mission to purchase it. I got it and am going to have a blast bringing it back to usable condition. I'll probably use it too, but that's undecided right now. Right now my main interest is the project of rebuilding. baring the rear section, it is actually in remarkably good looking condition inside, but considering it's age and the fact that it has set idle in a swamp for at least the last five years has created problems that I think are going to require a complete, frame off, reconstruction.

Because of the massive size of some of these pages, I have cut the picture quality down as far as I could just to help the "dial up" users load the images faster.

Click on the pictures with a colored * to get a closer view.

Old advertisements, courtesy of Juergen Eichermueller.

It's a vintage trailer thing. If ya gotta ask, ya won't understand.

For the last five years or more I have been driving by this on my way into town and back. I wished a few times that I knew who owned it, so I could ask if they were interested in selling it. Finally, during deer hunting season 2004, I was driving by just in time to catch the owner coming out of the woods from an evening hunt. So I stopped and asked him about it.

A little dialog, some mild negotiation and.... It's mine now!! Woohooo!! As soon as I investigated the history on this, I knew I had something special. I hope I can be patient with my restoration and do the kind of job that I think it deserves.

The appliances seem to be in good condition, and I hope to be "pleasantly" surprised by a working refrigerator. We'll see. Aww phooey, it turns out the refrigerator is AC only. I should have seen that right away, with no venting on the outer wall of the trailer. That Davis stove is part of a stove/fridge combo, this isn't even the fridge that goes with that combo. Oh well, it might come in handy out in the shop.

I don't know if this furnace works or not, but I like to tinker with stuff like this, so as long as it doesn't need any expensive parts, it will work when I'm done. It looks like it should be large enough to heat this trailer easily.

Another appliance in perfect condition. And it is a beauty too. Sure hope it works as good as it looks.

This is just one small spot that tells me that I may have a lot of work ahead of me in order to restore this to the condition I am hoping for.

This nicely aged birch interior just makes it look warm. Actually it's well below freezing in here right now.

The fun begins. I've got to get it up out of this swamp. It doesn't look like it's in that far, or hard to get to, but it is a swamp and I can't get a vehicle back there until the ground freezes.

However I have got to get busy and get these tires up out of the mud before they get frozen in. I'd hate to start jerking or winching the thing out and leave the axle behind.

It doesn't act like it's as heavy as I thought it would be. I'll have to get it weighed in order to put a plate on it. But right now these little one ton jacks are lifting it quite easily. weighed on 12/16/04 2950 Lbs

Well there, that wasn't too bad. it took about twenty, wet, cold minutes to get it up and get some lumber under it. After all these years the tires are still holding air, but they are badly checked and won't be on the road any longer than it takes me to get it home. Four miles.

Now that we had done one side and were already cold and wet, this other side didn't take as long.

We only had one mishap this evening. The tongue slipped off of the concrete block that it had been on. Now it's almost flat on the ground and we don't have anything with us to help lift it. Oh well, we'll deal with it come moving day.

When the sun sets in December, it sets in a hurry. But we accomplished all we planed on for tonight.

A FEW DAYS LATER

I guess now that I've started, I just don't have the patience to wait for freeze. So we will get the thing out without driving in for it.

An electric winch and some chains. This job shouldn't be too bad. (He said to himself.) At this point we have pulled it ahead about 15 feet and are ready to reset the winch and start turning it.

From here it's a straight pull to the road.

A perspective shot. We've got a ways to go and we are moving by inches.

At this point we are ready to hook directly to it with a chain and just drag it up out of there.....

But I've encountered a work stopage. Some of us just need to refresh our caffein levels every now and then.

This was a Saturday and the highway was very busy, but a little slick manuvering and here we are, high and dry.

It's home and this is the spot where it is going to stay until spring. I will mention here, that while getting it out of the swamp I was able to observe that there is some major frame work needed in the tongue area. However I have now looked it over pretty well all the way and it is only evident at the tongue. A little discouraging but I'll deal with it. That's what it's all about.

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