Gil and Marnie Beckwith, Oriole Springs, since 1976
A father, a daughter and four builders in a tin-roofed shop in the Ozark foothills. We restore every make from 1936 to the early seventies, teardrops to riveted aluminium, and we keep the parts your trailer was born with wherever they can be saved.
Cosmetic restorations from $9,500. Full frame-off from $38,000.
1976
Gil bought a $75 canned ham, rebuilt it in his father’s barn and sold it that August.
~600
Trailers out the gate since, about fourteen a year for fifty years.
All makes
Teardrops, canned hams, riveted aluminium, fibreglass eggs and the odd one-off.
2
Generations. Gil does every frame and axle, Marnie runs shells and interiors.
Slide to the year on your trailer’s title. The bars show how many from each year have been through the shop. Pick a highlighted year to see one restoration from it, before and after, and how it went.
1954
22 trailers from 1954 have come through the shop since 1976.
Finished for the 2017 rally, door open for anyone who asks
1954
Gil Beckwith, Oriole Springs
The $75 canned ham that started the business in 1976. Gil sold it that August for $900 and spent 40 years wishing he had not. Marnie tracked it down for his 64th birthday. It is not for sale.
In the spring of 1976 Gil Beckwith was cutting sheet metal at the feed mill in Oriole Springs when a neighbour sold him a 1954 canned ham with a hole in the floor. He rebuilt it in his father’s barn, sold it by August, and bought two more with the money.
Marnie grew up in the shop. She studied furniture making, came home in 2012, and now runs the shell bay, the cabinetry and the upholstery. Gil still does every frame and every axle himself, and still answers the phone.
“If the frame is bad, I will tell you on the first day, not the tenth week.”
“Every hinge that comes off gets a number. Every one goes back.”
The timings are for a full frame-off on a 16 foot trailer. A cosmetic job skips the frame and floor and usually starts at stage four.
Before anything comes off, Marnie photographs it and tags every piece with a number. Original hardware goes in labelled bins, and you get the photo set.
Gil lifts the shell, blasts the frame, cuts out rust and welds in new steel. New axle, electric brakes, bearings and safety chains on every job we tow away.
New marine plywood, sealed on the underside and screwed to the frame, so the next fifty years of puddles have nothing to rot.
Skins off, soft framing replaced, seams and windows resealed. Aluminium is polished, painted shells are matched to a chip of the original colour.
New 12 volt and 120 volt wiring to code, propane lines pressure tested, water lines replaced. Old-looking switches, modern wire behind them.
Birch cabinets rebuilt or repaired, upholstery in period fabric, and your original pulls and hinges re-plated and put back where the numbers say.
Every job starts with Gil under the trailer with a flashlight. You get a written price after that, and we call before anything goes over it.
from$9,500
Usually 6 to 10 weeks
For a trailer with a sound frame and floor that needs to look and seal like new.
from$38,000
Usually 20 to 30 weeks
For a barn find, a soft floor, or a trailer you want to tow for the next fifty years.
Most jobs land between the two. Chrome re-plating, period fabric, a polished belly pan or a new awning are priced one by one, so you only pay for what your trailer needs.
We work on five at a time and no more, so nobody’s trailer sits in a corner. A deposit holds your place in line, and you can keep towing your trailer until we call.
1947 riveted aluminium, 22 ft
Frame bay
Week 9 of about 24
1956 canned ham, 15 ft
Shell bay
Week 11 of about 22
1961 birch-lined, 17 ft
Interior bench
Week 19 of about 21
1964 fibreglass egg, 13 ft
Paint bay
Week 4 of about 8
1969 two-tone, 19 ft
Waiting on axle
Week 3 of about 26
Marnie updates this list every Friday afternoon.
Sample reviews, written for this concept.
“Gil called me every other Friday for six months, whether there was news or not. When they rolled it out, Marnie had put my grandmother’s curtains back up. I cried in the driveway.”
“They told me my trailer only needed the cosmetic job and saved me about twenty thousand dollars. Nobody else I called said that.”
“I got a binder of numbered photos of every piece that came off. It is the most organised thing I own, and the trailer tows straighter than my truck.”
The floor tells Gil most of what he needs to know. He reads every enquiry himself and calls back within two working days with a rough range and a start date.
Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 4:30pm. Gil picks up.
2917 Route 3, Oriole Springs
Visitors welcome Saturdays 9am to 1pm. Look for the turquoise tin roof and the 1954 canned ham by the gate.