Compact Junior
We acquired Compact Junior in Bozeman, Montana in early October 2005. How we acquired this trailer is quite interesting.
Montana Suzy, a member of Fiberglassrv.com from Bozeman, Montana was on the hunt for a Trillium 4500. As it turned out she purchased one that was located just a bit north of Saskatoon so she made the trip up here to pick up her trailer. We knew she had a Compact Junior and wondered what she was going to do with it. When we asked, she told us that at that moment it was offered to a neighbour and if this deal didn’t work out, she’d let us know. Well, Suzy e-mailed us a couple weeks later, telling us that CJ was ours if we wanted for $800US.
As far as we know, Suzy and her husband have the owned the trailer since 2002, and before that time it had passed between friends and neighbours in Bozeman. My research on the internet revealed that Hunter Structures Inc. manufactured this trailer out of Chatsworth, California and are no longer in business. It appears they only manufactured them for three years (1971, 1972 and 1973). Besides the Compact Jr., there is also a Compact II. It seems the Compact II is the higher end model of these two.....
We made a really quick trip to Bozeman on the Thanksgiving long weekend. I had prepared all the paperwork and figured out what I would need for documentation before we had left, but we stopped at Canada Customs just to make sure. The two agents reiterated what I needed and suggested that we try to get to the border early in the morning to avoid being stuck in a long line because of the hunters that would be coming through. We really didn't know it was hunting season...but read on.........
We had a wonderful, but way-too-short visit in the rain with Montana Suzy and family. After a few hours, we slapped the permit on, hooked CJ up and were on our way back.
We wanted to get as close to the Saskatchewan border as possible and decided to try to push it to Malta, Montana (about 1 hour south of the Saskatchewan border). It rained just about all the way to Malta, so we were going to find a motel, eat supper and hit the hay. Malta is not a huge place by any means, but they had lots of motels. Yeah, lots of motels with “No Vacancy” signs. Every room was taken in that small town because Sunday, October 9, 2005 was the official start of pheasant and grouse season. Everywhere you looked, there was camouflage and hunting dogs. It wasn’t like we didn’t have any accommodations….I guess we’d have to sleep in Compact Junior.
We picked a campground called the Edgewater. We parked the truck and CJ in a pull-through electrical site and got to work on setting it up. We were unsure of what actually worked in CJ so we brought along a few extras “just in case” we had to camp. I had packed every sleeping bag we owned, a couple of fleece coats for Buddy, our Bearded Collie, a tiny flashlight, a couple of jacks, an extension cord, space heater and our electric blanket. After some searching we found the trailer’s electrical cord and plugged in. One outlet worked, but there were no lights. It was a bit chilly, so we made the bed via flashlight and quickly plugged in the electric blanket. After about an hour, it was apparent that my trusty electric blanket was not going to keep us warm enough, so we ran the extension cord outside, plugged it into the power supply and balanced the space heater on the stove. It was absolutely perfect for warmth for the rest of the night!
Just one little note about the Edgewater campground in Malta – I would highly recommend it if you like trains. As we soon found out, the campground is indeed by the edge of a river and a few feet from a railway bridge. At first the trains went by every 20 to 30 minutes at varying speeds from both directions. After 11:00 p.m. it was about every hour and a half. I thought this was heaven because I love trains and the rumbling and shaking ground was so cool. Nolan, on the other hand, didn’t sleep very well. We were not alone in the campground...notice the corner of the Airstream in the bottom picture (actually there were two of them).
We made it to the Canada border crossing at about 10:00 a.m. the next day. The agent was one of the fellows that I had talked to on our way down, so he knew exactly why we were there. After writing up the paperwork and paying a small amount of GST, we were on our way. We made it to Saskatoon around 4:00 p.m. that day.
After adding CJ to our “trailer row” we had a chance to take a good look at it and kick around some ideas around as to what we are going to do. Go to our home page for a picture of our "herd".
What makes this fibreglass baby unique is the pop top roof and the back door. It is quite a narrow trailer, but when the top is up, gives lots of room. Other unique things about this trailer are that there are no rounded corners – everything is quite square, and there is a stove and oven (all in one unit). The bed is huge and the foam is thick. We were told it is close to a king size.
CJ needs some repairs, but it is certainly not bad. Suzy had made and installed new pop top material. She did a great job and this is one thing that we will not change. The mechanisms for the pop-up roof are okay, but we want something easier. What we were thinking is installing some kind of hydraulic system to raise and lower the roof. If anyone has any ideas of what we could use….let us know. As well, the ceiling will be lowered about ½” and puck lights installed. The walls of CJ are just fiberglass – no Ensolite. We will be installing some kind of Ensolite material to add to the insulation value and hide the wiring. The cupboards will be replaced with white oak and a new black laminate counter top will be installed. Recently one of our local RV dealers had a garage sale and I came away with a white fiberglass sink for $5.00 which we will use for CJ. The fridge is not a 3-way – just a cooler, but after a good cleaning it looks like new. We will keep it for now. For flooring we are thinking of black and white tiles. I’ll have to figure out material for the cushions and curtains in the spring.
The outside is in really good condition and doesn't require a paint job - just a good polish and some new graphics.
Keep posted for the continuing renos on CJ.
Continue on to the story of ....... Stubby