Trailer by Joe Poty

[BarryT]

Has anyone here know anything about Joe Poty Enterprises building fiberglass trailers?

[k corbin]

If is of course possible that his company made some. But it looks like most of their work was making kits for dune buggies. In my research I also saw a reference to a boat that was for sale. The company was called Poty Enterprises.

Here is a link to an image of a dune buggie advertisement from that company. It list the two addresses for a location in the East and another in the West where they had production facilities.
Photobucket


One valuable resource for this kind of research is to see if there are historic article archives from the local newspapers or business journals that may have written feature articles on the company. That is why I gave you the image with the addresses for that company, you can do the deep research for yourself.

[Eddie Longest]

Search for Mini Rover. They were in C-ville Va. on the east coast.
Eddie

[Emily1]

This is a few years old, but I'd also like to know more. We just removed several layers of paint off our project trailer and finally have discovered the plate by the door which identifies it as Joe Poty Manufacturing East. We thought the trailer was a Hunter or Trails West, now we are going down a rabbit hole, but I can't seem to find any Joe Poty Trailers in image or web searches. Please share if you find out more besides that they made dune buggies. This is the only thread on Fiberglass RVs that mentions Joe Poty. Are they exceedingly rare travel trailers?

[Jon in AZ]

Originally Posted by Emily1

This is a few years old, but I'd also like to know more. We just removed several layers of paint off our project trailer and finally have discovered the plate by the door which identifies it as Joe Poty Manufacturing East. We thought the trailer was a Hunter or Trails West, now we are going down a rabbit hole, but I can't seem to find any Joe Poty Trailers in image or web searches. Please share if you find out more besides that they made dune buggies. This is the only thread on Fiberglass RVs that mentions Joe Poty. Are they exceedingly rare travel trailers?

How about a picture or two?

[BarryT]

Here are some pictures of Joe Poty trailer

[Jon in AZ]

Shell is identical to a Trailswest Campster, right down to the wheel well aprons, which means there was almost certainly a connection. Perhaps they bought some empty shells to finish their own way, or perhaps they acquired the molds after Trailswest ceased production.

[k corbin]

it is NOT identical to a Trailswest Campster. Look more carefully, the upper half mold is a different shape over the front window. The windows are also different. Campsters have radius corners, this trailer has square windows.

[Eddie Longest]

The Potty trailer also has molded ribs on the top front.

[k corbin]

it is NOT identical to a Trailswest Campster. Look more carefully, the upper half mold is a different shape over the front window and it looks as if there are some ribs on the front of the roof area. That would be a good addition to the mold as the forward roof is a bit dished down on my Campster and water pools on it. The windows are also different. Campsters have radius corners on the sliding windows, this trailer has square windows.



The bottom half of the mold does look identical. But the upper half while similar and has a similar looking popup roof area it is not identical.


The Campsters appears to have discontinued production in or shortly after 1971. But the company itself did not do the actual molding or even make the undercarriage frame. Those task were contracted out. Trailswest assembled it, likely did the cabinet work and they also did make the popup mechanism which was also being sold to a company that did VW van conversions that had a popup roof. It is possible that Trailswest did not even own those molds or else lost the rights to them when they ceased the business. It could be that the molding company owned them because as stated Trailswest did not do their own molding work in Oregon. Which might explain why there are variations on it from other makers that resemble it pretty closely including this one.

[Jon in AZ]

Okay, I'll but that- not identical. I wasn't sure whether those were ribs or just a trick of the lighting. Window shape is not significant, as they are cut after the shell is removed from the mold. I maintain there is a connection; the similarities are too great to be mere coincidence. It is not unlike the proliferation of Boler clones, some with minor modifications to the shell, often different windows, but the same basic shape and dimensions.

[Jon MB]

I have a pop-top John Potty.
The upper looks different with no window, just a sliding door under the hinged pop-top, and my bottom looks worse.
And the top is definitely dished. It collects all the liquid, and then some.

[k corbin]

Originally Posted by Jon in AZ

. I maintain there is a connection; the similarities are too great to be mere coincidence.

of course there is a connection. the two companies likely used the same company to do their molding work.

As Joe Poty Enterprises was in 1971 making fiberglass dune buggys and Trailswest Campsters ceased making trailers in that same time frame the connection is likely that the company that did the molding work for Trailswest might have offered Joe Poty an opportunity to give making trailers a go. It is not unbelievable that Trailswest might have gone out of business owning the molding company money so by default the ownership of the molds themselves because the property of the molding company.

In this forum there is a newspaper article from Oregon with an interview of the Trailswest Campster owners. In it they state they do not do their own molding.

These things do have a pretty logical explanation of the connections for why the same basic mold got reused by another company. There was enough of a physical proximity distance for both companies to have used the same fiberglass molding company.


Historic economic note that relates to the failure of both of these companies which were not supplying essentials but instead recreational items. It is not surprising both companies did not make it much past that time. There was a major financial crisis that started in 1970 and in 1971 there was a major double digit inflation making it difficult to get bank loans. That high inflation and failing stocks went on for a number or years. I remember it well, I had a lay-off from my job in retail in December of 1970. Very tough few years before the economy improved towards the end of that decade.

[BarryT]

The bottom part of the Campster, Astro (Havasu), K-line and the one I have by Joe Poty look identical. The only other top mold which has the ribs on it I found a picture that claimed it was a 1971 Astro Campster.

[M_C]

That is cool, good luck tracking it down.

[vintageracer]

Just found another Joe Poty trailer.

Anyone have any interior pictures of the above nice campers to compare.

The one I found is a MESS!!!!

[Eddie Longest]

Check out Trails West and Compact II campers, the layouts are pretty much the same. The only real difference with the Trails West and the Joe Potty trailer are the ribs on the roof. There might be a slight difference in the windows.

[vintageracer]

Anybody know anything about the construction of the frames under these trailers.

Square tubing?

Round tubing?

Elevator bolts?

Frame out to the edge of the fiberglass shell OR does fiberglass overhang?

Have several ideas for modification of the trailer to fit my needs and have not been able to personally go look at the trailer I have heard about.

[Campster David]

Originally Posted by vintageracer

Anybody know anything about the construction of the frames under these trailers.

Square tubing?

Round tubing?

Elevator bolts?

Frame out to the edge of the fiberglass shell OR does fiberglass overhang?

Have several ideas for modification of the trailer to fit my needs and have not been able to personally go look at the trailer I have heard about.

I have a 1970 Trails West Campster. the frame is square tubing and the full bottom fiberglass hangs out over the plywood. The frame is not heavy duty and needs to be closely monitored for cracks and rust.

The full fiberglass bottom shell (unlike, to my knowledge, the Hunter Compacts where the bottom fiberglass shell was an open rectangle over the plywood secured to the frame) is sandwiched between the frame and the plywood floor inside the camper.