Hi everyone - I just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself. My name is Loren and my Dad is one of the guys who manufactured all of those great
ECO travel trailers back in the 70s. In fact, I worked at his factory during much of that time so if you've got an
ECO I probably had a hand in making it.
Who knew that 40 years later those sturdy little trailers would still be loved so much!
Here's a few bits of trivia for you:
ECO - stand for Eugene-Cal-Owen, the first names of the owners of Century Mfg. Cal is my Dad and Owen is his younger brother. All three are still alive - but they didn't even keep a single one of the trailers for themselves.
After the shells were put on the frame the first thing we did was cut out all of the window and door openings, then we installed the foam insulation with a really powerful glue that would make your head swim if you stayed in the trailer too long. Yeah...OSHA wasn't so strong back in those days and we didn't wear respirators :-)
Dad bought the molds from a company in Canada - I think the originals were named Burros but my memory might be shoddy on that.
My uncle Owen and my Dad made a promotional video based on a true story about an ECO owner turning a corner too fast and too short and hitting the curb. Their trailer tipped over and they drug it down the street for a ways before they stopped. They just tipped it back up and went on their way! Tough little guys. Although they did have to bring it back in for some touch up on the gel-coat.
The first year there were only 2 colors if my memory serves me right - avocado green with a white top and all white. Later we added red,
light blue and even yellow. We made a few solid color ones but Dad didn't like the look of those so they were only on special order.
We used to keep two of the red/white ones on hand and employees could reserve them for free for weekend camping.
When we put the first ones together we used a hand rivet gun. Ouch! After the first couple of times doing that we went on strike until my Dad bought us air rivet guns. Much faster after that! But we soon discovered it was pretty hysterical to rivet various things that shouldn't have been riveted - like lunchboxes to work benches and tool belts to walls. LOL!
Anyway, just a few things to know about the old ECO trailers. I still see them rolling down the highway once in a while. I always honk and wave!
Let me know if you've got an ECO and how it's doing for you. Maybe one of these days I'll buy one back for myself :-)
Thanks!