Finding a Mechanic

After spending the majority of the day cleaning out the camper and assessing the repair issues, I locked it back up and went inside to see if I could find a mechanic who would work on a 1969 North Star Camper.

Before making calls, however, I decided to google and see what I could find out about the old girl. The answer, was nothing.  After two hours of searching, I could not find one single piece of information about North Star Travel Trailers.  There is a company called North Star Campers, but they specialize in over the cab pick up campers.  Perhaps at one point they made Travel Trailers, but for now, I was hitting a dead end.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed at the lack of information regarding our camper, I began to call RV and Camper dealers and repair facilities in our area.  We live in the Denver metro area, a place well known for outdoor activities and a camper dealer on every corner, or so it seems.  Unfortunately, every place I called told me that they didn't work on campers older than 10-15 years old.  A couple of them told me they would work on the North Star, but it could cost upwards of $10,000.00.  And no, I am not exaggerating.  I was shocked and disappointed.

There was no way my husband or I could do the undercarriage work on the camper.  It was completely beyond our skill set and because the drive to my parents would take over 9 hours if we were to tow her there so my dad could help us- with her clanking and maybe crashing along the way, it seemed like we might need to give up after one day and put it back on Craigslist.

In the meantime, I knew we had to get the camper moved from in front of our house.  We live in an HOA covenant controlled community and having an old camper sitting for more than two days would get us a notice of violation.  I began to call RV and Camper Storage places and finally settled on the RV Vault near our house.  I drove over without the camper (my car isn't set up for towing) and met with the owner.  He was wonderful.

We drove around and he let me pick out a spot that would work for our camper.  We discussed pricing and short term storage and when I told him it might only be for a month and explained the camper and it's issues to him, he asked who I had asked to do work on it.  I shared who I had called and how disappointed I was that no one could help us.  He asked if I had called Parker Trailer.  I had not, as I didn't know they existed.  He assured me that they would be fantastic and even told me who to ask for over there.

I left the storage facility, with plans to have Kyle bring the trailer over the following Monday and excited to return home and find out if the people at Parker Trailer could actually help us.   I was actually nervous as I placed the call. However, I quickly discovered that I had no reason to be.  The people at Parker Trailer acted as if working on a 1969 vintage camper was something they did every day.  Every issue I mentioned, their response was, "We can fix that."  It was so encouraging.  I made an appointment for two weeks out and breathed a sigh of relief.

We might get to keep the camper after all.