fiftysixhicks

Tin Can Tourists South Eastern Representative My Trailers: 1950 Spartanette Tandem 8'x30' 1956 Hicks Mobiliner 8'x28' 1958 Skyline Deluxe 8'x45' (Will add more later...)

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

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Jan 212013
 

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

Jan. 21, 2013

Madison, FL – Panama City, FL

Didn’t even set my alarm for this morning and slept in until around 8:30. I got up and ate some breakfast and walked around the park for a while checking it out for future reference. After my walk I decided to go ahead and finish the rest of my trip home. Traffic was very slim as it is a holiday and I was able to make it home just before lunch. It felt so good backing to trailer back into its parking spot and being home! I had a ton of fun, but it was very tiring and it is good to be home.

Tim Heintz

Tin Can Tourists South Eastern Representative

1950 Spartanette Tandem

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

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Jan 202013
 

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

Jan. 20, 2013

Tampa, FL – Madison, FL

After 4 full days of showing our vintage trailers, I am happy that we are finally on our last day. It has been a very intense week and I barely have a voice left.  This morning promises to be a great weather day with sun all day and a little wind.  As usual things started to get pretty busy early on and it was amazing to see all of the vendors selling new RVs marking them down as much as an additional 30% off! I could not believe how many of these rigs were being sold, many of the vendors had signs showing home many they had sold or at least how many orders had been placed over this last week and some were well over 30-40 rigs per vendor!!!

By late morning I was exhausted and really couldn’t talk much more so I finally gave up and put a rope across the living room in my trailer so people could just step in to see the front half of the trailer and I put a rope across the rear door so they could see the back half. I decided to just sit back and relax for the rest of the day and answer only the questions that were asked by the people looking at my trailer. I figured since I planned on pulling out like most other members after 5 pm I better rest up a little and not tire myself out too much as I had a long drive ahead of me unlike most of the other members.

Around 2pm I think all the other members were about ready to pack up as we were all worn out, but we still had 3 hours to go. Many of us started to pack up a few minor things a little early just to get ready for the time we were allowed to leave. Thankfully by 4 pm the crowds were really thinning out and even the big RV vendors were getting ready to pack up. Most of us were just about ready to pull out around 5 pm and as soon as 5 did come around most of us were ready to hook up and leave. However we had a little planning to do in order to figure out what order each trailer had to get out of this small area we were parked in. Thankfully the Fairgrounds started to take the fencing down right at 5 pm and many of our trailers could pull straight out where the fence once stood. After we got a few trailers out we helped the 1912 Camp Wagon be pushed over to the flatbed trailer that the owner used to haul it on……it is a heavy wagon especially when there are no horses to hook up to it!

When 6 pm rolled around I was the last trailer to pull out that was leaving today. A few of the other trailers were going to stay the night and pull out first thing in the morning, but I wanted to get a head start on my 400 mile trip home.  It felt so good to hit the button on my GPS that actually says “Take Me Home”!!!

By the time I made it about halfway home I was starting to get tired, so instead of pushing on I decided to pull over for the night. I stopped in Madison FL at a really neat Campground “Yogi Bear’s JellyStone Park” http://www.jellystonefla.com/  which is running their winter special rates and it was well worth it as it is just a fun park to stay at.  I wish I was not so tired but I am going to call it an early night and get a full nights rest.

Tim Heintz

Tin Can Tourists South Eastern Representative

1950 Spartanette Tandem

 

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

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Jan 192013
 

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

Jan. 19, 2013

Tampa, FL

Last night was a very interesting night as there were sounds of very large motorhomes being moved right outside my trailer quite late. Went out to see what all was going on and to my surprise the dealer right beside us was moving several BIG rigs out. They told us they had sold and they were bringing in new rigs to replace them. I have been seeing other rigs being moved earlier throughout the week and early in the morning but did not think much about it. The dealer said all of the vendors there to sell rigs have a separate parking lot with extra rigs to fill sold spots when a new one is sold. They can’t afford to let a sold rig sit in their area when they can move a new one in that might sell.  After all the moving went on last night I still could not get to sleep and I was up most of the night.  I finally gave up on sleeping early this morning and tried to get ready for the so called ‘Big Day’ which promised to be the busiest day of the whole week. So I started with breakfast then it was on to making my bed, doing the morning dishes, and a few other small things to get ready for the crowds today. As usual it started to get busy by 9 am and there seemed to be much larger crowds early on. It was a full morning of giving tours and by lunch I was already losing my voice.

With the day getting later and the entire RV Show coming to a close tomorrow many of the vendors must have been putting items on sale. People that were coming in to tour the trailers had some very large and full bags. Most of the trailers here on display were small enough that they had the doors roped off so people could just look in. After several large bags had knocked a few items over in my trailer I went ahead and roped my trailer off at the front and back door and figured everyone could see the front half from the front door and the rear part from the back door. Plus I was running out of voice and it allowed me to take a break and try to recover my voice. I usually lose my voice when we do a show for one day; this 5 day show has been quite intense!

By late afternoon the show was really slowing down and we had already decided we were going to close a little earlier as we were all having a get together for dinner with sub sandwiches and desserts. We had a great time at dinner as it was really our first time all together since we have arrived.  After dinner most of us called it a very early night which has been very common with such an intense show that lasts 9 hours every day! So far we all have shown and given tours of our trailers for 36 hours, with another 8 hours to go tomorrow. Most times I am not ready to leave a Rally, but it will be nice to get back home where I can rest and get back to my normal routine.

Tim Heintz

Tin Can Tourists South Eastern Representative

1950 Spartanette Tandem

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

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Jan 182013
 

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

Jan. 18, 2013

Tampa, FL

Woke up this morning and had to turn my heater on high! It was 38 degrees this morning and freezing cold outside. As soon as I turned my heater on I got back into my warm bed for another half hour, it was that cold this morning. Finally I started to move around a little better (after thawing out a bit!)  Got breakfast cooked and started to get my trailer set up for today’s show which was not a lot to do, just make the bed and do a few of last night and this morning dishes.  By the time the show was to start the weather was starting to warm up a little and before long we were back in the lower 60’s. The crowds were very large and we ended up being busy all day. Got a lot of the typical visitors with stories of family members’ old trailers and trailers they lived in many years ago that were just like the trailers we have here on display.

Around lunch I had an older woman come tour my trailer and she was surprised to see a small vintage cook book that was hand typed from the hospital she worked at in the 50’s located in Murfreesboro TN. As she went through the small binder book she saw all kinds of names from old friends, staff, and even some of her old patients from many years ago (she had been a nurse at the Hospital). She started to tear up as many of her old patients had since passed away, but she was so happy to find that the book was still around. She sat in my trailer for a long time going through the books every page. When she finished she tried to hand it back to me but I told her she could keep it and take it back home with her to Murfreesboro TN. She was so happy to be able to take the book back as she couldn’t wait to show it to her old friends and the daughter of one of her past patients.

The rest of the day was just as busy as ever since it was getting warmer, but the wind was still blowing quite a bit. Many still had to keep their awnings down for the day since the wind was so bad.  Once 5:30 rolled around the crowds started to slow down quite a bit and we started to close up for the day. Many of us were going to meet at the Cracker Barrel down the road at 600 but when we arrived there was an hour wait so we decided everyone was on their own. Hunt and I were in one vehicle and we decided to head back to our trailers and just cook for the night. After dinner I decided to call it an early night since Tomorrow is Saturday I can only assume it will be one of the busiest days yet!

Tim Heintz

Tin Can Tourists South Eastern Representative

1950 Spartanette Tandem

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

 Rallies, Regional Representatives, Southeast Region, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jan 172013
 

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

Jan. 17, 2013

Tampa, FL

This morning the weather was warm and the crowds started to show up right at 9 am to get an early start for the first full day of this event.  Unfortunately it was not long at all before the wind started to kick up and clouds moved in. The temperature dropped very quickly and it started to rain with very high wind gust. Many of the smaller rigs had to take their awnings down and the oldest two rigs (1912 & 1916) had to close up and even be covered to protect them from the rain. After the main storm passed, which was really just a lot of wind and colder weather, the forecast promised a better day, but it never happened.

Later in the day since it was slow I got my computer out to get another weather update. I was surprised to have an email from a friend showing that all our vintage rigs had made the online web page ‘Vintage Car Talk’ Here is a link to the photos that were posted: http://www.vintagecartalk.com/archives/tin-can-tourists/

The rest of the day was filled with high winds and much colder temps with that annoying misting type rain. So I suggested that we all close our rigs for the day and if they wanted could head into some of the venues and take part in the actual RV show and see what all they had in the large buildings out of the bad weather.

Seeing some of the Huge Brand new rigs were really something, they had motorhomes so high priced (around 2 million) that before you could enter the coach you had to take your shoes off!!! Much too rich for my taste but still very fun to see in person. I also got a chance to stop by the Hymmer Trailer Display, which was a very cool vendor to check out. Hymmer is a German RV Company that shipped several of their rigs to the show from overseas and they were not even for sale! They just brought them over to see if there was a market for them here in the USA because before they go and produce a line of trailers to run off of American Power they want to see if there is a market over here. The Design of these trailers/motorhomes was very cool. “IF” I ever wanted to buy a brand new trailer, I would rather have a Hymmer if they start producing a rig converted to American Power, cable, plumbing, gas, etc… If you ever get a chance to check one out do it! They are very cool!

After I toured the Hymmers it was about time to close up the show until tomorrow. Hopefully Tomorrow will bring much better and drier weather.

 

Tim Heintz

Tin Can Tourists South Eastern Representative

1950 Spartanette Tandem

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

 Rallies, Regional Representatives, Southeast Region, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jan 162013
 

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

Jan. 16, 2013

Tampa, FL

Didn’t wake up to my alarm this morning!!!! At 5 am most of us were awaken to the loud voice of Charley Belcher from Tampa’s Fox News! With the weather so great we all had our windows opened and Charley’s voice was coming from all direction just outside our camp area. As I got up to see what was going on I noticed all the other vintage trailers’ windows shutting!!!! We knew they were going to shoot video this morning, but we were told they would be in our area at 830am….never mentioned they would be right next door to us at 5 AM!!!!

We only have one more rig to pull in today but it is the smallest rig and we have a very easy place to pull them into.

At about 8am the Tampa News Station wanted to film some of our vintage rigs. They ended up filming a couple of our rigs including my 1950 Spartanette, the 1916 Expanding Apartment on a 1924 Ford, and the 1912 Camp Wagon. Here is a link to the two video segments:

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/20600007/2013/01/16/rv-super-show   There are a total of three videos, one is about the new rigs, so one vintage segment is on the first page and you need to click next for the second page with the first vintage trailer segment that was filmed.

We figured today would not be too busy as it is just what they call Industry day and kind of a pre-start to the main show. By 9am people started to walk around and notice all the vintage rigs in our area. As soon as the shuttle service started to run (which was a 3-4 car like tram) we really got busy since one of the main stops were right in front of our rigs. Surprisingly we were busy most of the day with very few slow times. People were very excited to see all the vintage rigs as we have a great selection of rigs spanning 72 years! From as old as a 1912-1984 we have some of the coolest rigs to see! Many people kept commenting how our area was the best part of the show…..many said once you see one trailer at any other vendor you had basically seen them all, but our area had so much diversity and was very interesting to see all the vintage rigs. After such a busy day the crowds started to finally slow down around 6pm and we all started to close up from today’s open house. Many were ready to head out to get something to eat, cook in their trailers, then off the bed with such a busy day! Tomorrow might bring rain and a little wind so it might be a little slow tomorrow but we will have to see!

Tim Heintz

Tin Can Tourists South Eastern Representative

1950 Spartanette Tandem

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

 Rallies, Regional Representatives, Southeast Region, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jan 152013
 

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

Jan. 15, 2013

Tampa, FL

I never sleep well the first night wherever I am camping, but with all the generators, stadium lights, and some kind of birds making noises all night was not helping! I finally fell asleep around 1 am only to be awakened by the birds again. Went back to sleep only to wake up at 3:30 am and could not go back to sleep and with no power this first night I couldn’t even get up and do anything since it was still dark, although the stadium lights were still blasting through my windows even with the curtains shut. So I tried to go back asleep and finally about 5am the stadium lights went off and that helped me to go back to sleep for a few hours. By 7:30 am I was up and ready to get the day started and knew I needed to figure out where we were going to put all these trailers that were going to be coming in throughout the day. Took me a few hours but I finally had all the trailers mapped out and marked where each one would be.

Now I had time to finish setting up my trailer, which many know takes hours for me to get everything just right. By around 11am vintage trailers started to arrive. Thankfully since I already had all the spots marked out, everything went smoothly. By 4pm almost all the trailers had arrived except 2 and they were in the only two pull through spots so there was no issue in trying to squeeze them in.

After such a busy, and slightly stressed day trying to fit all the vintage rigs in such a small space I was more than ready for a good night’s rest. I have no doubt I will sleep ALL night tonight as I am about to pass out already!

Tim Heintz

Tin Can Tourists South Eastern Representative

1950 Spartanette Tandem

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

 Rallies, Regional Representatives, Southeast Region  No Responses »
Jan 142013
 

2013 TCT at the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa FL

Jan. 14, 2013

Panama City, FL – Tampa, FL

Woke up this morning after very few hours of sleep due to a late night of packing up my trailer. It would not have been such a late night until I went out into my trailer yesterday to find a family of mice had moved into the trailer and made a mess of things during the few days I had the trailer without power and my electronic rodent devices were not working since there was no power. Thankfully the mice only chewed the non-vintage items and things that were not too important, they just scattered chewed up paper everywhere and I felt the need to wash, clean, bleach, and scrub every surface of the trailer and every item in the trailer!

So after throwing a few last minute items in the trailer I was ready to hit the road…..almost…..grabbed my prescription allergy medicine to only see that I had about 2 days left, so now I had to wait until the pharmacy opened up to pick up the refill. I jumped into the vintage Mustang to head to town since I had the truck hooked up to the trailer but the car would not start! So I cranked up my truck and decided to pull my Spartanette through down town to pick up my meds then head out of town from there. Well that took a while with all the work traffic but I eventually made it there and was finally ready to leave town around 10 am…..several hours later than I planned.

Not long before hitting the road I realized I forgot to check the air pressure in the trailer tires, so I decided to stop at a truck stop about 20 miles down the road. Pulled into the truck stop, went in to get some late breakfast then out to air up the tires. Back the trailer all the way out to the Air machine, got out and walked up to the machine only to find an ‘out of order’ sign on it! Figures, so I drove on for about 30 more miles until I came across another truck stop. Backed in got out, and again an ‘out of order sign’! Just my luck! I got back on the highway and drove on for another hour until I hit one of the big truck stops on I-10. Found a huge Pilot Truck stop and thankfully it appeared to be working, put four quarters in it and nothing!!!!! By this time I was a little aggravated and hit the top of the machine with my hand and it started pumping up! I quickly filled all of my trailer tires since all were about 10 psi low and finally I had nothing to stop me now!

About 100 miles outside of Tampa I got a call from a few of the other trailers that were arriving a day early with me to set up. They were at the gate we were told to be at but they found the gate chained shut!  The number we were to call was in my trailer so I told them to go around to the other gate and I would pull over in a few miles to get the number. Thankfully they called me right back and told me the other gat was opened and they were allowed to go on in and wait until I got there so we could decide where everyone needed to set up at.

I finally pulled into the grounds about 6 pm only to find that our designated area was smaller than we were planning!!!! I have 15 trailers going to be here tomorrow and know I have to figure all my planning all over again. Thankfully we finally figured out where the three of use needed to be and we went ahead and placed our trailer in place and got set up. I was exhausted and decided I would get up early in the morning and measure out with a 100’ tape where all the other trailers will have to go. It should be an interesting day tomorrow as I had the much larger planned area packed tight, now we have lost about a 10’x35’ area but the same number of trailer!

Tim Heintz

Tin Can Tourists South Eastern Representative

1950 Spartanette Tandem

2012 TCT Fall Rally at Koreshan State Historic Site, Estero Florida

 News, Rallies, Regional Representatives, Southeast Region, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 052012
 

2012 TCT Fall Rally at Koreshan State Historic Site, Estero Florida

Nov. 05, 2012

White Springs – Panama City, FL

Woke up this morning to the sound of the huge Carillion Tower that the Stephen Fosters State park has in the middle of the park, it can be heard from anywhere within the park. During the day it rings out every 15 minutes and about 5 times a day on the hour (I can’t remember the schedule) it will play a couple of Stephen Foster’s famous songs that he wrote.  This park is really great and I have been trying to schedule a TCT event here but they already have a very busy schedule with several very large events going on every month of the year!

As much as I would have loved to stay a while at the park, since I only had about 4 hours left to get home, I had to leave so I would have time to stop by and have the mechanic look at my transmission…..knowing my luck it would take all day to fix! So I got up and unhooked the power cord and took off down the road towards Live Oak FL, which was only about 15 miles away. I arrived at the shop about 9:30am and to the surprise of the mechanic I was back! He was nervous to ask, by wanted to know how my truck was running. I told him the truck was running great, and the transmission was working better than ever but there was just a small transmission fluid leak and I assumed a bolt or something was just left a little loose. So they told me to back my trailer up and unhook and they would put the truck on the lift and have a look. After looking of the transmission they found that there were two small fittings that were never tightened from the place that rebuilt the transmission. They were very sorry for the trouble, but I told them it was not their fault, it was the fault of the company that rebuilt the transmission. It only took them about 30 minutes to fix the truck and by then it was still very early in the day. I asked the mechanic if it would be ok to leave my trailer there for a few hours so we could go into town and spend some time shopping, antiquing, and get some food!

We left the shop and headed into town, there was a small café in town that was still serving breakfast so we got a bite to eat and then headed towards downtown. We looked through a few thrift stores but did not find much there. I got my computer out and found a huge antique store about 30 minutes away on I-75, so we headed that way to see if we could find any good deals. The antique store was called Webb’s Antiques with over 400 dealers inside and right off the interstate it kept us busy for a few hours. Didn’t find too much there that we had to have, but there were a lot of great items and the prices were great…..I just don’t need to collect any more things. However I could not pass up on a very small 1950’s toy trailer for $1.00 and a 1958 Popular Mechanics magazine with several vintage trailer ads in it for $2.25, but that is all I brought home from there!

After leaving the antique store we stopped for gas and some late lunch. We picked up the trailer around 3:00pm and headed towards Panama City, made great time coming home with very little traffic. By 7:00pm we pulled into my shop and finally made it home. We had a great time despite all the adventurous issues! I cannot wait until next year’s Rally! The dates have already been set as Oct. 31st-Nov. 3rd 2013 and I have already marked my calendar and you will not want to miss this rally!!!! Every year we have a big Themed party on Friday night (this year was Jimmy Buffet) Next year will be Beatle Mania!!!!! Don’t Miss It!!!!

Tim Heintz

Tin Can Tourists South Eastern Representative

1950 Spartanette Tandem

2012 TCT Fall Rally at Koreshan State Historic Site, Estero Florida

 News, Rallies, Regional Representatives, Southeast Region, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 042012
 

2012 TCT Fall Rally at Koreshan State Historic Site, Estero Florida

Nov. 04, 2012

Estero – White Springs, FL

Up early this morning, the time change had me and everyone else moving around quite early. By 6:30am most people were already out and about getting all packed up and ready to hit the road. At least it gave all of us that remembered to set our clocks back, a lot of time to talk and spend some time before heading out.  At 8:00am most everyone was up and out for our breakfast and coffee which gave us all a chance to say our good byes and find out where the next place we would meet up.  Right after breakfast trailers started to pull out heading for home, I did most of my packing last night so I very little to get done before I headed out. I had planned to take it easy and only drive half way back home today and the rest of the way tomorrow. But as usual my plans are never so simple!

After getting about 2 hours up the road I pulled over at a rest area for a break and a little early lunch in my trailer.

Rest Area Stop

After finishing up my lunch and giving a few tours of my trailer for some reason I decided to check my engine/transmission fluids, I guess I was just nervous since all the trouble I had on the way down. The engine oil seemed fine, but when I checked the Transmission fluid it was very low!!!!! (If you have been following my blog I just had it replaced on this same trip the other day!) So I checked under the truck only to see transmission fluid all under the truck and signs that it was dripping from the transmission pan. Not as bad as it sounds, but still an issue. I always carry extra oil and transmission fluid with me on long trips just in case, so I filled up the transmission fluid and decided to drive a little farther than I planned and get closer to Live Oak FL where I had the Transmission worked on since it was still under warranty I would have them look at it. It appears that a few of the bolts might be a little loose, but I would rather them look at it and do the work as I do not want to void the warranty by messing with it myself. The place I had the work on was very nice and told me to call them if there were any problems, but being Sunday I just decided to drive on that way and be there Monday Morning.

Anyway I now needed to decide where exactly I was going to spend the night, so I continued north on I-75 for a while, stopping every so often to check my fluids in the truck and everything seemed to be fine so the transmission pan must have a small leak, but there are signs that it is leaking. I only had about 150 miles to go before getting to I-10 so I decided I would drive on to Stephen Fosters Folk Culture Center State Park (http://www.floridastateparks.org/stephenfoster/) it is one of my Favorite State Parks and I highly suggest stopping there for at least two nights to see everything the park has to offer! It is also at a great location being only 4 miles from the intersection of I-10 and I-75.

When I got to the Live Oak exit on I-75 I stopped for gas at a Campground (yes they sold gas) and decided if their rate was good I could stay there since it was on the Exit that took me straight to the Mechanic that worked on my Truck a few days ago. I asked about their rate and it sounded like a good deal, so I decided to stay, but as I was filling out the registration they wanted to ad $10 per person that was with me! That was going to be $20 more so I said I would just go the 15 miles father to Stephen Fosters that was only $22 a night (For up to 8 people!)…I didn’t stick around to see how much more it was going to be after they saw the dog I had with me!

After leaving the gas station I only had 7 more miles to travel north on I-75 before taking the exit for Stephen Fosters. The park is only 3 miles off the interstate in the little town of White Springs Florida, it is a neat little area that is very secluded but has a small downtown area. The park itself is very beautiful and the campground is perfect! I arrived at the park at 4:45pm and just in time to get one of the walk-up sites. I was able to get my favorite site in the park, number 15! It is a pull through that faces the main entrance to the camp area with a nice big grassed front ‘yard’ and this site really is about a ½ acre in size due to how the road curves around it, and the huge oak trees make the site even better!

This shows just how big some of the sites are in the park! Road in front is just the small road in the campground.

All I did was pull through, hook up electric, and take some of the weight off the back of my truck, so all I have to do in the morning is get up, unplug and hit the road.  After pulling end I had a light dinner that I picked up at the subway in the Gas Station then enjoyed a walk around the park. By the time I got back to the trailer there were people looking around my trailer, so as usual I ended up giving more tours of my trailer here at the park.  By now I am ready to call it a very early night. This time change is really messing me up, not to mention my body and mind are still on central time so I feel like I am off by two hours! Hope everything goes smooth tomorrow, only have about 3 ½ hours of travel ahead of me so I hope the mechanic can get us back on the road with little delay!

Tim Heintz

Tin Can Tourists South Eastern Representative

1950 Spartanette Tandem

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