Monte and Kay Osborn are no strangers to the vintage trailering hobby with a collection that includes several unique trailers and collector cars. This 1936 Hayes 18 footer may be Monte’s favorite. Monte told me that the recently completed interior (by Flyte Camp, Bend, Oregon) was “beyond his expectations.” Jim Proctor did the exterior paint in a period-correct blend of complementary greens.
Considering the world had just experienced an economic disaster, the mid-1930s would seem like an uncertain time to be manufacturing travel trailers. Americans had been auto camping for years and saw it as an economical alternative to traditional travel compared to train fares and hotel bills. By the mid-30s, Ford offered V8 motors in cars and trucks, making them better equipped to tow a travel trailer. Many travel trailers were homemade, and a manufactured model sold for around $395 (about $6,500 today).
Hayes History
In 1904 Hayes started the Hayes Manufacturing Co. Hayes Mfg. Co. was a pioneer in stamped sheet-metal fenders and would eventually produce hoods, cowls, toolboxes, and complete bodies in two metro Detroit factories. Hayes is sometimes credited with introducing the crowned fender to the United States. They first appeared on some Hayes-built Ford Model T fenders in the mid-teens; however, the design originated in Europe much earlier, most likely in Brussels, Belgium, just after the turn of the century.
Hayes built bodies for Checker, Chrysler, Continental, DeVaux, Franklin, Graham, Hupp, Marmon, Packard, Peerless, REO, and Willys during the early thirties. However, as the decade went on, many of their customers succumbed to the long-term effects of the Depression. The Marmon Motor Car Company went into receivership in 1933, and Hayes’ Indianapolis plant followed soon after, and their Ionia, Michigan plant was in not much better shape. The only Hayes plant with any business to speak of was in Grand Rapids, and even that facility was running far below capacity. To keep their remaining 1,000 employees busy, they produced sheet-metal sub-assemblies for General Motors and refrigerators and coolers for Coca-Cola, Kelvinator, and Norge.
Although he was no longer directly involved in his many enterprises, H. Jay Hayes was always on the lookout for new opportunities and in 1937 organized the General Body Corp. of Detroit, which manufactured travel trailers in the years before the war. Hayes trailers feature a full steel body, including the roof and underbody, which kept animals out. They were referred to as a “Motor Home” before that term was associated with motorized RVs.
The press was partially responsible for the trailer boom. Magazines from Popular Mechanics to Woman’s Home Companion promoted the benefits of trailer camping. Plans and parts were available if you were handy and wanted to build your own. Other brands like Covered Wagon, Kozy Coach, and Bowlus were just a few manufacturers producing travel trailers before WW2. After the war, many young families turned to travel trailers for their permanent housing, allowing them to live where they could find work.
