This is a Spartan Royal Mansion Trailer from 1950 that benefits from a restoration completed back in 2012 by Texas Vintage Travel Trailer in New Braunfels, Texas.
It’s now being offered for sale with a transferable New York registration, and 100% of the proceeds (including the buyer’s premium) will be donated to the Piston Foundation – a 501(c)(3) non-profit that helps young people pursue careers as collector car technicians through scholarships, career guidance, and job placement support.
Fast Facts: A 1950 Spartan Royal Mansion Trailer
- This 1950 Spartan Royal Mansion is a 33-foot dual-axle travel trailer being sold at no reserve through Bring a Trailer out of North Salem, New York and the entire winning bid, including the buyer’s premium, will be donated to the Piston Foundation, a non-profit supporting young collector car technicians.
- The trailer received a comprehensive 2012 refurbishment by Texas Vintage Travel Trailer in New Braunfels, Texas, before being purchased by the current seller in 2013. Exterior work included polishing the riveted aluminum shell, replacing window seals, and rebuilding the lighting, while distinctive features include porthole-windowed doors and wrap-around front glazing.
- Underneath, the refurbishment renewed the frame, wood subflooring, axles, leaf springs, electric drum brakes, and underside aluminum panels, with black-painted wheels fitted and a manual jack and twin propane tanks added to the tongue. Inside, replacement wiring, plumbing, insulation, vinyl flooring, aluminum ceiling panels, and cherry cabinetry were installed.
- The galley has a dinette, a Wedgewood Vision propane stove, a Frigidaire refrigerator, a Dometic HVAC unit under a bench, and a Whale electric water heater, while the rear sleeping area has twin mattresses on cherry bases. The trailer relies on shore connections, lacks holding tanks, and includes restoration documentation and transferable New York registration.
History Speedrun: Spartan Travel Trailers
The Spartan Aircraft Company, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, had built airplanes and trained pilots from the 1930s and then through World War II. After the end of WWII, demand for aircraft (and pilots) was set to drop off a cliff, but many anticipated a boom in leisure, travel, and travel trailer popularity across the United States.
The Spartan Aircraft Company and the Spartan School of Aeronautics both played a key role for the United States during WWII. The former built aircraft for the war effort, and the latter trained pilots, aircrews, and aircraft mechanics. Image courtesy of the Spartan Aircraft Company.
Spartan’s leadership team pivoted focus toward aircraft-inspired travel trailer production as a new line of business – aiming squarely at well-heeled buyers who wanted something closer to a mobile luxury apartment than a fiberboard hut on wheels.
That pivot from planes to trailers was driven from the top. J. Paul Getty, already one of America’s most prominent industrialists, he owned Spartan and steered it toward the trailer market in the mid-1940s. The first trailer prototype’s exact date of completion isn’t known, but the work started in June of 1945 and the prototype was said to be completed a few weeks later.
Production of Spartan travel trailers began in earnest in 1946. Rather than copying the common wood-framed trailer formula of the day, Spartan leaned on what it already knew – aircraft-style engineering, with all-metal construction and a body structure informed by the company’s aviation experience.
Spartan had perhaps taken their inspiration from the aluminum pre-WWII Bowlus Road Chief travel trailer, developed by Hawley Bowlus – an aerospace engineer and the lead manager of the Spirit of St. Louis project – the aircraft that completed the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in 1927 with Charles Lindbergh at the controls. The Bowlus Road Chief had inspired Wally Byam, the founder of Airstream, who would build his own acclaimed aluminum travel trailers.
By 1949 Spartan was offering multiple sizes/lengths and trim levels, including the Manor, Spartanette, Mansion, and Royal Mansion models. It was essentially a stepped ladder of models, with more length, more equipment, and more money as you climbed, meaning they had suitable models for everyone from working class folks through to more affluent buyers.
The early Spartanette model measured in at 23 feet 1 inch of body length and about 3,680 lbs. Over at the top end, the Imperial Mansion measured in at 35 feet 9 inches of body length and 5,880 lbs.
This Spartan is now being offered for sale with a transferable New York registration, and 100% of the proceeds (including the buyer’s premium) will be donated to the Piston Foundation – a 501(c)(3) non-profit that helps young people pursue careers as collector car technicians through scholarships, career guidance, and job placement support.
Spartan’s production arc just so happened to sit right in the middle of the golden age of American trailer coaches and early mobile homes. Spartan also capitalized on postwar housing demand and built around forty thousand homes before trailer production was suspended in 1961. Spartan’s trailer era ran from the immediate post-WWII years through to the early 1960s, with the peak in the late 1940s and through the 1950s.
Spartan travel trailers are now prized for their aircraft-company DNA, with their all-metal construction, their high-end fitouts, their classic styling, and for the fact that they tend to last a very long time if cared for by their owners – many Spartans from the 1940s and 1950s are still in existence today.
The 1950 Spartan Royal Mansion Trailer Shown Here
This is a 1950 Spartan Royal Mansion, it’s a 33 foot dual-axle travel trailer being offered at no reserve through Bring a Trailer, but what makes this particular sale unusual is that the entire winning bid, including the buyer’s premium, will be donated to the Piston Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that helps young people pursue careers as collector car technicians through scholarships, career guidance, and job placement support.
The trailer underwent a comprehensive refurbishment in 2012 by Texas Vintage Travel Trailer in New Braunfels, Texas, after which it was bought by the current seller in 2013 and has reportedly remained on their property in New York ever since.
The exterior work during that refurbishment included polishing the riveted aluminum shell, replacing the window seals, and installing rebuilt exterior lighting. It has two doors fitted with porthole windows positioned at the front right and left rear, retractable step plates beneath each door, wrap-around front windows, dual-horizontal-pane side windows, and a lighting sconce next to the front door.
Underneath, the 2012 refurb work was equally extensive – the frame was repaired and partially repainted, the wood sub-flooring was replaced, and the axles, leaf springs, and electric drum brakes were all renewed, with black-painted wheels fitted. The tongue carries a manual jack installed during the refurbishment along with twin propane tanks, and replacement aluminum panels were fitted to the underside of the trailer.
Inside, the team at Texas Vintage Travel Trailer essentially rebuilt the trailer from the structure outward. Replacement wiring, plumbing, and insulation were installed before new interior wall panels went in, followed by Armstrong vinyl flooring, aluminum ceiling panels, updated lighting fixtures, and cherry cabinetry.
The galley contains a dinette with green cloth upholstery, a Wedgewood Vision three-burner propane stove, a Frigidaire refrigerator, and a stainless-steel sink. Climate control comes from a Dometic HVAC unit cleverly tucked under one of the dinette benches, while a Whale six-gallon electric unit handles water heating.
The rear of the trailer is configured as a sleeping area with twin mattresses upholstered in matching green cloth, mounted on cherry bases that incorporate underbed storage drawers. The bathroom includes a stand-alone shower lined with 26 gauge stainless steel, a pedal-flush toilet, and a counter with a stainless-steel sink.
This is a Spartan Royal Mansion Trailer from 1950 that benefits from a comprehensive restoration completed back in 2012 by Texas Vintage Travel Trailer in New Braunfels, Texas.
Buyers should note that the trailer relies on shore connections for both water and 120 volt electricity and it’s not fitted with holding tanks. Design sketches made during the refurbishment are also included with the sale.
The trailer comes with documentation from its restoration, photographs from that work, a transferable New York registration, and it’s being offered for sale out of North Salem, New York here on Bring a Trailer.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
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Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
