Vintage trailers to take over Manitoba provincial park on weekend

Manitobans can take a trip down camper memory lane this weekend as dozens of vintage campers will roll into St. Malo Provincial Park.

The Manitoba Fiberglass And Vintage Camper Rally starts Friday and runs until Sunday. It was organized by Roland Hoffman who told CTV News the event is getting back to what it was prior to the pandemic. He is expecting dozens of nostalgia-filled trailers to come from all over Canada and the United States.

“We've got a pretty good turnout for getting back into the full rally again,” said Hoffman. “There’s close to 70 trailers. So the next couple years, I'm hoping to break that 100-trailer mark, which would put us in a category one of the largest rallies of its kind in North America for vintage and for moulded fibreglass trailers.”

Hoffman said one of the draws to hitching yourself to an older-style trailer is durability. His trailer is 52 years old and it has the original exterior.

“There's been a couple of leaks and windows and things like that you have to fix up over the years, but as long as previous owners have taken reasonable care of it, you know the durability is great.”

A vintage camper is seen in an undated image. The Manitoba Fiberglass And Vintage Camper Rally will take place in St. Malo Provincial Park from Aug. 16-18, 2024.(Photo courtesy Roland Hoffman)

Another benefit, Hoffman touted, is the towability. He added that it is one of the reasons why these smaller trailers were invented in the first place.

“You don't need an $80,000 truck to pull these all over the place. In fact, I have a little (Ford) Escape SUV, and you hardly notice this thing behind it,” he said. “You're getting reasonable gas mileage, yet, while you're towing it and (at) $1.50 a litre, that's, that's kind of nice.”

Hoffman said while some vintage trailer owners go for the all-original restoration, others make them into something completely original.

A vintage camper is seen in an undated image. The Manitoba Fiberglass And Vintage Camper Rally will take place in St. Malo Provincial Park from Aug. 16-18, 2024.(Photo courtesy Roland Hoffman)

“I've seen Bolers and other vintage campers turned into like, rolling British pubs, you know, with drafts and kegs inside and things like that, and others that have a real Toronto Maple Leaf theme or Montreal Canadiens or Winnipeg Jets theme to them,” he said. “And so it's everything in between.”

The rally isn’t just for trailer owners; on Saturday anyone can go check out the open house trailer tours.

A vintage camper is seen in an undated image. The Manitoba Fiberglass And Vintage Camper Rally will take place in St. Malo Provincial Park from Aug. 16-18, 2024.(Photo courtesy Roland Hoffman)