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RoadRunner Revival: Vintage Camper Trailers

RoadRunner Revival: Vintage Camper Trailers

On this page.

  • Intro 
  • RoadRunner Travel Trailer History 
  • Archived Newspaper Articles 
  • Identifying a Vintage RoadRunner Travel Trailer 
  • Finding and Decoding Your VIN
  • Other RoadRunners: Same name, different company
  • Build Quality

2. RoadRunner Travel Trailer History

1974 roadrunner travel trailer

3. Archived Newspaper Articles

  • Manti Messenger, 1961-04-27 Substantial Gains Revealed by New Sanpete Businesses The L&M Trailer Manufacturingin Ephraim has s completed 25 Roadrunner trailers to 10 date. There are now 12 men employed in comparison to seven employed six weeks ago. The Roadrunner trailer is selling well on the retail lots. All trailers that can be feasibly manufactured in the near future have been sold. Mr. Mosher and Mr. Lott are already planning two variations of the original Roadrunner. The first variation would be a trailer with an overhanging area in the front that would increase sleeping accommodations to eight instead of six. The second variation is another trailer that would sleep four. Source: https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5640380
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1962-01-12 Ephraim News : Relevant Excerpt: "Jack Steck and Roger O. Peterson returned home January 4 from a nice but fast trip to Arizona and California. They delivered two trailers for the L&M Trailer Co. to Phoenix, Arizona, buyers and then went on to Los Angeles to pick up a truck-load of imported lumber used in the interiors of the trailers. A good season for the local trailer firm is predicted for 1962."
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1962-03-09 Lions Hear Story of Cache Valley Breeders Group Relevant Excerpt: “Robert Stoddard was named chairman of the Lions float committee to prepare a float I for Rambouillet Days parade. I Harry Mosher offered use of the L&M Trailer building and equipment in preparing the float.” 
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1962-06-29 City Council Approves Sewer Ordinance Relevant Excerpt: “… This project is described as one of the most important undertaken by Ephraim City in several years and is expected to add much to the future growth possibilities of the community. There have been several important private and public developments in recent years such as the the L&M Trailer Manufacturing Plant in the old cannery building…”
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1962-09-28 L&M Grounds Graded by City https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2979945
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1962-10-26 New Industry Given Boost at Tuesday Meet Relevant Excerpt: Referncing a new timber mill near the L&M Trailer plant indicates that the trailer plant used to be the pea cannery: “Reed Madsen has turned over property west of the L&M Trailer Co (The former pea cannery) to the [lumber] Company and logs are now being piled there.” Source:  https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2980481
  • 14' 4-person RoadRunner giveaway for Jaycee's fund raiser: Iron County Record, 1963-09-19, Jaycee Fund Raising Project (RR giveaway) [ PDF ] Source:  https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=4363310 and Iron County Record, 1963-10-10, Campaign for Activities Funds Opened by Cedar City Junior Chamber of Commerce Source:  https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=4360614 And again in 1964: Iron County Record, 1964-09-24, Initiate Fund Drive [ PDF ] Source:  https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=4358826
  • Manti Messenger, 1964-03-19 Letters Protest Remark By Mrs. Romney This excerpt from a letter to the editor in protest of disparaging comments made about Sanpete County shows the pride locals had in their town with the L&M Trailer plant being a point of pride, “We of Sanpete regret that you made the remark published in TIME. Before you ever make another statement about the county I hope you will visit our lovely valley drive into our beautiful mountains attend a session in the Manti Temple and look over the valley from Temple Hill and also visit Snow College, the Moroni Turkey Plant, the L&M Trailer manufacturing plants, etc.” Source: https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5781120
  • Manti Messenger, 1964-04-02 Trailer Plant Starts Production in Manti Source:  https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5781312
  • Manti Messenger, 1964-06-04 Local News, new manti plant opens https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5782530  
  • Manti Messenger, 1964-06-04 Local News, new manti plant trailers https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5782557
  • Manti Messenger, 1965-03-25 Business up at L. & M. Trailer Plant  [ PDF ] Source:  https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5786993
  • Manti Messenger, 1965-07-29 L&M Trailer Million Mark  [ PDF  ] Source: http://udn.lib.utah.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/mm6/id/12638/show/12684/rec/276
  • Manti Messenger, 1965-08-19 L&M Trailer Eyes Plant Expansion https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5789603
  • Manti Messenger, 1966-02-10 Stahle Stuff https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5728624
  • Manti Messenger, 1966-08-18 L&M Trailer Cited Wed. by Industrial Committee   [ PDF  ]
  • Manti Messenger, 1965-08-19 L&M Trailer Eyes Plant Expansion [ PDF ] Source:  https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5789603
  • Manti Messenger, 1967-04-13 Untitled "Civic Portrait" [ PDF ] Source:  https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5729951
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1967-04-14 Local News, pea cannery torn down https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2982930
  • Manti Messenger, 1967-11-23 Letters to the Editor https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5733641
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1967-05-26 Harry Mosher Feted by SBA Committee [ PDF ] Source:  https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2983690
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1968-01-26 Uni-Tec Scholarship Fund Aided by Local Industry https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2988923
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1969-04-17 Sanpete Industrial Development Committee Lists 1968 Gains and Goals For 1969 https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2993503
  • Manti Messenger, 1969-05-15 Stahle Stuf https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5736184
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1969-06-05 For a Better Ephraim https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2994396
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1969-07-10 Wind Blasts Plant https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2994843
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1969-11-27 L&M Plant Sets Fete on Dec. 7th https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2996887
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1969-12-04 L&M Trailer Firm to Dedicate New Building on December 7 https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2997033
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1969-12-11 L&M Trailer Hosts Sun. Open House https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2997151
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1970-07-16 Ephraim West Ways Relevant Excerpt: L&M sponsored a softball team: “The players on L&M Trailer softball team may not be the best, Salina beat them 38 8 to 3 last Wednesday night, but they guarantee to be Improved by next Wednesday night's game with Salina SaUna here at at the old football field Anyone interested in helping this team improve you do not have to be employed by L M please contact Raymond Butch Jensen” Source: https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=3000154
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1971-03-04 Recreational Vehicles Open New Doors for Family Fun   [ PDF  ]
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1971-07-22 L&M Trailer Shows Steady Gain   [ PDF  ]
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1971-12-02 Roadrunner Company Outline Expansion Plan [  PDF  ]
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1971-12-02 L & M Trailer Manufacturing Holds Deer Contest https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=3007379
  • L&M Trailer Manufactoring Co. 475 W. 100 N. Ephraim, UT
  • Former Employees:
  • Bill Grosvenor, Office Manager
  • Merrill I. Jacobson, Partner
  • "In the early 1970's John went to work as purchasing agent for L & M Trailer manufacturing plant in Ephraim. In July of 1973 he sustained injuries from a fall which forced his retirement at age 59."
  • https://familysearch.org/photos/stories/17557814
  • This guy worked them maybe I could contact for more info.
  • http://www.indeed.com/r/Jene-Beal/8be295fc2dfe68f7
  • The Daily Herald, 1973-08-12 Obituary
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1972-10-05 Democratic Candidates Visit County Monday Relevant Excerpt: "After lunch In Ephraim the group was escorted through the L&M Trailer Manufacturing Co by Harry Mosher, President of the company. The entourage was highly impressed with the quality and quantity of the mobile homes they inspected. The governor spoke briefly to more than 240 employees, and complimented them on the fine work they were doing.” Source: https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=3010056
  • Ephraim Enterprise, 1972-12-21 Untitled "Seasons Greetings" ad [ PDF ] Source:  https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=3010839

1974 roadrunner travel trailer

  • Times Independent, 1973-03-29, p. 3 ad for trailers for sale with prices https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=20452243 Manti Messenger, 1973-05-03 Untitled https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5749248
  • Manti Messenger, 1973-06-07 Industrialist Named for Honorary Degree https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5749652
  • The RoadRunner Coyotie (yes it is spelled that way) is introduced and custom decal Manti Messenger, 1973-09-27 Wins $200 in L&M Contest [ PDF ] https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=5750711
  • Manti Messenger, 1973-01-25 L & M Trailers Are on Display   [ PDF  ]
  • Salt Lake Tribune, 1968-03-10 New Industry Aids Sanpete, Sevier Economic Outlook Relevant Excerpt: "...That's the agony of central Utah Making a living isn't easy. And a young man had better seek his fortune elsewhere. For though the counties have been scratching tooth and nail to get new industry, the sum total of all their present industry could be absorbed by the Wasatch Front with scarcely a ripple. By any reckoning, however, things are looking better. In 1960 a former North Dakotan Harry Mosher. and three employes' began manufacturing travel . trailers in an old cannery building near Ephraim. Now L&M Trailer Manufacturing Co and Harry Mosher has 100 employees looks forward to record sales of $2,300,000 in 1968 and a worrying about: "How to hold down . . .There is a point of diminishing returns."" 
  • Relevant Excerpt: "...buildings that have gone from vegetable canneries to travel-trailer factories to educational facilities.... It had its beginning in 1914, when the newly organized Ephraim Sanitary Canning Co. built a plant "across the tracks" on the west side of Ephraim. Its principal product was peas, but it also canned corn, beans and some row crops like carrots. In 1927, the plant became a member of the Rocky Mountain Packing Co. family. Later it was sold to Hunt's Food and shortly thereafter was closed. The machinery was removed, the doors were locked and the building stood empty - a fading relic, a sad reminder of the years when Sanpete Valley farmers had a cash crop that paid their bills and gave their kids summer employment. On a cold December day in 1960, the building's future took a turn for the better. Equipped with a few tools, considerable know-how and a little capital, Harry Mosher and a friend moved into the dingy ground floor of the old cannery and built their first travel trailer. They called it the Roadrunner. The Roadrunner prospered. It soon outgrew the ground floor of the cannery. More land was acquired, buildings were constructed, the market expanded, the payrolls grew. Roadrunners were seen on highways all over the West. The founders somehow had the perception or good luck to get into the business in the heyday of what a writer has called "the travel-trailer age." The Entwistle Corp., a Boston-headquartered firm also manufacturing trailers and wanting to develop a Western market, took over the Roadrunner plant. The Entwistle expansion program didn't work out. America's appetite for travel trailers had vastly diminished: By 1981, the machinery stood idle, the payroll gone and the "For Sale" sign in place. Snow College entered the scene in 1982, and its administrators foresaw an expanded role for the college - a vocational education program that would train the area's youth for the job market. The state didn't have the money to finance a full-fledged voc-ed program. It especially didn't have the money for a major building program. Seeing the "For Sale" signs at the trailer plant, the office building and the sturdy cement buildings, college administrators decided the complex could be converted to educational uses. After a week of negotiations, Entwistle agreed to a "bargain basement" price of $600,000 for a property valued at several million. The site is now called the west campus. The old, blue-painted cannery building is long gone. Tulips and daffodils are in bloom around the grounds. And the buildings that once turned out thousands of cases of canned peas and later hundreds of trailers bearing the Roadrunner logo will now turn out students." Source:  http://www.deseretnews.com/article/157114/SNOW-COLLEGE-TO-DEDICATE-TEED-CENTER.html
  • For the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, UT, "Portable restrooms in 40 ft. trailers were manufactured by L. & M. Trailer company in Ephraim, with Jay Cluff as engineer. These replaced chemical units that had proved unsatisfactory. Four trailers, each containing 15 units with flush toilet, individual booths, wash basins and power ventilators were built. Two inch lines brought water to these units, and sewage facilities were connected." Source:  http://mormonmiracle.org/history/
  • Sponsored ad in the 1970 Snow College Snowonian Yearbook (Ephraim, UT). http://issuu.com/snowlibrary/docs/1970 , pg. 163.

1974 roadrunner travel trailer

3.5 DiGiorgio Leisure Products

1974 roadrunner travel trailer

4. Identifying a vintage RoadRunner Travel Trailer 

  • RR's are more boxy and don't have that rounded all around "canned ham" look.
  • The flat roof,
  • Slightly rounded at the top ends (front and back),
  • Straight slant inward to the bottom (front and back),
  • quilted aluminum panels on the sides of the front windows. 
  • RoadRunner logo script uses bold, all caps, italicized.
  • There is an alternate version so far that we've only seen in the Steve Hartlines  red and white brochure in the Manuals Section of this site (put pic here).
  • The following are NOT actual RR logos, but owner-added decals
  • https://www.facebook.com/groups/451753901855019/permalink/470658203297922/
  • Jalousies windows. Not sure fully yet: earlier to mid 60s had  with older jalousies with three to four horizontal panes by Hehr, like in my 65. Late 60's like  Steven Hartline's '68 has those two pane horizontal windows, with a different cranking mechanism. Does Hehr make those different manufacturer? I'm not sure if they stayed with that style or if experimented and went back to the originals. Need to verify this....
  • The 3-5 paned louvered windows went up to 1967 before RR switched to the two-paned louvered windows in 1968 with the different crank mechanism. 
  • All RoadRunners had rear windows though. (Most vintage campers do, too, but some don't).
  • Oak paneling
  • Not sure, but it looks like the paneling changed from smooth to grooved about 1969. See:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/451753901855019/permalink/470489446648131/
  • There is a Roadrunner in the dots on the tread of the step.
  • "ROAG" (ROAG is a code for RoadRunner's used in vehicle titles/DMV--our 65 has it on our title)

5. Finding and Decoding Your VIN

1974 roadrunner travel trailer

6. Other RoadRunner's: Same name, different company. And RR anomalies 

  • Road Runner...................... ROADR
  • Road Runner Mfg Co Inc ...... RODR
  • Roadrunner Fabrication Inc ...RORF

1974 roadrunner travel trailer

  • The shape is right... mostly, but not quite, huh? 
  • The door isn't one I've seen on any RRs'
  • the interior layout, appliances, and cabinetry aren't typical RR.
  • The alum siding is also not typical RR. 
  • Looks like original paint, but no trademark RR arrow/feather. 
  • Also lacks the quilted alum panels on side of front windows.

1974 roadrunner travel trailer

7. Build Quality

I have some possible info on the one above that puzzles you. With the odd logo and have been looking for info myself. I just bought one. The original title states “1964 Zollinger roadrunner 15S” same as above but the front window on mine is different

Any interest in the Roadrunner motor homes? I have a 1978 built by L&M...

almost 2022 and my1971 Roadrunner slide in 8 foot camper is on my 2006 ford f 250. this camper holds up good. made a movie about it on YouTube. fiction/comedy called SLOW THEN WOW . Google it for free

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IMAGES

  1. 1974 Roadrunner Trailer from Starling Travel Vintage Trailer Interior

    1974 roadrunner travel trailer

  2. Our Vintage RoadRunner Camper Project

    1974 roadrunner travel trailer

  3. original logo

    1974 roadrunner travel trailer

  4. Pin on My Wedding Venue

    1974 roadrunner travel trailer

  5. Sherry's got a vintage trailer! 1996 Roadrunner

    1974 roadrunner travel trailer

  6. 1975 Roadrunner Glamper

    1974 roadrunner travel trailer

VIDEO

  1. Hurriganes

  2. 1974 Roadrunner Dyno Test

  3. 1971 Roadrunner picked up for restoration

  4. Roadrunner Nest Feb. 21, 2024

  5. Roadrunner Nest Feb. 25, 2024

  6. 1974 Plymouth RoadRunner Columbian Station Eagles 2023

COMMENTS

  1. RR History

    RoadRunner Travel Trailer History Archived Newspaper Articles Identifying a Vintage RoadRunner Travel Trailer Finding and Decoding Your VIN Other RoadRunners: Same name, different company Build Quality 1. …