GM's Trailabout Trailer

[ToonMan]

THE '48 -PHANTOM- TRAILABOUT

Have you ever heard of the GMC Trailabout??? The original & very rare GMC Trailabout was built from 1937-39, and from all accounts, none of them have survived. I had decided to build my own version of the Trailabout using a '48 GM Pickup Box that I obtained. (It has no tailgate so I refer to it as a GM rather than a Chevy or a GMC.) Being a '48, that actually makes my Trailabout a 'Phantom' model, one not really made. The Trailabout was originally built as a Factory made utility trailer, using a GMC Pickup Box as the base. The purpose of the Trailabout was to provide a way for people to haul stuff, when they might not have a truck. It's downfall was due to the fact that most people, during the Depression, would just build their own trailer from a wrecked truck's bed, instead of buying the factory model. Now, the Trailabout is just a small piece of GM history, kept alive by trailer buffs like myself and others.
For several years I drove by a neighbors house, noticing that they had a '47-'53 GM Truck Box Trailer sitting in their front yard. Then one day, I recieved a magazine in the mail. In it was an article about the GMC Trailabout!!! I was pumped!!!!! I love stuff like this!!! It then dawned on me, was the trailer up the street a Trailabout???? Once I actually read the article, I realized it couldn't be. It was too new. But then I thought, maybe I could make my own Trailabout. Now that was an Idea!!!!! But, when I thought that, I had no idea that I would own that particular trailer before long.
But, Since The Trailabout was a real model made by GM, do you think you could consider any pickup box trailer an off spring of the Trailabout??? I have just purchased a '67 GMC pickup box trailer to restore and pull behind my Lowered and Skirted '78 Chevy Short Fleetside, and was wondering if it should be called a Trailabout as well??? What do you think???

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!

PS I have a scan of the original Trailabout ad form 1939. If you would like to see it e mail me and I will send it to you.
toonman56@hotmail.com


Rob
The "ToonMan"
Creator of the Cartoons
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