ReVolution Trailers restores camper trailers regardless of age

Winnipeg Restoration Company is a leader in the restoration of vintage trailers, regardless of age.

“Now, I think I'm going to get one of the best camper trailers out there, and I'm really excited,” said Gail Smith, ReVolution Trailers customer.

Smith and her husband owned a large factory to repair their 1984 Avion trailer. The challenge was finding a local person who could take on the mammoth task of repairing a 40-year-old trailer.

He discovered revolutionary trailers through social media last fall and gave them a chance to make their dreams come true.

Once she had selected the fabrics, colors and interior look she wanted, the restoration team quickly got to work.

“It was probably more fun than renovating my house,” Smith said.

“I left everything up to them and it was so easy, so smooth, even when it came to ordering, I took it straight to them.”

A small team of five staff work from their shop in Springfield Road. ReVolution Trailers Project Manager Meagan Clerihew oversees the design process on every trailer, whether it's a 1984 or a 1956.

He likes to take inspiration from TV makeover shows, Pinterest and social media, and then seek feedback from the customer.

“Well, we always say it's like renovating a house, but it's not like renovating a house at all,” Clerihew said.

“I like to go to a store or a home decor store and walk around and see what happens, and then we have a lot of customers who have really great looks and we work together and get the end result. The biggest compliment we get is when someone walks into one of our trailers and says it's better than my house.”

When ReVolution Trailers opened in 2019, the way the company purchased trailers was truly different.

At the time, owner Stu Pinu and Clerihew often purchased trailers salvaged from farmers' fields and other properties in Manitoba at the request of landowners.

Over time, they built a customer base and set the wheels turning to grow the business.

“It's gradually changed a little bit now, people are calling us and saying, 'Listen, we've got this trailer, we don't want to throw it in the dumpster, can we bring it to you?' They are saying. and we welcome them all,” said Pinu.

“We've worked on small 10-foot Bollers, we've worked on 46-foot trailers, we've worked on Class A motor buses, we've worked on boats, we're doing custom trailers, so we run the gamut of the RV industry.”

The travel trailer Pynoo is talking about is the biggest job the company has ever taken on. They were given a 1956 Spartan from a woman in Dryden, Ontario, who wanted to rebuild it as a summer home.

“We took this and started from scratch,” Pinu said.

“We had a shell and frame, and they weren't even attached, so we did all the infrastructure here, plumbing, heating, plumbing, propane, insulation, everything from the ground up. It was difficult because of the shape and size of the objects.”

Pinu, a home renovator, started the business after his wife suggested that their personal travel trailer needed major repairs. He says there's still a learning curve when working with a trailer and sometimes a few surprises. Water damage is just one of the challenges the team faces every time they work to restore a longtime trailer.

Pynoo and Clerihew are looking forward to working on the restoration of a 1940s salvage travel trailer in Biconia, Manitoba, originally built by HB McGinnis in Peterborough, Ontario.

Aside from the silver plate on the side of the unit, not much is known about the make of this trailer due to its age. The two researched online trying to find more information about the original manufacturer.

“It's very rare and we don't know what it's going to cost,” Pinu said.

“It's going to be something we build for a specific client.”

ReVolution trailers have welcomed customers as far away as Toronto and Oregon in the United States. Pynoo figures they are one of the only games in town when it comes to trailer restoration in Canada.

“Because of the research we've done, no one else is doing it at the scale we're doing it,” Pinu said.

“We've really embraced it, there are tens of thousands of campers in Manitoba, old ones and used ones, so there's a big market for us.”

“We're in the neighborhood of 350,000 to 400,000 pounds of RVs that don't end up in landfills.”

Clerihew praised the company's environmental efforts to keep every individual trailer part out of the landfill as much as possible.

“I think we're in the neighborhood of 350,000 to 400,000 pounds of RVs that aren't going to the landfill,” Clerihew said.

“When we get them in, we can recycle anything that can be recycled, things like fabric, foam. Any metal, wires, anything that we don't use, parts that can be used, maybe not for us, but for someone else, we auction them off, we donate them, we have garage sales.”

He says windows, doors, cabinet handles are always prime targets for reuse, and what ends up in landfills are usually pieces of rotting wood that could be used for flooring.

The team is also completing the restoration of a 1965 Triple E trailer, of which only 65 were built by Triple E RV, according to Pynoo.

Pynoo said a limited number was created for each company employee to enjoy at the Expo 67 World's Fair in Montreal.

“This woman bought it from a colleague who worked on it and died of cancer,” Pinu said.

“The husband brought it here and he took us back completely to the original, which is a little different for us, as well as the exterior paint. It's a really cool story.”