Re: [SilverStreak] Elusive numbers

["Carolyn Frederick" <hown@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

They were made in California, wonder if that county had some type of tax on 
each unit produced or if the state did.  I'm sure they would even back them. 
Of course I doubt any of those old records are computerized but they might 
be on microfilm.  You can bet there was some kind of taxing entity that kept 
track.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carolyn Frederick" <hown@charter.net>
To: <sslist@tompatterson.com>
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 9:57 PM
Subject: Re: [SilverStreak] Elusive numbers


> It would be nice if someone had the financial statements.  You can bet in 
> there somewhere is a record of units produced.  But I'm sure that's 
> impossible too.
>
> Oh well, it was a thought.
>
> Carolyn
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Eddie" <Eddie@Huffstetter.com>
> To: <sslist@tompatterson.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:11 PM
> Subject: [SilverStreak] Elusive numbers
>
>
>> Carolyn,
>> Generally the serial numbers mean nothing. All the orphaned brands were 
>> hand made and therefore generally no two are the same. On my old Spartan 
>> the numbers are 33-49-967 which would mean 33', 1949, unit 967, but they 
>> did not start at zero. On the Streamline motor homes mine read 1966 5050 
>> and 1966 5053. We think the numbers started at maybe 5001 and maybe end 
>> with 5080 in 1966 as there was no 1967, but then some of the units on 
>> Tom's registry make no sense as some 1964 units have a number after 1965 
>> and 1966 units. We are thinking date of sale prevailed. But who knows?
>>
>> My Boles Aero fifth wheel numbers made no sense either. Then I talked to 
>> Janet Boles and she said she just started with a number which just 
>> continued and ascended until the end. So the number was just a number she 
>> assigned and recorded in a ledger. Unending, she concedes that you could 
>> say each year had a first number and therefore a last number for any 
>> given year.
>>
>> The Streamline trailer numbers used to make sense, then they became 
>> meaningless and series of numbers changes format thru the years. 
>> Similarly my 79 SS Supreme Lux Liner has sensible meaningful numbers, but 
>> generally the numbers on SS trailers simply mean nothing, just being 
>> assigned numbers recorded on a ledger. SS changed their numbers format 
>> over the years from the first Clipper.
>>
>> Perhaps the worst are the SS motor homes. Other than conjecture, nobody 
>> seems to know how many were made and even how many years if more than 
>> one. It may be all were manufactured in 75 and titled as 75 and 76. Seems 
>> the conjecture is always 12, 15, 17, or 25 were made, but who knows? I 
>> talked 25 years ago to a SS employee about all this, and he did not know. 
>> Same for Streamline and that employee who is still living and in Florida. 
>> He simply does not know, and never thought about it.
>>
>> What little solution is only going to be available thru efforts such as 
>> Tom Patterson's. He has a registry of his interest, which is the 
>> Streamline Motor Home. He makes great effort, like on this Pismo Beach 
>> Rally wherein he will hope to photograph and record three more units he 
>> thinks he can locate.
>>
>> If all of us on this list would begin to compile to a similar registry 
>> for our Silver Steak units, we would eventually cause an exposure of 
>> information. At the very least we perhaps would begin to learn a series 
>> of numbers falls within certain years. There is a faint registry of Boles 
>> Aero units that starts to reveal the order of the ledger. You can see how 
>> a registry of all the brands could reveal information rapidly being lost.
>>
>> Perhaps the worst of all of this is that there was no standard for serial 
>> number placements on any of the orphaned brands to my knowledge. The 
>> serial numbers are not consistently placed, may be anywhere, and may be 
>> nowhere. My 48 Vagabond 262 has a sensible revealing number on the large 
>> rear trunk door, but not on the frame. My 52 Glider Albatross only has 
>> the number stamped on the tongue, a removable A-Frame bolt-on. Change 
>> that and the number could be lost. My 46 Spartan has no number anywhere, 
>> and no typical tag removed with the reveal of holes that once might have 
>> held it. My SS motor home has tags on both sides, by the drivers window 
>> and by the entry door, but the 79 SS has on the one tag an nothing 
>> stamped on the frame. None of it makes any sense. Sometimes little scraps 
>> of paper in a drawer reveal a number found nowhere else. There were also 
>> title issues where state title number reassignments caused the loss of 
>> actual unit numbers. Then there is the factor of when it was made versus 
>> when it was sold and that causes additional serial number conflicts.
>>
>> Wouldn't it be nice to have the ledger for each brand of these orphaned 
>> RV's!
>> -Eddie-
>> Houston, TX
>>