Quote:
Originally Posted by CEE
How can I find out the numbers of 1956 Bubbles that were made in Ohio and in Calif?
Is there a list that says how many had bathrooms?
I have #317, Whale tail (CA) and bathroom.
Any help is appreciated.
thanks |
Ohio built very few 16' Bubbles in total, 27 with the breakdown as follows:
- 24 in 1955 (batch built between Sept and Nov 1955).
- 1 in 1956 that was actually badged as a Caravel and had a "C" at the end of the serial number for "Custom", but had the typical Bubble floor plan.
- 2 in 1957/8, both Internationals, the only two International trim level Bubbles built before they decided it was not practical to put all the International amenities into a 16' trailer. It is debatable if one is a 1957 and one a 1958, or if both should be considered 1958s.
Except for the two 1957/58 Bubbles that had 7-panels, the rest of the Ohio Bubbles had 13-panels front and rear.
It seems that California built about 294 16' Bubbles between
1955 and possibly very early
1958, though most consider the last production year as
1957, which might be correct. The believed serial number range is from 201 thru 494, but because production records do not exist for the California plant for those years, we do not know the exact breakpoints where the model years changed. I have narrowed down the California changeover from 13-panel/whale tail to 7-panel end caps to have occurred between SN 347 and 397, and this would have occurred early in the
1957 model year. This seems to suggest that your SN 317 would likely be a 1956 as you noted, possibly a late 1956 model.
As far as floor plans, the published Bubble brochures that I have seen only showed the floor plan with the bathroom and the majority of Bubbles that I have seen photos of have the bathroom, so I believe Bubbles without a bathroom to be the minority, but we will probably never be able to determine the exact numbers.
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