Quote:
Originally Posted by joe8grouse
I'll print the above out and clip it to my visor! Jon, maybe you can make up a handy dandy chart for use on the road! For us novices of course. 
Joe & Tina |
Took three attempts to get this written due to my phone losing what I had written, but here goes.
Pre 1975: you'll probably never see one in MI, but if you do, it's white with small lightning Sunline plastic logos on the side of the trailer. Chances are you wouldn't recognize this as a Sunline if you saw it.
1976-77: No difference I've seen between the two years. Lightning logos on the sides-front corners and sunburst logos or decals on the front/rear. Both a green fade and an orangish gold fade were exterior stripe color options.
1978-79: Orange/red/brown stripes on the side, four total, step ups of them half way back. Sunline logos were decals that have all faded to look orange/red these days. Step ups look more rectangular.
1980: Exactly as 78-79 but the Sunline decal has gold/yellow letters.
1981: Striping is red/brown. Sunline decal still has same shape but has dark red letters. Side Sunline decals are above the striping in the rear. The step ups are more stretched out/rectangular.
1982: Like '81, but Sunline decal is over top of side striping at the rear, not above it.
1983. First year of tan. Red and brown stripes on the side.
1984: Similar to '83, but there's a bunch of little stripes on the side between big ones. Probably the same overall size though.
1985: First year of tan. Striping is dark red, orange, and light blue. Sunline logo has light blue lettering. This is the last year for raw aluminum window frames.
1986: The first year of the trailer model names. Looks like '85 but doesn't have hubcaps on it and the window frames are painted dark brown.
1987: Like '86, but the striping uses a dark blue as do the Sunline logos.
1988: Striping is a bunch of small stripes again, but Sunline decal goes over the whole front. stripe.
1989: Same as 1988 except the main Sunline decals on the sides don't cover the entire width.
1990: The first of the gray Sunlines. Rectangular step up. Dark gray/red stripe. New Sunline logo with red lettering, sun behind, and a bar containing "Coach Company". Also has a diamond shape 25th anniversary decal by the door.
1991: The last of the gray Sunlines. Step ups were changed to an L-shaped mountain silhouette with a sun to fill it in. The mountain part was dark gray and the sun part was dark red here.
1992: The first of the bright polar white Sunlines. Light gray and red striping. Sun step ups were gray and red for part of the year, all red for the other part. Lower skirt metal was light gray with light gray fenderskirts (which had a part sticking down between tandems). Tip- the easiest way to differentiate Saturns from Solaris' is a Saturn will have square corner windows whereas a Solaris has radius corner.
1993: Dark gray and burgundy striping. Step ups were dark gray and burgundy. Skirt metal was dark gray and fenderskirts were straight and dark gray.
1994: Exactly like 1993 but the step ups looked like a setting sun. Yellow on top/orange/brown on the bottom. Most have faded to all yellow now though.
1995: The 30th anniversary brought the slanted tree logo design. Red lettering on these Sunline logos have mostly all faded out by now. Striping was the same as '93-'94 (which also had a reflective stripe in it). Step ups were the slanted tree design too, even though the striping no longer steps up/flips over in the back part. All '95 models are Solaris'.
1996: Slanted tree logo enlarged to contain model name (Solaris/Saturn) and moved to actually on the rock guard (instead of above). Tandem fenderskirts changed to round design like the singles instead of the previous, more square design. Also, all picture windows here have the lower part as a double stacked crank out. Black skirt metal and black fender skirts. Also, upper side paint stripe color changed from dark red to dark green. For 1996 Saturns, the way to tell is they have square corner windows. Solaris striping changed to a three stripe with burgundy, tan, and dark green.
1997: Like 1996 but the picture windows were split vertically in half and are sliders. Also, the front edge of the striping on the sides (and right end of the rock guard) ends in a curve feature instead of a straight angle cut. 1997 Saturns have radius corner windows.
1998: Exactly like 1997 but has white fenderskirts and white skirt metal instead of black. Also, the wheels have a shallow dish compared to 1997 and before.
1999: Trailers share the '96 up striping, but do not have a step up. Instead, a "Yoder", aka swoosh, was placed on each side in the striping near the rear of the trailer. Also, Solaris decals were placed over the striping, near where step ups used to go, instead of on the lower sidewall. A big difference with '99 Saturns and Solaris' is that the entry doors and storage compartment doors are radius corner vs. the old style square corner.
2000: Sunline did a special shade shifting decal for the 35th anniversary. It was unique because depending on the light, the sun would look green, gold, or purple. Very few remain due to poor adhesive and many have been replaced, are just missing, or have little jagged remnants left. Striping changed to dark red and blues. A small, oval anniversary decal was placed near the entry door, which may have also had the shade shifting in it. Sidewall upper stripe paint color changed to dark blue from dark green.
2001: They built them exactly like 2000 except for different interior colors and no anniversary seal on the outside. These two years are probably the toughest to identify exactly (besides the late '70s, but those are much harder to find in general).
2002: Gold and blue striping/yoders, upper sidewall stripe changed to gold, main decal changed to gold and blue with bronze/brown sun.
2003: Very similar to 2002, but all windows became white framed with the switch from Hehr to Kinro windows. As a result, the front rock guard became built in to encase the front window, which also made it un-openable.
2004: Similar gold/blue pattern. Yoders replaced with arrow tips/boomerangs, both lined up in the rear in place of the yoder and as the front tips of the striping, on the front wall as well.
2005: 40th anniversary brought blue/silver/gold striping, a round anniversary seal by the door, and instead of the boomerangs, S-curve swoops as a tribute to the '73-'74 design. Large S-curves were put on the rear of the trailer, above the striping, and little ones were used to finish off the front edge of the striping the ends of the front/rear. Gold skirt metal added. The anniversary seal here continued on through 2007 with different wording, so unless you look at the decal up close to read it, you'd never see a difference between them.
2006: Sunline decals redesigned to have a bright orange sun, blue letters, and orange/blue swoops. Many models saw the front windows eliminated. Rounded gold skirt metal added to non-slides that curves down below the trailer. Gold (or white) rounded fenderskirts with center swoop detail added to fit curve of skirt metal. 2006 also had a Classic and Ultra package, which added decals of such on the rear right side corner (which lasted into early '07).
2007: Look exactly like '06 on the outside in some cases, but the later (and majority of) '07s added a white reflective ring around the sun part of the main Sunline logo. Adds a little dimension to it when looking at it at a distance.
Here's a whole set of pictures of each year to put images with the notes:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=4039e1bf83
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