Looking for an inexpensive travel trailer

M

MarkO

Member
I have been gainfully employed driving harvest truck for national frozen foods corp. In chehalis, wa for the last six weeks. Supposedly, harvest can last clear into November.

Since I am gainfully employed my wife and I have figured out ways in which to spend the extra $$$ ten different ways.

One way in which we would like to spend the $$$ is on an inexpensive but usable travel trailer.

Having a travel trailer to pull behind the t-all would make attending events like the Binder Bee a lot more enjoyable.

Time line is not until after harvest is over and sometime before the bee next summer.

Size in the 22'-26' length.

Fully s/c would be a have to have.

Working a/c would be a really nice to have.

Price in the under $2k preferred.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Mark o.
Winlock, wa
 
Found on craigslist a 25' avion with working a/c and new tires. For $1200.00.

I figure it is worth almost that much in scrap aluminum.

Now to plan a trip to bend, or to fetch it home.
 
marko said:
found on craigslist a 25' avion with working a/c and new tires. For $1200.00.

I figure it is worth almost that much in scrap aluminum.

Now to plan a trip to bend, or to fetch it home.
Click to expand...

Ahh, bend.. My old stomping grounds. At least it's been stored in some arid weather.
 
Now that I have a new to me rv, I will spend the $$$ for a new tekonsha brake controller. I have been told the new electronic inertia controllers are far superior to the old style k-h plumbed in the brake line controller.

I have towed all sorts of trailers with all kinds of loads for years.

About the only kind of trailer I haven't towed is a travel trailer.

My question, since I will be pulling with my 3/4-ton 4x4 t-all, do I also need to spring for a load leveling hitch?
 
Any travel trailer should be set up with an equalizer system! And a sway control of some sort.

Any trailer with a tongue weight of over 250lbs./gtwr of more than 3klbs. Must be set up with an equalizer in my opinion (I spent years selling and installing this equipment), it can be moved from trailer to trailer as needed. The few extra bucks spent onna 1,000lb. Equalizer system insures it can be used and loaded for any application

some of the reese product includes a cam-type sway control but I don't use those if the equalizer system is gonna be "portable" from rig to rig. I vastly prefer an inexpensive friction-type sway control that can be moved from rig to rig along with the equalizer and "adjusted" as needed for changing road/climate conditions.

The hensley "arrow" stuff is just a gimmick imho, been around since the 50's and has never been a player of any fashion in the tow products world.

A properly set up tow rig, with properly loaded trailer, sway control, and brake controller (electronic only!) makes towing stuff a no-brainer.
 
marko said:
found on craigslist a 25' avion with working a/c and new tires. For $1200.00.

I figure it is worth almost that much in scrap aluminum.

Now to plan a trip to bend, or to fetch it home.
Click to expand...
Mark, if you haven't already paid for this trailer I would be asking some real hard questions about it. I have been watching it on craigslist for over a month now, and I would be very leery of it. That trailer should sell for a lot more than $1200. In the pictures I've seen of it, something just doesn't look right. I suspect it's been at least partially gutted. That large bed should not be just inside the door. Even though he lists a refrigerator, it appears to be missing. It isn't where it should be. He May have replaced it with one of those cheapie dorm type electric refrigerators, which is going to be useless if you're camping somewhere without hookups.

You May end up getting a bargain, but you might also not get what you are expecting or end up with a pos. I strongly urge you to ask more questions.

Jp
 
Jim, thank you for your concern.

Most of what you have said is true about that trailer.

Before I said I would buy it I had a friend who lives in the bend area go over and look at it.

It isn't new by any strectch of the imagination but it is an avion with the body and running gear in good condition. The tires are about a year old and the bearings were repacked at les s's when the new tires were installed.

It definitely suffers from po disease on the interior.

But it is all fixable and the large bed up front is actually something my wife and I want.

When you go shopping in the under $2k market you can find some real disasters. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being nearly new and 10 being a katrina disaster, I think this trailer falls into the the 5 or 6 category.

Again, I thank you for your concern.
 
marko said:
now that I have a new to me rv, I will spend the $$$ for a new tekonsha brake controller. I have been told the new electronic inertia controllers are far superior to the old style k-h plumbed in the brake line controller.

I have towed all sorts of trailers with all kinds of loads for years.

About the only kind of trailer I haven't towed is a travel trailer.

My question, since I will be pulling with my 3/4-ton 4x4 t-all, do I also need to spring for a load leveling hitch?
Click to expand...

I totally agree with what Mike said and want to add my $.02. The tekonsha controller works very well. What I especially like is the "boost" settings. When switching from an empty flatbed to my loaded 26ft travel trailer, all I do is reset the braking level and increase or decrease the boost accordingly. Once the proper settings are determined, I write them down so when switching trailers it takes just seconds to reset the controller. The tekonsha also tells you if the trailer connection to the tow vehicle is good or not. No guess work about whether the brakes will work the first time you step on them.

Lyle
 
Now that the weather report is for snow in the passes I am finally ready to head over the mountains to bend to fetch my new-to-me trailer.

Sometimes as I work on my 'binders I feel like the proverbial jacob and the hole in his bucket--I start out to do one thing and end up having to do half a dozen.

All I was going to do was install a trailer brake control and a travel trailer plug in. I knew it would require a fused hot lead to the controller and and another hot lead back to the plug in, a hot lead from the brake light switch to the controller, a good ground for the controller up front and the plug in back by the hitch, left/right/running lights, and a line from the controller to the trailer.

That shouldn't take much work or much time, right?

Wrong!

Running the wires was pretty simple.

Finding the left, right, and running lights was simple.

Finding a good ground under the dash and on the hitch was simple.

But getting the hot lead from the brake light switch wasn't quite as simple. I couldn't get it to work because the brake light switch was no longer working (I have no idea as to how long I have been driving around with no brake lights).

Replacing the brake switch required me to have to make two trips to town for the switch (once to order the switch and once to pick it up). Once I had the new switch installed I then had to bleed the brakes. And then of course I had to bleed them again.

Or course the new switch had different lugs which required different ends on the wires in order to hook the switch up (I think a po had jury rigged the switch some time in the past because it sure didn't look like factory wiring).

All in all, a simple job of running a few wires from the front to the back ended up taking well in excess of eight hours.

Isn't it fun to own a 'binder?
 
Picked up my new-to-me trailer yesterday.

No problems there and back, thank god!

Mackenzie pass heading east was a little cold and white. Just west of the pass on the eastbound side there was a pretty bad fender bender involving a charter bus a full size f*** suv and a beer can on a roller skate sedan. It didn't appear that anyone was hurt.

On the way back the only problem was going through portland. It appears as if odot and the city of portland has decided that street drains don't need to be cleaned if they need to be cleaned on the weekend. Hitting a deep puddle at 50 mph is not a lot of fun.

The avion pulled like it wasn't even there. I have two concerns, the first is I have to get the trailer brakes balanced and the second to get the trailer balanced.

The brakes seem to be either too much or not enough. I am sure it is just an adjustment problem in the controller or adjusting the loose nut behind the wheel.

As for the balance, the trailer does have new tires but they are p235r15 radial car tires. I think the tires have too much give in the side walls. When you get in ruts the tail tends to want to wag the dog. It also May be a result of po diasease--there is almost nothing between the front wall and the rear bath room wall. An awful lot of the weight is behind the axles.

All in all, the exterior is better than I hoped and the interior is fixable.

The only other concern I have is running the t-all on ethanol blend fuel. On the way west over mackenzie I had to run most of the way up the hill in 3rd gear. It would have pulled it in 4th gear except the engine started to ping a lot if I tried to run that hard.

Did I get a good deal?

I think so.

And more importantly, my wife thinks the trailer will work out fine for us.
 
Mark...setting up the electronic-type brake controller is simple...but it would help if you will provide details regarding which one you installed.

Since you have a pressure-activated brake light switch on yore rig, the sensitivity is kinda funkee to set up as those don't provide an electrical "signal" to the control until it sees about 10psi...by then, ya most likely needed the trailer brakes to begin apply, but won't...then they come on with a vengeance...so learning how to set the controller sensitivity is gonna be tedious. The more modern mechanical momentary contact-type of brake light switch provides an instant signal if properly adjusted.

Also, the brake control must be set with the trailer properly loaded and balanced...and with the trailer brakes warmed up. The controllers are very sensitive to load-out conditions, once set, it will be a bit too sensitive when cold, but just right when being used.

And...does your hitch setup include a sway control of some sort?

Typical loadout of the (finished/loaded trailer involves 10>15% of the total trailer weight on the tongue. Once that factor is established, the spring bars for the equalizer system are set for initial evaluation in an actual test run.

The ballmount on the equalizer head should be set so that it has a rearward "tilt" of approximately 5>8* measured when the tow rig is sitting level with no weight on the mount.

So until ya have the interior of the toad refurbished, and then loaded out in it's normally ready-to-go config, you won't be able to completely set up the brake function, equalizer function, etc. But you can have the tow rig set up for ball height and all when it's not connected to the trailer, but loaded with people/dawgs/gear as ya would when hitting the road. A typical target for the actual ball height on the loaded tow rig would, be 25">28" off the level surface.

Many modern bumper-pull trailers today (not just travel trailers) use a ball height approaching 30" since the number of tow-capable vehicles is greatly diminished as compared to the rigs we used in the '70's and 80's. Back then, the equalizer head height was set and then the head welded to the stinger so it was only appropriate for that particular tow rig. Adjustable height equalizer heads were intro'd around 1984 that greatly simplified setup and allowed one equalizer head to be used on many different tow rigs by adjusting the vertical position.

As for the detonation you experienced, with no changes in fuel/ignition setup...going up in altitude from your base location (if appropriately tuned) will actually suppress detonation, whether ya have a load on or not. So I'd suggest the base timing is about 1 degree too advanced. So...I'd powertime the motor with the trailer/load connected.
 
Last edited:
As always, mr. Mayben has hit the nail on top of the head with all of his comments.

I so appreciate his comments, particularly since they come from long years of experience and not something he heard from someone else.

In the near term I am going to be spending my time and $$$ in fixing some of the po diasease, the most pressing problem being a broken roof vent (an open hole to the sky does tend to allow a lot of liquid sunshine to stream in to puddle on the floor).

In regards to the electric brakes, I have an accuride draw-tite controller. I know a prodigy would most likely be a better choice but the draw-tite was on one of my other trucks so it didn't cost me anything. And as we all know, free is a very good price.

How right you are about the fact that when the brakes are cold they are much more sensitive. By the time I was getting off the freeway @ exit #68 they were working pretty evenly. Not at all like the grabbing monsters they were at the first stop sign on the way home.

The owner's manual (downloaded for free from an avion owners website) suggests the ideal height of the top of the hitch ball to be 19"-20". The top of my hitch ball is 19 1/2". I am thinking that if I were to have the top of the hitch ball much higher the trailer would be going uphill all the time. As it is, the trailer is just about level when hooked up to the t-all.

As of this time I do not have any sway control or an equalizer hitch. Since I am not planning of towing the trailer any appreciable distance in the near future, as time and $$$ allow I will upgrade the hitch.

One way in which I will try to fix the balance is to carry the t-all's spare tire and the tire chains inside the trailer under the front bed. I will be moving the lpg bottles from being stored in the bath tub to their mounts on the trailer tongue. I am also going to make sure the water and waste tanks are empty as well. With those few things done it should go a long way to improving the balance of the trailer.

Another contributing factor to the "tail wagging the dog" problem are the tires. The tires look like near new take offs with virtually no wear. But the tires are p235r15 radial car tires. According the to the owner's manual radial car tires shouldn't be used because the side walls have too much flex. With the independent suspension the avion has the flexible side walls accentuate any side to side movement. Again, knowing of the problem I will keep the speed down and try to stay out of the ruts. When time and $$$ permit I May upgrade to lt or st rated tires. For sure I will if we ever decide to go visit family in mi.

As far as the timing goes, the problem as I see it is when I am at home I am able to fill with non-ethanol blended gas at the local cenex store. With good gas the t-all never pings. But as soon as I have to fill with ethanol blended gas I use more fuel and it pings.

I guess what I will need to do is hook up the second fuel tank so I can get more range out of a fill up.
 
Last edited:
Yore right about them tars dude!

When loaded out and balanced, ya will find/want the azzend/ball height to squat about 2" when the total trailer tongue weight is on and the load inside the tow rig is constant.

Then ya set the spring bars on the equalizer system to "level" the rig by moving weight forward onto the front axle. That is a excellent indicator of how "tight" to set the springbars. And, this does not require the use of scales under each tow-rig tire!

As the load changes/moves in the trailer (due to loss of fresh water and increase in black and gray water volume), then spring bars May need to be set one additional link "tight" or "loose" from when ya first hooked up. That is dependent totally on where the tanks are located and their volume of contents.

The only way to figgr all this schnizz out is to do it and test-drive (try several combinations). All the verbage is just to provide a starting point, all that matters is your final package, not anyone else's!
 
I have gotten the t-all to squat a little when I have loaded firewood in the back, mostly behind the axle.

When I cranked up the jack and the whole load of the trailer went down on the hitch I don't think the t-all squatted as much as an inch. It wasn't anything close to 2".

Which leads me to a couple of observations.

The first is there isn't enough weight on the front of the trailer.

The second is that the springs on the t-all May be a little tired.

Again, since I don't plan on going any place further away from home than from where we got the trailer I think I will spend my time and $$$ and other stuff first.
 
I think I got some pictures attached to show you what I just brought home.

The picture of the right side shows I took the hubcaps off of the trailer for the trip home. I wanted to be able to easily check the lug nuts and bearings.

The picture of me in the snow is at the top of mackenzie pass, elevation 4816', on November 7, 2009.
 

Attachments

  • SA502453.jpg
    SA502453.jpg
    108.6 KB · Views: 213
  • SA502480.jpg
    SA502480.jpg
    77 KB · Views: 213
  • SA502481.jpg
    SA502481.jpg
    112.9 KB · Views: 212
Congratulations on getting it home safely.

And that would be the santiam pass. You would not have fun trying to tow that over the mckenzie, plus it has been closed for the winter for a couple of weeks now. It is very narrow, crooked, and peaks at over 5300 feet. There is a little about it here:
mckenzie pass

Good luck with that project, and post pictures of your progress. I am anxious to see how this turns out.

Jp
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top