First Post

Several people have asked for pics on this not-altogether-planned project of rebuilding a travel trailer. I'm setting up this blog as a central place to post pics, show progress updates, etc.

So here's some background:

Mom and Dad were looking at a motorhome (which they eventually bought). This got us thinking about camping ourselves.

There were a couple of advantages we saw...

Less expensive than staying in hotels and eating out.
No bedbugs
We could more easily take Crazy Dog
We both enjoy the outdoors
Easier to turn a weekend into a mini vacation.

We already had a truck, and it turns out that it is a quite capable TV (Tow Vehicle). When I bought it, I was looking for something that could tow, but I ended up getting the absolute best engine and axle combination - we could haul much more than we need, but it only has a 6.5 ft bed.

First thing we looked at was truck campers. There's a lot to be said for them. Don't take up much space compared to TTs and motorhomes when not in use. Don't need to tow anything. Downside is they aren't very big, and most are made for 8ft beds.

The big downside is they aren't easy to leave in one place, so, like a motorhome, if we want to go somewhere while travelling, we have to haul the whole thing along for the ride, and that means hauling the dog too.

For similar reasons, we quickly ruled out a motorhome. Besides the comparatively tremendous expense, and those reasons above, we also don't have a very large driveway or parking area, and the driveway is pretty sloped. Even if I could get a MH up the drive and past the house, I don't know if I could park anything else in the driveway. The insurance is also pretty expensive, comparatively.

So, that left two choices. Travel trailers and pop-ups. Pop-ups also have a lot going for them - lightweight, generally smaller and easier to tow. However, we live in a noisy neighborhood. Campgrounds aren't always quiet, especially in the summer. Compared to a travel trailer, a pop-up doesn't offer much noise insulation, is impractical when it gets cold, and is not very secure. All things I don't want to worry about when on vacation.

I started looking around for used travel trailers. Wanted something on the small side (driveway issues) and didn't want to spend a bunch of money in case we didn't like it as much as we thought.

Came across our little gem. It's a 1978 Coachmen Cadet. At 16', it was a little bigger than my ideal, but the price was pretty reasonable ($1200, IIRC). Biggest downside was it was outside of Detroit. Mom and Dad had a similar vintage Leprechan (Class C) when were were kids, so I had some familiarity with the layout and the appliances.

We took a look at it. It looked a bit worse than the pics (don't things always?), but not all that bad. Sales guy said someone else had offered $800 and the dealer had accepted, but his wife nixed it. Perhaps that should have been a warning to us. Well, we offered them $700, and shortly after had it hitched up and on the road.

Now, all this happened rather quickly, from the decision to look for a TT to buying this old girl. Generally, my obsessive nature would cause me to learn way more than I needed to know about the subjects of trailers and towing. There just wasn't time. The trip home was remarkably uneventful, (once we had the right size hitch ball), especially considering we didn't know enough to know better. Turns out the TT had no brakes - the mechanisms were removed from inside the drums. We didn't have a brake controller - didn't know what it was at the time - or a breakaway box (wouldn't have done any good). No safety chains, seriously old tires, and no spare for the trailer. Not that it would have mattered - we didn't have a jack that would lift it to change a tire.

Once we got home, it didn't exactly fit in the driveway without plenty of work, blocks, scraping, and some persuasion with a 2x8 against the side of the tongue. We had ourselves a trailer, but the fun was yet to come.