Friday, July 8, 2011

Insurance for an old trailer

Wow, got carried away and got new tires, have the propane and roof checkup set up, and completely forgot to call State Farm.

So I did today... and their records for models of trailers don't go back that far. The girl needs to call her regional office to figure out what to do.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Interior Shots



All original baked bean color appliances and laminate counters. To the right from here is the dinette.





I'm not too thrilled about the carpet. It looks good now, but I imagine it will get dirty with my rug rats running around on it.























Front of trailer: dinette. Original brown cushions and lighting. Makes into a twin bed for the kiddos.





Back of the trailer: Couch that makes into a double bed.
Shelf above. To the right from here is the bathroom/toilet.

Title and Tires

Tuesday, July 5th 2011:

Got the title, amazingly this was no problem. We didn't have the title from the previous owner, just a bill of sale. I was in and out of DMV in 30 min. I was called up to the counter before I could complete the form! That was the part I thought was going to take a long time. Boy was I wrong.

I then went shopping a bit (after all it was a vacation day!), then took my newly hitched minivan over to the RV lot. I really hate the guy at the lot, he is so negative and makes going to see Sugardolly an uncomfortable thing. Today when I had an appointment to pull it out he gave me attitude and it took 40 min to get other RVs arranged to get it out! At one point he said "your Dad is outside right?". OMG! Grrr!

Unfortunately my brand spankin' new drop hitch was WAY too low for Sugardolly. The other guy Jeff was great and helped me turn over the hitch ball and low and behold hitch was suddenly 6 inches higher. While majorly freaking out that I was pulling her all by myself I nonetheless managed to get her to the tire store for my appt at 2pm. At 2:30 I checked in again to see how it was going as I hadn't gotten a quote. Oh, they will look at it now... will be done in 30 min... 3:10 comes and goes. I check in again. Bearings will need to be repacked, that will take longer. I go shopping and come back at 5:00pm... finally done after 3 hours! New tires, lugnuts, bearings and wheels (they were all rusty and they had some barely used ones available). I call the RV place and let them know I was going to be coming in at 5:40 instead of 5:30 which I had said before. Rude guy was predictably rude and hung up on me! Grr!

All in all it was a long but productive day!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Craziness! I got a trailer!

Now I have been researching trailers for at least 6 months seriously, and joined Sisters on the Fly in May... but I somehow didn't really think I would pull the trigger and go for it.

Somewhere along the way my husband realized that I was obsessed and he would have to give into this obsession to rid me of it. He also did this with the chickens and second dog which I researched and researched also. Both of those actually made more work for me, and so has my latest obsession.

Day 1: Went to see trailer, looked in every compartment, underneath and as far as I could on the roof. Talked to the owner on the phone, got my questions answered and agreed to purchase. Met up with owner and he gave me the run down of all of the systems. No hitch, no where to store the puppy!
This is me totally freaking out at buying her.
Day 2: Convinced my Dad (who already had trailer hitch) to go with me to pick it up. All the way I was regaled with stories of how wonderful an airstream was and how he would take me over to the dealership to get a new one (with what money? not his!). I bought a 2 inch ball because his was smaller. Somehow he ended up keeping it. I installed it after removing the disgusting old one that was all greasy. We somehow got the car backed up exactly eventually - this was the most frustrating part of the whole thing. Ball was not sitting all the way in the hitch. I figure out that it wasn't all the way open and got it to sink down on the ball. At this point Dad is much better and is more on board now that he hasn't had to do a lot of grimy work as he expected. He has a four prong plug for electric, this is 7 and newer. We pull away, but go slow home (he takes the corners way to tight for my peace of mind). At home I had planned to park it in front of my house, which had a slope, but it didn't look too bad or narrow... until I had a 16 ft trailer sitting there. At this point I call around first to the place I had scoped out on the internet that was close-ish to our home. $35 a month sounded great now that I have this behemoth with nowhere to put it! $35 a month buys you a spot in a fenced but somewhat sketchy u-haul/junk shop parking lot. I realize when we get in there that there are a lot of NICE trailers and boats there, so any potential vandals would go for them first before my little trailer. :) This might work. We lock her up and take off. That was a crazy day and it was only 1pm. Problem is that she is now away from the house and I can't go out and look at her so instead I browse ebay for interesting items to decorate her. I come up with the name Sugardolly, which my grandma used to call me, and it sticks after a family brainstorming session.


Days 3-6 - Work... storage place closes at 5pm w/out prior arrangement so there is no way to go see her after work without planning.

Day 7 - I work from home which allows me a quick run over with son in tow in the morning. Picture above. He squeals when he sees her and I wonder if it was wise of me to create another generation of trailer fans. We look around. I take pictures of the 7 prong power cord. That afternoon I head over to the auto accessory store for my hitch appointment. They don't seem to know anything about sway bars - I need to research more. They also ask if my husband can look at it for me. I give them a "you're kidding" look, and he backs off. I buy the extender car mirrors in addition to hitch and power... of course the 7 prong costs more too for wiring your car. Now I have a brand new hitch and a trailer (no trans-cooler yet), so I can pull to get new tires on Tuesday. Tuesday will also bring a trip to the DMV!

Here's the caption on craigslist of the one I ended up getting:

1965 Kit Companion: Cute and cozy vintage "canned ham" in good condition. 14ft. with flushing toilet and holding tank. Exterior recently painted by Auto Body Shop. Dry and clean. Winterized at ollinger's travel with roof sealed, furnace cleaned and serviced, new holding tank plumbing. Interior is original condition with baked bean brown appliances (full propane stove and refrigerator) retro light fixtures. - all appliances original and in excellent working condition. New battery, electrical hookup, plus 20 gallon water system (hook-up or fresh water tank). Dinette and rear couch are upholstered and fold down into beds. Tires still have good tread and the trailer is light (1800 lbs) and easy to pull. New zippered awning installed! Windows are louvered and in working condition. Great for on or off grid use. Lots of cool little compartments and cubby holes.