Mods to the Travel Trailer

[ridesolo]

So, knowing that a 5er was going to come home w/ me I had to outfit the truck for it. I managed to search and search and ended up getting the thing kitted out with all new parts and did the installation myself. I found the hitch itself not too far from here on Craigslist; the guy had bought it new and only used it for 40 miles. From different sources I managed to put together the package of the hitch, new rails, truck model-specific mounting kit, and the in-bed mounted remote light cable plug all together for $210. ;D A friend of mine was pretty discouraged to hear about this. He had just bought a new truck and paid $1,500 for his hitch installation!

The trailer is a '02 Titanium 28E33 SB. I would normally consider an '02 to be a bit long in the tooth for a travel trailer, but I was buying it from an elderly couple who were the original owners and it hadn't been used in four years. It had been stored in a custom made building with a roof and sides but no ends so it was fairly well protected but was extremely dirty. I've had to replace many of the plastic parts on the exterior because of UV deterioration but the tires awning and folding steps are new. To date I've only towed it around 40 miles but even in that short distance I could tell it tows so much better and easier than the last trailer.

So we started working. It came "fully equipped" which translates to "we didn't remove any of our stuff" and it was pretty well packed! We kept a few things but most of all the stuff that came with it was sold, donated, or trashed. "One man's treasure..." right? Because it had been sitting for so long it was pretty dirty inside and out and full of those Japanese beetle/lady bug things on the inside and mud dauber nests on the outside.

 

[ridesolo]

The fiberglass ends had been stored with some exposure so they were looking faded and chalky. I found out about a product called PoliGlo that's made for fiberglass and is used on RVs and boats. A couple of weekends of cleaning and polishing with the PoliGlo had the thing looking like new, Now anybody who sees it is just sure that it has to be newer than an '02.

The PoliGlo will have to be reapplied once a year but those applications will be much easier and faster than that first-time event (massive chore!).

 

[ridesolo]

The interior was in very nice condition, not worn or abused. After a good cleaning we decided that there was a bunch that just needed a facelift and updating and only the bathtub was in a state that we considered unusable. (More on that later.)

We started in the bedroom which was furnished in factory-original padded headboard, bedspread, and curtains. Decent condition but very dated and not our style. We replaced the headboard and bedspread and pillow shams and then Mrs Ridesolo and her imagination and skills turned another set of shams into new curtains.

Started out like this:

Now looks like this:

And added a phone/device charging station:

 

[ridesolo]

Added my wireless rear-view camera that transmits to a monitor in the truck. As far as I'm concerned this is a must-have.

Just to be a little more sure of the signal quality I added a remote antenna to the rig.

 

[ridesolo]

This is what we started out with for the kitchen area:

Not bad but pretty plain and showing just a little age. We made new counter tops and put up a tile back splash (very thin tile, almost no additional weight). We used the same sink but put in new drains and new faucet and also replaced the blind on the window.

The entertainment/storage cabinet started out like this:

And I did away w/ a couple of the door sets and mounted the new TV and an electric heater/fake fireplace thing that's pretty cool.

 

[SONICJK]

Looking great man!
These things always blow me away with the amount of room inside. It's huge!

 

[ridesolo]

Looking great man!
These things always blow me away with the amount of room inside. It's huge!

Thanx, man. It has lots of room... and it's not even a "big one". If you look at the pix above, to the left of the "fireplace" you'll see a white outlet and another white rectangular lid... that's where the hose for the central vacuum system plugs in. Gotta' love it.

 

[ridesolo]

A quick break to express my gratitude:

The trailer wheels were slowly losing air, durn alloy rims. Good man Hurco550 set me up w/ an instructor at the Vo-Tech where he works and the students re-mounted and balanced the tires for me... two today and two next week.

Thanx for hooking a brother up Levi!

 

[ridesolo]

So, lots of what we've done isn't really all that obvious to somebody who just comes in and looks around. We thought the interior lighting (12v) was very dated and, to us, looked like it should be in a funeral home or Vegas casino. The lighting and all of the metal in the thing was shiny brass that needed to be changed. All of the metal parts; drawer/door pulls, hinges, screw heads, lights, and even the ceiling fan were disassembled and repainted an antique copper color. The lights were rebuilt to look better, cleaner, and more modern (and changed to LED).

This is the view from the middle back toward the back.

There are a few things left in there, but nothing that we can't live with for now. Mrs Ridesolo wants to get the couch and shade valence things reupholstered and maybe someday we'll replace the carpeting. I'll probably do something w/ the original stereo system that came with it as well.

 

[Redbird]

[size=12pt]

Levi is an awesome dude
Side Note:
Any Firestone Auto Care Center will check tire pressure, tread wear and depth, as well as balance FREE of charge to anyone.
They also offer "free air" to anyone needing to check/fill their own tires.

 

[ridesolo]

Levi is an awesome dude

The BEST!!!!

 

[ridesolo]

Side Note:
Any Firestone Auto Care Center will check tire pressure, tread wear and depth, as well as balance FREE of charge to anyone.
They also offer "free air" to anyone needing to check/fill their own tires.

Thanx for that info. These are Firestone tires and I'll store that nugget into the gray matter for future use. The tires were getting squatty enough that I wouldn't have towed it very far to have anything done to them. I've got a compressor and would have fluffed them up myself but it's obvious that they would have had to be remounted soon anyway so I just got it into my head to take 'em off and get it done before I move it again. Laying on the driveway positioning the the jack and jackstands in below freezing temperatures was such a grand treat! I got the thing up and got 'em off in record time! When I put them back on the temperature has gone up enough to make it much less of an "adventure".

 

[ridesolo]

Earlier on I mentioned that most of the work we've done could be considered optional, personal choice items. However the bathtub had to go. It's 24" X 40" and pretty much useless as a bathtub. I think that even the more compact among us would sit in it with their chin on their knees. But even worse, it had some cracks in the bottom that had been repaired. The repairs weren't pretty and there was no guarantee they were trustworthy. The vinyl flooring was also dated and had ripples so we decided that a re-do was needed.

I started searching for a 24X40 shower pan and at first thought I was going to be out of luck but then found one but the cost was almost $200 plus about the same amount for shipping! I kept up the search and eventually found a vendor with one for much less AND free shipping. SOLD! It came in and though the box was marked correctly as a right side drain, there was a left side drain unit in the box! I contacted the seller and the sent out another... same thing! Obviously somebody in the Lippert Controls factory was having a bad day on 1/29/2018! They sent a third pan from a different warehouse and we finally got the right one! By this time we had the old tub and surround torn out and I had made a new, more substantial base for the pan.

I cut some panels of FRP to make a surround that's well attached and calked.

New faucet, shower head, and grab rail/shelf as well as a new sliding shower curtain thingie and we've got a new shower.

And finally we put down new floor and used some pre-finished door stop trim as mini baseboard material.

Oh yeah, and while I had the toilet up to replace the floor I discovered the base seal needed to be replaced. I guess there isn't anything that hasn't been rehabbed, renewed, and redone. So, that's got us pretty much up to date for the moment.

 

[ridesolo]

Darn, forgot one thing. The Ti originally came with a TV ('02 vintage) in the living room cabinet and the original owners had replaced it w/ a flat screen ('09 vintage). You know how much technology has advanced just in the last few years so we replaced it with the one in the earlier pictures. There was also a place to put a TV in the bedroom but if we had installed one there we would have been sacrificing the largest area we had available for clothes on hangers. (The left side cabinet in the pix below.)

We got an incredible deal on a 24" model and I modified a mount. Here's the result:

Guess that's all for now, at least until I remember something else.

 

[Hurco550]

You guys are to kind! Glad I could help even in a small way. The trailer is looking great Cory, in person as well as in the pictures. After the past winter, I'm very glad you and mrs ridesolo have a way to spend the winter's in warmer weather. I was sorry to hear about Rudy. He was a sweet ol boy.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[ridesolo]

Thanx, Levi!

I was going through pictures and remembered a few other things. Earlier in this thread I mentioned that we had run a de-humidifier (and electric heater) in the other trailer and that we fished a cord under the slide to the power stand. Running a separate cord for hi amp draw appliances allows for operating them while the coffee maker or toaster are in use w/o popping a breaker. When I installed that heater/fake fireplace unit I wanted to do something similar. This trailer is better built and it would have been very difficult to fish a cord under the slide (every time we set up) so I came up w/ this solution from Amazon. It wasn't very expensive, is very high quality, and was easy to install. It was difficult to take a 2" hole saw to the side of the trailer, but sometimes you have to jump in and go for it.

 

[ridesolo]

And speaking of electrical issues, I rehabbed the 30 amp AC system by adding two additional outlets for the kitchen and put them on two different outlet circuits so they'd be less likely to pop breakers if the toaster and coffee pot are both on. Also consulted w/ the licensed electrician step-son and changed the breakers on the two outlet circuits from 15 amp to 20 amp. I didn't add outlets so we could plug in more stuff, just added them so that appliances can be used in better locations. It's hard to believe but as original the thing had a decent amount of strategically placed outlets throughout but only one very poorly placed one in the kitchen. Go figure.

AC breakers on the left, DC fuses on the right.

Buttoned up:

Final result. The two new outlets can be seen in this picture, one at the end of the cabinet and the other on the wall under the microwave. The original (and only) kitchen outlet can be seen next to the light fixture under the overhead cabinet.

 

[ridesolo]

I know this is an older thread, but in case there's any interest out there I thought I'd add one of the latest developments. After everything we've been through this year I'm happy to report that we're finally about ready to hitch up and get out of Ohio for the winter. (Yay!!!) There have been a few more little projects that may not be worth mentioning but I thought I'd post this one. Earlier on in this thread I told the story about my rolling toolbox for the bed of the truck. It did ok for me, but now that I've switched to a 5th wheel trailer the hitch in the bed has eliminated the ability to roll the box back to the tailgate and since I'm having to be pretty careful about the weight I'm dragging around, particularly the weight in the bed over the rear axle, I decided that I needed to come up with a way to put the tools in the trailer rather than in the truck bed. I went through everything and was able to eliminate a few of the never used and not likely-to-be-used tools. Then I made a "tool wall" in the trailer's basement storage area.

Here's a picture of it loaded up and pretty much ready to go.

However, I can't seem to get away from having things set up so they'll roll, so I mounted the thing w/ some heavy duty drawer slides.

And this is what it looks like all loaded up.

I know it doesn't look like much of an assortment of tools but it's pretty much all I'll need for the winter; multimeter, screwdrivers, known needed wrenches, other junk, and, oh yeah, duct tape.

 

[Brodie]

Nice. Always good to have easy access.

 

[trek97]

Ive never seen this thread. Super nice work bud. 8)