New Owner/Old 16ft Aerolite - Repair Project

Hey Splinter, that's a nice looking trailer. Heck all the decals on my 9 year old trailer are faded and peeling.

As far as the brake controller, I run a Prodigy and it seems to do the job for me. In most, probably all states, a brake controller is required for trailers that weigh over a certain amount. I would bet that in Florida that trailer is well over the required weight and needs a controller.

On your question about applying the brakes as Semi's go by I've never heard that one. But to answer about how, you are correct that there is a lever on the controller to do this. Now I have heard that you do want to use the manual lever on the controller if the trailer starts to sway though.

Anyway keep us updated on your repair and keep the pictures coming. :)

JohnnyG73
The roof was a rubber membrane, apparently there was a hole in the rear-passenger side, above the kitchen sink and water was entering and spreading under the membrane and destroying the wood. The previous owner didn't notice the water damage until 3 months ago, and by this time the upper cabineate was moldy and the ceiling panel was soggy/spongy. His attempt to fix it just made it worse, he cut back the rubber membrane (make a 5' hole) and duct-taped it directly to the ply wood, then painted the wood! to try to seal it.... needless to say, the wood ply delaminated and even more water came in when it rained.. about half the roof is rotted, the other half, still protected by the membrane, and being as seperate wood panel didn't get much water, just the edges. Below is a pick of the front half of the roof, original plywood. I plan to leave as much of the original roof that is not rotten (since the good stuff won't come up easily!)
It's been raining every single day (it's covered and protected), so I haven't had time to finish cutting the new wood panels down to size and glue them down to the frame and insulation. I'm thinking of OVER-LAPPING the roof panels to create a 1/4" ridge down the middle (front to back) to help shed water. Since the AC is directly in the middle, it' will have a seal issue, so I was thinking of some 1" high-density foam gasket for doors to make the seal between the roof and unit. (there were a lot of leaves under the old AC. I'd like to create a barrier so that can't happen again.)

GBOPP
I'll give the concrete sealer a try, I have a ton of it from other projects. Wonder if just some nitrile gloves and rag application would work.

wanderingbob
I'll wait a bit before getting the brake controller. I didn't have any issues going 20 miles @ 45mph. Though I didn't try any panic brakes, lol.

That looks like it will turn out to be a nice trailer after you repair the roof and clean it up. I'm actually amazed that the roof got that bad in less than 20 years. That's something you usually see on vintage trailers but I'm sure it will fix up just fine. Looking forward to seeing some more pics of the progress.

Welcome to the forum.
For the faded fiberglass you could try the ZEP/Red Max Pro process.
It worked well on our 96 Southwind. Some like it , some don't.

There was a post a couple days ago about using Concrete Sealer on faded fiberglass. It may be worth reading.

Keep us updated on your progress.

You should not have any sway problems with that rig , I would pull it several hundred miles before adding anything .