I looked at three travel trailers in the Anchorage area last fall. They were all over priced junk. I was looking in the $10 - $13,000 range.
#1. After talking to the guy in Talkeetna so I wouldn't waste the drive up there, I went up to look. The first thing I saw wrong before I got out of the truck was he had dragged the front of the trailer over something and bent the front stabilizers back. When we opened the front door, you were looking at the kitchen - three of the four drawers were off of their rails and some of the rails were missing. Looking to the rear, the bathroom door had been replaced with a real crappy piece of dirty plywood. All of the faucets in the bathroom and kitchen were heavily siliconed around them. The whole thing was filthy inside and out. I wanted to look in the compartments, but he couldn't find the keys to any of them or the main door. I asked how the brakes were and he said he didn't know. When he bought it, he couldn't figure out the brakes so he'd been towing it for a year without brakes. Didn't know where the spare was. I left without making an offer.
#2. I called this person and told her what I just looked at, I asked if her trailer was in good shape - oh yes it is, come on over. On the phone she said there was a spare and a WD hitch. Drive up and no spare. Looked at the tires while she was unlocking the door. The two tires by the door were both split between the tire treads - one was so bad the inner tube was coming out through the crack.
Went inside and I've never seen such a filthy trailer with so many stains on the carpet. In the bathroom was pink antifreeze spilled all over from winterizing. The dining table, couch, microwave and two drawers in the kitchen were missing. The bedroom was a mess, the front window was broke out. The inside walls were a mess of screw holes where they had all sorts of things mounted to the walls
We walked around the outside and I crawled under the rear where the bathroom was. As I put my hand under the wall frame to pull myself under, the wood in the wall was soaking wet and rotted pieces came off in my hand. I don't know where the water was coming from because it was stored under a nice heavy duty canopy - leaking / frozen water tanks?
While under there, I looked at the rear tire on that side - it had the tread separating on it also. The awning had been ripped off. She didn't know where the propane tanks were and the front jack was bent. Never did find the WD hitch.
It was sort of funny. I don't think she really had any idea how bad of shape the trailer was in, but as I kept pointing each new problem she just kept coming down in price. She dropped it over $5K. I didn't even make an offer, just said thank you and left.
#3, I won't go into, it was such a mess, I just left. You would think people would at least clean them a little - ten minutes with a vacuum????
So this spring I'm headed down to Washington with the truck. I'll shop Canada on the way down, if not I know I'll find something in WA or OR a lot newer, cheaper and in better shape from looking at Craigs List and dealer web sites. It will be about 5,000 miles round trip, but I like to drive.
So yes, take a quick look at what's available up here and then head south for a week or two.
Bill
