First travel trailer
Hi all! Just joined up and I already have a question. Now that my wife and I are retired, we would like to do some travelling. Unfortunately, as with so many others these days, finances will be a bit ...
Forum Discussion
I had a 22 ft tow lite by HI Lo for over a year. You need to make sure it hasn't leaked. During the time I had my hi lo, I saw pictures of lots of those units where the owner had done extensive repairs to the walls.
The idea of them is great. I can say, using the exact same tow vehicle, 2005 Ford XLT 4x4 with 5.7 triton, and I lost about 1.5 miles to the gallon when I switch to a regular full height trailer.
But the biggest item to be concerned and to not skimp on regular maintenance is the cable system that lifts the top. From every thing I read and researched, there was very little failure rate with the cables, as long as they were properly maintained.
I traded it for 2 main reasons. 1) In my 22 footer, the bed doubled as a sofa, and the sleeping position was port to starboard. Therefore one of us had to crawl over the other to get out of bed. 2) I could never completely get out of my mind what would happen if a cable broke while out on the road somewhere.
It pulled wonderfully, and did give better MPG when towing.
The idea of them is great. I can say, using the exact same tow vehicle, 2005 Ford XLT 4x4 with 5.7 triton, and I lost about 1.5 miles to the gallon when I switch to a regular full height trailer.
But the biggest item to be concerned and to not skimp on regular maintenance is the cable system that lifts the top. From every thing I read and researched, there was very little failure rate with the cables, as long as they were properly maintained.
I traded it for 2 main reasons. 1) In my 22 footer, the bed doubled as a sofa, and the sleeping position was port to starboard. Therefore one of us had to crawl over the other to get out of bed. 2) I could never completely get out of my mind what would happen if a cable broke while out on the road somewhere.
It pulled wonderfully, and did give better MPG when towing.
travelandy wrote:
Hi all! Just joined up and I already have a question. Now that my wife and I are retired, we would like to do some travelling. Unfortunately, as with so many others these days, finances will be a bit tight so "brand new" is an expression rarely used around our home. I have found a nice, used 2004 Nissan Pathfinder with only 86,000 km on it - it looks as if it has never seen a winter!! I would like to get a travel trailer since, for various reasons, a camper just won't do. Given the Pathfinder's 5,000 lb towing capacity I think that a 17 ft. to 19 ft. trailer is as big as I should go. Having said that, I have found listed an old (No year indicated) 21 ft. HiLo trailer for sale in Toronto. I checked the NADA guide for RV's and for that length, depending on the year, the weights shown are between 2,600 and 3,200 lb. It seems there was a "FunLite" model that was especially light and available for a few years. Anyway ... to the question - does anyone have information about these trailers regarding reliability of the mechanisms, leaks, availability of parts? The seller is asking $2,600 which seems a bit low (Why am I complaining?) but I've never seen one of these and know little about them. Thanks, in advance and sorry about the length of this post - I tend to talk a lot!
Andy
