Finally Ready for Camping!

[Joanne]

Finally, after a lot of hours of work, our '76 Trillium is ready for camping! After years of tent camping and now having a wee one, we were super excited to get out in it. What a great first trip. This website has been a great help with all of the different projects that were done on our trailer. I had no idea that there was such a huge followingfor these little trailers! Our's was in pretty sad shape when we first found it. I ended up stripping everything off of the exterior and resealing all the windows and replacing and resealing all the exterior outlets. On the inside all the wiring was redone, and lighting replaced with LED. I replaced the water tank and all the water lines as well. New cushions and drapes as well. The exterior and interior was actually and pretty good shape, just need alot of cleaning. I was amazed at how the exterior came out with the Maguires fiberglass restotation kit and alot off elbow grease!! Can't wait for our next outing!!

[Joanne]

Here's a couple pictures of the progress.

[Bobbie Mayer]

Wow, what a transformation! When's the inaugural trip?

[Cyndivg11]

It looks beautiful! Yoyr hard work paid off! Id like to see more of the updated interior photos!

[theresa p]

wow joanne!!! what a terrific transformation!

you are right about the following for these small trailers. it seems to be growing constantly...especially as gas prices rise.

glad your inaugural trip was a blast....when you have a moment, inquiring minds (and nosy neighbours) wish to see the interior shots of your project.

[Ron in BC]

Wow, what an night and day transformation on the exterior. Before it was only a diamond in the rough but now it shines like a diamond

Ron

[kirkman]

Beautiful!

[theman]

Great work! Now, enjoy

[kootenaigirl]

My goodness that was a rough one to start with but you did an amazing job, it's great to see the before and after like that!

[Tina in AZ]

What a great looking egg! Enjoy

[Carol H]

It looks GREAT! Hope you get out and enjoy it.

[Kath]

It is great to see before and after pictures We are new to this site and have a 1972 Compact Jr. We are looking forward to starting this process. Enjoy your trailer! Where do you go? We are in Central California.

[Joanne]

Thanks everyone! We are super happy with how it came out. Very Rewarding project! Can't wait to get out in it again. Luckily we live where it's super easy to get away. Just wondering, we do alot of bike riding, and now have a bit of an issue with our hitch mount bike rack. I am thinking of mounting a reciever for the rack at the back of the trailer, the rack and bikes will way close to 100lbs, which is comparible to the battery and propane tank at the front. Has anyone tried this? Is there any issues with towing?

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by Joanne

Thanks everyone! We are super happy with how it came out. Very Rewarding project! Can't wait to get out in it again. Luckily we live where it's super easy to get away. Just wondering, we do alot of bike riding, and now have a bit of an issue with our hitch mount bike rack. I am thinking of mounting a reciever for the rack at the back of the trailer, the rack and bikes will way close to 100lbs, which is comparible to the battery and propane tank at the front. Has anyone tried this? Is there any issues with towing?

When you hang a weight out the back of a trailer you upset the balance. Adding weight to the tongue might help a bit, but you reduce the speed at which uncontrollable sway will happen. Since many things come into play it's really hard to predict whether you'll be ok or not. The safest thing to do is find another way to carry the bicycles.

I wish I had saved a little video clip on sway I saw a few years ago. It was models on a tread mill type of thing. The trailer had weights that could be positioned in different place, the worst condition was when the weights were shifted to both ends. Half of the weight on the at the tongue end and half as far to the rear as possible. Uncontrollable sway happened at a surprisingly slow speed.


Sway vs weight distribution demo video