How Many Burro 13's exist? - Fiberglass RV
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Old 03-26-2011, 04:37 PM   #1
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How Many Burro 13's exist?

I was just wondering if anyone knows approx how many 13 ft Burro's were made? They sure seem to come up for sale way more than I would have expected.

Just Curios......
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Old 03-26-2011, 04:47 PM   #2
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Interesting question, hope someone knows the answer about the number built. Doubtful we'll ever know how many still exist because not all owners belong to FiberglassRV
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Old 03-27-2011, 09:45 AM   #3
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Late night talk-show host, Johnny Carson, often said, "The worst gift is fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other."

I am not sure if this applies exactly, as the fruitcakes are probably more durable than the Burros, which usually weigh less.

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Old 03-27-2011, 09:51 AM   #4
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Late night talk-show host, Johnny Carson, often said, "The worst gift is fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other."

I am not sure if this applies exactly, as the fruitcakes are probably more durable than the Burros, which usually weigh less.

If anyone wants to gift me a Burro-I'll take it over a fruitcake any day! (I thought they were well built, durable little trailers. Is this quote implying that they aren't? I am curious since I was trying to decide which one would be the best to get)
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Old 03-27-2011, 10:12 AM   #5
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How many years was Burro in business? I thought the earliest I'd seen was a 1981 Burro but on Google I found some that stated they were 1978. If they really were built from 1978-99 and then filed bankrupcy I can see why I'm seeing more than I expected.
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Old 03-27-2011, 10:46 AM   #6
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I saw one on E bay last night.
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Old 03-27-2011, 11:04 AM   #7
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(I thought they were well built, durable little trailers. Is this quote implying that they aren't? I am curious since I was trying to decide which one would be the best to get)
Best is subjective Toni. Frankly I don't think you would go wrong with any of the brands as long as it fits your needs/budget/desires. I first started looking for a Boler (because that's all I knew about) and in the end, would have owned any brand that was in good shape (campable), within my budget and I could drive to for viewing before purchase. Be careful about restricting your "brand" desire... you may pass on one that's perfect for you.
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Old 04-04-2011, 05:14 PM   #8
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When I owned my Burro I loved it. It was a pleasure to rebuild, and the double shell made the inside very easy to clean. Funny you say they come up for sale often, I have been searching for 11 months and have seen a few, but none close to where mine started never mind the condition it was it toward the end of its life.

I would trade the proverbial fruit cake as well. I was shocked this weekend to come across three fiberglass eggs in the New England area. Two are compact jr's which I would assume with only three years of production in the early seventies would be very rare. These little gems can last forever, even when they sit for a decade in someones backyard.

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Old 04-04-2011, 05:33 PM   #9
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When I owned my Burro I loved it. It was a pleasure to rebuild, and the double shell made the inside very easy to clean. Funny you say they come up for sale often, I have been searching for 11 months and have seen a few, but none close to where mine started never mind the condition it was it toward the end of its life.

I would trade the proverbial fruit cake as well. I was shocked this weekend to come across three fiberglass eggs in the New England area. Two are compact jr's which I would assume with only three years of production in the early seventies would be very rare. These little gems can last forever, even when they sit for a decade in someones backyard.

Mike
We found our '83 13ft Burro on Ebay back in March of '07 and it was about an hour away. We've been renovating it over the last 3 years and we love it. Just put brakes on it and have some new LED's to install but we've towed it to FL and back to Ohio twice already and are getting ready to go again. Great camper!!
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Old 04-04-2011, 06:04 PM   #10
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I found mine on craigslist, only a half hour from here. Deal of a lifetime, at least so far. I spend 18 months on and off working on it. I was lucking that the worst was the floor by the entrance, and welding cracks in the frame. The rest was new finish flooring, ceiling liner, and making it mine. Unfortunately it was lost way too early. I have owned many campers over the years, but just fell in love with that Burro. Mine was already set up with brakes. I rewired everything, replaced the propane lines, and added a fridge.

I would have to say that over time it became a passion to play with, and a great excuse to be outside. The east coast is not the easiest place to find a fiberglass camper, but I finally come across a few all within a 3 hour drive. Looks like I will be racking up the mileage this weekend. I feel like an expectant father, so hopefully the new kid (whichever it is) isn't an ugly duckling. Somehow I feel nothing will compare to the '83 Burro.

Jim, I am glad to hear that you are enjoying your camper, making it yours and not rushing it. Make sure you have check the frame where the front hitch meets the box, I had to get up close but then couldn't miss the frame cracks. Simple easy fix for a welder in my driveway, could have been a nightmare on the road.

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Old 04-04-2011, 06:15 PM   #11
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I found mine on craigslist, only a half hour from here. Deal of a lifetime, at least so far. I spend 18 months on and off working on it. I was lucking that the worst was the floor by the entrance, and welding cracks in the frame. The rest was new finish flooring, ceiling liner, and making it mine. Unfortunately it was lost way too early. I have owned many campers over the years, but just fell in love with that Burro. Mine was already set up with brakes. I rewired everything, replaced the propane lines, and added a fridge.

I would have to say that over time it became a passion to play with, and a great excuse to be outside. The east coast is not the easiest place to find a fiberglass camper, but I finally come across a few all within a 3 hour drive. Looks like I will be racking up the mileage this weekend. I feel like an expectant father, so hopefully the new kid (whichever it is) isn't an ugly duckling. Somehow I feel nothing will compare to the '83 Burro.

Jim, I am glad to hear that you are enjoying your camper, making it yours and not rushing it. Make sure you have check the frame where the front hitch meets the box, I had to get up close but then couldn't miss the frame cracks. Simple easy fix for a welder in my driveway, could have been a nightmare on the road.

Mike
The shop that replaced the axle had it up on the lift and checked out the frame and didn't find any problems except for rust. They build trailers there so I feel comfortable with them. I plan on taking it back to them every year to let them check it
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Old 04-04-2011, 06:32 PM   #12
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Glad to hear that Jim. It would have been obvious to them, so I would feel good. Like I said is was an easy fix, and apparently common there the cold bent the frame. I was always amazed at the huge amount of storage in that little trailer, nothing else we owned had a place for everything. I know I packed less in the Burro but never felt like I had to leave stuff at home.

By far my favorite was the fiberglass inner shell. I was so easy to keep clean, pulling the carpet and adding laminate flooring also made it easy to sweep out.

I had installed a small table up front so the camper was a perfect setup for two.

Mike
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Old 04-04-2011, 06:46 PM   #13
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Glad to hear that Jim. It would have been obvious to them, so I would feel good. Like I said is was an easy fix, and apparently common there the cold bent the frame. I was always amazed at the huge amount of storage in that little trailer, nothing else we owned had a place for everything. I know I packed less in the Burro but never felt like I had to leave stuff at home.

By far my favorite was the fiberglass inner shell. I was so easy to keep clean, pulling the carpet and adding laminate flooring also made it easy to sweep out.

I had installed a small table up front so the camper was a perfect setup for two.

Mike
Mike, I wasn't around when this happened, If it's not too painful, how did the egg catch on fire?
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Old 04-04-2011, 07:25 PM   #14
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Greg the actual cause was never identified, no one really felt the need to investigate. The fire was first visible through the fridge vents, but the battery which was in the opposite corner on the rear bumper was also on fire. So the theories are a propane leak in the used three way fridge I had installed, a 12 volt short, or fiberglass dust igniting. With a camper that small it didn't take long for the whole thing be be engulfed. I suspect the fire was inside one of the interconnected storage compartments and spread throughout those compartments pretty quickly.

Fortunately no one was in the camper, and my son came home soon after it started (he ran down the street for ten minutes) and let us know in the house when he drove up the driveway. We live a rural community so the on call fire department arrived about 10 minutes after calling, but by then it was too late.

My son took cell phone pictures during the fire and they are posted on this site (probably early last May).

I was stupid enough to shut off and pull the propane tank during the fire. Which was foolish, but according to the fire department saved the house. The heat was hot enough to total our family camper at the same time, that was parked 20 feet away. We were able to move the car and truck away, even though the truck was hooked to the Burro at the time.

I was packing for a trip so I had been in and out of the trailer all evening, and had been in there five minutes before our son came home.

So it was sad to loose such a great camper, but again no one was hurt; so all in all it could have been much worse.

It was surprising how quickly it was gone, but I would say the alarms were going off (not sure which or all smoke, propane, and carbon monoxide were installed). I believe that if we had been in there, even asleep, we would have easily gotten out. The fire extinguishers (pulled from the other camper did little to slow the fire). We had a garden hose on the burro, but should have been spraying down our larger Rockwood Roo. I think if we had we could have saved that one. The Roo melted but never caught on fire.

Loosing the burro was hard on me, but loosing both campers was very hard. We ended up buying an older motorhome from someone in town, because we just couldn't miss a whole camping season.

Mike
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Old 04-04-2011, 07:27 PM   #15
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I should also mention that I had replaced all of the propane lines and triple checked all of the connections so I doubt it was a propane line. But the fridge was running on propane at the time.
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Old 04-04-2011, 07:29 PM   #16
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Wow, that really is sad. Good to hear that there were no injuries.
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Old 04-04-2011, 07:33 PM   #17
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Thanks, eleven months later: Time to start a new project. Its hard to get these great little gems out of your mind once you have one. I spent the winter staring at a picture of the burro. I can't wait to start over, I really enjoyed fixing it up and can't wait to find another to make mine.

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Old 07-05-2011, 07:09 AM   #18
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I was a little surprised to see someone observing the large number of Burros that are available. It took me the better part of a year to find one that was available, affordable, and accessible. As it was, I ended up driving from Central VA to the Chicago area to finally get mine.

I read about Mike's fire with great interest as I am planning on using a tri-power fridge in mine as well. You mentioned that it was a used fridge unit, Mike... do you think that was the problem, since everything else seems to have been well and properly in place? Importantly, when you get your new Burro, will you be using a tri-power fridge in it as well?

My '83 has the original pump type sink, but just has holes where the original two burner stove and tri-power fridge formerly resided. For now I am more interested in the cooktop, and will probably use a cooler for perishables... I may even go to a built in refrigerator style cooler as my permanent installation, but I do like the idea of cold stuff while camping off the grid!

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Old 07-05-2011, 07:36 AM   #19
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Alternatives

In our Burro, I installed a 1500 watt inverter and a battery in a battery box on the tongue. Inside I put a 4x4 gang box with 2 duplex receptacles in it. One duplex is powered by the inverter and the other by ac. When mobile I plug the fridge and the freezer into the inverter receptacles which are powered from the battery on the tongue which is powered from the tow vehicle. When plugged into ac, I disconnect the trailer from the tow vehicle and plug the fridge & freezer into the ac powered receptacles. This way you can use standard residential appliances and not have the propane problems, not to mention the cost savings in the appliances themselves. Just trying to give you an alternative


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I was a little surprised to see someone observing the large number of Burros that are available. It took me the better part of a year to find one that was available, affordable, and accessible. As it was, I ended up driving from Central VA to the Chicago area to finally get mine.

I read about Mike's fire with great interest as I am planning on using a tri-power fridge in mine as well. You mentioned that it was a used fridge unit, Mike... do you think that was the problem, since everything else seems to have been well and properly in place? Importantly, when you get your new Burro, will you be using a tri-power fridge in it as well?

My '83 has the original pump type sink, but just has holes where the original two burner stove and tri-power fridge formerly resided. For now I am more interested in the cooktop, and will probably use a cooler for perishables... I may even go to a built in refrigerator style cooler as my permanent installation, but I do like the idea of cold stuff while camping off the grid!

Froggie
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Old 07-05-2011, 09:22 AM   #20
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I was just wondering if anyone knows approx how many 13 ft Burro's were made? They sure seem to come up for sale way more than I would have expected.

Just Curios......
Maybe there would be a way to tell how many were made by comparing the vin numbers...
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