Just bought Trillium 5500

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My wife and i just bought a Trillium 5500 18 ft. we have owned a 13 ft for many year and wanted to upgrad to a bigger bed to fit our bigger bodies. Would like to contact other owners to share fix it ideas.
Brian In Edmonton

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:wave Hello, Brian! Welcome to the forum. We have several Trillium 5500 owners and scads more of the other Trilliums.

We'll keep our eyes peeled for them :E :E so we can make sure they see your post!

Congrats on your 5500!

By the way, if you would like to post some pictures here, we'd really be interested. It's not only okay to 'show off' your trailer here, we love it!

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Welcome to this forum, Brian! Please post pictures (inside and out) of your new trailer.

Nancy

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Congratulations on your new purchase!!!
Always glad to know there's another 5500 out there.
I have a 1981 5500 and you'll find a few post under various threads by yours truly, including some photos

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I tred to post some photos but was unsuccesfull. Can someone tellme how to do it? I am sure it is simple, but pehaps os am I.

Any help will be apprecated

Brian from Alberta

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Brian, Have you read thePhoto Uploads topic, yet?

If you still have questions/problems, send me a private message or e-mail.

Congrats on the acquisition of your Trillium! :jump-r

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Welcome! We have a 1979 4500 that we bought about Christmas and we've been working on it. If there's anything we can do to help....

Bonnie Copeland

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Hi Brian,

Congratulations on owning a rare Trillium!

We also have a 5500... and we love it. There's lots of room for the four of us and we've working on some modifications. The first is replacing the delightful striped seat covers with something a bit more modern. We are doing new curtains (well, OK, my wife is) and looking at doing the flooring as well.

According to information we've received, there were very few Trillium 5500's built. They were very expensive for their time ($10,000, similar in cost to an Airstream Bambi) and by the time Trillium was building them, the company was on shakey ground. We have Number 52 out of a total of 62 built. At least that's the information we have.

We've added a Fantastic Fan, new 12 volt system with at group 27 battery (solar, anyone?!?!) and a NOS Coleman furnace. This is the long type 200 furnace with piezo pilot starting. We found one (brand new) in an RV store (MacPherson's in Cambridge, Ontario... can't recommend them enough) and installed it. The old one was suspect, as someone had fiddled with some of the contrpls. Still, we kept the old one for parts...

Another benefit of the 5500 is that the whole interior can be removed from the trailer. Because the trailer is a complete fiberglass shell, the structure is not affected by the interior, Everything is screwed to a series of wood battens hidden behind the insulation. Take out the screws and the interior comes apart.

This means that, if you dont like the layout of your Trill, you can change it. We have dreams of replacing the late 70's rec room look with varnished mahogany or teak... but that is going to have to wait a long time.

Anyway, Brian, congratulations and look forward to seeing you on the road!

Shaun Browne
The Browne Family
Trillium 5500

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Hi, congrats on the big brother Tril! I never knew they made one the size you have. Ours is a 4500 and we love it. I'm sure you will enjoy yours.



The season is upon us - happy camping everyone.

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but he's out camping. :cblob

Y'all remember to add yours to our What kind of glass house poll!!
(Just click on the underlined topic name and it'll take you there!)

Thanks!!

:sunny

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Thisi s a test of uploading a photo of our unit. I will add more if this works. Brian
<img src=http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/uploads/3f07a92ad1f73TrilLeft.JPG/>

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.
I am installaing a Microwave above the sink/stove area.
<img src=http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/uploads/3f07abe5641a5Tril1.JPG/>

This is just inside the door looking back <img src=http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/uploads/3f07abfce30dfTril2.JPG/>

looking at the front Kit table / bed

<img src=http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/uploads/3f07ac16e09d1Tril3.JPG/>

<img src=http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/uploads/3f07ac3235b78TrilI4.JPG/>

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I see your interior/exterior is almost identical to mine. But you have a three burner stove, I have a four. I considered taking out the oven and putting a microwave there, then putting in a regular cooktop, but most of our trips are hydro-less, so we're sticking with propane.

Keep us posted on the progress.

BTW I just saw another 5500 for sale, called about it, it sold in 2 days after the ad was placed, for $6800.00 Canadian for a 1980

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Thanks for the pics. No wonder they don't last long when they go up for sale. Really nice looking unit!

I love all the windows.

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Hi Brian...

Love the pictures (reminds me of my home away from home). Your layout is exactly like ours, down to the striping on the seating. One question... do you have a measurement from the top ot the tire to the top of the wheel well (exterior). Your trailer looks like it rides higher than ours does and I have often thought that ours has a soft suspension or a weak axle.

Your picture behind the van (looks like a Safari) indicates that yours rides level. Behind a Safari, I think ours would ride tail low.

If you get a chance, could you let me know? Thanks

Shaun

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Nice looking big brother. Happy camping !

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Hi Brian, we stayed at the ABC tree farm in Sherwood Park last year. Just off of hwy 14. Kind of a nice out of the way place with a few rv spots in the middle. It was recomended by the Dinosaur Trail RV park in Drumheller. We really enjoyed the proximity to Edmonton.

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Shaun;

I measured the distance from the bottom of the wheel well to the ground and it is 24 1/4 inches. I am running 195-14 tires.

Yes we are towing with and Astro, it is a 94 and we just bought it to tow our retirement home.
I have the Microwave installed above the sink now and a new furnace as well.

The wife wanted a new set of taps with a high bar outlet for filling pots etc. To change the taps I needed to remove the sink.

To remove the sink I needed to remove the furnace. The furnace had a noisy fan so I figured that I would fix that at the same time. To remove the furnace I had to destroy it. the chimney was rusted totally into the body. When I had it on the bench I had to cut the chimney extension out with a cold chisel.


I bought an Atwood 12000 BTU unit from a fellow that had all the appliances out of a 1996 Camper that was wreaked on the way to a RV show. The new furnace is smaller than the old Coleman, so I have room to add a 8 inch wide, 3 inch deep and 18 inch long drawer above it. More storage. I will send pictures when I can borrow a Digital Camera again.

Hope that helps

Orginally posted by Shaun Browne

Hi Brian...

Love the pictures (reminds me of my home away from home). Your layout is exactly like ours, down to the striping on the seating. One question... do you have a measurement from the top ot the tire to the top of the wheel well (exterior). Your trailer looks like it rides higher than ours does and I have often thought that ours has a soft suspension or a weak axle.

Your picture behind the van (looks like a Safari) indicates that yours rides level. Behind a Safari, I think ours would ride tail low.

If you get a chance, could you let me know? Thanks

Shaun

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Hi Brian...

Thanks for responding on the vehicle height. Our trailer has 13 inch tires, which may account for the ride height difference.

As for the taps, etc., we found that the original Coleman flipper taps have not aged well. Parts are still available, but we've had nothing but trouble from them. Ous solution was to purchase marine pump taps from a yachting store. They are made in New Zealand and cost 59 Canadian each. The build quality is excellent, the pump capacity is so much greater than the original Coleman, and it is field fixable. The pumps work by pulling up on the pump shaft.

As for working on the trailer, one thing does always lead to another.

Thanks for your help.

Shaun

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Shaun

What are flipper taps?

When you say you now have pump taps from a yachting store, are these the ones that you can pump water by hand?

Do you not have a 12V pump in your 5500?

Orginally posted by Shaun Browne

Hi Brian...

Thanks for responding on the vehicle height. Our trailer has 13 inch tires, which may account for the ride height difference.

As for the taps, etc., we found that the original Coleman flipper taps have not aged well. Parts are still available, but we've had nothing but trouble from them. Ous solution was to purchase marine pump taps from a yachting store. They are made in New Zealand and cost 59 Canadian each. The build quality is excellent, the pump capacity is so much greater than the original Coleman, and it is field fixable. The pumps work by pulling up on the pump shaft.

As for working on the trailer, one thing does always lead to another.

Thanks for your help.

Shaun