newbie

[mary and bob]

Just bought a 13ft ct u-haul, its actually a brother to our 1946 modernistic teardrop. we restored the teardrop to original condition, it was painted when we bought it inside and out so took months to get the paint off, I WILL never paint it, we polished it and it looks great, we use it all the time but as I was coming home from picking bluberries in mass, i found this u-haul and offered 1800 for it, which I thought was a good deal. windows leak, havent figured out how to work the swamp cooler, any suggestions or where to get that info, not sure about the heater and looking for a spare wheel. any help apreciated, also have to figure out how to use this forum as were used to a different one
mary and bob

[Donna D.]

Welcome to FiberglassRV Mary and Bob. A number of U-Haul owners on this forum, you'll get lots of help with your trailer issues.

[Mike Magee]

Wow, not too many swamp coolers out there. I've heard of 'em but never seen one that I know of. I'd love to see a picture if you can post one. Where is it installed?

[h.mike]

Originally Posted by mary and bob

Just bought a 13ft ct u-haul, its actually a brother to our 1946 modernistic teardrop. we restored the teardrop to original condition, it was painted when we bought it inside and out so took months to get the paint off, I WILL never paint it, we polished it and it looks great, we use it all the time but as I was coming home from picking bluberries in mass, i found this u-haul and offered 1800 for it, which I thought was a good deal. windows leak, havent figured out how to work the swamp cooler, any suggestions or where to get that info, not sure about the heater and looking for a spare wheel. any help apreciated, also have to figure out how to use this forum as were used to a different one
mary and bob

Hello and welcome: Is the axle on your new 13 CT original? If so, you will find that rims are very difficult to find. thats the bad news. The good, is that on this forum a great guy and very helpful posted that he changed his axle because he wanted electric brakes. I know he accomplished that, but I don't think I ever heard what he did with the old parts. you might contact him. He is listed on the members list and can be "personally messaged". (Marty D.) Are you in Chatham, MA? I'm in Pittsfield, MA . Loads of luck with your new find. Mike

[mary and bob]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

Wow, not too many swamp coolers out there. I've heard of 'em but never seen one that I know of. I'd love to see a picture if you can post one. Where is it installed?

Mike: The swamp cooler is installed where a roof vent would normally be. It's probably about 12" X 12" with a vent outlet on each side. A couple switches, one is fan speed, high & low, the other is "pump" on & off. Apparently it uses water and a fan to provide some cooling effect. I understand that they were standard equipment on the Uhaul campers. I don't know if it's all there or how to operate it. Don't know as if we could post a picture, haven't been able to do that on another trailer site, [technology challenged], but can email pics. A picture probably wouldn't show much anyhow unless I partially disassembled the unit. Bob

[mary and bob]

Originally Posted by h.mike

Hello and welcome: Is the axle on your new 13 CT original? If so, you will find that rims are very difficult to find. thats the bad news. The good, is that on this forum a great guy and very helpful posted that he changed his axle because he wanted electric brakes. I know he accomplished that, but I don't think I ever heard what he did with the old parts. you might contact him. He is listed on the members list and can be "personally messaged". (Marty D.) Are you in Chatham, MA? I'm in Pittsfield, MA . Loads of luck with your new find. Mike

Mike: We are in Chatham NY, and bought the trailer in Pittsfield!! It has the original axle. I think I saw the post of the guy that replaced his axle, and I think he sold all the parts. I did purchase new from Uhaul a set of new hubs & spindles because of them having sealed bearings that are not serviceable. I put on new tires before we took it up to the adirondaks this past week. Took an old unmounted tire along just in case. I may end up modifying a rim that has the correct bolt pattern to get the right offset to use as a spare. You should come over sometime to check out our trailer, it's not far. I retired a year ago from a job in Pittsfield, did that drive for over 10 years! Bob

[Greg H]

We used Swamp Coolers in my part of Texas because there is not enough humidity in the air for an A.C. unit to do the job right.

[rgrugg]

Personally I'd ditch the swamp cooler. They rely on water evaporation and are only satisfactory in very low humidity areas...think desert. i used to email with a guy in El Paso, TX who had a swamp cooler. He said that in summer monsoon season (late summer) they only made the humidity worse and did not help. For your part of the country (and ours, Michigan) they'd be useless. Ditch it and install a real ac. In our Egg Camper it's under one dinette seat. There are others on the forum who have or are in the process of adding or replacing real ac units that are readily available at Walmart, Lowe's, etc for a very reasonable cost.

[mary and bob]

I've seen on another trailer forum frequent discussions of a "petcool" unit. Never paid any attention as we were not going to install A/C in our teardrop. Anybody have any info on them. Also seen mentioned a "fantastic fan" that I assume is a roof vent with a fan in it? I'll google them. Bob