Our Casita Isn't Big Enough!

[Mr Lynn]

Originally Posted by David B.

Snoozy 2 offers a twin bed model, and still has a table in front of a love seat. Build times are only a couple months. Snoozy 2 had bought the defunct Lil Snoozy company, and I have heard nothing but praises about the new product and the new owners.

Howdy— Glad to see Li'l Snoozy is back, now as Snoozy2. The website is here:
https://snoozy2.com

No floorplan diagram, so hard to tell how wide the twin beds are. Some nice features, esp. galvanized frame. Intriguing. No propane? I'd be wary of surge brakes. Cassette toilet? You'll have to dump it more often than a black tank.

Worth a separate thread; search didn't find one.

/LEJ

[Bonnie RB]

Originally Posted by Mr Lynn

I'd be wary of surge brakes. /LEJ

..and the reason for the concern?
Our Casita has electric brakes. Our prior pop-up had hydraulic. My tow dolly has hydraulic. I actually prefer the hydraulic to the electric. Not enough so as to scrap the working electrics and retrofit hydraulics onto the Casita, but given a choice, I'd have paid a premium for hydraulics.
That's my preference after owning and towing with both types.

Jon MB

[Mr Lynn]

Originally Posted by Bonnie RB

..and the reason for the concern?
Our Casita has electric brakes. Our prior pop-up had hydraulic. My tow dolly has hydraulic. I actually prefer the hydraulic to the electric. Not enough so as to scrap the working electrics and retrofit hydraulics onto the Casita, but given a choice, I'd have paid a premium for hydraulics.
That's my preference after owning and towing with both types.

Jon MB

I have no factual reason to be concerned about surge brakes.

I have used U-Haul trailers with them, including their largest (14' I think) hauling a heavy load of furniture. I didn't like them. They seemed to have a delayed response, causing the trailer to act independently, pushing and tugging on my car. I found them disconcerting, in a way that my Casita's electric brakes are not: the electrics act in perfect concert with my car's brakes, so much so that if I did not sometimes test them, I'd not know whether they were working. I like that.

In other words, my wariness is based on subjective experience. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), as we say on the Internet.

/LEJ

PS You call surge brakes "hydraulics." The brakes on all our cars and light trucks are truly hydraulic, controlled by a vacuum pump usually in the engine compartment, that responds to the touch of your foot on the brake pedal. As I understand it, trailer surge brakes are not connected to your vehicle's hydraulic-brake system, but are simply actuated by an inertial mass pumping hydraulic fluid to the brakes when the tow vehicle brakes to slow or stop. Hence the lag I notice. So I prefer the term 'surge' brakes, as that is what actuates them.

[Glenn Baglo]

So, guessing that you cannot manually apply surge brakes if the trailer starts to sway? You would have to brake the vehicle, which is exactly what you don't want to do.

[Mr Lynn]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

So, guessing that you cannot manually apply surge brakes if the trailer starts to sway? You would have to brake the vehicle, which is exactly what you don't want to do.

That would have to be so; with surge brakes you have no independent control of the trailer brakes inside your tow vehicle. With electric brakes, you do. That is a factual reason to prefer electric brakes.

I don't recall hearing the advice to apply the trailer brakes in case of swaying. I drive pretty conservatively with the Casita, so swaying has not been a problem, though I can see some in the mirror after hitting a patch of rough road at speed. Does the community agree that can be good practice?

/LEJ

[John in Santa Cruz]

I definitely had to use my manual brake override to bring my E21 under control when it came unhitched (actually, the ball came off the ball mount), and was ricocheting side to side, a light touch of the brakes and it came right in line, and was easy to modulate to a full stop off the side of the 2 lane narrow back road we were on.

[Mr Lynn]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

I definitely had to use my manual brake override to bring my E21 under control when it came unhitched (actually, the ball came off the ball mount), and was ricocheting side to side, a light touch of the brakes and it came right in line, and was easy to modulate to a full stop off the side of the 2 lane narrow back road we were on.

Whoa! Scary situation! Good thing you had the presence of mind to use the manual brake control. I better remember that from now on.

/LEJ

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Mr Lynn

Whoa! Scary situation! Good thing you had the presence of mind to use the manual brake control. I better remember that from now on.

/LEJ

I forced myself to get in the habit of testing the brakes via the manual lever just about every time I hitch up and start out, when I'm going 25 mph or so in a straight line with no traffic around, I engage the trailer brakes to ensure I feel them dragging the tug a bit, then I know everything is working.

the other test I do every time I plug the trailer into the tow vehicle, after starting the engine, I turn on the parking lights and emergency blinkers and walk around the trailer checking all the lights. if both tail lights are blinking and all running lights are on, then the turn signals and brake lights are good to go.

[Frank R.]

Back on topic, we have a 17' Casita Liberty Deluxe. It is configured to make the beds 3 ways, King, Queen, or two narrow twins. After trying all modes, we decided the twins were best. That way, the person in back doesn't have to crawl over the other one to go potty at night. SO...I put 4 inch extensions on the twins, making it an "Independence" long before Casita made an Independence. BTW, of course both models it has a table. But I made a special size top to better go with the twin beds. We just leave the beds and table set up all the time. Works for us.

[MountainManMike]

Mr Lynn we had similar issues with not enough room. Here is what we did to find the solution that works for us. We bought the Casita Independence because we wanted to sleep separately. The problem was the table. It was not convenient to set up and take down. Also I have pretty large feet and the room between the beds for my feet while using the table (because of the pole) was really aggravating. We are much happier now that I installed a Lagun Table System. It swings totally out of the way when you don’t want it and serves as a perfectly adequate table when needed. And there is nothing to get in the way of my feet! Google it and you will see how versatile the table is. It is a bit involved to install the way I did it but well worth it at least for us.

Happy travels

[Mr Lynn]

Originally Posted by Frank R.

Back on topic, we have a 17' Casita Liberty Deluxe. It is configured to make the beds 3 ways, King, Queen, or two narrow twins. After trying all modes, we decided the twins were best. That way, the person in back doesn't have to crawl over the other one to go potty at night. SO...I put 4 inch extensions on the twins, making it an "Independence" long before Casita made an Independence. BTW, of course both models it has a table. But I made a special size top to better go with the twin beds. We just leave the beds and table set up all the time. Works for us.

Do you mean you widened the beds by 4", or lengthened them?

[Mr Lynn]

Originally Posted by MountainManMike

Mr Lynn we had similar issues with not enough room. Here is what we did to find the solution that works for us. We bought the Casita Independence because we wanted to sleep separately. The problem was the table. It was not convenient to set up and take down. Also I have pretty large feet and the room between the beds for my feet while using the table (because of the pole) was really aggravating. We are much happier now that I installed a Lagun Table System. It swings totally out of the way when you don’t want it and serves as a perfectly adequate table when needed. And there is nothing to get in the way of my feet! Google it and you will see how versatile the table is. It is a bit involved to install the way I did it but well worth it at least for us.

Happy travels

Still not a lot of room between the beds. Can the Lugun Table swing over one of the beds so you can lean back against a cushion along the wall and work at the table? Of course, then you'd end up with your legs out flat. But maybe I don't understand.

I still want an Escape 23'.

/LEJ

[MountainManMike]

Yes the table is very adjustable. It will go 360° around and up and down.

[kate raslavsky]

From what I have seen and read, that model sounds about as perfect a fg trailer as I have seen. We are on our second casita, having traded our spirit for a liberty about 4 years ago, so we could make twin beds. We set a small table up in the center and this has worked out very. However, we now feel we could benefit from a slightly larger bathroom, a larger more permanent table and would like the double size walk around bed. If the 23 has more bathroom space, it really looks like it could be about perfect and well worth waiting for.

[dcs02d]

We moved to a sticky but the new stickies are not the same as the old ones.


We've had a Geo Pro and now a Nobo and previously we had a scamp.

They are an aluminum frame with azdel on the sides and a molded fiberglass top.


Is it going to 40 years? Probably not but it sounds like you won't be lasting another 40 either. It's not wood, it's not going to leak or develop mold like the old ones. You will get 10 years out of it with no problem and more if you keep it up and use it. The 19 foot Geo Pro I had was right about 3,000lbs. Not that much more than a Casita deluxe and a lot bigger and a lot more comfortable - We had a bath tub and a toilet!


They run about 25K now which is on par with a Casita or Scamp now.



I love the Escape 23 but it's going to be twice the cost. It might last twice but I'm not sure I will!

[steve dunham]

Any product when improperly used or installed can fail , including 3M products
If you try to drive your vehicle under water and it fails , don’t
blame the auto manufacturer
I’ve installed tens of thousands of the 3M wire connectors and can count the number of failures on one hand and all were of my making not 3M’s
If you properly apply the scotchlok , make sure the tab is locked in place , and put a couple wraps of 3M tape around the connector body , they work well.
If you look at the splices in most FG trailer , the installer does a HALF A_S job and the parts get the blame

[Terry R.]

I haven't posted in quite a while, but thought I would chime in.



We had the same thoughts about needing twin beds and table seating in our 2007 Spirit Deluxe. We fixed the problem.


We made a convertible bed along the side, that is easily set up. It is wider where we need it. Even fixed it so the bathroom door opens completely.



We had a full size Southern Mattress across the back that we had cut down. We had the edges finished on both pieces of the mattress, so we could still have a full size mattress if we needed it for a third person.



For the remaining parts of each bench we had cushions made for seats. We now have a small eating area with a removable folding table. The table also helps with food prep space.


Works for us. Twin 30 inch beds with a dining area in a Spirit Deluxe. Mattresses are comfy too.

Terry

[Mr Lynn]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

Any product when improperly used or installed can fail , including 3M products
I. . .

Did you post this on the wrong thread?

[Mr Lynn]

Originally Posted by Terry R.

. . . Works for us. Twin 30 inch beds with a dining area in a Spirit Deluxe. Mattresses are comfy too.

Terry

Terry, I'm having trouble visualizing your solution. Could you post a photo or floor plan diagram?

/LEJ

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

Any product when improperly used or installed can fail , including 3M products
If you try to drive your vehicle under water and it fails , don’t
blame the auto manufacturer
I’ve installed tens of thousands of the 3M wire connectors and can count the number of failures on one hand and all were of my making not 3M’s
If you properly apply the scotchlok , make sure the tab is locked in place , and put a couple wraps of 3M tape around the connector body , they work well.
If you look at the splices in most FG trailer , the installer does a HALF A_S job and the parts get the blame

Or then there is just the opposite, such as when the vehicle fails and the dealership tries to blame a vehicle malfunction on the owner installed 7-pin connector in the truck bed, and some well sealed splices (2 layers of shrink wrap as well as liquid electric tape over the ends of the top layer). It is extremely vindicating and satisfying when the very next day when they have roasted crow for lunch, and have to admit their misdiagnosis. But I fully agree with Steve; parts often get blamed when the fault lies with installer incompetence.