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Old 06-23-2014, 09:48 PM   #1
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1967 28' Ambassador
Kansas City , Missouri
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 3
Weight after gutted?

I am looking to purchase a 1969 Tradewind 25'.
The specs say that the trailer is about 750lbs over my Jeep Wranger Unlimited's tow capacity.
I'm likely to gut the trailer and refit it with modern furnishings, and in doing so I can track my weight - but I'm doing some planning now, but unable to find a 'gutted weight' for the trailer.
Can someone point me in the right direction please?
I do appreciate the help.
David

ps: After I buy the thing and have an idea what I'm going to re-use and what I'm going to part with - I'll do a post so you all can grab the parts you need.
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Old 12-12-2014, 05:47 PM   #2
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1969 25' Tradewind
Shasta Lake , California
Join Date: Sep 2012
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We have a '69 TW 25' when we dragged it home I had it weighed , it was 4300# dry without Battery.

I've gutted it replaced the rear 4' of the floor added under layment and Marmolium flooring and am now in the process plumbing, adding electrical, a complete new bathroom, Air Conditioning, Maxxair power vents, 6 gallon water heater, 3 burner stove top, Ikea kitchen sink and cabinets, Dometic RM8855 Refer, a microwave, flat screen TV, outside shower, Digital antenna, new water tank, water pump, converter/charger, battery,led lighting, 50 gal.gray tank, all new LP system and a washer and a dryer.
Of course the first thing I did was to replace the axles, brakes, wheels and tires , stabilizer jacks, power tongue jack and a flip foot .

The end result will be a slightly heaver trailer.

Here's the rub while towing it home and a few other times with my '98 Tahoe 2 door (short wheelbase) I noticed it had the power but because of the short w.b. it had a slight wiggle on the hi way . My cure was to get a Tundra.
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Old 12-12-2014, 06:10 PM   #3
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1969 25' Tradewind
Shasta Lake , California
Join Date: Sep 2012
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After gutting my 25' TW it felt like my 3200# Casita, I haven't weighed it gutted. I'm hopping it will come in around 5000# to 5500# wet when done.

Your starting 750# heavier then your tow rating. If you just gut the trailer you may be at your Tow Rating without you and your gear or water, propane and anything in the holding tanks. In other words an aluminum tent.

Remember to subtract the weight of you and your passengers and all your stuff from the Tow rating.

I strongly suggest either a larger Tow Vehicle with a tow rating of at least 7000# and a class III receiver OR a smaller trailer.
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2014 Toyota Tundra
1998 Chevy Tahoe

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My Build Thread https://www.airforums.com/forums/f11...ml#post1997059
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Old 12-12-2014, 06:37 PM   #4
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1983 31' Airstream310
Hillsburgh , Ontario
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Welcome to the forums.....

As you have probably deduced by now there're two types of vintage Airstream trailers for sale, trailers that are unmolested and gutted trailers. The gutted trailer ad allways states "Trailer stripped and waiting for your dream interior, all the hard work done". These trailer are easy to strip but a lot of work to reassemble.

Tips to hopefully make you succeed with your project.

1) Buy the trailer and take to a landscaping place or dump with a vehicle scale. Weigh trailer.
2) Very carefully strip trailer keeping a note book to note all electrical connections and measurements. Bag and label everything, taking lots of pictures. KEEP EVERTHING including anything you will throw away or eventually sell.
3) Back to the scale to weigh the trailer empty. This will tell you how much what you took out weighed.
4) Get your design together but understand this....Airstream built things lightly for a reason. If you want to replace that old plastic bathroom sink (which you will weigh seperately) with a glass one, go ahead, but you will have to take that difference in weight from somewhere else.
5) It's so easy to overload a vintage Airstream. Also be aware of the percentage of weight you add to the area forward of the center point and the area behind the center point of the trailer. Too much weight on the front will affect towing as will too much weight behind.
6) You may find that the layout is just fine but you wish to replace cabinetry. I built my cabinetry starting with a face frame, to which I added gables going all the way to the floor, but only going back from the faceframe just long enough to mount my drawer slides. No backs or even bottoms to save weight. You have to be creative and it can make things difficult to build.
7) I also revinyled my interior gables as they were very durable but lightly constructed with paper sandwich board between sheets of aluminum. It would be almost impossible to build gables as strong or as light from any other material.

Projects can change and you can find yourself looking at how something was built by Airstream and decide with a bit of freshening up it would work better than what you could replace it with.

For this reason.....keep everything!

Cheers
Tony
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Old 01-09-2015, 01:59 PM   #5
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1967 28' Ambassador
Kansas City , Missouri
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Thanks for all the input here!
I ended up finding a 1967 Land Yacht 28' survivor.
Got it at good money, and I am cleaning and upgrading to wood floors, new countertops, and only going through the electrical, gas and plumb systems now.
I'm also shopping for a surer-footed tow vehicle.


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