Why white box ads?

[yukionna]

Hey, I just notice that I was just served an ad for a white box (i.e., SOB) trailer while surfing this website!!!

What's up with that?!

[john hd]

yuki

it's just so you can see how the other side lives!

john

[wahoonc]

Actually I think the TM's are pretty neat...kind of the folding equivalent of an AS Now if they were silver and the WBCCI accepted....Actually they have their own club and Airstreams are not allowed

Aaron

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by wahoonc

....Actually they have their own club and Airstreams are not allowed

Aaron

geez, what a bunch of snots those TM people are.

[Minnie's Mate]

I think it is kind of ironic. I mean TM is supporting a website dedicated to their competition! Or at least a bunch of camping folks that aren't interested in SOB's. Like, hello! You can sponsor our site, but you probably don't stand a chance of a sale. Oh, I guess I shouldn't say that...they might pull their ad and then we would need someone else to put their ad dollars into paying for our forum. Hey Airstream, want to belly up to the table, or do you have ads on the TrailManor Forum?

[ALANSD]

those ads are tuned to appear relative to words posted on the page...post "Trailer" you get Google ads that are about trailers.

[Pahaska]

As a former Trailmanor owner (I was President of the South-Central Trailmanor club region and was actually elected National VP of the Trailmanor club but bought an Airstream before taking office), I assure you that Trailmanors and Airstreams are night and day apart in robustness. My Trailmanor was literally coming apart after 3 1/2 years of ownership. All of the pivots for the top sections are just bolts through the wood framing or simple holes drilled in metal plates.

The folding idea is what sold me, but the downsides of poor construction and inconvenience turned me off. To boot, I get as good fuel mileage pulling my 29' Airstream with the diesel as I got pulling the Trailmanor with a Dakota.

[rseagle]

If I were going to downsize, I'd give this little aluminum trailer some consideration:

http://home.centurytel.net/edevold/

Check out the Model 560!

[ALANSD]

quite cute, but kinda like a sardine can...just my opinon though

[Minnie's Mate]

Originally Posted by rseagle

If I were going to downsize, I'd give this little aluminum trailer some consideration:

http://home.centurytel.net/edevold/

Check out the Model 560!

Not too unlike a model that was supposedly consedered by Airstream for a future model that would be for similar purposes. One that would be just for sleeping and cooking but no bath facilities; for the family that wanted to move up from a tent and have everything in a small unit that could be pulled behind a smaller car.

[azflycaster]

The great thing about the teardrop is:

It's small enough to be stored in a garage,
It can be pulled by almost anything,
You can be buried in it!

[rluhr]

Originally Posted by Minnie's Mate

Not too unlike a model that was supposedly consedered by Airstream for a future model that would be for similar purposes.

Not just "supposedly" -- it is called the Base Camp and will be available by 2006. But it's a lot bigger than a teardrop and very cool, as you would expect.

[markdoane]

I found this statement at the Trail Manor website (linked from a dealer ad on this forum):

"Imagine being able to store a full-sized travel trailer in your garage. You can with TrailManor. And with TrailManor, you can also choose our patented swing-around tongue which reduces storage length by two feet. Our 26-foot models fit neatly into a 17 1/2-foot garage!"
-Trailmanor website, http://www.trailmanor.com/

Can someone explain geometry to me. I understand the swingaround hitch. Still doesn't make sense, but maybe I'm just too intuitive.

[TomW]

Perhaps it fits neatly when parked diagonally in a 17-1/2 foot garage.

Tom

[Pahaska]

Originally Posted by markdoane

Can someone explain geometry to me. I understand the swingaround hitch. Still doesn't make sense, but maybe I'm just too intuitive.

The 26' quoted in the ad is "Trailmanor speak" for the length of a non-folding trailer that would yield equivalent interior length of an erected Trailmanor. Trailmanor uses a four digit model designation that combines the equivalent length with the actual folded length. My old Trailmanor was a 3124SL which meant a 24' folded length which supposedly was equivalent to a 31' trailer when erected.

The trailer in the ad (2619) is equivalent in interior length to a conventional 26' trailer, but is 19' when folded for travel. Subtract 2' for the swing hitch, and it fits into a 17 1/2' garage.

What they don't say is that the trailer is narrow inside due to the folding construction and that some of that space is cantelevered out over space and has to be awkwardly crawled into and that just about all of the limited storage is below waist level..

I'm glad my Trailmanor is just a memory. There is loads more space in my 28' Classic than my supposed 31' equivalent Trailmanor had.

[markdoane]

Thanks John,

I thought it was something like that. Like the way some manufacturers measure sportboats, they measure the perimeter along the rubrail, add the perimeter of the swim platform, and divide by 2.

[Moonshot]

I went from a 1963 AS Tradewind to a 1999 Trailmanor 3023 then to a 1979 Argosy (my current camper).

The Tradewind was spending about as much time in the repair shop as it was in the campground. After spending three days of an all-to-rare one week camping trip in an RV repair shop we decided to sell. We bought a trailmanor based on their supposed ability to be towed by an SUV and slick advertising images.

The trailmanor's folding mechanism works over pressed fiberboard, vinyl and plastic held together with metal screws that can loosen and fall out. The vinyl cushioning of the upper part would scratch the interior pressboard walls as the unit opened and closed. However, the trailmanor company is great. I recall ordering the broken plastic bits at a very reasonable cost. However, we found that the trailmanor was not economical to tow and the breaking pressboard/plastic bits left us with a feeling of owning something cheaply made. One plus for the trailmanor over other "popups" is the axle is set closer to the rear of the trailer making for easy towing. I've wondered why other campers (including Airstreams) haven't done this, but then again I'm not an engineer.

Trailmanor's have good resale value. We sold ours for more than we paid for it. However, we were happy to be back in an Airstream. Our Airstreams have required attention and repair, but when the day is done we have product that is well-built and still economical to use. We just want to camp and maximize our fun while camping as much as we can afford to do so.

[Uberlanders]

Last summer we spotted a Tab-rv. Like a teardrop yet less coffin like. Check them out at www.tab-rv.com The sticker price almost made us fall over. How could something so tiny and light weight cost so much. We had always wanted an Airstream and instead of tiny we ended up with 26'.

[Pahaska]

Originally Posted by Uberlanders

How could something so tiny and light weight cost so much. We had always wanted an Airstream and instead of tiny we ended up with 26'.

With any sort of options, the aluminum version lists for over 1/5 of the list of an optioned 28' Classic. With 2005 Classics now advertised at $46,500 and a leftover 2003 28' Classic at $42,500, you could easily end up investing 1/4 to 1/3 of the above trailers.

I got into one at the RV show. Nice quality unit, but minimal in every aspect. Still, I have seen several of them on the road, so someone must be buying them.
Better than a popup, by far, though and not that much more expensive than the big popups with slides and all nowdays.