Update and Trailerworks in Beaufort SC

[da_lizard]

Hey, I will keep you in mind, if this does not work out.

Thanks,
Elizabeth

[hampstead38]

How did everything work out, Elizabeth?

[da_lizard]

Hey Ken, we decided to "wait it out" a little longer. He had his project manager, Michelle call us last week, to tell us that 2 trailers had moved out and we are at the top of the list. Tom spoke with her,but he had oral surgery that AM, so he did not ask any questions. I am waiting for Eric to e-mail me about a contract and estimate. So hopefully things will get started soon!!

[hampstead38]

July to October... you are patient. As I think was noted earlier, "Michelle" was not hired until after we had moved our Overlander from Beaufort to Helena. While things have not moved as quickly at P&S as we originally thought, the folks there have been great about staying in touch. We're visiting this weekend to do a walk through inspection on the frame, floor and some minor plumbing stuff. It's not quite ready for delivery, but maybe... just maybe, the end is near. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[hampstead38]

I just sent you a PM, but thought it might be appropriate to bring this thread back to life.

[maxeystevens]

We are looking for an airstream and bid on one on e-bay that was restored by Trailerworks. Didn't get the trailer, but led me to their website and we liked the work. Just wondered if you ever got your trailer back and if so, how was it?

[snshort]

Hi there. I was curious to see this post today while looking for some answers on our new 1974 Overlander. We started looking a few months ago and our research turned up TrailerWorks. We thought this was a great thing since it was so close to us (we are in Savannah). I called and a gentleman answered. I told him that we were in the market to purchase an Airstream and had some questions for him. He told me he had a client in his office and asked if he could call me back. I never heard back from him. A few weeks later I decided to call again. He answered and said he had been on vacation and was backed up on returning his phone calls and could he call me back because he had a client with him. I never heard back from him, again. My husband also called and left a message. We finally decided to join the forum to get our answers. Every question has been answered quickly on the forum.

We have given up on TrailerWorks and we are glad we did after reading this thread. We did like the photos of the work they had completed but the lack of communication at the start only could lead to a hassle in the future.

Neil and Shelly

[hampstead38]

First, you have to love the Airforums. We have some great people here who really understand Airstream renovation.

Second, it's odd that you posted. Some time ago I received a call from an attorney. He had an older family member who bought a vintage Mercedes from Eric Drugge, owner of TrailerWorks. I'm not sure if it was through "TrailerWorks" or a private sale. He tracked me down through my old Yahoo blog where I described my less-than-positive experience with the firm. I won't go into the details of the problems with the car, but the attorney had done some other digging. Honestly, I thought I had done decent due diligence before we took our trailer to Beaufort, but clearly, lawyers have access to "tools" I don't.

If I were doing another major job and felt even a hint of hesitation, I'd spent a few nickels and have a lawyer check things out and write a iron clad contract with liquidated damages. And if you're still looking for someone to do some work, we were happy with P&S Trailer Service out of Helena, Ohio. Frank Yensan is an active Airforums member trying to build a trailer renovation business here in Maryland.

Best of luck with your project and by the way, we really did like the Beaufort area. We had an incredible Thanksgiving meal including smoked gouda grits. Not my usual Turkey Day fare, but the "receipt" was so good, we still make them from time to time. Love that Low Country chow.

[2airishuman]

the clearest insight into ANY vendors product is 2 spend time...

LOOKING/inspecting the outcome/final products...

and visiting DIRECTLY with the vendor AND his customers.

19 months ago i had the opportunity to meet 20 or so HAPPY owners/customers from this vendor

and INSPECT their trailers over several days, take pictures and so on.

at the time, trailerworks was hosting an annual rally at disneyworld in flo'

Airstream Forums - TrailerWorks Winter Rally @ Disney's Ft. Wilderness

a couple of dozen units and owners attended in 09,

from a very diverse pool of now defunct but historic trailer companies...

it was a lot like being at a TCT event with a few streams tossed into the mix.

disney was fun, the host family very pleasant and the pot luck very very good.

it was clearly OBVIOUS the sort of projects THIS VENDOR likes to do.

his past customers CLEARLY outlined the 'process' and timeline and cost...

and any issues good OR bad, they had experienced.

there was AMPLE time to talk directly with the company people and discuss projects.

i don't know IF they still do this annual rally,

but it was fun and informative...

in ways that NO BLOG by 1 unhappy person will ever manage, even when repeatedly bumped.

cheers
2air'

[alumfever]

I wish I had found this thread before I took my trailer to Trailerworks. I had the same communication problems. And, while there were some repairs that I was pleased with, there are several repairs that I am not pleased with. The overall experience was negative. I would not take my trailer back to Trailerworks.

[da_lizard]

Hey everyone,
Our experience with Trailerworks continues. We had an agreement for completion on June 30, but that did not happen, then he promised we would have it for our vacation on August 17, but again did not happen. We likely would be done now, but as we have no vacations planned we did add a couple of things on so we hopefully do not have to go back.

We are very pleased with the work we have seen on our visits. They appear to pay attention to detail. I am not happy with the lack of correspondence and communication (unless another installment payment is due). Also, if you decide to go there, put a penalty of some sort in the agreement if time frame is not met, he is not good at time planning, per his own admission this week.

Hopefully, we will have ours back in the next few weeks, and I will update how things look.

Elizabeth

[hampstead38]

Angela/Brad, don't feel bad. I thought I had a done a decent job of checking the place out, but got stung. On the positive side, our experience with P&S in Ohio was fantastic. In any event, the Airforums are a good resource.

And I'm pleased, Elizabeth, that it looks like you'll finally get your Airstream. The concept your talking about is "liquidated damages." I'm not an attorney, but I do a fair amount of work with contracts. In Maryland, it's easy to put liquidated damages into a contract, but they are often hard to collect. There has to be a rational nexus between the "delay" and actual damages. This might be tough for delivery on a travel trailer, though, I'm sure some clever lawyer could create language that would "incentivize" delivery by a specific date.

I'm sure Airforums regular and retired attorney, Gene, would advise people to have a contract for any significant renovation... and that's very sound advice. It's also probably worth the money to have it be your contract rather than whatever boilerplate a contractor might hand you. I imagine one of the advantages is that if you insist on a fair contract and a business balks... well, that tells you something.

Oh, and it's not that I'm avoiding any points 2air might have made, but he is on "ignore" list so I can't see his comments. By the way, the "ignore" function is really a great feature. Not seeing a comment greatly reduces the temptation to respond.

[ALANSD]

CHECK OUT THIS SITE- IN BEAUFORT SC. NIce folks who do good work.

Felver Design Sign Studio - Vintage Camper Restoration

[shinybean]

We, too, took our trailer to TrailerWorks. We had several things that needed to be repaired, and an A/C installed. For us, communication and timeline were not the issue, as we left it with him for a couple of months since we had no camping scheduled. The quality of work, however, was an issue.

The A/C installation was adequate. We had not had an A/C unit in our trailer prior, so the wiring had to be installed as well as the unit. What I did think was odd about the wiring, was that they just ended the A/C wire with a plug and plugged the A/C into the outlet that my fridge was using. Maybe I just don't know any better, but I assumed that it would be hardwired in. At any rate, the A/C does work, even though they didn't use any grommets where the wire passed through existing structures, and I had to take it back and have them fix this, along with the other mistakes.

We also had them install a new front door seal. In the process of removing the old seal, they used some sort of chemical that oversprayed and ran down the body of the trailer and stained it. We still have not been able to remove the stain. They also used some sort of scraper tool to remove the old gasket, and apparently slipped off the door and gouged the side of my trailer near the door. I tool it back to have him fix these issues, and he said the only way to fix it would be to polish the trailer and buff these things out, which he would gladly do at his regular rate.

We also had him replace an exterior marker light. The installation looked good, but on the way home my trailer started blowing the park lamp fuse in my truck every time I turned on the headlights. I still have not been able to fix this issue.

My refrigerator also conveniently stopped working after he did the A/C install. Granted, it is the original fridge, but that is an awfully big coincidence.

He replaced the flapper in my original toilet using parts from several other vintage toilets. This is want I wanted, as I did not want to lose the original tiolet. However, the flap broke on my next camping trip at the dump station. Again, vintage parts, but...

They were also supposed to seal all of the seams and fix some window leaks. When I brought the trailer home, the window still leaked. I had to take it back and have them fix this again (or rather, for the first time).

When I brought all of these issues to his attention, he didn't seem to care in the least. He offered to polish the trailer for me for around $4,000. Nice...They did attempt to fix the lighting issue, but they could not reproduce the problem when I took the trailer back. Apparently it only happens when the truck is moving - loose wire possibly.

I think that unless you're spending $30K for a complete restoration, you're not even on their radar, at least in my experience. I am happy for the people that have had good experiences with them though. I don't mind if a business makes mistakes, those will happen. It's how they respond to their mistakes that truly separates the good and reputable businesses from the rest.

[cyafishin]

We too had a bad experience with trailerworks and eric drugee. We purchased a trailer from him and planned an interior remodel in 2010.
At first he appeared to offer a reasonable price and there were some nice appearing finished products on his website.
In the end he did a poor job of communicating, doing what was asked for, and the work was not done well nor on time. When the breaks failed leaving his shop on delivery, we cut bait and sold the trailer for a loss (after he fixed them). By the end of the process I had lost complete trust in his product. I was concerned that had I kept the trailer I would continue to be disapppointed, and I worried about the saftey of the trailer.
Would NOT recommend this shop.

[PINKBIKE]

I called him for some used parts,talked to him asked what he had, he said he would take my name and number and would call me back with a price,that was in June....Can You say He sucks at Customer relations ?

[hampstead38]

Any word, Elizabeth?

[betsybo]

We too had an unsatisfactory experience with Eric Drugge and Trailerworks. We too believed we investigated him thoroughly for any possible fraud and/or incompetence issues. We believed he had a nice website and we drove down to see what seemed to be nice trailer restorations and a person who seemed to us to be interested in our project and appeared to have the capability to do a restoration. From our perspective, our relationship went downhill as soon as we left the trailer ('75 Ambassador) with him. Leaving aside the near year that he kept the trailer, and the generally poor quality of the work itself and the lack of satisfactory communication, I'll focus on a few highlights, or lowlights. When I first went to pick up the trailer, I made it only ten miles from the shop when the front roadside wheel flew off the trailer into traffic. Although it was patently obvious to me that Trailerworks had failed to properly tighten the wheel (the rear roadside wheel was also loose) Mr. Drugge's explanation was to insist that aluminum wheels somehow won't stay attached to steel hubs. (Tell that to my F250 with 165000 miles and no aluminum wheel ever flying off the steel hubs). He then kept the trailer two more weeks, did a shoddy and incomplete job of repairing the hub, the wheel and/or the damage to the trailer caused by the wheel. He also promised to send us a new hub insert, which, according to him, was on its way from California, but now that we have paid him, he doesn't return emails other than one to state that he is checking on status. So our "restored" trailer has a wheel with a mismatched hub. Likewise, we received no paperwork for the supposedly new roof A/C or water heater. The AC is visibly damaged and installed in such a way that either it leaks into the trailer or the leak comes from a skylight window that was not properly sealed. He promised to send that paperwork too but, after not receiving that basic information, we suspect that these items were bought off Ebay, at a scratch-and-dent sale, or the like. The bedroom skylight now leaks where no leak existed before and our previously good front windows now have broken seals. After promising to fix our leveling system, he tore it out completely and then - incredibly -- billed this as an extra. We lost all confidence in Mr. Drugge's technical capabilities and integrity. I think there are a number of red flags about Eric Drugge and Trailerworks in Beaufort, South Carolina but unfortunately we missed them as apparently some other people also did here. Had we looked at his online Better Business Bureau rating, we would have steered well clear of this "business."

[hampstead38]

Don't beat yourself up, Betsy. It's all too easy to look at the good signs and ignore the warnings... trust me, I know.

As for the "tall tale" about aluminum wheels and steel hubs, that is simply ridiculous. All sorts of vehicles including some very high performance vehicles use aluminum or alloy wheels. The most common cause of failure is not torquing the lug nuts properly, just Google search "Ron White" and "Sears" to hear a funny story.

Back to your situation, there are plenty of great contractors who work on vintage airstreams including some who frequent the Airforums. It doesn't sound like any of the damage on the Ambassador is "unfixable." Ask around here, find someone you trust, triple check everything and get back on the restoration horse. The good will and free help you'll get from these forums will far outweight whatever you lost in Beaufort over the course of time.

[TrailerWorks]

I got a few calls from clients about this thread - most expressing that I was being unfairly skewered on the forum. I generally take the good with the bad and live with the knowledge that you can't please all of the people all of the time.

To date, Trailerworks has restored, repaired or otherwise worked on over 118 vintage trailers. Airstream, Spartan, Airfloat, Yellowstone, Boles-Aero - you name it, we've probably worked on it. We've had lots of customers from all walks of life. I try as best I can to treat everyone fairly and with respect. The vast majority of our clients go home with a smile on their face. I certainly do not claim to be perfect. Anyone who does has an overly high opinion of themselves.

There are two sides to every story. If anyone has questions about me, my business or any project we have done, I am happy to answer them. I can be reached at eric@trailerworks.biz, (843) 470-5005 or on my cell phone (843) 321-1648.

Eric Drugge, Owner
TrailerWorks LLC