Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

1999 Viking 2460 with 10' 8" frame length, 6' 8" width frame. Might be a good candidate for a standie on the chassis that is in great shape. This is a demo job. The interior fabrics are a hot mess. Dometic fridge, shower/toilet system, water heater, three burner indoor/outdoor stove top, 20# LP tank, awning,; all as is and have not tested them. The canvas is trash, cushions are trash, curtains are trash. Estimate by Bear Creek Canvas for total canvas replacement is $1100 plus shipping and a 6 month lead time.

I was going to build a Michael and Carrie's Astroliner inspired standie on the chassis but have come to the conclusion that my bride isn't going to go camping. So I will sell for what I paid for the trailer, $200, to any tnttt member interested in a good chassis. I am currently listing it on craigslist as well for $400.

The trailer is road worthy, brake, turn, tail lights all work. Tires are original, yeah 20+ years old. So if you are going a long distance you may want to upgrade before taking it. Let me know if you want specific photos.

Tim

Oh my goodness I was jesting in other thread butit is. Hmmmm....

Marking this post SOLD until my brother and I demo the camper and see what appliances and chassis can be salvaged. This should be fun!

The demo is always fun, cleaning up the mess that's left is not

JunkMan wrote:The demo is always fun, cleaning up the mess that's left is not

At $71/ton at our transfer station that is only three miles away it really won't be too bad. I figure the chassis is ~350# and the appliances are another 150#. The 2100# pop-up is down to 3/4 ton and that doesn't subtract the scrap metal which is either free to drop off or I could make a couple bucks hauling it to the recycler.

Saw a guy on YouTube that propped the roof up a few inches and supported it with a couple 2x4s before letting the lift cable go slack. He then cut the four corner supports with a sawzall and threw the roof on the ground. As big as this roof is I'll have to cut it into three pieces to get in in a 5x8 trailer. I don't know if there is any metal sheathing worth separating on it. The rest should be sledge hammer, bolt cutter and impact driver jobs.

About two hours of labor, an impact driver, a shop vac and N95 mask. Smells better. I took the pacifist approach to demolition so far compared to the YouTube guy.

Time to get the soft goods to the dump tomorrow.

Too bad the canvas was shot, whats left looks pretty solid. I junked out a 70's Winnebago many years ago, what a mess that was!

With the price of plywood nowdays, you might be able to salvage the bottoms off the beds or do a curb alert on Craigslist and get someone to haul them away. Probably not much aluminum or steel in it, unless your recycler is near by, probably not worth hauling in unless you have some other scrap to recycle too.

JunkMan wrote:Too bad the canvas was shot, whats left looks pretty solid. I junked out a 70's Winnebago many years ago, what a mess that was! ...

Yeah, the canvas wasn't the ultimate plan killer. Bear Creek Canvas has a 6 month lead time to get a set made. That would work for my time frame, but there was a plethora of reasons I've decided to do a tear down. The mouse piss is soaked into the bed plywood, the floor under the vinyl flooring, the chipboard of the cabinets. It is really a stinking mess and I don't want to gamble that new canvas, new cushions, new mattresses won't address a lot of the smell. The door is also missing parts and does not operate well. I am contemplating saving the lift mechanism for a possible pop-top foamie. But I don't know if that is a good idea. I like the simplicity of the pop-top that the Compact III design uses. No cables, winch, lubing to maintain.

Honestly, this project changes every time I think about it. I will certainly surprise myself when I make a "final" decision. Flip flopper, wishy washy, you name it.

I haven't started to evaluate whether the appliances are in working condition. I did find a screen room set to match the 11' awning inside a storage area and set that up today. I'll try to move that on craigslist to help recover some of the purchase of the camper. The awning is in great shape. Just needs a good scrubbing. The screen room looks like it was never used.

The trip to the dump amounted to 240# of soft goods. Canvas, cushions, curtains, mattresses and plastic trim pieces. $8.52 ($71/ton)

The balance of shell/roof materials will probably be 600# maybe? I hope to sell/giveaway the awning, screen room, fridge (so far works on 120v and LP), water heater, furnace, water pump, shower, cassette toilet, sink, three burner stove, and potable water tank. Awning and screen room is on craigslist along with the Dometic fridge. I might be able to recover the $200 I paid for the trailer. Maybe a little extra will pay for gas and tipping fees. That's be very cool to have a trailer chassis for zero dollars!

Fridge and furnace work well. Not sure how I'm going to test water heater. I hooked up water supply hose and turned on the water fully expecting multiple leaks and was pleased to find just one leak. But it was substantial. The faucet supply line to the sink blew right off the faucet. Going to have to plug of the faucet line somehow before testing again.

Dometic fridge gone for $75. $125 more to go and its a free chassis (we'll not talk about tipping fees and gas money just yet )

As I mentioned in the update in the last post I sold the Dometic fridge. Wish I had asked for more $ but it was twenty some years old so $75 was a fair price. And it's going to help keep a retired neighbor's beer cold at his camp. Yesterday I sold the awning and screen room for $150. So the $200 trailer and about $20 for gas and $8.52 tipping fee (so far) has cost me $3.52.

Labor cost you say? This is free entertainment!

I have a working Suburban furnace, a very clean Thetford C4 toilet, a Suburban water heater (not tested yet), a working Suburban three burner stove and a few odds and ends like a small RV sink, ? gallon potable water tank, a Centurion 3000 120v to 12v power converter and a Surflo 2.8 gpm diaphragm pump to sell.

Here's what I'm thinking on all this for pricing. Am I nuts?
Suburban furnace, $150
Thetford C4 toilet, $150 (thinking about installing a momentary switch and a submersible 12v pump for flush fill to eliminate the crappy hand twist pump)
Suburban three burner stove, $50 as is (I may try to clean it up and do a little restore job on it and maybe get another $25)
RV sink, $5
Water tank, $5
120v to 12v Converter, $30
Surflo Diaphragm pump, $50

I don't know if there is a lot of value in the metal I'm salvaging from the trailer. There might be 150 lbs of mostly aluminum. Not sure the sheathing on the roof/walls is worth my time to remove from the ply base. Also, I don't know if the lift system is worth trying to remove intact. Twenty year old lift systems are probably not in demand. I'll probably scrap that as well.

The demolition of the pop-up is nearing completion. I'll now need to decide if I should remove the lift system so someone can make use of it or leave it intact.

Plans have changed and at the moment I am not sure what I will do with this chassis. The original idea was to build a standie that my wife would enjoy but she is definitely not leaning in that direction. That has been made perfectly clear. OK, I'll admit, it was actually a standie project for me to keep me entertained and busy while I was staying close to home for a period.

Today I'll load up the remaining materials for a trip to the dump. It may not all fit in the utility trailer so may turn into two trips. Its only three miles so not a biggie.

Update... today's tipping fee was under $23. So the total tipping fees for this trailer demo is less than $32.

Looks like a nice frame to start a project on!

WOW! Found this locally while researching what I might price the chassis at. Of course they can ask whatever they want, what they get is another thing. But really making me think.

https://up.craigslist.org/tro/d/kingsford-1997-utv-and-atv-trailer/7354501764.html

The appliance sales have slowed way down so I still have the furnace, water heater, three burner stove, LP tank and a few odds and ends left that I hope sell. The Suburban three burner stove was disassembled, cleaned and put back together. It turned out well.





The slow down of sales hasn't discouraged me and as I mentioned in another thread I saw this about two hours away and snagged it.



I managed to get the roof raised part way and removed all the soft goods including cutting the canvas off. That'll all go to the dump. Actually, the roof collapsed over the last two winters and everything inside is water logged. I'm hoping the stove, furnace, power converter, LP tank and a few odds and ends will cover the $30 for gas to pick it up and maybe some of the tipping fees. I don't know if the AC unit is salvagable. I have no experience with them. The previous owner says it worked two years ago. The shroud is broken in a few places. I should be able to get a couple hundred for the trailer chassis but I might build a foamie teardrop on it instead.

Update: I just asked Mr Google about the AC unit and there was a question about how long an RV rooftop unit should last. The answer shocked me... three to five years! Why would anyone put an AC unit on a pop-up with that kind of lifespan? Oh, I know, because people will buy them...

I don't agree with the 3 to 5 years. My old 5 th wheel A/C unit was probably close to 20 years old when it finally crapped out. Of course your mileage may vary. Broken covers are common, unfortunatly replacements aren't cheap.