With spring around the corner, and more and more people buying or looking at buying pre-owned RVs, we decided to bring you a couple of stories that just may answer some of those used RV questions you may have.
First, Jeff Johnston helps a friend with an inspection and repair of his newly purchase used RV..
Then, if that camping trailer you’re looking at happens to be a pop-up tent trailer, we’ll show you, how simple it is to get a new, complete or partial canvas replacement.
Dan’s Used Trailer Gets Up to Snuff
There’s very few days as exciting as the first day that you bring home your new or slightly used trailer. The one Jeff uses in this show is a 1996 Kit Road Ranger. The owner, Dan Mountjoy, has been going around and doing a little bit of inventorying on it to find out what has to be done to it. It doesn’t matter if the trailer is new or used, there are things that you need to do to a trailer before you take it out on your first run.
You need to check the safety things, the functions, make sure everything’s working like it’s supposed to, make sure all the parts are there and up to date. And that’s what Jeff shows us with this trailer.
Mainly, Jeff covers items relating to safety and mobility because it doesn’t much matter if the refrigerator works if you can’t get the trailer to the campground and back safely.
A day or two of small projects can make a big difference in keeping things together and trouble free en route to your favorite campsites. When you buy a used trailer, you will always have a certain amount of things that have to be done to it. If you’re very lucky and you get one that’s a turnkey operation, terrific.
Often, though, you may wind up with an older rig like this that needs a little bit of help along the way. Once it gets done, of course, then you can be ready for relatively smooth RV sailing and head out for your first weekend knowing that you can get there safely.
Canvas Replacement for that Tent Trailer
If your pop-up camping trailer has wife and neighbors complaining, then it’s time to contact the folks at Canvas Replacements. This week, we take you to Loyal, Wisconsin. the home to Canvas Replacements, the leading manufacturer of pop-up tent camper canvas.
It’s very interesting how someone can take an old canvas that looks like it came from the Civil War, all ripped and shredded with pieces missing, and turn out an exact replica using today’s modern materials. Well, we’ll show you.
Bob Grambsch, owner of Canvas Replacements, tells us “In 1973, we bought out a bunch of surplus materials from another camper company that went out of business.. that was Tradewinds.
Included in that inventory of miscellaneous hardware parts were a whole semi trailer load of obsolete tent camper canvases. They were brand-new canvases in bags that were for Tradewinds campers that had been made in 1963 and ’64.
Bob continues, “My dad and I thought those were pretty worthless, but we hauled ’em back here with the rest of the stuff anyway. And after a few weeks, people were calling the office at Tradewinds and being directed to us to get a new tent for their 10-year-old Tradewinds camping trailer. It began to dawn on us. God kinda beat it on my dad’s head that this is kinda the direction you need to go.
And over the next couple years, we started specializing in selling replacement tent camper canvases. But more and more, we expanded our sewing operations and started making new tents from scratch for ones that we couldn’t find a source on.
And over the years, we have, when other companies have gone out of business, and we’ve just expanded on that. At this point, we can make a new tent for any camping trailer. And we have for, I think, back to a 1920-something Cozy Camp to campers that were made in the 2000s. And all we need–at the most, all we would need would be the old canvas that we’re replacing. And we have a staff that can take that apart and measure it, even if it’s a rag, and duplicate it and make a new tent that fits perfectly.”
These stories and more on this week’s Rollin’ On TV