Alright, so affter years of tent camping with our three little ones (9, 7, 5), we finally decided to move up and get a trailer.
A little background on myself: I am an IT professional, automotive
enthusiast and regualr handyman around the home.
We're about a week into this thing and it has been bittersweet.
We found the Prowler 19LN trailer on CL in Reno (~2 hour drive) and lowballed the asking price down from $3800 to $2900 and he took it! Stoked, our family set out to pick it up. And that's where fun started
Long story short, our original plan of heading up there hooking up the trailer and heading back turned into staying the night and not getting back until 10pm the next day.
First note: We're towing with an '06 Kia Sedona van with a class 3 hitch. Trailer dry weight is 3100# and we can tow 3500# so as long as we don't load it up too much, we're good.
Van needed to be re-wired for a 7 pole connector and a brake controller - we had a flat 4 already installed. Also needed a weight distribution bar. The day we got there was spent gather most the materials we needed. The next day was spent installing the brake controller, 7 pole trailer wiring and weight distribution bar. Also had to get a new battery.
Hook it up at about 4pm and we're good, right? NO! The lighting didn't work right!
A run to autozone nets a lot of frustration and I ended up getting the running lights and brake lights to work by tapping the brake output and a constant power.
Fortunately, we were able to get home before a major storm hit later that night.
At home, we go to hook up the water and BAM! Water heater tank is gushing. So a $350 trip to the local trailer supply nets a new pilot only water tank and we're good to go. Everything else worked fine...for the time being.
We tested it this weekend on our first camping trip to encounter some electrical issues - but that will be saved for another post.
Well, there is the story of my life the last 10 days.
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