1994 trailmanor 3225

[sgtfrg]

We just picked this up for a fixer upper. We are downsizing from our 36 foot coachman motorhome which we hope to put up for sale soon.

We haven't been able to find much info on this year or model, so if anyone has anything they can share to help us get this jewel back up and going, we would appreciate it. Thanks

[sgtfrg]

I know that the fridge is not working and the furnace needs work and it needs new tires. Outside of that it really just needs some updating. We paid 1995 for it.

[ng2951]

I would join this group first. There is a lot of knowledge buried in this site and good contacts for rebuilding your 3225. If it were only a few years old, joining the group would not be a necessity, but considering the unit's age I would strongly advise you to join.

One of the things you are going to want to check is the condition of the wood in the walls. Some of it may need replacing or it may be in ggod shape and is not needed.

I would also post your location as members may be able to point out help and resources that may be in your area.

Of course if the refer is truly dead that is going to be big bucks. You are also going to want to check the hot water tank (start with the anode) and all other systems to see what shape the old girl is in.

[B_and_D]

It looks like it's in pretty good shape. How hard have you tried to get the refrigerator to go on? Have you tried it both on gas & electric? When we first bought ours it took forever to cool down, it was 100 degrees outside. It may be as simple as a wire not connected properly, but until you really check it out who knows?

Do you know what issues the furnace has?


I have a brochure from (I think) 1996 that lists a model 3225 & shows the floorplan & specifications, you might be interested in seeing that.

Congrats on your purchase!

[sgtfrg]

We won't have a chance to go through it properly until we pick it up when we go out to my in laws in July. The run down of what we have had looked at is the walls still seem to be solid. There is a slight amount of rust under it from being in a beach town, but not enough to worry over, wire brush and paint will fix it right up. The tires are shot, needs greased. The fridge was just listed and not working, and the furnace as "needs some work." I'm not overly concerned about the fridge as it's the same brand as in our motorhome and they can be a little fussy.

For now our biggest focus will be rounding up tires to get it on the road. They are still 13's. I hate the thought of having to spend money on 13's to get it home, just to turn around and buy more to lift and upgrade to a larger size. I am curious if we can get away with a 14, so that we only buy one set of tires and then once back home in MO add the lift. Anyone know if the square wheel well is large enough to handle the 14 without changes? We've got roughly 1000 miles to get it home.

B_and_D, I would really appreciate a chance to see the brochure. I'm finding it's pretty tough to find much in the way of anything on the older models, but hear they stayed pretty similar for years at a time.

Thanks so much for the replies,
Ed and Missy

[ng2951]

Try calling Ed at the factory. He can probably help in that regard about the wheels.

Congrats on getting 3225. Once you get it all fixed up you are probably going to like it (especially the fuel economy)...

[angerlo]

If you have the rectangular wheel wells, you might try searching thru "retrofit wheel wells" to protect the metal wheel wells. I am not that familiar with the double axle King.
I have a 3023 and upgraded from 14" to 15" tires and wheels. You can check my post called, "from 14" to 15" tires and wheels." Use the steel valve stems from Nappa.
To protect the plumbing from possible blowout damage, I purchased a half-inch rubber mud flap made for semis ($10.95) (JKC 1230 HD 1/2" rubber 24x30 JKC 7400 mud flap) from<ryderfleetproducts.com>. I cut horizontally to made two 12" wide flaps and again at 15." Then I glued the two sections together to make two 12 x 15" one inch thick flaps and bolted them with four stainless steel bolts per flap to the outrigger part of frame. Fits perfectly and is solid, yet flexible. I will make a post about this next week.
To restore lustre and color to TM. I would recommend the use of a turtlewax polishing compound to clean sullied sections. Rub hard. Then I used Thedford RV Wax - a color restorer and deoxidizer. It's a carbauna wax and goes on well. One quart will do it. To clean of rust steel frame and steps, I not only used steel brushes but also navy jelly to dissolve rust and then applied two coats of rustoleum. Best of luck in the restoration project!

[hillbillyhotel]

well we did the same,thing kinda,found a sweet 91 tm 23 in a garage, got it about 5 wks or so ago. took her home,cleaned up and started going over,only one water leak to fix and all worked well, then power to it,a few bulbs later all lights was working,well it was time for gas, stove and oven lit right up, off to the water heater, wow lit also,well then it was time for ref. yup you right , no luck,put on list,
we had a return trip planned to the kentucky speedway, first of oct,so we decided to get to work and make the ole girl roadworthy.repacked bearings, new tires (14 inch on it) and take it on the trip and decide to keep her or the thor hybrid we have used last two seasons, not first pony ride with a tm, a few yrs back had a 87 or 88 tm 28, just did not know what i had and sold because i really did not understand it,ok back to the trip,pulled out and made a safe trip to the speedway,made it on half the gas as same trip in july pulling 21 ft thor cup with same tv, wow, all was well at track, found project #2, furance comes on ,but not lighting, then we went to leave and was getting rdy to dump toilet, yup flange seal leaking, #3 for list,
made our way back to cumberland gap np where we meet (scrubjaysnest)loved the park,and then on back home,, loved the space and so many things about it, it stays and will sell the other,
just so all knows, the info we got here was a factor in keeping the ole girl and best 12 dollers ever spent ,so hope to see others on the road going back out next month after a few more repairs.
randy & vickie

[Dave99gst]

what were they thinking in the 90's with those fabrics ! The condition does look like its pretty good tho !

[sgtfrg]

To update a little on our Trailmanor, it ended up being in much better condition than they told us it was. Everything worked, but the fridge and the tires turned out to be fine, but we still had the new ones we brought with us put on it, and kept the old ones as spares, which is nice to have.

We hauled it straight to the beach from the RV lot and after an hour or two of scrubbing it down, it was ready to go. We spent several days there with the family and had a ball.

So as of right now we are full swing into a remodel of the interior. It really wasn't anything that was required, but really just a choice. We papered the kitchen area, put a backsplash up behind the stove and yesterday we finished pulling up the old flooring, which we are replacing with the new floating vinyl wood planks by aquarius, which is only the thickness of the old vinyl floor squares, but made of a rubber backing with the faux wood vinyl on top of it. It locks into place like the new wood floors but with a water tight seal and no glue needed since it floats. It also doesn't require anything to be put down between the floor and it like normal floating floors. It's supposed to be quick easy and very low weight, which fits all of our needs in a trailmanor. We'll post new pictures of it once we get it finished in the next week or so.

In the mean time, we also have to pull the fridge again. The temp is bouncing between 15 at night and 46 as soon as the sun rises. We hope to have it all right and ready so that we can take it on an extended 4 week family vacation down in Florida soon.

It's coming along real quick. We lucked out with this find for sure last summer when we found this amazing deal.

[Bluegrass]

Great buy and looks really nice. I'm curious - are those gold things lights on the left and right sides of the front bed? If so, how do you get the front shell down or are they detachable somehow?

Keith

[sgtfrg]

They are lights, but silver ones that I replaced the old ones with. The lights are directly beneath the overhead cabinets, so the shell stops just short of that space, when completely closed.

[Bill]

I'm curious - are those gold things lights on the left and right sides of the front bed? Keith Ah, those are the "elegant lights". You can Search the board on that term if you are curious. TM used them for a long time, and they really looked nice in the photo shoots, but they were troublesome on a day-to-day basis. The vibration of travelling would unscrew the bulbs just enough that they wouldn't turn on. It wasn't a big deal, just screw the bulbs back in. But eventually the socket's center contact would also get deformed and wouldn't make contact. And the shades were forever crooked.

As you can imagine, lots of complaints. Sometime between 2002 and 2006, TM finally gave up on them, and switched to something a bit more robust - if not quite so elegant.

Bill

[moaboy]

In the overall scheme of things, amazing how much has not changed.
Good luck with your polishing the old gem.

[Retired Army]

This was our first Trailmanor and the remodel of it. We loved that thing! We just couldn't figure out how to log in under our old user name so had to create this one! Last year we gave this one to our son thinking we wanted to upgrade to a full size camper. After pulling the new camper to South Dakota this spring, we returned home and immediately began looking for another Trailmanor! LOL

We ended up with a 2010, 2619 model over the weekend, since it's really just us now. I guess it's true. Once you own a trailmanor, you're hooked.

[Retired Army]

Final product pictures, before we passed this one on to one of our sons. By the way, I feel like it should get an extra thumbs up on strength and stability, because it survived Hurricane Michael, while OPEN. If a branch had not put a 2 inch hole in the roof, I would say it was virtually unscathed. Anything that came off, went right back on!