Refurbishing a trailmanor

[jt1737]

Hi! We are hoping to be owners of a trailmanor soon! We are looking at at 1997 2518 and I am wondering if anyone has some tips on refurbishing a trailmanor. We would like to replace the upholstery. Do the cushions remove for easy recovering? Any suggestions on type of fabric to use? What about the mattress covers? I'm thinking we would use a mattress topper and maybe just a queen size spread tucked in when not in use, but would like to hear what others have done. We would like to cover the floor with Konecto wood look vinyl flooring. Used this in our recent basement remodel with great success. They come in planks and strips are glued together, but not glued to the floor itself. Has anyone painted the interior walls? Is there anything special about which type of paint to use?

I realize this may be a project, but that seems to be our weakness. We are still working on our third home remodel!

Thanks for any advice for a newbie at rving!

jt

[Bill]

Refurbishing / redecorating a TM can be a lot of fun. You can do it at your own pace and your own skill level. Several of our members have redone the floor, for example, and the SEARCH tool will help you find their stories.

One thing that is definitely NOT fun is repairing water damage to the frame of the shells if water was allowed to get into the walls. In those days, the shells were framed with wood, and if water got into the walls, the wood rotted. It doesn't happen often, but it has happened.

One of the most infamous incidences happened to our old-time member Happytrails (not the same as the current member with the same handle). He documented the whole repair process on a web site that seems to be gone now. However, there were several long threads on this board at the same time that describe some of it. There may be others.

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=341
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=618
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=992
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=606

Before buying, you should make sure that your new trailer does not suffer from wood rot in the shells.

Bill

[B_and_D]

We have a 97 but haven't had to do any extensive remodeling. The cushions in the dinette are not secured but come right out. I'd buy some nice, sturdy upholstery fabric that won't show dirt and then scotchguard the heck out of the cushions when you're done. We did that with ours and they still look pretty clean (original fabric), after 5 years of (second) ownership and no cleaning. The mattress covers are a lot bigger. I'd probably just cover them with something. We keep ours covered with fitted sheets at all times to keep them cleaner and then vaccum them once in a while. That 97 2518 probably has the same color scheme as ours...with the green mattress covers & carpet and the white floral pattern for the cushions and valances. The high cabinets in the front above the bed have kind of a floral stained glass effect that matches the cushions and valances. And you've got the squiggly green tree decals on the outside?

Are you sure that the interior walls don't just need to be cleaned? If they're really dirty it might take a bit of elbow grease to get them clean. We clean ours regularly, but if you don't, the TM starts looking pretty sad. I spend a whole day giving the TM an outside bath & good scrubbing at least once a year and keep it covered. You might want to call the factory and ask them what type of paint they think would stick well to the interior walls; you might need to do some preparation beforehand.

If you need any appliance manuals let me know, I have scanned them and can email to you.

We love our 97 TM. It's really well built and has held up well for us (except for the tires, but that's another story).

Good luck with your purchase!

D

[jt1737]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, we missed out on that purchase. Dragged our heels a little too long, but now that I am doing my homework I'll be ready when the next deal comes along!

[B_and_D]

I'm sorry to hear that. Perhaps "it wasn't meant to be". That's what I always say when we miss out on something. When we were looking for a trailer before we bought our TM, we drove 1 1/2 hours to the SF Bay area to look at a trailer. The people sold it about 15 minutes before we got there. It was nice, but we weren't that sad about it, and a couple of days later I discovered the TM's on the internet. We found the perfect TM for us fairly quickly, even though we had to wait for it until after the summer camping season and make two trips of over 1700 miles (I love to travel, so that's always OK with me ;)). We made up for that though; we took a Thanksgiving trip, a winter break trip, some spring break trips, and by that time we'd had it all figured out and spent a nice summer vacation in it.

What kind of a TM are you looking for, and in what area? I'll pass along anything I hear about. Send me a PM with your budget & I'll let you know if I hear about anything.

D

[Psaul0911]

We need to replace the outside decals for our TM. First issue was finding the decals that trailmanor doesnt sell anymore or do they have a print on the dimensions. Regardless of availability issues we first need to remove them. Any ideas?

[Bill]

Removing decals is usually a matter of heat. Use a hair dryer, or very carefully, use a heat gun on a low setting. Start at
one end of a decal, and gradually work your way along, lifting it off as you heat.

Aside from the TM name itself, I think that the only unique graphic on a TM is the tree, which I personally love. Aside from that, there are a ton of swoosh graphic decals on Amazon.

Bill

[Psaul0911]

Thanks. I did not think of Amazon for the decals. I tried trailmanor manufacturing and they did not even have the engineering print.
I will try Amazon.

[B_and_D]

You should take a digital picture of the decals that you want to replace. There are people who can reproduce them for you. One of our distant cousins does that type of work but I don't have his contact info. I just took ours off.

[Shane826]

Decals on a 1997 are pretty much just blue stripes and the TM logo, right? Should be easy enough to duplicate if that’s the route you want to go. Or there are a ton of graphics kits on Amazon that are pretty sharp yet reasonably priced. Or if you want to go custom any graphics/vinyl wrap shop should be able to set you up.

[Psaul0911]

I did try Amazon the decals they had did not match what we had on the trailmanor. We did not want to replace both sides only the side that was damaged.
I see one person said to take it to a vinyl shop and have them make it. That is what we plan on doing.
Thanks everyone for your input.

[Shane826]

Oh no Amazon was never gonna have matching decals… Also check eBay. There are usually some decals there, but it won’t be the blue stripes.

[Bill]

I did try Amazon the decals they had did not match what we had on the trailmanor. I did not realize you needed to match the originals. I'm not sure if I would have a problem if the left side of my TM was a bit different from the right side, especially if it saved a bunch of cash. After all, you can see only one side at a time.

As they used to say in vaudeville days, "ya pays yer money, and ya takes yer choice".

If you have them custom-made in a vinyl graphics shop, please let us know the name of the shop, and how much they charge you.

Bill