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Old 11-09-2010, 07:08 AM   #1
rjlwork
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Default Our experience/tour of the factory

Being new TT owners, we had never been to a manufacturing facility before. We scheduled in, to repair our newbie mistakes and fix some minor flaws. We were warmly greeted by Ed, who is obviously a very busy man. He gave us all the time we needed and even personally gave us the tour.

The line is making about 1 trailer per day and they were just switching over to the fold-down styles from the Elkmont 26s. There is a concerted effort to reduce costs; not alot of extras laying around (parts). Stock is being made (cabinetry etc) for whatever product is on the line now. Staff is smaller due to the lack of production. They were finishing up several Elmonts and had started the first set of fold-downs. You could see everything from the frame to the finished product in all stages. There was an Elkmont outside with a sprinkler running on it's roof all day. They were looking for leaks!

Our issues with the Trailmini were caused mostly by our inexperience with opening/closing. We left our door locked together and tried to close it! We newbie's were dumb! We torqued it pretty good and they were able to get things re-aligned and opening/closing much better, despite what we did to it. I love everything about this model; it's compact and every inch has been well thought out. The learning curve was very short and we're getting more adept at setting it up, hitching, and backing. Towing is a breeze in our new-to-us 2007 Chevy Avalanche, even with a rainy/snowy weekend to tow it home.

We felt the staff and Trailmanor organization has been trying very hard to maintain it's place in the market. It's been a struggle for all of the TT industry to stay afloat and they are committed to us as owners. There have been cutbacks, but they seem to be responsibly trying to meet our needs and still manage construction of new units. It may take a little longer to get a new unit you want; but they're still making trailers!

Our thanks to Ed for the personal service and his staff for their dedication to the product! We hope to see more Trailmanors on the roads and in the campgrounds in the spring. Our 'mini is being put into storage this weekend and will be back out on the road as soon as the Ohio weather permits.

Judy
2010 Trailmini
2007 (new to us!) Chevy Avalanche
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Old 11-13-2010, 06:13 PM   #2
scrubjaysnest
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With HI-LO out of business TM has the market for folding trailers
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Old 11-14-2010, 04:50 PM   #3
mtnguy
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Originally Posted by rjlwork View Post
The line is making about 1 trailer per day and they were just switching over to the fold-down styles from the Elkmont 26s.
That is a big change from when I was there in Aug. 08. During the couple hours that I was there, there were probably a trailer every 2 hours or so coming off of the line. Of course, they were not making Elkmonts then, but I would imagine that he fold downs are probably more difficult to make than the Elkmonts.
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Old 11-17-2010, 02:09 PM   #4
rjlwork
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One item I forgot to mention is the switch over to LED lighting. I'm not sure if it was being installed inside, but they were changing the running lights to LEDs on the Elkmonts.

Judy
2010 Trailmini
2007 Chevy Avalanche
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Old 11-17-2010, 05:37 PM   #5
brulaz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rjlwork View Post
One item I forgot to mention is the switch over to LED lighting. I'm not sure if it was being installed inside, but they were changing the running lights to LEDs on the Elkmonts.
Judy, I thought they always had LED running lights? At least ours did and it was built in Dec 2009.
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Old 12-07-2010, 06:56 PM   #6
NYJeff
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Originally Posted by scrubjaysnest View Post
With HI-LO out of business TM has the market for folding trailers
You forgot about Aliner/Chalet/Flagstaff a-frames.
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Old 12-07-2010, 08:30 PM   #7
scrubjaysnest
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You forgot about Aliner/Chalet/Flagstaff a-frames.
Not even in the same class, looked at the a frames and all are way to small for extended camping trips
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Old 06-26-2011, 11:10 AM   #8
Like2Ride
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Default re: factory visit

Too bad they don't build em right to begin with. Just trying to figure out why the frig on my 2010 Trailmini can't seem to keep food in the safe zone. TM owners manual says that the fan should force air down and out, but mine of course goes the other way. They say you can reverse the polarity to make it go the other direction, but there must be a diode in the fan that prevents it from going in the oposite direction. So now it looks like I have to move the frige out to get to the screws and hopefully flip the fan over. We drove crosscountry last month, and could never get the frig to operate lower than the high 40s. Freezer was great.
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