How hard is it to open and close?

[scrubjaysnest]

Originally Posted by Drews60

Hi, I'm 65 and thinking of buying a travel trailer. I love pop up tent trailers, I've owned 3 over the years. However, I'm looking at Trail Manors. I like the solid walls, full set of features. They look great. I have yet to step foot in one.

My question is this, I'm 65, how physically demanding is it to set up by myself? I saw a video. It looks toooooo easy.

It certainly looks far less complicated than my big Jayco, crank forever, then so many other tasks to get it set up.

A little late in responding but we switched from a pop-up to the TM in 2010. At 67 I don't miss all the back breaking work of setting up the pop-up. The TM is a breeze and yes they are on the pricey side but a lot nicer for 6 to 8 months on the road with moves every few days.

As luck would have it, a 2008 TM is for sale 40 miles from me. I drove out this morning. The owners were kind enought to talk me through the set up process, letting me perform the tasks.

Unbelievable, it was very, very easy to swing the ends up, out and into position. The interior set up took just minutes. Take down was a breeze. Just step on the brackets to snap them into the locked position.

Good bye pop up tent trailers. Now I just have to wrap my head around the prices TM's command. This one is priced at $15,900, triple what I originally planned on spending for a used pop up.

Your right they are pricey but you only buy one and then keep it for many years. Another good point is you will make friends quickly at every campground you go to as everyone has to come over and see "that thing" transform into one of the nicest campers in the park. Does not hurt to save the gas money as well. You do get what you pay for.

[LoveToCamp]

Drew, I was also looking at the $5000 range, when pondering what to replace our popup with. I didn't even know the TM existed, but went to an RV show in January. There was a display of TM, and the new 2417 was the size we were looking for.

Went back the next day and purchased one.

Wife and I went out with it for an overnight, and she is very tickled that we have it. Granted, both of us are still working, so the price can be lived with, but we are looking at what we have for the money - hard sides; insulation; very effective heater (how can you really heat a canvas popup in 25° weather???); 40 gallons of pressurized hot and cold water; toilet and shower; SIMPLE setup (much faster than two of us putting up the popup!); tows like the popup, and not the wind issue that every other TT will have. Many more benefits.

Don't let that one slip away, unless you see another right now for less, in good condition. We will keep the TM for post-retirement travel, that's for sure!

[HIKERZ]

Clown9644 is correct. Our friends refer to ours as "the transformer". We usually have people asking and looking as we set up and break down

[Steppy]

I'm 65 and have no problem at all setting up my 2720SL TM and that's with a bum right shoulder and tricky back. Much, much better than canvas pop up campers.

[Steppy]

Yes, when you find one, you gotta jump right on it. I bought my 2004 2720SL a year ago last December for $5000. I did the Blue Book check on it, but was flabergasted when I found out that these rigs were actually going for $12K at the time. I looked for over a year before stumbling across this one fairly close by. Good luck in your hunt.

Decent looking 2003 2619 for $5995, but 1500 miles away! Nuts!

I have driven 500 and 700 miles to look at a trailer but 1500? Some lucky person on the east coast will snag his unit.

Edit: nevermind, it's sold

I've found a great free iPhone and iPad app, "RV classifieds" to help in the search.

I'd echo what everyone else has said...yes, the price is high on these, but they are outfitted very nice compared to most campers. The only thing they don't do well is let you keep water running in very cold weather (but they'll keep *you* warm even below zero).

I have a genetic issue that makes my upper body much weaker than it should be. I have no problem pulling up the shells, but I'll note that there is an adjustment on these campers that basically trades off ease of popping up vs. ease of closing down. So it is reasonably possible to adjust if you find a used one that is hard to open - so long as nothing is broken and the owner didn't add a lot of extra weight to the top shells.

There's other tricks such as lowering and raising the tongue to assist in getting things up. But I've never needed to do any of that - I was always able to pop up and down on my own. And as people have mentioned, any Trailmanor dealer will love walking you through trying to put them up and down - it's a big selling point of these campers.

As I recall, somewhere around here since 1985, someone posted about using a ratchet to pull the shells down. They had a handicap issue and the ratchet strap solved the problem.

Others have extended the foot loop (not fruit loop 8-) ) so that the vertically challenged can still place their foot in the loop to use their body weight to close the shells.

In a campground with other campers you could go find some guy of suitable body dimensions and offer him a beer in exchange for closing the shells.