WE made the plunge!

[PITPOP27]

Well, after all our research we sat in waiting for a good private party used one to go up somewhere, anywhere .  I scoured the adds everytime the new ones on wednesday were placed out and there she was!  I was a little taken aback for the asking price (it was NADA priced right, but in Ca. the resales can go a bit high).  I thought, no way, well I'll email first and get some questions answered.  
They answered my beginning questions (I don't even remember what they were :eyecrazy: .)  So I called on friday,said they would be opening it up sat for viewing.  The truth is  they really knew nothing about the trailer :screwy: they had inherited it from her parents and used it 5 times in the last 6 years.  He gave me the model and I went to researching.... :yikes: The one I wrote down as my number one choice (don't worry I had a lot of number 1's, it just meant we'll buy it if we find it).  

So we checked it out the next day , along with my brother who has easily purchased 5 trailers in the last 12 years, I brought him along for structural back up as we don't really know what to look at in that respect.  He was impressed, he had never bought a tent trailer as his have all been enclosed trailers, Travel trailers and now a 5th wheel that just stays at the river year round. He was thoroughly impressed with the immenities, and room.  He thought the body was in great condition and it was ready to go.  I think he may have been just a bit envious as he just bought a little 16ft TT to go to the races with and ours was actually roomier!

Have I left you all in suspense long enough?  We got it, we'll pick it up next week from him (we store it somewhere else) It is a :

2000 Fleetwood Coleman Timberlake which was part of their Grand Tour Destiny series. $4000.   :-()

Had all we wanted:
2 Kings
Furnace
3 way fridge
inside shower
cassette toilet
outdoor shower
12 ft box
awning w/screen room
spare tire
non turqouise interior ( :J )  the interior is ( :sombraro: sarape material )
dinette
PLENTY of storage
hot and cold running water
and features a bay window (non slide out)

so there you go.  For our first PUT ever, we're excited.

And thanks for listening to me ramble!!

[SpeakEasy]

WooHooo!

congratulations, PITPOP27!!!

[PITPOP27]

TY TY!

Are we allowed to post pics here?  (holding back from my cruddy camera phones pictures to put up  :rolleyes: )

[fritz_monroe]

Congrats on your find.

I'll be joining the pup ranks soon, but my DW insists on brand new.  We've been stung buying used before.

[SBurris28127]

Congratulations! I just made my first purchase so I know how excited you are. Looks like you got a good deal.

[OC Campers]

Congratulations on the camper!! Check out the Southern Calif Camping club forum down below (SCCampers).  This is a great group of people.  If you have kids you will want to attend the Trick or Treat in Temecula rally in October.  They go to Vail Lake resort.  This will be the 3rd or 4th trip.  This resort does a fabulout Halloween event.  There is also a Yosemite rally planned for the end of June.  I can absolutely tell you this is a great group of folks who love to socialize and camp.

Jacqui

[tlhdoc]

Congratulations on the new PU.  I bet you are excited.  Where are you going on your first trip?

[PITPOP27]

Our first official trip is at the end of Feb with a group of friends to Carpenteria state beach.  And yes, we will be the only ones in a pop!

Any suggestions?  There are no hookups, and everytime I try to read about chargers and generators etc,  :eyecrazy:  :compumad: I'm so  done right now I think I am on my official 8th hour of research today, and inbetween had to school the kids and go get the check for the guy

Help a sister out, totally new at this.

[Camping Coxes]

Our first official trip is at the end of Feb with a group of friends to Carpenteria state beach. And yes, we will be the only ones in a pop!
 
Any suggestions? There are no hookups,

Congrats my fellow So. Cal.'er.  Suggestions:  The beach areas can be quite cold in February, so bring extra blankets for sitting outside in the chairs.  
 
Since there are no hook-ups, don't rely on your water tank solely for your water because you'll be amazed how fast you can drain it.  Bring 2-3 gallons of water (I usually bring 2 of the 2.5 gallon jugs) and use that for all your cooking and coffee and that kind of stuff so you can save your water tank for dishes.
 
Don't run your fridge on your battery or you'll go without lights real quick.  Use your propane for the fridge and save your battery for your water pump and lights.  
 
Speaking of lights. for the weekend you should be fine, but keep battery operated flashlights or lanterns at the ready in case the kids want to hang out in the trailer (it being a new experience and all) so you don't use up all your battery on the lights.  That having been said, we camped 7 days in Lake Tahoe and didn't run out of battery until the very last day, so you should be fine.
 
And on a personal note, we were considering selling our trailer and I was going to send you a PM, but I wasn'ta ble to because it was blocked.  But it sounds like you did much better than I could have done for you!  Congrats again!  BTW, other than the general So. Cal., where are you closest to?  Hopefully I'll get to meet you and your new trailer at a SCCamper campout, if my kids' sports schedules ever allow me to go to one again.

[PITPOP27]

Thanks for all the advice!  We live in Orange County!

I will definitely bring some extra water!  This will actually be a harder trip than our yosemite one in the fact that we are cooking all our meals At the Carpenteria one and not the yosemite one (we go with a huge group and actually have some guys who come up with our church to cook the whole week, yup, great set up )

I will need plenty of advice for sure so KEEP IT COMING, I'm soaking it all in!

Because we have to store our tent trailer, we are looking into a friend who may let us keep it in his drive so we can really go over what we need to get in there and install (just lil goodies) and just have on hand in the trailer, supplies and floor rugs (all the woman junk :screwy: )

[n2camping]

Wow, sounds like a great deal. Congrats.

[PITPOP27]

making me feel good about it! The reality is he doesn't know what he's got, he just inherited it and had to get rid of it because of city regulations and a citation he recieved.  I kept looking and his garage full of "stuff"  and thinking, just clean your garage out and put it in there, but maybe there was something I was not seeing where he could n't put it in there.  I don't know.  He didn't know measurements of it, he hadn't used anything on it.  They basically had used it like a tent. I feel a bit like when we adopted out dog...I WANNA GO GET IT!
I wanna open it up and REALLY mess with it so I understand things more.


He said he learned more about his trailer in the five min utes I was talking with him than he had in the time he had it.  Well his eh, is our treasure! :#  :#  :-()

[GrizzlyTaco]

Congrats PitPop!!  How about posting some Pics of your New PU!!!
 :sombraro:  :#  :!

[PITPOP27]

Well My photos are currently limited to the ones we took with the camera phone and one is scanned so they aren't the best!




And our reason:

[Camping Coxes]

Wow!  It looks like you guys did well.  I noticed the flat countertop with drawers beneath it -- good place for stacking cubes for storing food.  That's my little maximizing storage tip for the day.