Life Lesson: Disposin' of a travel trailer edition, NOW w/ free trailer frame!

Hi all-

Looking for advice on getting rid of the travel trailer I ended up with in this thread: http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=70351.30

Turned out to be Waaaaaay further gone than I realized when I bought it. The term "load bearing turn-signal light" comes to mind. To the point when I removed the back wall paneling, and clipped said wire, the remnants of the wall framing and aluminum sheet just fell to the ground. Looks like it'd be simpler to do a total teardown and rebuild from the frame up if it's going to be usable, but I'm not that guy. I'm just seriously glad it didn't crumble on the highway. Note to self, stop being so damned cheap.

I'm inclined to break it up for recycling/ strip useful things out that I might be able to sell to an RV junkyard, and maybe sell the frame on CL as a utility trailer base and trash the rest. Not super inclined to try to move it as-is on CL as I'd hate to have someone try to move it and have it collapse in transit. Even on a flat bed this thing's probably going to be dangerous if it's not shored up inside and well secured.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Ron

Offer it to the guy who sold you the Hurricane Phoenix... tell him it was camping ready. 

Kidding aside, will a non-profit take it as a donation to refirb?

Strip it down,  recycle all metals get some $ back, probably reuse the axle rebuild as kayak trailer cart.

PIX!!! We need pix!

~B

Offer it to the guy who sold you the Hurricane Phoenix... tell him it was camping ready. 

Kidding aside, will a non-profit take it as a donation to refirb?

Mark, I love this idea more than I can say.

I'll look into non-profits. I've gone that route before with shot cars, they might be willing to accept this thing.

Strip it down,  recycle all metals get some $ back, probably reuse the axle rebuild as kayak trailer cart.

Definitely leaning towards this. Except the kayak trailer part. I still don't get my driveway fully back with that plan. That said, it'd make a hell of a kayak trailer. Anybody want a "kayak ready flatbed trailer"? just need to remove the existing "load" and replace the flatbed. Oh, and you'll want to repack the bearings, check the leafsprings, repaint the metal, replace the wheels, and check the tires. And re-register it with DMV as a flatbed instead of a camper. Comes with permanent registration plates/ title.

Donate to Jr.Giants or to a Vets` group ..tax write off and they take care of all the paperwork

Donate to Jr.Giants or to a Vets` group ..tax write off and they take care of all the paperwork

This option's looking better and better. I night need to shore it up for transport, but I think that's possible for not too much cash.

Decided to bust it down and recycle/ trash it.

It's amazing how much faster these tear down than they are to build-up! It's also amazing slightly frightening how few contractor bags they pack into when you exclude appliances & skins/frame.

If anybody wants the frame / axle / tires to use to build a kayak or utility trailer let me know. Free with title to NCKA folks (I'll cover the mandatory DMV $1 sale price). 2" ball, new tow chain, harbor freight magnetic tail light kit for temp towing use and paper title in my name ready to sign over included.

We're about 75% torn down at this point, should be clean enough to take by about 3 or 4 pm today.

Pictures?

Pix/ photo essay.

Began at noon yesterday.

The eyesore we've been looking at for a year:



with "load bearing lighting stand"


dryrot bad enough you can just shake off debris/put your finger through the walls in the front and back. And floor and ceiling.


opening the ham can:


at the end of the day:


Today's work done, for the most part:


and some closeups of the frame if anybody's interested. The floor board I'm leaving in place (may use the trailer for tomorrow's dump run). The front cross bars are bent, the rear bumper mounts are also a bit bent. I didn't notice any cracks to the leaf springs. There is surface rust on everything, but I didn't notice any areas where it goes deep. I'm not that observant a person, though, as having purchased this trailer in the first place illustrates.

For some reason it looks really cool as a flatbed.

Nice demo job, it looks pretty stout

Sorry you've had to deal with that mess. 

There's not much to a trailer, is there?  Never saw one taken apart. 

For some reason it looks really cool as a flatbed.

My buddy told me we should put astroturf on it and just pitch a tent atop it when we go camping. I see wisdom in that.