Vacation Logistics Cont.

Started looking into renting a U-Haul trailer for our vacation. Of course they have all kinds (open, boxed, sport, etc.) which makes the decision more difficult than it should be. The prices were averaging out to about $200 for the week.

Hmmm. $200 I’ll never see again…

See. I’m real cheap and real practical. I know $200 doesn’t seem like a lot, but there’s gotta be a better way to spend $200 and get more value out of it.

Turns out a friend of mine had a trailer he’s been trying to off-load for a few years now. I’d actually used it in the past and knew it would be the perfect thing to invest my $200 into.

Last night we struck a deal and now the trailer is mine. As a side note, the hardest part of the deal was getting Jen to agree. I’ve been trying to buy this thing all along, but Jen’s never wanted to be the kind of family with “trailers in their yard” (no offense Dad). I promised she and everyone else in our neighborhood would never know we had it. There are ways to store/hide a trailer. That will be the easy part.

So here it is/was when I got it home last night. Towed perfectly fine via the Subaru I might add.

Because it’s a “kit” trailer (one you build from a kit) and out of state, I have to go through the PA state trailer inspection process (again. I built my own trailer back in 2000 and had to do the same thing then. You can see it here. Man, I should have kept that trailer.). It’s like a car inspection requiring the lights to work, the tires to be in good shape, etc, but they also take pictures and submit a bunch of forms to the state for review. To make sure it goes smoothly, I decided to strip off all the accessories and only have the bare bones trailer parts to be inspected.

It’s in pretty good shape. All I need to do is replace a light lens, some bulbs and swap the spare tire for one on the trailer and it should pass just fine. Once that’s over with, I’ll put some of the accessories back on for the trip, then slowly begin the improvements/modifications I have planned in the back of my mind. Should make for some nice winter welding projects.

– b