Vintage-Trailer Shopping: No. 1 Tip For Keeping Your Head

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You've searched and searched, maybe for months, and all of a sudden, there it is--the vintage travel trailer of your obsessive dreams, for sale at a price you can afford. And OMG, you're even the first in line to get to see it, which means it's as good as yours!! You cannot wait to step inside and see what it's really like…so excited you could burst!

This is a thrilling yet also critical moment in your search for a vintage trailer. Why? Because you can't think clearly and objectively when 'thrill of the find' takes over. (Just ask any savvy car salesman, who knows he's gotcha when this happens.)

If you find yourself mentally decorating the trailer before you've talked to the owner or actually seen it in person, you're already in danger of driving home with a box of Buyer's Remorse on wheels. Add the big urge for the hunt to be over, finally, and your ability to be objective doesn't have a snowball's chance.

Here's my No. 1 tip for keeping control of both your head and your cash in this situation:

Don't go inside the trailer until you've spent at least 20 minutes going over the outside.

This, in and of itself, takes enormous control. Because of course you're dying to see the inside. But I'll let you in on a little secret: The seller is dying for you to step inside immediately, too, because that's where you're most likely to fall in love with the trailer's charm or potential for it. That's what he's going to sell you on.

Trouble is, that's not all you would be buying.

The overall condition of a trailer's exterior is telltale of the care it's had and what you might face in trying to fix serious issues. You don't have to be an expert to use that 20 minutes actively. Just use your critical eyes--looking not for what there is to like, but for what there is to fix. (Read: What there is that will cost you money and time.)

Even if you don't know what it is or whether it's sound, go over every element on every exterior surface. Take notes and pictures--acts that require objective thinking to perform. And unless you have a direct question, let the seller do the talking. The longer you take in going over the exterior, the more anxious he's likely to get, and the more information he'll probably divulge about the trailer and what's been done (or not done) to it. At this point, bargaining power begins to tip in your direction.

Here are a few exterior photos that illustrate what your 20-minute exterior time can reveal:

* Duct tape over the top of a window, in place of missing metal rain-gutter trim. Most likely leaking.

* Old leak-repair caulking, several layers; hole in the skin above a seam; gunk inside electric running light cover; definitely leaking.

* Torn metal skin and exposed wooden framing. Easy way for moisture to enter, rot to be suspected.

The point of this post isn't to show you every single thing to look at on a vintage trailer, but to help you stay clear-eyed.

This part of your look-see may be all it takes for you to know that a particular trailer isn't for you after all. If you can live with the issues, they'll give you something to weigh against your findings once you step inside. If you find nothing of concern, woohoo--now you might have a purchase candidate.

Try my advice about staying outside upon initial meeting of a trailer. It's a little bit like dating the prince for a while before you let him kiss you and sweep you off your feet. A short delay at the start can keep you from needing a messy divorce later on.

My First Vintage Travel Trailer

You know that line in the 'Pretty Woman' movie, where Julia Roberts asks Richard Gere how come he knows so little about cars, and he replies that his first car was a limousine?

My first trailer was an Airstream.

Not just any Airstream, but a 1970s behemoth that takes up 33 linear feet of parking room and weighs 5,600 pounds before you put anything in it. Takes a one-ton truck to pull her on anything but flat, straight road. Which there is none of where I live.

'So why something THAT big?' you might ask.

Because it was an Airstream. And because that's as much as I knew about vintage travel trailers at the time (except for the fact that I'd fantasized about having one for most of my adult life).

It didn't occur to me that with tow vehicle, this was going to be about 50 feet and 8 tons of rig. And not something I was going to hook up and go camping or traveling with on a whim.

It also didn't occur to me I wasn't going to be rehabbing a camping trailer--I was going to be remodeling a house. And that this was most likely going to take years. Years in which I would not have any time left to go camping.

Those realities would set in soon enough, and my first trailer-love found its purpose as a seasonal guest house/cabin/studio (I'm sitting in her right now, writing this post).

My second trailer--LOL--was this one:

Vintage Trailers: Some Qs to Ask Before You Buy One

So you're smitten by the idea of owning a vintage camping trailer and starting the hunt to find one. What do you need to know?

Before you start thinking about brands and styles and sizes (oh my!), you need to know how much trailer your intended tow vehicle can handle. The average American vehicle has a 3.0-liter engine, is made of lightweight parts, and is designed for fuel efficiency--not for towing anything resembling the weight and length of the trailer shown above.

Many a novice trailer buyer has been seduced by a larger trailer (with potty!) and/or a low price, only to find that her mini SUV or garage-sized sedan doesn't have a prayer of being able to pull it, stop it, or handle it safely in adverse weather/road conditions.

How do you know what your proposed tow rig can pull? Recommended: Drive your vehicle to a U-Haul center that rents trailers, and ask one of the experts whose job it is to match renter vehicles to loaded moving trailers. You'll get a good idea of trailer sizes, lengths, and loaded weights that'll work with what you have.

You may find that your current vehicle won't be safe with anything but the smallest, lightest trailer--or with any trailer at all. Ignore this advice at your peril!

Now, let's assume you've either narrowed your search criteria to what you can tow safely, or that you've upgraded to a heavier-duty tow vehicle.

Your next question-to-self should be, "How much repair/restoration am I willing and able to take on, and at what price?" There's a saying worth paying attention to: "You can pay now, or you can pay later." A $500 "Needs TLC" trailer can easily add up to being a $5,000 expenditure, or more, before you can hook up and go have fun with it.

And if it's going to take a year or better to make that happen--then maybe you're better off saving money for that extra year and buying something that's already been rehabbed and is ready to roll.

What you see above is a 1950s trailer that had to be taken down to the bed for a complete rebuild.

This, dear friends, is a PROJECT. One that can take years, cost a small fortune, and ruin a marriage if you're not careful. The initial low purchase price of a complete fixer-upper will mean nothing if the trailer gets torn apart and never put back together because you can't afford the time and money. (On the other hand, if something this monumental floats your boat, you'll find no shortage of nearly-gone trailers just waiting for you to find them and drag them home.)

Next Q: What's your intent for your would-be trailer once you have one? Do you intend to take trips with it--or simply set it up in your yard for you and the grandkids to enjoy?

This question is more important than you might realize, because not all vintage trailers remain road-worthy enough for extensive travel. (Just ask the owners whose trailers don't pull straight, or that have disintegrated while going down the road.)

If your intent is to paint and decorate a darling little backyard playhouse, then that old, cheap-or-free trailer out in the neighbor's weeds might be just your ticket.

On the other hand, if you want to travel with your trailer, that neglected oldie might not be so golden in terms of your expected reality.

If you have other questions about vintage-trailer shopping, post them here. We'll do our best to get you the answers that will help.