Weekend Warrior

[AClayton]

To all this may concern,



My brother purchased a 'Super Lite' Toyhauler back in 06'. The trailer is only 20' long and tows easily with a 1/2 ton with a WD hitch. I recently took a trip to Fl where he lives to pick up this rig to perform repairs on the roof. The roof was in total need of replacement due to extensive water damage and resulting rotten wood. Anyway, I hooked up the Dodge and the tonque weight of this small trailer barely squatted the suspension a 1/2 inch. I did not bring my WD hitch with me and my brother offered me his and I declined... ..... thinking it was totally unnecessary. That turned out to be a huge mistake as I have never towed an RV that pulled so horribly before. This thing swayed something terrible and was very loose behind my truck. Which I find very odd because my truck out weighs the trailer.



Anyway, to get to the point! I started the project yesterday which included pullling away the front portion of the roof. Rotten wood everywhere and that included many of the wooden roof joists. Which, BTW were only 1 1/2 inch with no arch and then spanned 8'. The roof was only 3/8 plywood. I pulled up the plywood and then decided the area supporting the A/C was sagging a bit. Pulled that section up and found the same 1 1/2 inch lumber supporting the A/C This is horrible construction!! At this point I decided the entire roof would need rebuilding and continued on with the task of pulling plywood up. Well, the surprises continued when I noticed that aft of the A/C, the 3/8 plywood was replaced with 1/4 luan-sp?- plywood This totally surprises me!!



My plan of attack includes replacing the entire roof with 1/2" plywood. I plan to sister up the original rot-free support joists w/ 1 1/2 X 1/4"steel angle iron and then 'bolt' them together. I think this will be my only option to supporting the weight of the A/C and getting the original rot-free joists straight again. The A/C caused the joists to bow down in the center and I need to be able to support the weight better.



I have done this kind of work before but never saw a trailer built so cheaply... ... ... namely with only 1 1/2" roof supports. In summary... ..... stay far away from Weekend Warrior products! They went out of business for a reason. My brother tried on several occasions to get some satisfaction from them and had no luck. The Ins. Co. declined help due to neglect... ... . which BTW, I wholeheartedly agree with. This has gone on too long and by the time he put a tarp over, the damage had been done. The soaked insulation finished it off completely! He got a price quote for repairs and it topped over $8k. The reason the oldest brother-Me- has the job of repairing the RV!



Alan

 

[EGroeneveld]

Another lesson, keep your RV trailers leak free, fix leaks ASAP, and be careful buying a 'Superlite' RV trailer of anybrand, they are Superlite for a reason. Things have to be changed to make it so light.



We were at a RV show in Salem, OR and few weeks ago and wondering through some of the lighter trailers and the floor would move under my weight (260#). I'm like no way in heck should this trailer be for sale.



Superlight = supercheap materials!

 

[HBarlow]

Another lesson, keep your RV trailers leak free, fix leaks ASAP, and be careful buying a 'Superlite' RV trailer of anybrand, they are Superlite for a reason. Things have to be changed to make it so light.

We were at a RV show in Salem, OR and few weeks ago and wondering through some of the lighter trailers and the floor would move under my weight (260#). I'm like no way in heck should this trailer be for sale.

Superlight = supercheap materials!

Your answer is precisely what I was going to write. As I finished reading the orginal post and formulated a reply in my mind then scrolled down and read your post I realized you had already said it.

Weekend Warriers weren't that bad. Weekend Warrier built and sold thousands of them and I pulled a lot of them. They were certainly not a high quality unit but were good for weekend trips to the desert in mild weather.

As EGroeneveld wrote, the problem is with the superlite version. There is no way to build a quality product that is lighter than the ordinary product without using lighter and flimsier components.

 

[ewcmr2]

Light, strong, inexpensive... choose 2.

A carbon fiber monocoque trailer chassis would be light and strong... but it would be in the same price range as a private jet. (Kind of like a Learjet model 85... or forged Alcoas versus factory steel wheels. )

 

[FFL8N]

I had a Weekend Warrior FS2200, bought in new in 2003. I hit some black ice with a strong cross wind (50 mph) going hunting in North Western Colorado. I ended up spining going into the dirt on the side of the road and rolled the trailer. It almost pulled my truck over with it until the weight distribution hitch broke. I had two big quads in the back of the trailer. I ended up getting the trailer pulled back over onto its wheels. You could hardly tell I had wrecked the thing. I did break a couple of studs and did a lot of damage to the sheet metal. Enough that the insurance company didn't want to fix it and paid me for it. I ended up getting a new hitch and fixing the trailer lights and pulled the trailer back to Vegas with no problems. The quads never moved and other than haveing to put things back away inside the trailer, it looked fine inside. The stove got bumped out about 1/4". I would buy another one in a heart beat!

 

[Grizzly]

There are many good posts about Weekend Warrior and many other brands of RV's on the very long thread called; Better RV Brands. Click on the link.



It has 458 posts and it's worth checking out.



george