Scarlet

While we love to tent camp, we both wanted to have a “home” while travelling for such a long time – something as small as possible while still meeting all of our needs. It took some looking at different trailers before we figured out exactly what that meant. I would walk into a trailer and think it looked and felt great and then Mike would walk in and have to tip his head to the side so as not to bump it on the ceiling. We wanted something short that we could pull with our SUV, sturdy enough to go down forest roads, but comfy enough to want to spend some time in. On another camping vacation in Northern Wisconsin, we were able to see the Winnebago Minnie 2101FBS. It had a bed where we didn’t have to climb over one another, a comfortable couch, a shower that Mike could stand up in, and duel axles to bump along rough roads.

Once we settled on what trailer we wanted, we started searching. There were only a few used ones for sale in the country and we found one in southern Illinois. They come is some pretty crazy colors, so we were happy to see the closest one was red. We headed down to southern Illinois to check out and hopefully bring home a 2015 Minnie. The trailer was in great condition and we were very happy with what we saw in person. The dealer installed a weight distribution hitch and we were on our way.

We have a very narrow driveway in a tight neighborhood, so we were lucky enough to be able to park the trailer in Rockford at my Grandma T.’s house. We prepped and covered the trailer for the winter, planning to bring it to Madison in the spring to prepare for out trip.

When spring rolled around, we brought the trailer up to Madison thinking that we would do relatively little to it. It was in good condition and we really just saw ourselves building a few shelves in the closets and not much more. We had thought about installing solar power, but were incredibly intimidated by the process after watching some YouTube videos. Wow, did those plans wind up changing!

Once the trailer was accessible, we quickly started making a to-do list that just seemed to keep growing. I tended to focus on aesthetics and ease of use inside while Mike focused on powering us and mechanics.

A non-exhaustive list of changes to the trailer outside:

• Changing out two roof vent covers and adding a fan
• Adding a ladder and bike rack on the back
• Reinforcing the bumper so that we could support a cargo rack on the back
• Changing the spare tire mount so we could add the cargo carrier
• Removing all rust and painting the frame
• Changing the stock battery to a high capacity lithium battery
• Installing and wiring a DC DC charger from the truck to the trailer to charge the battery while we drive
• Installing and wiring two solar panels on the roof
• Installing and wiring port for a third collapsible solar panels that we can take with us in the truck
• Building a protected box in the trailer’s pass-through storage that houses the battery and all of the charging paraphernalia and wiring all of said paraphernalia
• Installing a cellular boosting antenna on the roof mounted to the now defunct TV antenna so we can raise it up to 15 feet off the ground.
• Replacing all exterior cabinet locks
• Installing aluminum reinforcements on the exterior cabinet edge.
• Resiliconing all seals and resealed the underbody

And inside:

• Building shelves in several cabinets in the main room and the bathroom
• Taking down all of the valances and replacing them with wood
• Putting up a stone back splash behind the stove
• Taking out the microwave to create more storage
• Changing out bathroom faucet and shower head, installing water saving aerators
• Replacing the sewer flush vacuum seal (only “broken” thing when we bought Scarlet)
• Installing a pressure tank on the water system
• Sewing new curtains and covers
• Covering the couch
• Putting up lots of hooks on the walls
• Removing the TV and creating a charging area
• Adding an inverter and installing USB outlets

We really had thought that the trailer was great when we bought it, but loved changing it to meet our needs. Once we spent some time in it and really thought about how we wanted to use it, we lost our hesitation to drill holes and made peace with not leaving it in pristine, resellable condition.

We took the trailer out for a trial run in the Chequemegon-Nicolet State Forest in mid-June and it was during this trip that we decided it was time to name her. After discussion and trying out a few names, Scarlet came to the top of the list (although later, Mike admitted that he sometimes thinks of her as Rosie). Pictures of the updated interior to come.