Hi Lo or Trail Manor type travel trailer

I just sold my Northstar pop up cabover camper and I'm thinking about getting into a nice lite weight trailer. Just from internet searches I've found the Hi Lo and Trail Manor brand trailers. Both have lite weight versions and both are hard sided pop ups. Does anyone have either of these? If so can you let me know what you think of them? Does either of these trailers save any more on gas than other lite weight hard sided trailers? If you have another trailer feel free to let me know what you have and what you think of it. Just in case you're not familiar with Hi Lo or Trail Manor I included a picture of each. Thanks

 

I have been thinking about getting the smallest Trail Manor without the stupid rear balcony.

I have spoke to a few owners and they are very happy with them. They like the fact that they can keep use the floor of the trailer and keep the bunks made up. ie - They don't have to put a table down and make up a bed each night.

 

I have a 22ft 2006 hi-lo towlite,wieghts 4,000 lbs., tows great behind my 06 tacoma.I get up to 14 miles per gallon towing this trailer(truck has 104,000 miles on it).Hi-Lo is higher quality and is electric/hydrolic lift. hi-lo has a better seal between the two halfs, TM has a gasket at the center of the roof which will leak, single axle(hi-lo has dual axles which tow better).TM has no black water tank,has a potto-potty and cabinet over the sink(to hit your head on when doing the dishes).The hi-lo has better counter space,window over the kitchen sink, and has a 30 gal. fresh water tank, 32 gallon gray water tank, 30 gallon black water tank. check out hi-lo trailer forum( I'm campthewestcoast)

 

With towing these exspanable travel trailers you need to run the refrigerator on 12 volts. You can't run it on propane while towing because the vent is closed off when the trailers are lowered for towing.
My 06 taco which has a tow package didn't have a large enough charge line from truck to the trailer. It was only a 18 gauge and only put out 5 amps. The refrigerator uses 14 amps and was draining my house batteries. I used a 30 amp curcuit breaker in the engine bay and ran a 10 gauge wire to the trailer plug connector. I replaced the trailer plug connector at the bumper with a aftermarket one because the toyota connector didn't work with the new 10 gauge charge wire.
With the WDH hitch and brake controller helped with towing but the stock mirrors didn't work. The strap on towing mirrors were bad and vibrate to much. I installed Powervisionmirrors from a 98 chevy ( 6-way power adjust). others have installed early dodge mirrors.
My model of Hi-lo towlite 22ft is the biggest you can tow with taco. It has a couch that flips down into a bed so the dinnete is always there when you need it. Most 22ft towlites have a flip down bunk for extra sleeping. Hi-lo also makes classic models but the wieght is to much the taco.
When looking at hi-lo trailers make sure it's a 2001 or newer, that's when they switched from wood framing to alumium framing. I had a 97 model that had dry-rot and would have cost to much to rebuild.
I added solar to charge the batteries and a thermostatic mixing valve to give me 50% more hot water from the 6 gallon water heater.
One more thing, set-up and take down is faster on a Hi-lo than a Trail Maner.

 

I just bought a 1997 Trail Manor 2720SL. I will need to do a little work to it, but all in all I'm happy with my purchase. I towed it from Denver back to where I live in northern California. I was getting 17-18 mpg towing even through the mountains of Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, & California. There are very few of the older (less expensive) Trail Manor trailers in California. That's why I had to travel out of state to get this one. From my inspection it doesn't look like my trailer is a leaker at this point, but I'm going to monitor it closely and come up with a fix if there is a problem. There are also quite a few steps to set it up and take it down, but it's not too bad.

 

Congrats, I'm sure you'll get many years of fun out of your trailer.I searched for 6 months to find just the right trailer for me,06 22ft. hi-lo.The best part is the upgrades and mods we get to do on these trailers. I just installed a expansion tank with a pressurized rubber bladder on the cold water supply line to prevent osulation of water pressure at my water pump from my fresh water tank( it keeps a pressure on my supply line).

 

what town in northern california are you in?

 

I'm in Hayward. There was a guy selling a Hi-Lo in the Brentwood area, but he didn't call me until I was on my way to Colorado to buy my Trailmanor. I'm probably going to take the trailer out for a trial run in the next month or so.

 

Any pictures yet?

 

Check out Bodega Bay, portobodega.com is where I camp the most. Doran or westside are other spots.

 

How's the trailmanor working out?

 

It has worked out fine, but I'm going to sell it since I'm not using it that much. It's a nice trailer for the Tacoma. At less than 3,000 lbs it's an easy tow. It sleeps 4 normally but there is enough open floor space for a queen size air mattress if you have more people. Since it folds down it also produces a lot less wind resistance, which saves gas. Perfect trailer for the Tacoma.

 

Those hi-lo's look pretty cool, but they're out of business?

 

Yup. From what I hear Hi-Lo is out of business. I'm not sure what people are doing for spare parts and such. Fortunately Trailmanor is still in business, although I've never had to buy any spare parts from them.

 

Sorry to hijack, but I have a question concerning the TrailManors. How hard are they to fold up and down? We are considering trading up from our pop-up mainly because I, getting a little long in the tooth, am tired of sweating and cranking that thing up and down every time.

I know the Hi-Lo have a quick automatic lift, but what about the Trailmanors? They sure do seem to be pricey so I assume it is a simple thing?

 

Trailmanors are a spring/torsion bar frame that you pull up and out to open.

Not the best to have if you got a bad back but are lighter to tow than a hi-lo.

The hi-lo has a rubber gasket between the upper and lower secitions and the trailmanor has vinyl strips with velcro as a seal that you put in place everytime you set up

 

The Trailmanor that I have is pretty easy to open and close. I'm not sure how bad your back is though. It doesn't take much to re-hurt a bad back.

 

For me, the back shell is easier to open because you can grab it easily in the center; the front you have to reach over the tanks to grab the center of the shell. A friend who has a 2620 cranked up the torsion bars a bit to add some more tension/leverage.

 

We looked seriously at the Trailmanor, and despite it's many pluses decided to go with a conventional trailer. That said, it isn't hard to set up, we had a salesman take us through the whole process. Lifting the roof box would suck with a bad back, though, it's probably about 40-50 lbs. It does go up smoothly, though. Inside you have to do some twisting and turning of said back to set up the bathroom walls, but if you are in good shape it wouldn't be an issue.

What killed the idea for us was the the price, and the overall "clunky" feel, partly from the single axle, partly from the air gaps which cover with velcro panels. That, and even though the trailer did have an amazing amount of room, the shower was about impossible. I tried stepping into the shower and it was a real challenge. No room to turn around unless you are a petite little gymnast, and if you drop something, too bad!

 

I just saw these posts about a Taco and TM. We are on our second TM, a 3124KS and tow it with a 2012 Tacoma Double Cab with factory tow package. I agree with the posts about opening the front shell--it is a chore for one person. My wife and I now each take one corner and it opens quite easily. It is also important that the torsion bars be adjusted correctly because that is where you will get the assisted lift from. In case you didn't know, there is a TM Owners forum, Trailblazers, at the following link: http://home.comcast.net/~tmtrailblazers/
There is a wealth of info there as well as here. Happy traveling.
David