Re: Suspension losses

On 1/13/2025 11:26 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:

 On Sun, 12 Jan 2025 14:13:36 -0800, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
wrote:
 

It's
really difficult to go back to primitive.

 Partly because there are no sources for primitive things.
 And no infrastrcture.  The trailer fridge that had a compartment for a
fifty-pound block of ice when you parked somewhere that you couldn't
plug in was very clever -- but fifty-pound blocks of ice are nowhere
to be found, and bags of ice cubes don't work at all well.

We bought a tiny, very simple, very lightweight (750 pound) pop-up trailer in 1986. We used it to tour at least 40 different states. It had a simple ice box.
When we retired, my wife asked "Can we buy a nicer trailer?" So we got a fancier pop-up, ~1200 pounds with electric lift, three way refrigerator (propane, 12 Volt, 120 Volt), a furnace and various other complications.
The refrigerator frequently stopped refrigerating, especially on propane. The battery once died on the electric lift, requiring long and difficult hand cranking. And despite being within the towing limits for our car, it fishtailed once with my wife driving, leading (among other things) to the necessity for an anti-sway hitch. I sold it after that, and we went back to the simple one, happy that we had retained it.
The icebox was just a plastic bin set into the trailer's woodwork. I pulled it out and added insulation around it. Bags of ice worked fine for us after that.
--
- Frank Krygowski