The trailer sat in front of the house for MONTHS before the City green-tagged it (72-hour tow) on a friday afternoon. Some angry drunk/meth-head punched his fist into the trailer door the week before the green-tag, putting a dent into the panel deeper than the door itself and nearly allowing an arm to reach in to unlatch the door from the inside. So, I had a couple projects to work on.
Trailer/RV doors are made of almost NOTHING! It is an aluminum extrusion frame pushed together at the corners with thick aluminum foil skin. Insulation is honeycomb cardboard, which was decayed from 35 years and some insect damage. I disassembled the frame to remove the skin panels and couldn't easily get them back together (warped from punch), so I cut plywood panels and assembled only the exterior cosmetic panels (so it would look "stock"). The plywood panels bridged to the strong aluminum frame on the inside (and look scruffy) so I went with the sturdy aesthetic and glued them in with PL poly construction adhesive, attaching the exterior panels and the al frame to the plywood. I just doubled the door weight, but the next person who punches the door will need a hand cast. Camping foam cut and glued with a fabric treatment will look okay, but it's "in progress" for now. After 9 months, I couldn't smell the solvent in the glue any more.
Fortunately, the 1969 Econoline SuperVan and 1988 Subaru DL occupying the back yard were sold a few weeks before, making a good spot for the trailer. A friend and I trimmed the pine tree limb that would be touching the trailer roof and used a come-along to drag the tongue-wheel over plywood to place the trailer in a good spot. It took about 5 hours to move 25 feet over soft lumpy ground and get squared up. Yes, I emptied every possible pound from inside the trailer to the side yard before taking it off of the car hitch.
Friend visiting from upstate NY stayed for a few days and found it "compact & cozy" but comfortable and fine for a stay of less than 2 weeks. When comparing to a less-convenient and much less-safe motel room for $59/day, the not-missing $500 was appreciated much during eating out and drinking-in. We have extended the land line telephone to the interior and plugged the trailer in via big black extension cord to the basement power. The built-in absorption Dometic refer runs well on 120v as long as you don't open it too long or too often. It's summer, so heat was not much of an issue. Making a cup of tea on a propane burner warms the cabin from (Brrrrr!) 59F to (brisk morning!) 65F in a few minutes and a wool lap blanket helps. No need to fire up the furnace. Since the house is 4 steps away, water is best handled by a gallon in the refrigerator, outside hose, or coming inside for facilities. Emptying tanks is a thing to avoid, but they are functional.
Functional trailer refrigerator saves us money! Our full-size house refrigerator has partially failed (the freezer section works, but refrigerator is 62F at MAX cooling setting), so we moved the refrigerator contents out to the trailer Dometic. The house 'fridge is going to be replaced, but the panic of no cold for milk and beverages is mitigated until we can get a good deal on a scratch-n-dent or used one. The problem is that the house is small and pre-car/pre-household refrigerator and doesn't have a lot of space to hold a modern mcmansion mega-fridge-freezer-beverage-ice-center. The models that fit perfectly are European$$$, super-low energy consumption DC alt-power $$$, or crappy dorm models (low-efficiency and bad -designed to last 15 months, not exactly cheap).
I suppose that I wasted money putting good matched tires on the trailer just to plop it into the back yard, but who knows what the future may require.
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