New CI 550 Classic Owner

Hello Everyone!

My name is Dick, and I am the new owner of a 2004 Camp-Inn Model 550 Classic Teardrop Trailer. I purchase this camper (unit #0036) in Massachusetts from the Manthe’s on August 31, 2013. They were the original owners and purchased it new from Poplar Hill RV in Maine. They used it lightly over the years, and took exceptional care of it. It has had less than a dozen trips with approximately 2500 total miles logged, and only in New England. They reluctantly sold it to me due to personal reasons. I consider myself to be very fortunate and am absolutely thrilled to have successfully located and purchased this fine example of the classic Camp-Inn Teardrop Trailer!

I have named her “Tin Lizzie”, as I have found from the forums that many of you have also done so. The rational for the name is twofold. As with the original Ford Model T, it does remind one of “tin can” when unpainted and resulted in that nickname being adopted for that automobile. The second is in honor of my 5-year old grand daughter, Elizabeth. She absolutely loves this camper! We have already spent many hours together cleaning and polishing her up, and yes, watching some of her DVDs in the TV/DVD Player, while lounging in air conditioned comfort in our driveway. She can’t wait until we take our first official camping trip in the “Tin Lizzie”. We will enjoy this camper for many years!

Because of her age, she (anything this cute has to be a girl) is showing some oxidation and blemishes in her skin. I do not believe she has ever had any polishing or sealing performed. I will therefore be working to clean/polish and restore her luster over the winter. I have sought out and followed many of the discussion threads on many subjects, including aluminum skin cleaning and polishing, and appreciate the many comments and suggestions you collectively have provided in this forum. They have proved to be very valuable to me, and have served to reinforce my buying decision for Camp-Inn. Thanks you again for your many passionate and unselfish contributions to the forum!

I do have one question though. I have found a water leak at the top of the front storage box, and this has allowed water into both the top and bottom storage sections. Not much, but still there. In the forum, I have found very little discussion of CI water leakage problems: this is good and quite encouraging to me. The source of the leak appears to be at the corner of the trim line where the box attaches to the camper body. As an interim step, I have caulked the junction area with clear silicon caulk. I will monitor to see if this has been successful. Is there a better product to use? Is there another possible source for this leak? And a related question, do the body seams between the aluminum panels require any maintenance or periodic resealing, as airstreams often do?

I am privileged to join this teardrop community, look forward to contributing my inputs, and sharing your insights in this forum, now and into the future.

Regards, Dick B

 

Hello Dick and welcome to the forum/family! Congrats on the newest member of your family.

I believe very few of us have seen too many leaks. Most of them tend to be minor, unless you were fortunate enough to be swinging through that big storm that hit the Midwest like Evan and Lena! I have only seen leaks in our 560 in the galley area and just this year our sunroof had a leak. My best suggestion is to call the folks at Camp-inn. These guys stand behind their product and they will give you the best suggestions they can to fix the problem. They will also give you suggestions of the right "stuff" to fix it and how to go about it. The are very friendly. It will be busy there this week, with the big camp out happening this weekend, but they will help you!

Enjoy your Tin Lizzie!

 

Dick,

Welcome to the family. When you get a chance shoot us a email with your address and phone number and such. We will want to move pin #36 to your new location on the map and get you setup in the customer database.

By all means let us know questions like this. You have the right answer for now on the front storage, sealing at end of the trim will make a good stop measure for now. The proper solution will be removal and reinstall of the corner trim on the front storage box to correct the sealant failure you are experiencing.

Cary

 

Welcome to the Family, Dick!

 

Welcome to the family, Dick! I'll bet your granddaughter is absolutely thrilled! Our daughter is almost 6 ad she fell in love with the CampInn rental that the folks at the Nest allowed us to use this summer.

We wish you all the best as you go forth and make memories. You, Elizabeth and Tin Lizzie are lucky to have one another!

 

Thanks for the warm welcome. We are all excited and await our first adventure.

Regards,

 

Thanks Rick! Really excited to begin our adventures.

Regards,

 

Sarah/Mick: Thanks for the warm welcome. Cary has already responded with his leak assessment. He surly does live up to his forum reputation!

Regards,

 

We are just back from Little Talbot Island State Park in Florida and all I can say is.....the ONLY time I have noticed water "leaks" is after I have washed our 2NA CAN and opened up the hatch or door and water drips off the opened area. I dry it up immediately. Any time it rains or you wash it, remember to dry up the "cracks". Camp Inn's are a great product.
Welcome.

 

Cary: Thanks for the warm welcome and quick response! I feel like I already know you and the Camp-Inn family, from all the posts I have followed. I will get off an email ASAP with the info you requested.
Do you have any field vendors that can make proper water sealing repairs, or is this something I can do with some directions??
Enjoy your user meeting (CICO)!!!

Regards,

 

Dick,

The good news is the edge trim is a conventional RV trim. So a good RV center can handle this easily enough. Have them contact us for instructions.

Cary

 

Thanks for the warm welcome, and the water tips. I am watching it closely at this point, but will try to remember to inspect the hatch/doors after rain or washes as a standard procedure in the future! Happy camping!

Regards,

 

Cary: Great! I will follow up soon.

Enjoy your CICO meeting!

 

Welcome to the forum Dick!

 

Thank you Biscuit. Feels like home already!

Regards

 

Dick B welcome and enjoy your Camp Inn.

 

Thanks ANna/STeve! Just returned from a 3_day shakedown trip. Performed great! Looking forward to many more!

Regards

 

welcome, I love the name,

 

Welcome to the forum Dick
There's a wonderful leak repair product that boaters swear by called Capt. Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure available at West Marine stores or online, Many assembledges on boats and RVs are for all practical purposes permanent because of the adhesive caulk used. When the caulk invariably fails you get a leak. CCC is a very thin liquid that seems to be inhaled into the cracks of suspect areas. I say suspect because sometimes it can be difficult to find the source of a leak. First off the suspect area has to be bone dry, direct sunlight for a few hours works great. I usually apply 2 or 3 times along the caulk line cleaning up behind with an alcohol dampened cloth. We have all seen the sloppy caulk lines from an owner trying to stop a leak with more caulk. It almost never works because the new caulk is not thin enough to fill the tiny cracks. Even if you are able to disassemble and re caulk try CCC first, it really does work 99% of the time. Hope this is useful to you.

Michael

 

Michael: Raining now and will do a thorough inspection asap. Thanks for the tip, have a West Marine store just down the road, so will pick some ccc product this week. I plan to do a detailed clean/polish over the winter, and will seal all seams at the same time.

Regards,