Airstream Trailer.
We weren't actually looking for a trailer, but I got an email from our friend's parents that asked if we were interested, and it turned out that we were.
It's a 1997 Airstream Safari 25'. Really, it is a 1997. My insurance company is convinced that Airstream didn't build this model until 1998. The only way to get insurance from them was to allow them to call it a 1998 model.
The trailer came 'ready to go'. When we picked it up, we found a note on the vent hood for the cooktop that said that the trailer was missing a paring knife, and that they took the curling iron. Everything else was still there, and I mean everything. Cutlery, towels, fly-swatter, dictionary, shore-power cords, equalizing trailer hitch & mirrors, rice-cookers (two of them), 2-way radios, tupperware collection, spices in the spice rack, vacuum cleaner, ice cream scoop, funnels, walking sticks -- I really mean everything was there. Even a set of Christmas lights in the form of light-up mini-Airstream trailers.
Anyway. If you have been to our house, you know that our driveway is not particularly flat. Everything looks normal from the side closest the house:
The view from the other side tells the real story:
Those are Douglas fir rounds from a pile out back of the house where we have a couple trees taken out in the fall. I had to spend a while eyeballing the rounds to find some that were chainsawed a bit inaccurately (for firewood) so that they were kind of beveled in appearance from top face to bottom face. The ones I found were about 14 inches tall on their high side, but about 6 inches less than that on the short side. So how accurate did the leveling job turn out? Take a look at the picture of the level that is glued to the front of the trailer:
That's dead-nuts level.
I also had to build a special stand to keep the front end from sliding down the driveway. I built the stand from scrap I had around the house, which is probably obvious from looking at it:
There are neoprene rubber pads glued to the bottom for traction so that the trailer does not twist and then slide down the driveway. I admit I was a bit nervous when I unhitched for the first time. When the ball popped out, everything wiggled, but the trailer stayed where it was supposed to. Below, you can see how the stand is designed to work on the slope.
Everything has stayed in place all winter now (including lots of rain, some snow, and a 4.1 earthquake), so we are probably good.
Before anyone gets too worked up, I did put in some really good chocks on both sides before unhitching. Actually, these new chocks are the one thing I bought for the trailer: it came with a set of chocks, but they were the standard kind of plastic chock meant for practically level ground, and were not up to task in my estimation.
We really need to put in a flatter driveway...
It will be worth it in the end.
Wright Cyclone in full song.