Casita Travel Trailer Shakedown Trip
If you have been following us at all over the past few years, you know that we are quite transient when it comes to adventure vehicles. As we are moving to a new area where camping will be much more accessible and we have some plans that are much easier to execute with a travel trailer, we have picked up a new adventure vehicle. We found a 2001 Casita 16’ Travel Trailer for sale on Facebook marketplace that met most of our needs. It looked to have been updated a fair amount and it was affordable. These trailers tend to retain their value extremely well, so finding one that was road-worthy without taking out a loan was huge.
While our trailer was VERY affordable, it needed some work. At first look we identified some areas that would need improvement:
- The tires were ORIGINAL from 2001! While there was still tread, the tires were beginning to dry rot. This means that our trailer did not spend much time on the road.
- The original 3-way (propane/12v/120v) Dometic refrigerator is touch and go. Sometimes, it cools perfectly, sometimes, its contents freeze solid, and other times, it doesn’t turn on at all.
- The Fantastic Fan has seen better days and is extremely loud. There is no cover, so any rain will undoubtedly enter the trailer.
- It is missing a house battery and there was never a heater installed from the factory.
All of these problems are easy to overcome. We shook out the trailer on a motorcycle trip to Southeast Oklahoma at Rockfest at Crossbar Ranch. This event is a quirky and weird group of riders who simply want to have fun and ride motorcycles. Rachael’s parents met us there and brought motorcycles so we didn’t have to ride them down. The Casita was the perfect home base for this trip. We would be protected from the elements and have a comfy bed to sleep in off the ground.
We left for the event in the dark as one of us had to work until 5pm. It was only a few hours drive, but it became clear that we were going to start fixing our little trailer much sooner than planned. We turned off of the interstate onto a state highway and made it only a few miles before Rachael was awoken from her passenger seat slumber by a loud bang and the pull of the truck toward the shoulder. We had blown one of the 23-year-old tires in a matter of hours- one could have expected this. I thankfully had the tools on board to change the spare tire out and baby it the rest of the way to the campground.
I woke in the morning and found the only tire shop within 100 miles and thankfully he was open. Murray County Tire, Auto, and Wrecker was wildly helpful at not only getting us back on the road but also helping us upgrade from the stock 13” wheels to 15” wheels. The bigger wheels should give us more ground clearance and a better ride. Best of all, the price was great, especially considering how far we were from anything.
The Casita was a perfect pick for our current mode of travel: long trips that benefit from having a basecamp for deeper exploration. Our Casita has been upgraded where it matters with a new air conditioning unit, upgraded cabinets and floors, and modifications to the plumbing that makes it much easier to use. The bed in the Casita is nearly a full-size mattress and although it’s a little tight, we make it work comfortably.
Our weekend was relatively uneventful after the tire change and we returned from the trip with a small list of projects to tackle to improve the usefulness of the Casita. Rockfest was an absolute blast and we got humbled both by the extreme landscape of Southeast Oklahoma, but also by the skill of our fellow riders. If we are able to make it work, we will be coming back to ride motorcycles and hang out with friends.
