Hooray Cindy!
I am glad that you found one that you liked enough to come home with.  You
might wish to try camping with only the ice box for a bit to see how that
works out.  On our former popup, it did not have a fridge, and we did just
fine with our coolers and your box is just a glorified cooler.

On the squeak, it will behoove you to see if you can isolate the sound
instead of just trying to grease up stuff.  I went through the greasing of
the ball phase and I am glad now that I never do that anymore.  I always
ended up with grease on my pants or leg somehow from that dang ball.  It
might be coming from the wheel bearings or from the springs.  Maybe have
someone run along side of it when you pull over bumps and find out where it
comes from (or, more dangerously, ride on it).  When we bought each of our
popups, the first thing I did was repack the bearings with grease - it will
likely cost you about $40 or so to have someone do it for you (at least I
think so, but it is not a lot).

One other thing that can be adjusted is how tightly the latch holds onto the
ball of the hitch.  You want it to be as tight as feasible and still be able
to get the trailer on and off easily enough.  Yours might be too loose and
allow the ball to knock around inside the tongue part.  I have adjusted mine
on both trailers.  There is a nut in there if you look underneath; use a
handy socket wrench.

It seems that it might be a little bit back-loaded, with only 7.3% of the
weight on the tongue.  You want 10-15% for better performance on the road
(less wandering).  If you load the heavy stuff up front it will help this.

Good luck with this and tell us how it all works out.
Tomes

Congrats Cindy.

Hope you get many years of fun out of your new camper.

A small 3 way fridge can be installed in the space where your icebox is.
It's expensive. If you plan to camp at serviced sites you can also use a
dorm fridge. Or you do like I do and use the icebox and coolers.

Personally I found the RV fridges to be too small to be any advantage. I
usually had to bring along a cooler to hold all of our food anyway.

Happy camping.
Andrew

Sucker!!

--
Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under
his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous
uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other
people's countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the
intervals between campaigns he washes the blood of his hands and works for
"the universal brotherhood of man"- with his mouth.

Squeaking on the ball is usually only a problem when you have greater tongue
weights as on a box trailer. As long as your ball and hook up is not rusty
that should not be a problem.

Tugging on the streets could mean your ball height is improper. In your
manual...when it gives the ball height...that is the height 'after' the
trailer is attached.  Your trailer should tow level.

Another cause of squeaking...which has been previously mentioned is the
springs and bearings. WD-40 will take care of the springs. Go ahead and have
the wheel bearings packed.  Unless the previous owner was meticulous in his
maintenance - I would just go ahead and have the bearings replaced and be
done with it.

Grease (in the bearings) wears out from non-use as opposed to age. In the
winter months when I am not using my trailer as much (I'm out twice a month
when the temps are above freezing) I will hook it up and take a ten or
fifteen mile trip up the freeway just to get the moving parts to a normal
operating temperature.

That will pretty much insure bearing grease life. For those who only take
their trailer out once or twice a year it is recommended to re-pack the
bearings every spring.

john

Hey cin,

you do what...state fairs or festivals of a type?

Ever do any in Ohio, Indiana or Kentucky?

I think you said you do a lot of sewing?

john...married a kid and a dog...the dog was the kid's xmas present