Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Bought a 2006 Pleasant Valley. It was sold to me as being in great shape. Turns out it wasn't. Sidewalls are literally rotting off. One trip to New England and it has rotted out so badly that I don't even dare tow it. Pleasant Valley has offered to turn it into a little guy 4 wide retro but they no longer make the 2006 design for about $2200 making my total investment 4700, MUCH more than I wanted to spend. Other than that, they have been less than helpful.

At this point, I just want to get the cash out of it that I invested. Any suggestions?

Unfortunately it sounds like your best option at this point would be.
Selling it for parts or do a tear down and rebuild yourself.

But I am sorry to hear about your problems.

So, you bought this for $2500 it sounds like. For another $2200, you would have an almost new trailer, correct? $4700 still doesn't seem like too bad a deal considering you probably won't get $2500 for it as it is right now.

I'm sorry this has happened to you, and I'm sure it is extremely frustrating.

No Not a bad deal for a brand new teardrop, I just didn;t want to spend that much money.

More pissed that I was suckered into buying it in the first place.

I have a 2007 Pleasant Valley 4 by 8, and a 2010 5 by 8 Silver Shadow that was built by The Little Trailer Co. And has the composite siding. No problems with either one, both very nice trailers. Owning them has been very pleasant experience. Go figure!

Yep, I'll bet he saw a teardrop on RV Crazy and just had to have one. Didn't do any research and paid the least amount of money he could. Any 2006 teardrop for under $3000 is either a steal or there is something very wrong with it. How's that saying go? "You get what you pay for and buyer beware".

Sorry for your lost but I think Pleasant Valley quoted you a good price for rebuilding your trailer. I wouldn't do it for anything less than $3000.

Hello! I can hear you! It would be nice if you wouldn't get on my post and talk about me in the third person! Btw I did do research. I wanted to build. But when I saw this one for an ok price, AND was assured it was in good shape, I bought. No way I woukd have suspected that a trailer built by Pleasant Valley would have literally turned to sawdust in 5 years!

Yea ,this sounds like a bad experience for sure. But right now you have a useless trailer. It will cost money to turn it into anything useful. While you may not want to put out more money, I think Pleasant Valley is making you a generous offer. You have a 6 year old trailer. PV has no idea how the last owner treated the trailer. Did they let a minor repair go causing the serious problem that you have now? Now days it is rare that a company takes care of any problem after the warranty expires. Add that to the fact that you are a second owner makes the offer even better. You have a better chance of recovering your money selling a new trailer, should you go that way. Good luck with your decision, and I hope this does not sour your love of camping.

It doesn't seem really fair to lay the blame on Pleasant Valley without out knowing how the previous owner took care of the teardrop. Unfortunately, many people will be less than honest when trying to sell a teardrop, or anything, for that matter. I am sorry you have this problem, but I do think you were given a fair offer by Pleasant Valley to replace the sides.

The question now is: Do you want to spend the extra $2200 and have a teardrop that you can enjoy, and is still a good price, or do you want to try and sell and recoup some of your money back? I don't see how you can get it all back unless you sell it without disclosing the problems like the previous owner.

For it to be as badly damaged as you say, the previous owner had to know it was leaking.

It is true. I have no idea how the trailer was cared for and maintained during the 5 years or so and my beef is more with the guy that sold it to me.

But, I have read about other people having rotted sidewalls on this brand of trailer after just a few years. I wouldn't think that should happen if the right materials were used the right way.

So I guess there is a little bit of a design issue wth PV too.

It looks like the best resolution will be to simply replace the sidewalls myself. In NJ, I have easy access to marine plywood, at the very least, I can use the (now partially) attached filon as a pattern and I can even have some lightweight aluminum sidewall supports welded or bolted to the trailer so that the full weight of the sidewall is not simply supported by a few screws.

If I do decide to go forward with the rebuild, I will post a rebuild journal to help others with a similar problem.

The offer from PV I thought was generous too. I'm not sure I can get it to them though.

I have already contacted one TD builder in the Philly area who may be able to take a look. If anyone knows of any more.....

Who knows. Maybe I can take what I learn to develop a manufacturing process that I can use to mass produce a tear without these problems (and that doesn't look like something out of the depression era) I am kind of convinced that there would be a market for these things in the 18-25 yo age group, if they were made to look fun and vibrant like the Australian versions!

Good luck, Phillyboi. It would be an extremely irritating situation.

I have a five year old teardrop (Little Guy 6-wide) that is in storage when not in use. I would not have high hopes for it were it sitting exposed to the weather for several years - the sun, humidity, heat and cold extremes are brutal on such equipment.

Again, sympathies and best wishes on turning the sow's ear into a silk purse somehow.

I would spend the 2200.00. The time spent on rehab will be much more than a tow to Ohio and back. Hiker Chick is correct; the elements will eventually cause harm. My 2006 PV has been garaged since new had has held up remarkably. Good luck with your final decision.

Phillyboi wrote:
Who knows. Maybe I can take what I learn to develop a manufacturing process that I can use to mass produce a tear without these problems (and that doesn't look like something out of the depression era) I am kind of convinced that there would be a market for these things in the 18-25 yo age group, if they were made to look fun and vibrant like the Australian versions!

I may be unique in my build experience, but from what I can tell, and I am open for correction, the single most costly item in a teardrop build is the trailer. To have one built, I would guess the most costly item is labor. This based on years of manufacturing experience. The best part of my Teardrop was building it, I loved doing it. The second best part? I have been taking it out every other weekend since the first weekend in June, have logged over 1000 miles on it. Heading to either Lake Bonham, Eisenhower or Paradise Cove this weekend. My point? Whatever you decide you will most likely love the results when your trailer is complete.