Interstate Trailer owners?

[94fordguy]

I'm considering selling my 4-place Aluma open trailer since I never really used it this year after buying a sled deck, so I've been doing some looking at upgrading to an enclosed sled trailer. From the posts I've searched I don't see many complaints with Interstate, but I would love to hear more from those of you who do have them.

I've never needed the full capacity of my 4-place and like the idea of a slightly smaller unit so I'm looking to go with the 3-place size... It's neat to see all the things folks have posted up in the enclosed trailer stickies for adding storage and heaters and such and I'd really like to step up to that crowd... it sure sucks playing with covers and getting all the gear on/off and packed while it's snowing or raining or muddy out, etc.

Basically I'm looking for all the stuff the Happy (or mad) Interstate owners don't post about.

How do they hold up over the long haul? Any big problem spots I should watch out for when looking at these specific trailers?

I figure now that we're going out of season, this is a great time to get a good deal on one and start setting it up the way I want...


Any advice would be great

Thanks

 

[JSCC]

Well I have good and bad points.
First the bad...
I have lost all the center rivets on the back door numerous times.
The exposed steel rusts.
I have corrosion around all the steel bolts that the aluminum wraps around.
I broke my back flapper on the door.
One of my customers bent my jack moving.
I have lost most of the seals around the doors.
My latch on the fuel door dont like to stay up.

Some of those items, well most, are normal wear items that I neglected. Had I cleaned it more often I bet a couple of them would not be like they are.

For the good....
This trailer has more dam miles than I can count. I guarantee you it is well over 100,000 miles easy.
It has moved more than 30 families.
It has hauled my Jeep, sleds, Impala, four wheelers, sand rails, bikes you name it.
And after that, I have only put a couple sets of tires on it in 8 years and tons of miles.
It pulls like a dream.

My trailer has been used and abused. The only thing I dont like is the exposed steel. I hate repainting it...which reminds me it needs it again.
Other than that if you stay up with the aging issues and maintenance you will have a great trailer.

 

[MORSNO]

I'm considering selling my 4-place Aluma open trailer since I never really used it this year after buying a sled deck, so I've been doing some looking at upgrading to an enclosed sled trailer.

Why not go with what you know is a great brand of trailer...Aluma Enclosed. http://www.alumaklm.com/enclosed_snowmobile_trailers_deck_over.html

 

[94fordguy]

Well I have good and bad points.
First the bad...
I have lost all the center rivets on the back door numerous times.
The exposed steel rusts.
I have corrosion around all the steel bolts that the aluminum wraps around.
I broke my back flapper on the door.
One of my customers bent my jack moving.
I have lost most of the seals around the doors.
My latch on the fuel door dont like to stay up.

Some of those items, well most, are normal wear items that I neglected. Had I cleaned it more often I bet a couple of them would not be like they are.

For the good....
This trailer has more dam miles than I can count. I guarantee you it is well over 100,000 miles easy.
It has moved more than 30 families.
It has hauled my Jeep, sleds, Impala, four wheelers, sand rails, bikes you name it.
And after that, I have only put a couple sets of tires on it in 8 years and tons of miles.
It pulls like a dream.

My trailer has been used and abused. The only thing I dont like is the exposed steel. I hate repainting it...which reminds me it needs it again.
Other than that if you stay up with the aging issues and maintenance you will have a great trailer.

Great info, Thanks a lot... sounds like pretty normal wear for the most part, and pretty minimal for that many miles

Why not go with what you know is a great brand of trailer...Aluma Enclosed. http://www.alumaklm.com/enclosed_snowmobile_trailers_deck_over.html

Simple reason... I love the build quality of my Aluma open, but my budget isn't that big... I'm only looking to spend around $4,000 and then I need to get as much back for my 4-place as I can... So in the end I'm looking to spend about $1-2K on the upgrade.

 

[Mafesto]

Wait until you can afford an aluma or featherlite....you will regret the steel decision down the road.

 

[94fordguy]

Any more interstate owners who could take a moment to share their personal experiences?

Greatly appreciated

 

[jcrjet]

I've got a lot of miles on my 04 25' Interstate. I take good care of it, but it has certainly done its job many times over and keeps taking the abuse. The only wear point I see that stands out as unusual is the rear ramp door keepers are starting to groove into the aluminum frame on the rear door. No leaks or mechanical failures, but you have to keep the exposed steel parts painted, not that big of a deal IMO.

 

[94fordguy]

I joined the club today!

Well I went and looked at the trailer I had seen listed on craigslist with my buddy and we both agreed that after looking at it in person that it was in overall excellent condition for its age, a little surface rust on some of the exposed steel, but certainly within the norm (better actually) for a 2002 unit. After a thorough visual inspection I decided to purchase the trailer and I feel I got an excellent deal... the trailer towed the 130 mile trip home great, I couldn't even feel it behind except for the added weight coming over the big hills on the pass. It tracked straight and I am very pleased with its handling.

I need to check the wiring for the trailer brakes as they weren't registering as connected on my controller, pretty sure its just gonna be a bad connection somewhere.

The trip home was on/off rain with a virtual monsoon about 10 miles from town... when we got home I opened it up and found no leaks at all, very happy for how hard it was raining.

Now I just gotta do some cleaning up on it, a little touch up paint around the bottom of the door openings, and polish the diamondplate with my new favorite tool - The Mothers Powerball - that thing is amazing, lol.

The only pics I have at the moment

It's a 2002 Interstate VTX 19' (14+5) with the Rocky Mountain Package (not sure what that means?) and it has an interior height of 6'-8" and an overall height of roughly 10' to the top of the 2 roof vents (its a little taller than I expected). Are they all that tall?

 

[JSCC]

Thats a nice looking trailer and will give you many years of great use!
You have added height in that trailer. Most are 6'2" interior height.

 

[94fordguy]

Thanks!

It is really nice being able to walk in and out without having to really duck down, haha.

I did some cleaning on it today... washed the outside and replaced a light that was bad, cleaned the lenses that had some dust in them. Then went inside and took down the silly shelves the previous owner had in it, and took up the stuff on the floor and washed it out real good... gonna give it a fresh coat of paint just to make it look its best before I start adding stuff back in.

I got the brakes working again too... I took the cover off the junction box to see how everything looked and all was fine, good connections and all, apparently just needed a little wiggling and they were working great, smooth and strong action.

Here's my next question: Right now I can only have the interior and exterior loading lights on when I have the key in the truck turned on... Can I add an extra battery to the system so I can run the lights anytime I want and do I need a special charger like the current trailer brake battery uses?

I got some Polaris stickers coming to replace the cat stickers, lol...

I hope they aren't too hard to get off of there.

.

 

[MT boondocker]

You can add a battery in the trailer to run your lights and use your existing brake battery wiring to charge that battery. To do that you should add a oneway diode/resister to the wiring between the charging wire for the break away battery and the one in the trailer. By doing this, you will be only taking power from the trailer battery not the breakaway battery when using the lights when not connected to your vehicle. You may also have to check the wiring on your trailer lights, as some trailers tap into the clearance lights for power to the interior lights. If your trailer is wired that way, you have a couple of different options. 1) You could rewire your interior lights to a battery so that they would only work off of the battery, not with the clearance lights. 2) You could add a three switch into the wires for you interior lights. Doing this you could run the interior lights off of the clearance lights with the switch one way and off of the trailer battery with the switch the other way. You would still need to run a wire from the trailer battery to the switch. Did this on my other trailer, with the new trailer I just added a battery, used the charging system from the breakaway battery to charge it. But then on new trailer the interior lights power was from the charging system to start with.
Good luck with your project.

 

[Ryanlilly]

Did you pick that up from trailers northwest? I looked at it also, in very good shape for the year. I just couldn't drop the coin with still being in the middle of my sled build. Good buy!

 

[94fordguy]

Did you pick that up from trailers northwest? I looked at it also, in very good shape for the year. I just couldn't drop the coin with still being in the middle of my sled build. Good buy!

I did actually... I was going to trade in my 4-place for it but decided I'm gonna sell it myself to hopefully get more money back. I'm obviously pretty new to enclosed trailers being this is my first, but I knew it looked well cared for and I really liked how much headroom it has inside.

 

[JSCC]

I am not sure why your lights are that way. As long as mine are hooked to the truck they work.
My horse trailer is wired like yours though. I would do what he said.^^^^

 

[94fordguy]

Well I made some good progress on cleaning up the trailer this week... got the floor painted up, added some glides I had, cleaned the walls and added a rack system from Lowes, and been working on cleaning up the surface rust around the outside of the doors and on the tongue... I just have a little bit to do on the bottom of the back door and need to add some glides to the ramps themselves and install some superclamp anchors, mount up a folding shelf in the v-nose and she'll be ready to go

Oh ya, got the new stickers on too

 

[sandorsnow]

Good looking trailer.

I have an 07 27' that I love.
The interior lights could also be fixed by rewiring the trailer plug, move the wire from the acessory pin to the center pin, its the + or "hot" position.

I drilled a hole at the bottom of the support posts of the front door, amazing how much water came out. Not sure where it comes from, my friends froze and split last year, thats how I knew to do mine.

Right after I got it I also had to cut 1 hinge off the front door and weld a new one on. I'm the second owner.

I'll post pics later.

Last trailer was a haulmark, good trailer but like the interstate better. Next trailer if I can't afford an aluminum, it'll be the same interstate.

 

[M8Chris]

Well I made some good progress on cleaning up the trailer this week... got the floor painted up, added some glides I had, cleaned the walls and added a rack system from Lowes, and been working on cleaning up the surface rust around the outside of the doors and on the tongue... I just have a little bit to do on the bottom of the back door and need to add some glides to the ramps themselves and install some superclamp anchors, mount up a folding shelf in the v-nose and she'll be ready to go

Oh ya, got the new stickers on too

You did a great job cleaning up that trailer! Looks brand new!

 

[Carbon77]

I think you might be my neighbor! I've seen that trailer parked up the street from me!

 

[←snow∞motion→]

I think you might be my neighbor! I've seen that trailer parked up the street from me!

Hahaha, small world

 

[94fordguy]

I think you might be my neighbor! I've seen that trailer parked up the street from me!

LOL


The general area close to Memorial?