What would I do without Mike, Kelly, & Ed

We're getting ready for our first trip of the season, our annual pilgrimage to the bluegrass festival in Grass Valley, California. (Leaving Tuesday. I'll post a report over the next two weeks.)

In getting the TM ready, I have to say once more how valuable I find the two manuals we got from this forum, the one by Ed Felker and the later one by Mike & Kelly. These folks should be made lifetime members just for that contribution. I don't think there is a thing that they missed.

Anyway, thanks to both. For newbies, I HIGHLY recommend that you download and print these, if only for the checklists.

[Bill]

I agree with you. Sad to say, I don't think any of them own TMs any more. Can you believe it? Lifetime membership at their fingertips, and bail out! But times change, families change.

In all seriousness, we do owe these folks a debt of gratitude. Their contributions have helped a lot of TMers get going and keep going.

Bill

Becoming a new TM owner I tried to find the "manual" mentioned here. Unfortunately it appears the link I was able to find no longer works. Does anyone know where else one would find a copy?

[B_and_D]

Try this link:

http://www.tmphotos.org/Mike%20and%20Kelly.pdf

That one worked.
Thank you very much.

[Bill]

Nature Recorder -

Where did you find the non-working link? I'd like to fix it. The main one in the Tech Library (TM Info You Won't Find Anywhere Else) is good - I must have missed another.

Bill

Bill:

... so you'all thought I had either expired or gone over to Airstream or Oliver... Nope, I'm still out here... and would you believe, still lurking and deciding what to buy. Guess the only reason we didn't buy anything else is because we like the TM so much. We still have the 06 Forester Turbo (165,000 miles) and didn't want to have to buy both a new vehoicle and a travel trailer. We retired from the AF in 2005 and I took a job with a defense contractor. That slowed down any travel we were going to do. This Nov I'm fully eligible for Social Security, so we are going to pull the plug on working and do the travel we have been putting off for so long.

We will probably get a new Forester or a RAV4 -- and we really like the new Trailmini. So that's what we'll probably buy.

I'm glad so many folks on the forum found the checklists so useful. I really enjoyed putting them together -- and would have enjoyed it even more had we bought a TM. I put the checklists together based on a whole host of really good suggestions from other TM Owners on the forum so that I'd know more about the TM before we bought one. Well that was about 7 years ago - my wife doesn't want to rush into major decisions involving the contents of our wallets -- so here we are still drooling, planning, and getting ready to buy. Oh, well -- we are patient people so this fall we will join the group of real TM Owners. Guess I need to get started on revising the checklists for the Trailmini.

Also wanted to revise the checklists with real digital photos so that they are more like an owners manual - want to do that so that my kids know how to turn everything on when they borrow the TM. Also will make laminated Towing, Set-up, and Tear down single page sheets for quick reference rather than using the expanded book. Also planning on putting all of it 5 X 8.5 format so that I can put it in the classic version of a PDA notebook. When I get all this done, I'll be more than glad to post the files to share with other folks out there in TM Owner land

Ed & Bev

Bill

I did a search on "Trailmanor owners manual" and this was one of the finds;
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...+Owners+Manual

The link listed in the first post was the one I had problems with.

Originally Posted by efelker

Bill:

Also wanted to revise the checklists with real digital photos so that they are more like an owners manual - want to do that so that my kids know how to turn everything on when they borrow the TM. Also will make laminated Towing, Set-up, and Tear down single page sheets for quick reference rather than using the expanded book. Also planning on putting all of it 5 X 8.5 format so that I can put it in the classic version of a PDA notebook. When I get all this done, I'll be more than glad to post the files to share with other folks out there in TM Owner land

You do all that and I'll nominate you for membership that extends beyond the grave!

I'm blown away that you could produce the manual without actually owning a TM. You must be a tech writer. Great stuff.

[Bill]

Nature Recorder -

Thanks. I missed that one, and it is now fixed. The Mike and Kelly manuals have been so poiular that they get linked a lot - and the old links persist if I don't find 'em.

Bill