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If you’re like most people, when it comes time to upgrade from a tent to a more accommodating RV, you either hit social media or the internet looking for a great deal on a used RV. In 2016, Kellie and I did just that. After countless hours of searching our local communities trying to find something to fit our budget, we found one located around 200 miles away. There is a huge market for RV’s where we live due to the chemical plant workers who travel up and down the coast following the work, so the prices seem to be a little elevated here.
The 1999 Hi-Lo Classic
We ran across a 1999 Hi-Lo Classic. Neither one of us had ever heard of a Hi-Lo before so we looked it up on the internet to find out a little bit about them. Surprisingly there is a fairly large community of Hi-Lo owners. So we thought, “Why Not?”.
We contacted the seller to arrange a time to drive up and check out this interesting find. A week or so later we were on the road to hopefully buy our very first RV. We found the house and visited with the seller for awhile as he showed us some of the unique features and modifications he had made. We fell in love with it and after a brief transaction, we were back on the road pulling this beast of a travel trailer.
The Hi-Lo comes with it’s own set of unconventional set up and tear down chores. The raising and lowering was the most intimidating part of it, to me anyways. I was always a little apprehensive after seeing mishaps and reading horror stories about it on the internet. However, we put those fears aside and were “chomping at the bit” to take our first trip in it.
After a few years of camping here and there we decided to do a few of our own upgrades before our Somerville trip. We upgraded all of the interior lights to LED, replaced the battery, bought new tires, and upgraded all of the running and “porch” lights to LED. We were so excited after the upgrades and couldn’t wait to take it out. The top was raised for a week or two before our trip to replace all of the interior lights. Afterwards, we lowered it back down to work on all of the exterior lights.
And Then The Pump Went Out
The week before our trip I told Kellie that I was going to go out and raise the top so we could start stocking it up with the essentials. I opened the door, pressed the “raise” switch, and watched as the top started raising. It raised about 6 inches or so and my heart just sank as I watched it slowly lower itself back down, with the pump running. What the heck, (that’s the clean version). Time to break out the manual and get online to see what might be going on.
After hours upon hours of researching, we tried everything we could think of to troubleshoot the problem, no luck. So, we called a local RV repairman to come take a look to see what he thought. It would seem that the problem is either in the lifting pump or the hydraulic ram located underneath.
We had reservations booked for months and we were really excited for the trip so we went another route and visited some RV dealers in Houston. We had been throwing around the idea of maybe one day upgrading to a newer RV, but we weren’t quite sure about it. Well, this cemented our decision. You can check out the Houston RV dealer post HERE.
As of the date of this post, the Hi-Lo still sits and waits for repairs. I will definitely give an update when it gets fixed. Let us know what you think. Please leave a comment in the section below.
