Do Travel Trailers Have Odometers – All You Need To Know

Have you ever wondered if travel trailers have odometers? Look no more. We´ve got you covered.

As everybody knows, it is important to keep tabs on the number of miles that a vehicle travels. After all, it is important for maintenance.

But, what about a trailer that doesn’t have an engine? Do you really have to know just how far that has traveled?

So, do travel trailers even have an odometer? No, most travel trailers do not have odometer. Do note that there is no legal requirement to have an odometer on your travel trailer. It is going to be useful to have one installed, though! However, in some cases, a travel trailer will have something known as a hubodometer installed.

This installs onto the hubcap of one of the wheels and it will track mileage.

What is an Odometer?

An odometer is a small device that determines how many miles a vehicle has traveled.

If you look in your vehicle for the mileage indicator, that is an odometer. It is a pretty important device. After all, you use that to determine how far your vehicle has traveled and whether you need to carry out any maintenance on it!

Do Travel Trailers Have Odometers?

In some cases, you may actually need to purchase a separate hubodometer and install it yourself. If there is a hubodometer installed on your travel trailer, then you will know. It will be listed right there in the manual.

In the past, the odometer would likely have been an analog readout. However, some of the more recent travel trailers will have a digital odometer instead. Don’t worry.

The battery on those odometers won’t die. It is powered by the wheels moving around. 

Is the Distance on the Odometer Important?

Yes. If you come to sell your travel trailer, then you can bet your bottom dollar that somebody will wonder whether you have an odometer installed. It will give them a rough idea of how old the travel trailer is.

👉 Obviously, because not all travel trailers have an odometer and they can be installed at a later date, it means that a lot of people won’t fully trust whatever the odometer is at. However, it is still a fairly decent indicator of how far the travel trailer has gone.

It is also a decent indicator that the owner of the travel trailer cares about the travel trailer’s maintenance. 

👉 As the owner of a travel trailer, it is important that you have an odometer installed. It will allow you to keep tabs on the maintenance of the vehicle.

For example, you will know when you need to lubricate the travel trailer. you will also know if you need to pay attention to the brakes.

👉 Obviously, there is no need to check an engine with a travel trailer. However, you do need to ensure that the axles of the travel trailer are in good working order.

They are going to be supporting a lot of weight while they are on the road, and the last thing that you want them to do is just ‘give way’ because you didn’t know how far they had traveled.

All travel trailer manufacturers should give you a rough idea of how long their trailers can travel without maintenance. 

It is probably also nice to know how far you have traveled while you have been vacationing with your travel trailer! Probably not the main reason why people opt for a travel trailer odometer, but still nice.

How Do Odometers Work?

The odometer is a rather simple contraption.

As we said, it will be attached to the hubcap of one of the wheels.

Each time the wheel rotates, a small sensor in the odometer recognizes that. 

Each odometer will know how many times a wheel has to rotate in a mile. So, each rotation it will add 1 to a calculation.

Once the wheel has rotated enough for it likely to have traveled a mile, then the odometer mileage number will go up by 1!

Because the odometer mileage is based on rotations of the wheel, it doesn’t matter how fast you are going. It should always give you a fairly accurate mileage.

👉 Now, do bear in mind that the odometer mileage can be a couple of miles off the real distance traveled.

However, this is going to be the same as in your vehicle. There are a variety of different things that can impact the rotation of a wheel. Larger wheels, for instance, will take ever so slightly longer to complete a full rotation.

👉 In the grand scheme of things, a couple of miles isn’t going to matter. You would have to be several hundred to thousands of miles off for it to really be putting that much of an impact on your vehicle maintenance schedule. 

Is it Legal to Change an Odometer?

No.

Most odometers are tamperproof anyway. So, if somebody did try to change up the numbers of the odometer, then it would be immediately obvious that this happened.

If you tried to sell a vehicle or trailer with a changed odometer, then somebody could sue you for false advertising of the vehicle.

Even if you could change up the odometer, don’t. It just causes far more issues than it is worth.

If you have ever had an odometer installed on your travel trailer, don’t remove it either. Again, this is going to cause way too many issues.

It indicates that you are trying to hide something. Chances are that it will be obvious that there was an odometer in place at some point anyway.

Is it illegal to operate a travel trailer without an odometer?

As near as we can tell, there doesn’t really seem to be any laws in the United States that require you to have an odometer on your travel trailer.

This doesn’t mean that laws won’t be introduced in the future, but we seriously doubt that this is going to happen.

👉 That being said, there is a chance that some insurance providers may require the use of an odometer in a travel trailer. This is because many of their insurance quotes are based upon the vehicle being properly maintained.

In the eyes of many insurance companies, the travel trailer is an extension of your vehicle.

They expect this to be properly maintained too. If your travel trailer ends up causing any issues on the road, then the insurance company may be doing their best to try and worm their way out of making an insurance payout.

👉 As we have said numerous times on this page. We don’t really think that the odometer should really be a thing that you think about on the legal level.

You should think of it as being a useful gadget that will allow you to track the maintenance of your travel trailer. Nothing more.

The only way that you are going to be punished for not having an odometer is that your travel trailer may stop working quite as effectively.

Hubodometer installation

HUB ODOMETER installation >> Check out the video below:

Can You Track Travel Trailer Mileage Without an Odometer?

Yes. Although, you have to be proactive about it.

You will have to pay attention to the odometer inside of your vehicle. So, whenever your travel trailer is hooked up to the vehicle, keep tabs on how far that odometer moves.

Obviously, doing it this way isn’t really going to help when it comes to the sale of the travel trailer. However, it is going to allow you to know exactly when you should be putting effort into doing a bit of maintenance.

👉 There are some people that will keep tabs on how far they have traveled with the travel trailer using their GPS. However, this isn’t really something that we recommend.

Due to the way in which GPS works, it may not give you an accurate readout. It will only measure the direct distance from point A to point B, even if you took a longer route.

The numbers could be several hundred miles off over the course of ownership. it may not seem like a lot, but it adds up!

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👉 Of course, because this method is such a hassle, we just recommend that you get an odometer for your travel trailer. This means that you never actually have to think about anything other than checking the travel trailer’s odometer every so often.

Can You Install Your Own Travel Trailer Odometer?

Absolutely!

It isn’t that difficult to do either. You will need to buy an odometer and connect it to the hubcap of one of your wheels.

You may need to purchase a specific odometer for your travel trailer. If you can’t find one online, then we are almost certain that the company that manufactured your travel trailer in the firstplace will likely have one.

Conclusion

Many travel trailers will not have an odometer installed in them. However, you can choose to install one if you wish. in fact, we actively encourage you to have an odometer installed.

It will help you to ensure that your travel trailer is properly maintained!

References

https://campertrailerreport.com/