new owner of 1995 solaris T-2251

[ScubaSteph]

hi my name is steph, me and my family just bought a 1995 sunline Solaris t-22551. this is our first RV of any kind and would love to be part of the community.


we are actually unsure of year or make of the trailer, from the information on here it seems our trailer has the same layout of the 94' Saturn but I'm not sure how to get the information from the VIN and when i look it up using websites it comes back inconclusive. the trailer does have the black plastic plate with the "T-2251" on it.



The person who sold it to us posted it as a 95' Solaris, but had bought it from someone else who had told him that, and the title just says sunline co travel trailer. ill include pictures below if that helps identify which kind it is. Please excuse our mess since we are trying to deep clean the whole thing, as well as, we are aware of the plank having water damage, luckily that's the only spot with water damage, and is getting replaced today.



Any tips or tricks for a newbie, from any experienced members, would be very appreciated, thank you all so much, and happy camping!

[JohnB]

Welcome Steph and family! Congrats on your new Sunny!

I am not an expert on this, but I may be able to help. Club member Sunline Fan is the guru on the older campers identifying them.

If you have the T-2251 plate on the outside of the camper, that is a 1995 Sunline Solaris model number. You can see it here in our sales brochures under the model number. See page 6. https://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/d...o=file&id=5502

Our FILES section has a lot of good stuff in it. To get to the FILES section, Look up the top of the forum page for the wording FILES. Click it when logged in and read for a long time.


As to the year, your VIN does have the model year in it but not a model number. Counting from the left, the first 3 digits, 1LC is for Sunline Coach. If you count over to the 10th digit, a 1995 model year would be an S. A 1994 model year would be an R. The camper may have been built in late 1994 or early 1995. Like the auto industry, the model year rolled over between two manufacturing years.

The make is a Sunline brand. Your model can be the T-2251 if you have a tag on the outside. Your pictures do show the floor plan of a model 1995 T-2251 and a 1994 model T-2251. As to the Saturn or Solaris, that is more of a trim series. Saturn, also a Sunline, has different inside features/amenities than the Solaris. And they changed the features as the years passed on what Saturn meant. I'm not sure where you found that, but a 1994 Sunline did make a Saturn T-2251 that has a floor plan looking like your pics.

The 1994 brochure shows the Saturn in a T-2551
The 1995 brochure shows the Solaris T-2251 and no Saturn.

If the outside of the camper was not painted, we can also go back into the colors and decals. The decals changed most times by the model year. And the Saturn or Solaris used to be a wording decal also.

Knowing the 10th digit of your VIN may help shed some light on this.

See if any of this adds up to what you have.

Hope this helps

John

[ScubaSteph]

From the information provided it seems it is a 1995 solaris, thank you!

Little off topic but how do you wash the foam inserts from the bunks, and dinning set? We washed the covers and the foam is in good shape so I'd rather avoid spending like $200 to replace :'(. I do live in Wisconsin so I'd rather not leave them out to air dry. Any tips or tricks would be much appreciated TIA!

[JohnB]

Glad you sorted out the 1995 Solaris.

How to wash the foam is a good question. I'm unsure how to do that, but it is good to know. Maybe one of our members who has done this can chime in with their experiences.

I do have a lead on where you may be able to find this out. Page Foam was where Sunline bought many of the cushions that went in the campers, and they are still in business. These folks: https://www.pagefoamcp.com/index.html

Flex Steel Corporation most likely made the sofa, but the bunk mattress and the dinette cushions were most likely from Page. We have had some other members interact with Page over the years and always had good success. Maybe try calling them and asking for customer service. You can even tell them you have a Sunline with what is believed to be their cushions, and they can suggest a cleaning process that will not affect the foam. They should know.

I happened to have the dinette cushions out of a 2004 T317SR in our basement, and I just checked; the tag on the cushions states Page. See here


If your cushions still have a tag, see who made them; it may be Page.

If you found anything out, please post back. We have a lot of Sunline owners that need this info.

Hope this helps

John

[ScubaSteph]

So the most effective thing we found was, to buy a car wash foam gun, and spray both sides of the foam, then rinsing with regular water and we air dried in our garage with a bunch of fans and a couple dehumidifiers running at the same time. It took 2 days for the foam to fully dry as all the water traveled to the bottom. They were a little stiff from the soap residue but once we got them in the covers, and fluffed them, they were good as new.

[JohnB]

Hi Steph,

Thanks for reporting back, and I'm glad it worked out. We all learned something great!

John

[Sunline Fan]

Hi Steph, and welcome!

You indeed have a 1995 Sunline Solaris T-2251 with the somewhat uncommon Sand Dune Velour interior. One interesting thing to note is that you appear to have the central couch as a Flexsteel jacknife sofa in Sand Dune Velour. Many times the T-2251 only came with a foam cushion package and a pullout shelf, so that you could lay the cushions out into a big bed. As the former owner of a '94 T-2251, I can confirm that those were not very comfortable.

I did have good luck cleaning cushions like your dinette ones with a carpet cleaner and hand attachment extractor. What you don't want to do is pull the cushion covers off and put them in the washing machine- you may have a hard time fitting them back on the foam once they're dry. Luckily it looks like you have it sorted already.

For 1995, Sunline's 30th anniversary year, they decided to offer more content on the trailers. Prior to 1995, all trailers T-2251 and smaller were branded as Saturn models, which had less content. Things like cushion sets for a couch were standard. You had to jump into a T-2363 to gain extras like a Flexsteel sofa. But for 1995, Sunline brought it all under one big happy Solaris name umbrella. That being said, most of the 1995 T-2251s I've seen still had the standard cushion couch, so it appears yours was somehow special, likely special ordered with that.

[Cutebutnot]

Hey Steph, After looking at your photos of the inside of yours it appears you have the same trailer as I do. I purchased mine in 2021 and did a bit of renovation and repair to it but it’s a beast and I’ve now taken it across country a few times. Would really enjoy connecting with you as there are very few of these that I have seen on the road. I have a 1994 Saturn T2251. I’m Heather.