We just bought a new camper and my truck will be pulling it, questions and tips

Minnie's for the win!

 

Great, another thing to worry about. It is a Victory. Ugh

 

Very nice. That's a serious setup. How much do you weigh all loaded up w/the buggy and ready for adventure?

 

Thank you! Yeah, its a lot to figure out. This is a photo of "big, white and ugly" we had it for about 2 years. They were not all good times. lol we hauled an xterra behind it.

 

Annnnd to think camping is supposed to be relaxing, a little chance to get away from all…

 

That departure angle.

Holy hell that's a big % of length past the rearmost axle.

 

Looks like a RV made for Texas, that never leaves Texas.

 

lol yeah it had its issues.

 

lol that is where we picked it up. but it had been in Florida and Oklahoma

 

Ha, I knew it! Definitely a flat lander RV.

 

Times have changed from “getting away from it all” to “getting away with it all” it seems...

When I was young we had a Serro Scotty Sportsman 13 - 10 feet of body and 3 feet of tongue. It had a 2 burner stove, propane light, 6 gallon water tank with a hand pump and an icebox -- you put block ice in it every 2 days or so.

Add in a deck of cards, Yahtzee game and a transistor radio and we never wanted for anything.



My dad pulled it with a V8 Rambler Classic 660.

 

Isn’t that the truth!

We grew up in the county, never went camping when we were kids since we lived in the woods. Occasionally we would put up a tent in the middle of our property, get cold and scared then scurry back inside at 2:00 am. lol!

Wasn’t until I moved to suburbia that felt the need to camp. Nothing fancy, tents or sleep in the bed of the truck with the bare essentials.

 

And stupid me. I just use a tent. On the ground no less. Clearly need to up my game.

 

I tent camped for 20 years before splurging on the popup. Nothing wrong with it. Heck, once upon a time I camped with nothing. I used to throw a blanket on the ground, balled up my jacket to use as a pillow, and sleep under the stars.

I just eventually lost my way with camping, to the point where tent, cot, and kitchen took me a solid two hours to pitch.

The pop-up is faster to pack and load, and faster still to set up, while still maintaining a little bit of that canvas connection. One of these days I might migrate to a real trailer. But for me it just isn't camping without hearing the canvas stretch and the nocturnal critters rustling through the leaves. I hope to never lose that. Part of traveling is thinning the walls, to not have six inches of brick, sheetrock, and insulation separating me from the terrain I drove out to experience.

 

I tent camped for 20 years. And then 20 more... By popup do you mean a trailer or camper shell? I keep thinking I want a trailer, but I just don't want to deal with towing something. I like the freedom of just the truck. Maybe someday I'll spring for something like a Go Fast. I'm renting a teardrop for an upcoming road trip, but for actual camping and back country travel I want to be light and nimble.

 

I used to do the tent camp thing too. Of course, quarter operated showers and flush toilets were a few hundred feet away. Even had cable tv hookup. After many years of that and having stuff stolen from my campsite over and over I moved onto renting cabins. I don't think I could go back to tent camping anymore much less deal with rv dump stations.

 

I don't do campgrounds so pooping in the woods was the only option until I discovered the Home Depot bucket toilet and bags. Works great and toss in the first dumpster I find - usually in the campgrounds I passed looking for a dispersed site.

 

Trailer. At 3000ish pounds it isn't light, but it goes places that it probably shouldn't.