AT Habitat, Atlas, & Summit Pictures, ideas, aaand BS

Sorry, I meant the bags people are selling to inflate stuff like sleeping pads and inflatable kayaks, not my airbags lol.

 

Gotcha, was just ckin air bags this am, loadin truck headed south campin for a few days. Weather man says around 70 day and 40s night. So we will see how the dog takes it. Bought a mr buddy in case he starts whimppering like the X went i didnt buy her a ring.

 

Finally just got through all 56 pages of this thread. Great info and thanks to all for posting. I’m considering getting a habitat in the future so my growing family can get out more.

My biggest question is for those of you with kids and dogs.

We have two German shepherds and about to have one kiddo next month and more than likely another by the time we can actually afford the habitat. My thoughts are to have a dog box in the bed for the dogs but am concerned with airflow. I planned on getting the front sliding window regardless but was curious if I would also need a side window for proper airflow/ventilation for the dogs (or kids depending on behavior) while driving.

Thanks for any help/suggestions.

 

Welcome to the thread. The more the merrier in here. We need more Habitat owners (or prospective owners) chiming in.

I went with ZERO windows in my Habitat, so obviously I don't have all the answers. But I do think you'd need at least two windows to get enough airflow for the pups and/or kids. Hopefully someone else with the front slider has some input for you.

Do you have a 6ft or 5ft bed on your taco? I'm curious with 2 dogs and 2 kids and 2 adults if there might not be enough room for everything needed for camping. I know the wife and I probably go overboard when packing, but my entire 5ft bed is filled while driving. Backpackers we ain't.

 

I figured I’d have to go with at least one side window plus the front. Security is near the top of my list and a big reason I like the habitat so much but will more than likely have to compromise a little, which I’m ok with.

I have the 5 foot bed. I do realize it will be a little tight but I/we will have to work with what we have. I do plan on building some storage/drawers to help.

 

We are two adults and two kids (2 and 4). Picked the hab up at Prescott when the kids were 5.5mo and 2.5. We have roughly 100 nights of camping with the hab since. A 17d trip we have enough crap to fill the forward half of the 5' bed to the bottoms of the sleep platforms, and about even with the bedrails to the tailgate. We could ditch a bunch of crap, and have decided to do just that... the 27gal water bladder is a space suck, and are now getting by with a 5gal blue water bottle with tap that we fill up at the grocery stores. So, we'll call it a full load-out is at the bed rails, and half way up the forward wall with our soft goods (bedding, clothes, etc). Of course, the rear of the truck gets more and more to full-blown shit-show status by the end of the trail.

For venting, have you looked at NACA ducts?
http://www.ansoneng.com/sample-page/products-summary/fresh_air_intake/

 

Last night I talked to my wife about you looking into a Habitat. I told her about the kids and dogs and what you've shared so far on here. We love our Habitat, but would hate to see you, or anyone, buy one and be sorely disappointed in it.

I guess before making any more assumptions...

• what types of trips do you see your family taking with the Habitat? Overnights, long weekends, week longs? Loading and unloading every day and moving, or staying in one spot?
• is a small travel trailer out of the question? (instead of a Habitat) My buddy would love a RTT or Habitat, but with the wife, toddler (and another highly likely), and German shepherd they went with a 7x17 Jayco, which was hardly any more expensive than the Habitat, and they were able to get super low rate financing.
• Have you and the wife been able to climb in a Habitat yet? Maybe one with drawers, platforms, etc. Empty, they look like they have massive space... soon as you start loading... not so much.

Maybe you've been over all of this already, but thought I'd ask anyhow. As I said above, just would hate to see someone disappointed.

 

Corpron, being in aviation I’m familiar with Naca vents but had no idea you could purchase them. Thanks for that tip.

YF_Ryan, we were actually initially looking at a Hiker camper trailer. My biggest negative thoughts on that was I didn’t want to haul a trailer up trails. I want to have the ability to see a trail, take it and if we can camp right off the trail. I’d really like to be just one unit. Plus with the Hiker we’d eventually have to get a RTT to put on it for the kids and also purchase a camper shell so the dogs would have somewhere to sleep. That would add up exponentially. What I like about the Habitat is that we can all sleep up top, us, kids and dogs provided I build or buy the platforms.

We have not had the opportunity to see the habitat in person. We wouldn’t actually be purchasing the habitat for another couple years as we are saving up and would like the kid(s) to be a little older.

Thanks to everyone for their input thus far. Great feedback and it’s nice to not just have everyone trying to sell me on the habitat.

 

Wife got me a string of those fairy lights. Ran them around so I'd finally have a bed light. Much better than a flashlight.

 

Looks like a functional load out

 

Wish I was using it over the holidays but wife had to work everyday but Christmas. Even this weekend and NYE and Day...

 

After a week in Anza Borrego with night time temps around 32F, I realized my Propex heater helps, but also need to figure our a way to insulate. The heater was going full-time and the temp inside the Habitat was around 56F, which was comfortable, but would rather not have the burner going all night - it's loud. The main reason to heat the Habitat is to keep my 17 year old corgi warm at night - we're fine in the sleeping bag.Though it does make me question how well it would do in much colder conditions.

Any suggestions on insulating the place? I'm thinking some kind of fly would help create a barrier.

 

Some folks including me discussed this a couple pages back I believe. I've been wondering about insulation ideas as well, and so far the option I want to try is to make a liner for the interior to create a dead air space. I think if you used a thin enough material you could easily leave it inside when packing up. However, I also want to try the same idea incorporating some mylar blankets, I want to see if there's a noticeable gain from the reflective properties at that distance. However, I shudder to think how loud something like that would be

 

There are other more quiet Mylar blankets available.

$20 ソル(SOL) Sooel 12132 Heat Sheet Emergency Blanket for 1 Person

https://www.amazon.com/SOL-Heat-She...a-441004239568&psc=1&ref=&adgrpid=60671418454

 

Am new to the forum. Picked up my Habitat late July. Have been out as much as I can. Mostly a fishing enabling device for me.

 

Lookin good. Welcome to the forum.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience with the Propex. Definitely turns me off a bit more on the idea of a furnace. I wondered if the furnace would have to run full time to try to keep up with the loss through the tent.

I'm curious how much void space you have to heat. Is your truck bed pretty much empty, or do you have a lot of stuff/cabinets/whatever?

Have you tried a heated blanket that you and/or your pup could lay on? we got a heated blanket but haven't had a chance to hook it up yet and see what kinda drain it would have on the batteries over night. Maybe something like this could work too:

$87 Pet Remedy Low Voltage Heat Pad For Pets

https://www.amazon.com/Pet-Remedy-Voltage-Electrically-Heated/dp/B005QYNCT6 It's 12v, just have to wire in a cigarette lighter style plug. We have a small heated pad for our cats. Plugs into wall and is on all the time. If you put your hand on it, it barely feels warm, but lay a fuzzy cat on it for awhile and the cat is TOASTY. they love it.

 

Truck is pretty empty when parked, just the ARB fridge and two small fabric dressers. We'll likely go camping next weekend for a night or two in the area and I think I'll throw two down comforters over the tent just as an experiment - it won't be pretty but should give me a sense of whether it is worth spending time figuring out how to insulate the Habitat.

I'll check out the heated pad, I wonder how long it will heat running off the Goal Zero 400 Lithium.

 

The Goal Zero 400 says 428Wh, and if the 15 watts listed on that pad is correct that would be 28.5 hours from full to empty. That is perfect case of course, i'm sure there is more loss somewhere.

 

I like those 12v heating mats.

The issue you’ll have is heat loss through the tent material. You could make a tent liner like those used for the old military GP small and GP mediums. They worked well for those ranked high enough to occupy the tents.

What about one of those silly sweaters people stick on dogs?