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Long time backpacker, first time RVer. Well, would like to be a first time RVer. With work from home I’m getting sick of staring at the same four walls day after day and I would love to pack up my laptop and hit the road for a few months at a time. I’ve been trying to read up, learn as much as I can and look at different options, but I would really love some advice and guidance from people with real world experience. Basically trying to figure out if my ideas are poo poo or if there might be something better I should be looking at. I really like the idea of a lightweight, sub 20’ travel trailer I can plop down and then explore the area with the tow vehicle. This would be starting from a blank slate, as I don’t have a capable tow vehicle or a trailer. I realize the market is completely catterwampused for both right now…. I’m guessing everyone else has the same idea for some crazy mysterious reason. I understand that this whole endeavor is a huge money pit, but I’m hoping to not go too crazy so I can still, well, travel. I’m pretty enamored with fiberglass travel trailers, especially Casitas. There doesn’t seem to be much of a used market anytime soon, so would it be a terrible idea to put a deposit down and get a new one later this fall? I’m seeing stuff like ~26,000 for the 17’ deluxe, which doesn’t include all the optional features I’d like such as friction anti sway bar, deep cycle battery, awning, etc. Is that a reasonable ballpark for first time travel trailer? That’s assuming I’m even able to find sticker price on a tow vehicle later this year too. As far as tow vehicles go, I really like the *idea* of the new Electric F-150, but I’m sure there will be an order backlog and I hate to be an early adopter with such a large purchase. Plus I would love to camp off grid on BLM land and the like and I’m not confident 200-300 miles of range (before towing) wouldn’t eventually leave me stranded so maybe traditional gas is the way to go? Though I do love the idea of slow charging to refuel at electric camp sites over a few days. From various trailers I’ve looked at, I *think* a 5,000 lb tow rating and 7 point wiring harness *should* be sufficient for the travel trailers or teardrop campers, but would it make more sense to buy once cry once and get a more capable tow vehicle such as an F-250? Or an F150 with 10,000 lbs rating? The goal is for two people to live and work remotely while making a big circle around the US and our neighbor up north (if they ever let us back in). Appreciate any advice or suggestions!
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Jul 11, 2021 19:39
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cursedshitbox posted:Yeh sure. even with the frontal square footage of something like my truckcamper it'll still have north of 100mi range. That’s more or less what I’m seeing from reviews, and the googler is suggesting four days to recharge on a standard 120v outlet, 10 hours with a standard EV charger, or 44 minutes on the Electrify America charger (which there are a few but not enough to plan around yet). I’m a bit drunk right now, so my math probably sucks, but at .31 cents a minute charging rate, it’s about $13.50 to refill the tank, which conservatively should tow 100 miles at full towing capacity. Assuming 10ish mpg towing with gas, that’s about ten gallons or 30$ average in fuel right now to tow 100 miles. So back of the napkin math suggests electric fuel costs are probably about 30-50% cheaper, which matches with 1/3 the cost estimates I’ve heard before. Over 100k miles that’s about 16,500$ cheaper in fuel costs (ignoring price fluctuations). Battery warranty is 7 years/80k miles. Assuming you had to replace it at that interval, at 5,500$ average EV battery cost you’re saving roughly 10,000$ (assuming the larger f150 battery is more expensive to replace). With 14,000 average yearly miles driven, that’s 10k over 7 years, or 120$ a month savings in fuel costs with electric vs gasoline. This is a conservative guesstimate and ignores additional maintenance costs of combustion engines, assuming that is offset by the cost of finding someone to fix an EV in the boonies. Though hopefully the standard wear and tear maintenance are wheels and suspension which anyone can do. The standard F150 with towing package is ~33k, and the electric is ~38k for 230 mile battery, or 50k for the 300 mile battery (minus 7500 in tax credits). Very roughly and assuming 100% of miles driven are towed and you are paying for electricity instead of just leeching off the electric hookup at the campsite, in 7 years the extended range electric F150 should pay for the price difference between the standard gas F150 with towing package. I think over a longer period an EV would be cheaper, but the question is how much that’s offset by inconvenience of finding a charge station, or being tied to electric hookup camp sites at 100 mile intervals for several days at a time. The other big problem is even if you do plan and find a charging site, it might not be able to accommodate parking with a trailer. If we had even a fraction of the investment in electric infrastructure as we do gasoline infrastructure I think it would be no contest. Especially the fast chargers. Pulling in to fuel up at a gas station sucks up about 15 minutes anyways, big whoop if I have to tack on half an hour to charge an EV. Spitballing that all out, probably a regular gas truck is the best bet for towing an RV, just in terms of existing infrastructure supporting it. That is exciting costs seem to be at a break even point for general ownership though! E: drat, I probably grossly underestimated new F150 prices… 3 year old used vehicles are selling for new MSRP 
Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Jul 12, 2021 |
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Jul 12, 2021 05:00
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Still in the trying to figure it out stage, but I think at this point I’m looking to put a deposit down and get on the production waiting list for an Escape travel trailer. I really like the Escape 21c, mainly because it’s a bit taller and wider than the Casita and has a 2” receiver for a bicycle hitch on the rear. The layout of the bed also really looks nice for tall people. I’m looking at options and see that they offer a composting toilet. Does anyone here use one or has looked at them? I’m just curious that if you were starting from scratch, would you do a composting toilet or traditional black tank? Also, I know solar is way more complicated than X number of watts, but what kinds of solar systems and batteries do you guys use?
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Jul 19, 2021 01:11
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rdb posted:You are tall? Have you walked through one yet? For reference I am 6’6”. That’s a really good callout, I’m 6’4” and the interior height of the trailer is 6’3”. Better than the casita at 6’1”, but I’ve more or less come to accept there will be some give and take with the fiberglass RVs. I’m used to backpacking, so I just really want a solid roof and office I can plug into and work from, and an awning to stand up outside. That plus legroom on the bed to stretch out, and I’m happy. You guys have changed my mind on composting toilets though, probably better to work with what most other people are using. Thanks! You’re absolutely right, I just need to visit a dealer. I think renting an RV for a weekend is the correct answer as well, see how I like it in practice. I’ve been pricing out rentals for longer trips like 2-3 weeks and figuring it’s probably better to buy at that point, but a few days would be sufficient to answer that question. The escape 21c I priced out came to about 45k with production scheduled for June 2023, so that’s quite a long ways out if I go that route. Do you guys think we’ll see an influx of used RVs this winter or next year with people who jumped into this and decided they didn’t like it or that it was too expensive? Or do you think demand is going to remain high past this winter? I feel like I remember seeing somewhere that RV demand was at an all time high even before the pandemic. Over the weekend I was talking to one of my camping buddies and he told me he has an old pop up that had a tree fall against it and damage the roof that he’s looking to get rid of. My supposition is that at least the side wall of the top is damaged and needs replaced, if not the whole roof itself. Could be more extensive, I’m not sure, by he’d sell it for a few hundred and probably even help me get it fixed up. I watched a video on popup roof repair, and while it looks like an absolute bastard, it seems doable. Should I run or might this be a great opportunity to get something and get started?
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Jul 21, 2021 13:22
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rdb posted:I would not jump into a full price brand new camper if your at all unsure as to weather or not you will like it or get enough use out of it. The popup might be a good idea if you think you can fix it. I think you’re right… I don’t mind buying a new travel trailer, but then having to spend another 20-50k on a tow vehicle on top of that doesn’t really leave any room to actually go out and travel. I love car camping, I love backpacking, I love traveling and seeing new places, so I feel pretty good about jumping into an RV. I just need to figure out some combination of trailer + tow vehicle that’d be comfortable for a few months at a time and hold up decently well. Tow vehicle may just have to be a clapped out truck with 200,000 miles on the odometer. cursedshitbox posted:Pop-ups are extremely simple. Are you willing to commit to a month or two of weekends (or a few weeks) of teardown and rebuilding to get it all repaired correctly? Good to know! I expect it would be quite the project, and I’m just not sure how well I’d juggle it with the other half finished projects on my plate right now. The thought of manually peeling apart the vinyl siding has me worried, but this might be the best way to get something and get out in a reasonable time frame.
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Jul 23, 2021 04:07
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Went and looked at airstreams the other day and while I really liked the layout and space, my head was brushing up against the ceiling and the used ones they had in stock were more expensive than placing an order for a new one. So, I did some more looking and wound up placing a deposit on the Escape 5.0 trailer. Earliest production slot is June 2023, plus another 3-5 months to manufacture the larger frame. So this basically gives me two years to aggressively save up and wait out some of the market disentangling itself from the pandemic. Plus I really like that I can tow the thing with a half ton pickup, so that gives me a bunch of options when buying a tow vehicle. My other thought is that this gives me some time to see if I can pare down some of my poo poo so as to sell the house or make arrangements for someone else to live here. I’ve I’ve just accumulated way too much crap over the years that I’m not quite ready to get rid of yet. How often do you guys get out on the road and at what point does it make more sense to pay for a storage unit vs. paying utilities, insurance, taxes, and maintenance on an empty house?
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Jul 25, 2021 19:45
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Somewhat Heroic posted:Roughed it smoothly last week. Went as support leader for a youth group my wife is involved in. We camped at a reserved but large site in Weber County, Utah (kind of north-ish. It was East of the Ben Lomond/Willard Peak). Pretty nice site, I have not really spent much time exploring around there. It is about an hour and a half drive and is part of the dark sky coalition which would have been great except for the nearly full moon. That is a really slick trailer! I especially like the rooftop tent, super clever way to expand your living area. Same with the flip out kitchen in the clamshell, I was pretty enamored with that on the Nucamps too. Would you have the option to take the trailer back to Bean and have them retrofit any of the new features you liked on the meaner bean? How far off the trail do you usually take the trailer? Utah seems like it would be perfect for that with all the BLM land poo poo POST MALONE posted:Why the heck is every camper and RV covered in weird Newport swooshes and boomerangs and poo poo? Is this you? Also that frog decal is incredible… my gf got a tattoo last week and the artist had a drawing of a frog playing a banjo I’m super tempted to get Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Jul 29, 2021 |
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Jul 29, 2021 18:53
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CaptainTofu posted:They cover it in this line: I think this is the only correct interpretation of that line  
Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Jul 29, 2021 |
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Jul 29, 2021 20:40
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Megabook posted:Sorry to say I've only read the OP, but I'm too desperate to let someone know we've just spent our first night away in our 1993 Toyota HiAce! Woop woop! What, you're not gonna invite us inside? This thing is  , I'd love to see some more shots if you got 'em! How'd you come into that vehicle?
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Aug 1, 2021 01:38
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Peanut Butler posted:Circumstances have come up for me and it means I have to rough it without a fixed address until my number comes up at a subsidized housing facility, in about six weeks- Be sure to check out your local libraries for free wifi and a spot to hang out and work in the warmth. If you can swing it, a gym membership might be great for getting a hot shower and getting some workout time in to feel better. Beware condensation as well, I would think it would be difficult keeping an uninsulated space comfortable without ventilation. I don't know if you can swing the mileage but it may be easier to move south or see if you can at least couch surf with a friend inside overnight. Don't forget that cold kills batteries too. Don't forget to check out stuff like allstays and Boondockers Welcome for free and safe places to park overnight. There's a camping gear thread here too that might be useful to pop into for information about stuff. Godspeed and stay safe goon
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Dec 9, 2021 04:26
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Officially gave up on trying to buy a half ton or even smaller truck anytime soon, and decided to cancel my Escape 5.0 preorder for next spring. The math didn't make sense trying to buy a new truck and spend about the same on a camper while still allowing wiggle room in my budget to well, actually do things. Long term I want to full time rv, but near term there's too much poo poo to do with the house and pets it realistically doesn't make sense for me. I did however wind up buying a used Subaru Outback, since it has 4x4 and a roof rack to chuck my kayak up on. The towing capacity is pretty limited at 2700 pounds, but I'm pretty interested in teardrop trailers so I think it should work all right. I especially love the bean travel trailer, but since Utah is about a day's drive away for me, I'd love to actually take a good chunk of time off work and tool around the area when I pick it up, which probably means waiting for another year to max out my vacation days. I'd love to get a travel trailer for this year though, and I've been poking around at different options. Nucamp CS-S or Tab/Tag seems like it might be a good option for me, but they're still kinda pricey when a bean isn't significantly more and seems significantly better. I'm sort of interested in DIY trailer kits, though I realize it's probably a bigger project than I really need to take on right now. How bad of an idea is it to look at DIY teardrop kits? Alternatively, I just stumbled on this listing and it seems like it might be more along the lines of what I'm looking for. Is something like that a good compromise? I just want to get outside more often, and bringing the wife along also tends to bring lot of creature comforts (that I enjoy as well), which is just a headache to pack and repack for a 2-3 night trip. I feel like a teardrop might be easier to keep packed with everything we need so we only have to mess with food and a popup canopy to hang out at camp, and I love the idea of being able to do some dispersed camping with the trailer.
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Jun 22, 2022 00:18
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Somewhat Heroic posted:There are a number of people in the Bean community that are using an Outback/Bean combo. One has a Meaner Bean and tows it behind their outback. I am now 1+ year into the Bean and it still is one of the most fun "toys" I have bought. I have seen a few other small trailers while out on the road. The T@G seem cool, but not as off road capable. Much larger units. I have to say...some of the smaller ones I have seen like the nucamp just seem odd/cheap? Like a small apartment looking AC unit stuck in the wall and cabinets out of your grandparents bathroom just bolted in place. The microwave is weird as hell and looks totally out of place. I don't know. For what it is worth I have been compiling some "b-roll" video clips to assemble a comprehensive review to post on YouTube since there is not a ton of user generated content. Bean has been cranking out trailers though. they are into the 600's on chassis numbers now and it was just over a year ago I took delivery of #270. Definitely a big fan of the bean since seeing your posts and doing a lot of thinking about what I actually want. Seems to fit in exactly with how I want to get out, and a much better buy for a trailer than a lot of the other stuff out there. Hm... saving up and placing for an early spring trip next year is probably just the right way to go altogether. Just hard to wait when I finally have a car capable of towing anything more than a utility trailer
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Jun 25, 2022 06:02
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Hekk posted:Does anyone have any thoughts on the Casita fiberglass travel trailers? https://casitatraveltrailers.com/ Currently I'm eyeballing Bean teardrop travel trailers out in Utah. Full fiberglass, made for taking down forest roads, full kitchen galley in the rear, 60 day lead time currently, and towable with my Subaru Outback. Seems like a great step up from backpacking and car camping to more prolonged trips. I'm currently planning on ordering on next spring and taking some prolonged time off work to putz around the area after picking up the trailer. Simplicity is best imho... less time futzing with stuff and more time exploring new places.
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Jul 21, 2022 01:47
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Now that you've had the Bean for awhile, is there anything in retrospect that you wish you had or hadn't ordered when you bought it? It's been over a year of drooling over them and I'm pretty set on placing an order for one here pretty soon, but just stuck on trying to figure out what should I add to the build upfront, and what might be ok to wait on and just pick up aftermarket/bolt on myself. Stuff like adding the front window vs an awning I could buy aftermarket and bolt on to the roof rack, or whether the aluminum front box is all that much better than the flexibility of a tray + tie downs. The biggest thing I'm wondering is whether it makes sense to spend 1800$ for a heater installed in the teardop or if I'm better off just dragging along the portable buddy heater when it gets cold. I figure that one especially won't be easy to add on down the road, but might make a big difference in usability living in a four season state. Appreciate any thoughts!
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Feb 26, 2023 19:55
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Somewhat Heroic posted:I am just a month or so away from our two year anniversary with our Bean. I have bought a lot of toys and things with wheels over the years and I can say that the Bean has been my favorite purchase out of all the dumb things I have bought over the years. I had heard about how the teardrop travel trailer and fiberglass RV community are obsessive about them and figured I would be different or whatever. This is not the case. At this point all I want to do is find places to go and just go. I have been wanting to upgrade my tow vehicle for a while now that I am firmly into dumb offroading (not like rock crawler stuff but you get what I mean) I considered selling my M3. My M3 was my dream car that I have wanted since I was 16. When I floated the idea to my wife and kids that I was considering selling the M3 to buy a newer/more built up powerful Land Cruiser they vetoed the plan HARD. So last month I picked up an LX 570 that is a little more in line with my budget and will fill my wants for a better towing/off roading experience. That does answer so many questions... everything you've posted in here and your AI thread has been tremendously helpful, thank you! Honestly of all the stuff I've looked at over the past year or so here, the trips, thoughts, and feedback you've posted have been some of the most helpful and influential. I honestly feel like you deserve a commission, because I finally got my poo poo together and took the plunge!  You'd changed my mind on the Timbren axle and we very nearly went the Meaner Bean route, but the rep at Bean recommended sticking with the Mean Bean due to the limited tongue weight on our tow vehicle (Outback). Which if I'm being honest with myself, the mean bean is way more trail capable than my tow vehicle anyways. Otherwise we pretty much went with everything else... Premium Plus Galley, ICECO VL45 chest fridge, Ecco on demand shower/sidebox (w/ spray port), roof rack, 23Zero shower enclosure awning, 23Zero 180 awning and sidewalls, a 2nd side window, front window, rock sliders, table, battery heater, front box, LionEnergy battery, Lightleaf 140w panel, maxxfan deluxe fan. This is definitely going to be a big step up from backpacking  Should be ready here by July, and I've been poring through maps to string together a trip to head cross country, pick up the trailer, pop down south through Bryce & Zion over to Big Sur (with stops in Sequoia & Death Valley), up the California 1 to Redwoods & Columbia River Gorge to North Cascades, over to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, and back home through Badlands. If I had just another week or two I think we could quite possibly hit almost half the National Parks in the US on this single trip, but being realistic about time constraints of keeping overall mileage under 300 a day with a zero day at least once a week means that we have to make some tough choices to straighten out the route (the first victim of which is probably going to be Glacier National Park even though that's probably something we should prioritize sooner rather than later). It's a lot, but I think it's doable! If anyone has any advice around a monthlong trip I'd definitely appreciate any thoughts! Just trying to find the right balance of ambitious and doable
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Mar 23, 2023 03:41
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Ozone seems like a great idea, I picked a cheap one up awhile back but never wound up using it and just lent it out to someone that said it worked really well in their new apartment. Since it's that carpet material, you might also try a carpet shampooer, eg: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0016HF5GK Ozone will kill the bacteria, but I'm not 100% whether it might degrade certain plastics. With the insulation decaying I don't know about reattaching the liner, I've never had luck with that, but potentially you could poke a tiny hole in there, use spray fabric adhesive with a red spray can nozzle straw to shoot it up in there, repeat in a few places, and hit it with a roller to flatten up the sag? Maybe even inject a thicker adhesive and use a paint roller to spread it around by rolling the lining underneath to push it around the void and press the lining up against it. How to hold it in place till the adhesive dries is a great question... possibly a rare earth magnet above the camper and one below depending on the shell thickness, to pin it in place in a few places? That may be a really dumb idea, just spitballing. If you really wanna go hog wild, strip the interior of the camper, pull the lining off wholesale, maybe add insulation, and then reline with peel-n-stick wallpaper. Could be pretty neat, though probably a pain to do E: The googler says a steam cleaner and paint roller might work to re-melt the original aggressive and roll it back into place as well Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 23:33 on May 15, 2023 |
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May 15, 2023 21:22
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Somewhat Heroic posted:Is it July yet? It is July yet! After 10+ years of wanting an RV, I'm the proud owner of a Mean Bean!  I'm still sorting through photos and I'll post some more once I do, but my wife and I just got back yesterday. Absolutely loving the trailer so far, and I can't wait to take it out more this fall and winter! This was the first trip in a long time that I didn't get the itch to come back home after awhile... if anything, I'm honestly bummed that it's over. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about what it would take to be on the road for several months at a time, though ultimately it would probably have to be a different trailer to bring the cats along and have a good space for working remote. Like any good adventure though, we ran into a few hiccups along the way. An old guy towing his speedboat backed the propeller into my car at a gas station in Vernal, but thankfully it was just a dent in the hatch. Once we got the trailer, we had a few initial struggles with the LiFePO4 battery running out in the middle of the night, then showing 100% the next day in the Victron monitor app. Took some head scratching, but eventually I noticed the positive wire from the solar port had come loose from the distribution block, and figured out the monitor had been configured to reset the state of charge to 100% when it died. So, the bit of solar in the morning + a few amps from my portable battery pack only got it up enough for me to think it was charging throughout the day, but the monitor wasn't allowing it to fully charge due to not remembering the SOC on reset. Think I've everything set up properly and reconnected now, and I'll do a deeper dive here soon. Let's see... we also had someone try to jimmy the door lock while we were camping at Lewis Lake in Yellowstone. Middle of the day while we were visiting the park too. Which just sucks because they busted up the lock cylinder pretty good, so I'm going to try to contact Bean and see if they can point me in the direction of a replacement. I think it may have been a youth group camping in the site next to us, based on some snippets I overheard later that evening. And also the fact the solar panel hadn't been stolen, despite being unlocked and laying atop the roof rack while we were gone.  All in all, minor stuff thankfully. We also had a pretty bad storm hit us with golfball sized hail at Sheridan Lake, but thankfully nothing was damaged (including the solar panel, and it was honestly a welcome relief from the recent heat wave. Which, as a side note, I'd be curious how good some of those portable AC units are, because that would be pretty great for hot and humid nights. Overall, relatively minor stuff, at least until my Outback's transmission decided to transmit its last right outside Peoria at about one in the morning a few nights ago. The indicator lights went nuts out of nowhere, so I pulled off to the side of freeway, did some research, and was thankfully able to limp to the nearby exit and safely park at a nearby Motel 6. Got a room to figure things out, but was initially a bit skeeved by the full service prostitution and dealer ring operating right beside where I had stupidly decided to park. I don't think I've ever seen so many people hopping in and out of windows and hanging around a parking lot till the wee hours of the morning, but they were probably just as freaked out by me being there, at least judging from the nearby rooms' lookouts opening and shutting their blinds every time I glanced over. Honestly, the room was nice and clean, the AC worked great, the staff was really nice, and despite my initial misgivings, we had zero issues whatsoever. I'm truly grateful it worked out as well as it did and we were able to safely get off the freeway and find a place to stay. The next morning I arranged for the car to be towed to a nearby transmission shop, though after they opened up I found out they don't work on Subarus due to licensing cost of the software. But they were incredibly nice about the whole thing, and eventually I was able to find a broker to arrange a long haul vehicle delivery to get the car home later that day. Then I got even luckier and found a Uhaul pickup truck rental to tow the trailer home. Now I just need to rent a vehicle dolly, tow a working car back to Peoria, drop off the rental truck, and drive back home tomorrow (about 11ish hours round trip).   Tl;dr, despite some headwinds, it was honestly an incredible trip that I'd do again in a heartbeat! I'll post up some more pics once I sort through things. 
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Jul 30, 2023 04:47
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CarForumPoster posted:Still better than tent camping? Absolutely! It's everything I was wanting to get back outdoors more, and the convenience factor from the Bean is fantastic. Being able to leave the screen door open, shut out the bugs, and crank the fan in the evenings is serendipity. Plus I can't tell you how much I love having a galley and fridge that's quick and easy to use. And the whole setup barely takes 10-15 minutes to pack up and hit the road, so much quicker and easier than packing up camp. My favorite aspect is just being adaptable in where we travel, while still having our own space. Honestly, my only real complaint was having to come back home  Anyways, I just thought I'd share a few pics from some of my favorite stuff along the way! Rocky Flats:  Stanley Hotel (grabbed a drink at the bar and went on the evening tour):  Rocky Mountain National Park:   On the way out of the park we drove through Granby, which I kept thinking sounded super familiar. Wasn't until we had left that I remembered Granby was where Marvin Heemeyer built the Killdozer and razed a couple of businesses owned by people who had been abusing their positions in local government to slowly cut off access and utilities to Marvin's shop so as to acquire the land for a concrete plant. I very much doubt there's any sort of monument or memorial, and everything has been rebuilt and seen an influx of growth since then, but it was at least interesting to have seen the place. Continued on through and stayed for a few nights in Steamboat Springs:   Highly recommend Storm Peak Brewing and How Ya Doin Pizza! Visited Dinosaur National Monument:   Stayed in a Tiny Home AirBnB in Salt Lake City:   Finally picked up the trailer!  Soda Springs (naturally carbonated captive geyser):  And the carbonated spring you can fill up your own bottles in:   Also really recommend stopping in Henry, Idaho and visiting the general store out there as well if you're in the area! Visited Grand Teton NP (camped at Colter Bay)     Next we moved up to Yellowstone NP, and camped at Lewis Lake and Madison Campground):      Highly recommend getting dinner at the Lewis Lake Boathouse - they have pretty good tacos and a fantastic view!  I really enjoyed the Yellow Bus tour at Yellowstone as well, and just being able to kick back and let someone else drive for a bit:   The Old Faithful Inn was a pretty neat stop... I love the architecture of those old lodges, and the lunch buffet was a nice way to take it all in without a previous reservation. The nearby shop and service station also had a pretty great diner style breakfast. After spending a few days at Yellowstone, we drove up through Bozeman, got dinner at Montana Ale Works, and stopped at a KOA a bit outside town. Then headed over to Butte to see a few things there. Orphan Girl Mine at the World Mining Museum:  Berkely Pit Superfund Site:     Interestingly, some algae and bacteria have mutated to survive in the toxic slurry, which has shifted the hue of the water from a deep red to cyan blue over time. While in Butte, also went and paid my respects to Frank Little:   Traveled on to Missoula, and granbed some beers at Imagine Nation Brewing and some great pizza at Biga, followed by some more beer at Cranky Sam Public House while waiting for the pizza. Decided to avoid the KOA inside Missoula after reading through the reviews about the new owner, and stopped for the night at Granite Peak RV Park, which was excellent. The next day we visited the National Bison Range (now back under tribal ownership!):    Afterwards stopped at the Ronan Brewing Co-Op, which was probably one of my favorite breweries of the trip, highly recommend if you're in the area! Also pretty neat in the area, Flat Head Lake is a great microclimate for growing cherries, so we picked some up from one of the roadside stands. From there we made our way to West Glacier and camped at the Coram Hipcamp outside the park, and got dinner at Backslope Brewing, which had pretty good food (though the beer was solidly ok).  Even though we'd missed the window for vehicle passes to Glacier NP (mistakenly bought the Vehicle Entry Pass for the park in advance, not the Vehicle Reservation Pass to actually enter the park  ), I was able to book a Red Bus tour for Going to the Sun Road and still enter the park that way. Plus the tour was a neat experience!Since we were on a condensed time schedule, we lucked out and were able to get a great breakfast at Lake McDonald Lodge, with an incredible seat right at an open window overlooking the nearby stream:          Would've like to have had more time there, but with the heat wave we decided to keep pressing on to a KOA near Billings. Along the way stopped at the Little Bighorn battlefield, which was pretty sobering to walk through and get a sense of events on a human scale. I'm also really glad to see more perspectives being brought to the forefront at the visitor's center. The next day we traveled on to the Bear Lodge National Monument (Devil's Tower) and stopped for two nights at the KOA there, which was nice to have a break from driving:    The KOA is situated on where Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed, so they show that every night there, which was pretty neat Also the Prairie Dogs outside the tower did a meme!!  Mount Rushmore was really underwhelming and even smaller than I'd thought, but hey, finally ticked it off the classic american roadtrip list:  I knew the carvings were essentially defacing a sacred site, but while there I also learned that nobody even asked for it to be built, just some dude with delusions of grandeur swindled some money from the government so he could hire people to do all the work for him. I'd probably skip Deadwood altogether next time around, it was more Casinos and shops catering towards Sturgis attendees, which I totally get, everyone gets by however they can. The Broken Boot Gold Mine was a nice little quick tour to pop into on the outskirts of town:   Custer State Park and the town of Lead were definitely my favorite things we saw while in the Black Hills (especially Dakota Shivers Brewing in Lead):   Sheridan Lake Campground was a fantastic spot to camp (even with the late night hailstorm which thankfully didn't damage a single thing!):  Also camped at Cold Brook Lake (near Hot Springs, SD):  Visited Wind Cave NP:    Don't have photos, but Wall Drug was a great stop as well. Badlands NP:  Minuteman ICBM in its silo:  One of the Rangers that works at the Monument is an Airman who worked in the launch command center (incredibly the same person as in the photo right behind him, which he apparently only found out very recently)  Apparently he was only twenty miles away from Damascus when the Titan II ICBM detonated inside the silo after a dropped socket punctured the rocket. The people on alert had no idea what was happening and thought the explosion was an earthquake at the time. Absolutely incredible to have been there and had the opportunity to listen and ask questions! Dignity: of Earth and Sky was another fantastic stop on the way back, and there's a lot more I want to go back and visit in the area:  And the last interesting thing we visited was The Corn Palace (which was everything I wanted it to be and more):  Apologies for the long post, we just lucked out and were able to see and do a bunch of stuff in such a short period of time! Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 12:10 on Aug 8, 2023 |
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Aug 7, 2023 17:50
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Fatal posted:Epic post and trip! How long did it take? Were you working remote or taking it easy? Thanks! It was a hair over three weeks... I had a bit of extra time off work banked up from last year so I just took off the whole time to try and knock out as much as possible. It's weird, I haven't had that long of a break in over fifteen years, and I can't honestly say I missed work all that much Now to figure out the next trip with this thing!
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Aug 13, 2023 02:23
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Cat rear end Trophy posted:Regarding your dead Subaru transmission, was it one of the years that was covered by the stealth addition of 40k miles to the warranty, bringing the warranty period to 100k miles? We were notified by a single letter that looked like junk mail. Might be worth checking out if you were between 60k and 100k when it transmitted its last. Funny enough, it is exactly one of those years... I actually just reached out to Subaru to see if there was anything that they could do given that fact, because now that I'm looking more into what happened, it seems that the common problem with CVTs of that era are pressure control solenoids failing, which matches the symptoms I experienced as well as the OBD2 code I pulled (P0795). Which... jfc, that's a 1200$ part to just replace the entire valve body assembly, and after watching a video of how to do it, an incredibly easy repair. Remove air intake hoses, unbolt from the top of the transmission, replace a few gaskets, bolt back in. All easily accessible from under the hood. No need to drop the engine or transmission or do anything even remotely complicated, which stopped me from even trying to figure it out to begin with. I just assumed transmissions were too complicated and cumbersome for me to even try to work with. And I let the dealer tell me that they don't troubleshoot or service the CVTs and just send them back for rebuild, which I just figured meshed with what I'd seen with no other shops wanting to touch CVTs... holy poo poo I am dumb. Before I was resigned, now I'm kinda livid. RV related question... anyone have recommendations to prevent condensation/moisture accumulation under the mattress? I was looking at something like this, but curious if there's anything else I should look at before hitting the buy button.
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Aug 19, 2023 21:30
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Proust Malone posted:Not sure if this is the right thread but… Oh man... I think I see how it all goes together with the parts you have there. Springs attach to the clamp arms, clamp arms held in with the pins inside the bracket, with plastic grips facing up and out like a v, and it just seems like the locking faceplate sits in the center with the hole inside the pin extending down from the thumbwheel through the center hole, and the whole assembly slides back in to the retainer. I am not sure from the photo whether the D shaped assembly goes on top of or below the flat plate with the hole for the hooks to latch onto, nor am I sure of the order to which that assembles inside the main assembly before it slides back into the housing, but I bet you can look at the wear on the surface to get a better idea what actuates where. Hopefully some of that was helpful... if not, you could always buy a new PowerClick Clamp: https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Thule/1401467300.html Cat rear end Trophy posted:Regarding your dead Subaru transmission, was it one of the years that was covered by the stealth addition of 40k miles to the warranty, bringing the warranty period to 100k miles? We were notified by a single letter that looked like junk mail. Might be worth checking out if you were between 60k and 100k when it transmitted its last. Update on the whole transmission debacle--this was an excellent suggestion to reach out to Subaru! I explained what happened, they looked at it for a few days, and offered to cover a bit less than half of the repair cost since it was done at the dealer. I'm honestly shocked, I wasn't expecting anything, and all things considered, I'm actually pretty content with this outcome. Knowing what I know now about the pressure control solenoid being the failure mode, and that it's a relatively easy part to replace (if a bit pricey when you add the relearn process in), and the fact that I should hopefully be able to squeeze at least another 100k on this reman transmission before having to worry about it again, I'm fine chalking this up to poo poo happens.
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Aug 24, 2023 15:24
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I've been looking at options to more easily move a small teardrop trailer down a long and narrow driveway as well as potentially bring along to scooch around campsites, and I was wonder if you guys had any thoughts on what would work best. The trailer itself is only 14' long, and about 200 lbs tongue weight/2000 lbs overall. I can move the tongue left/right by hand pretty easily to center it over a hitch, but it would be nice to be add a wheel to the front jack and be able to roll the whole thing around. This Parkit360 Scout trailer dolly looks pretty promising -- seems like a fairly compact option that basically adds a wheel and a handle. I'd like to take this camping to move the trailer more easily around a campsite, and the single wheel seems like it would be more packable than everything else in seeing. I was also looking at front wheel jack, eg a Curt boat trailer jack. That would be cheaper and lighter, but I'm guessing I would probably have to swap out the existing front jack for this, and I don't see a braking system other than a dimpled jack pad to set the wheel in, so stability would suck I assume. It would probably be kinda dumb and add too much weight on the tongue to have two jacks, or to pop it on/off during setup/teardown, right?
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Oct 17, 2023 03:21
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:I move a lot of trailers (mostly boats) around with a harbor freight dolly and they all have those Curt jacks. Most of the moving I do is in gravel. Even the best new curt jack is a pain in gravel, but having a wheel on the jack is pretty necessary and that one does the job. It's fine on concrete. Pneumatic wheels like on the harbor freight dolly are really nice for gravel, and two wheels is nicer than 1. I'd think with 1 wheel on the dolly it'll constantly be keeling over as the ball rolls in the hitch. But I've never used that one. Thanks!! I'll try the jack wheel first, I just really like the idea of not having to bother trying to bring the dolly if I want to move it at camp. Though the single wheel dealie seems pretty clever -- the ball hitch has a locking mechanism where the collar is tightened up under the hitch receiver to lock it in place vertically, but still be able to rotate and turn the wheel on the dolly. Are any of the off-road jacks worth the premium? And do any of them have a wheel lock mechanism? I thought that would be pretty standard but can't seem to find any Atticus_1354 posted:How long is the driveway and how lazy/rich are you? Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 02:19
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Steve French posted:
I think you found the chupacabra's den  I don't know what's more terrifying, El Chupacabre, camping on an artillery range, or water damage on your camper's roof...
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Jan 23, 2024 04:44
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This is really great to know, thanks! I've been trying to figure out how to spend more time on the road instead of staring at the same four walls at home. Also good to know how much solar is enough! Over the holidays I picked up a second panel (100w flexible Renology to pair with a 140w lightleaf, plus a second 100 Ah LiFePO4 battery to wire up in parallel). I think I may need to recalibrate the battery monitor, something is catterwampus because fully charged it shows that I should have power for days, only to unexpectedly die overnight at 70% indicated charge. I have the Victron solar controller & battery monitor configured to kick off at 10% battery SOC, but I suspect maybe the monitor is cutting off charging before the battery is actually at 100%. Anyone run into similar issues? Also... does anyone have any advice for winter heating? I've got a small 250w electric heatbud that does well into the mid 30s, but I'd love to install something like a Propex propane heater or even something like this standalone diesel heater ducted into a window from outside. How do y'all keep a heated interior when it gets cold out?
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Feb 15, 2024 16:01
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Well, I was about to buy a diesel heater, but I may have stumbled on an incredible deal... found one of these exterior propex units along with a new temp controller on ebay from a shop selling a variety of surplus parts and random stuff for 150$ shipped, and it honestly looks brand new. The listing said it was not in working condition, but the guy reached out and let me know it probably works, he just had no way of testing it, which is honestly what I suspected. I'm thinking long term I may try to install it inside the tongue box or do what Bean does and install it under the sink in the galley, but for now my plan is to just pick up some hoses and just set it on top of the wheel fender and duct it through the side window. I could model & 3d print an adapter plate for the ducts that sits inside the window, and seal that up a bit with foam board. Might be a bit janky, we'll just have to see and do some iteration. I'm just reticent to permanently modify anything on the trailer until it's got a few more dents and dings (new car syndrome). I also reached out to Bean Trailer and looks like they'll sell me a second battery tray and extra 11lb propane tank mount as well. They manufacture both in house and it'll just bolt right into the existing tongue box, which will be nice for doubling up the capacity there. Unfortunately I'll have to wait to add the second propane tank mount until I get a tow vehicle with a higher hitch tongue weight capacity, but it'll be nice to have the parts on hand for when that happens. They're really nothing that can be done to bump up tongue weight capacity on an Outback, right? Weight distribution hitch doesn't make sense for a 2,000 lb trailer (not to mention I'm pretty sure it's just not compatible with Outbacks in general), and overloaded strut springs don't really do anything other than help the sag, right?
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Feb 18, 2024 16:39
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Somewhat Heroic posted:It has taken me nearly two years to come back to this, but I finally got off my butt and clipped together a review video of our Bean if anyone is interested in that sort of thing. I just sort of uploaded and posted it to YouTube and in three weeks apparently it has been worth the time of three thousand views. I have a few more ideas I am floating around for other videos to make. That's amazing, I actually stumbled across your viddya and watched it the other day when looking for bean/teardrop content on YouTube! You're absolutely right, there just isn't a whole lot out there, and I really enjoy seeing how other folks are utilizing these trailers so I can get a better idea of different ways to enjoy it more myself. Really appreciate you sharing all your thoughts and experiences! Also helps scratch the winter itch, which I'm currently trying to solve for. I think I've got a good solution for heating the cabin for below freezing with the propex heater (just arrived today and looks brand spanking new), and this little electric heatbud works great for down to freezing. Both my batteries have integrated warmers to bring the temp up when it dips below freezing, but I haven't done much testing with that to see how well they recover and resume charging. I think the big inconvenience is water. Shoulder season is probably fine, but I'm curious about maybe trying to insulate the tank and maybe adding a 12v tank heater pad along with wrapping some heated wire and insulation around the supply lines as well. Also may not be worth the hassle vs just bringing a few gallons in jugs for snowy weather... Realistically I would just like to try the electric tank/pipe warmers for peace of mind during the shoulder seasons more than anything else. I'm just so excited to get back outside here! I love the convenience of having a kitchen with the sink and fridge, as well as the luxury of a hard sided shelter. There's so many places I want to visit this year with the bean, I don't even know where to start
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Feb 21, 2024 00:03
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Raised by Hamsters posted:This is a great review, I'm going to have to hit you up for some recommended locations someday too. As a matter of fact, yes!   It's definitely a lot sturdier than I expected, and it has a nice felt backing for the mattress. Just be aware that it may scratch up whatever surface you put the plastic coils on, but really nothing to do about that since any extra layers would in turn block airflow. You also have to cut the roll lengthwise to size, (it's two halves for a queen size). Otherwise it seems to do the trick just great! I've got a cloth textured waterproof mattress protector on the mattress & topper itself. I haven't noticed any shifting or other annoyances overall, but it's not like my mattress really has anywhere to go. If you're willing to spend to money, I don't think there's really too much better out there. On the cheaper end, something like the IKEA wood slat mattress base might also work just dandy as well! But it's also half the cost, so you know, may as well get the den dry imho.
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Mar 10, 2024 21:05
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Managed to snag an awesome campsite over on Kelley's Island for the eclipse, thought I'd share a few pics in here   Mrs. Catatron set up a tripod and managed to catch some amazing solar protrusions in the corona during totality!    Phone pic of just how eery the dusk was during totality:  Had some fun playing around with some sliders and pulling out different colors from the corona:  Spent some time combing for cool rocks and found some petosky stones and at least one arrowhead:      Had a ton of fun with the pie irons over the weekend... my favorite was using cinnamon rolls for the crust and stuffing it with bananas, fruit, and cream cheese:   Just a really neat place to visit, with so much to see!      Made friends with some grackels hanging around our site:  And I wish I coulda gotten better focus, but I've never seen a white robin like this before!  Talked to a volunteer tagging birds and apparently there are several groups of light gray robins that come back and nest there, makes me wonder if there's some self selecting level of speciation even though they're migratory. All that caveated with I know next to nothing, I just thought it was really interesting  I'm so happy for warmer weather to finally hit, it's so good to get back outside!
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Apr 10, 2024 16:53
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rufius posted:I’ve for a little camper trailer coming - Happier Camper Traveler. I’ve towed things in the past and comfortable, generally, with how to do so. Hell yeah, those trailers look awesome! Can't wait to see some pics and hear about your trips with it! With something that small, I'd just stick with the usual smartphone apps. If you're looking for stuff like water and propane, iOverlander seems to be a good open resource, though relying on community posts means that it's lacking in a lotta places. Campendium is another I've used and don't recall much about. KOA has an app I've used in the past and found helpful when on the road. Opensignal is helpful for real cell coverage maps. Public lands and USFS & BLM campgrounds are some other ones good for finding camping spots. With google maps you can preselect and download swaths of offline data for a particular area. I've used that a bunch, though it's obnoxious we can't just download a basic road map of the us or what have you. Instead we have to plan... which does work well offline, but point still stands. Waze is pretty worthless in low coverage areas in my experience.
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Apr 11, 2024 03:21
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Safety Dance posted:Check out the app named "OrganicMaps". It lets you download the OpenStreetMaps maps for whatever states/provinces/countries you choose, and it will keep them up to date. It does search and navigation locally on your device. I don't think it has any way of getting traffic, of course. I use Google Maps day to day, but I keep it as a backup for if I find myself off grid. This is really great, thanks!! Exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. I was not keen to pay another annual subscription on some of these other offline gps apps. Somewhat Heroic posted:This looks amazing; excellent landscape photos too. I was supposed to get out into the desert for the first trip of the season with our Bean but weather bombed us out and I fear I might not make it to the desert this year. The desert last year was one of the best camping experiences I have ever had. It was so extremely cool. Thanks! That's a bummer about the weather, hopefully you get some good weekends coming up to get out!
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Apr 12, 2024 04:01
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ddiddles posted:Hello RV thread, So, few things to keep in mind... you might wind up saving money with an rv, but you'll probably want to still stay at dedicated sites to refill water, recharge your batteries, grab a shower, dump your sewage. I've been looking at doing similar and buying an acre or two somewhere for quasi camping to just get away now and then, and one thing I've noticed is that a lot of counties have limits on how long you can "camp" there with an rv, even if you own the land. You could go really off grid and build a setup to collect filter and store rainwater, use a composting toilet, rely on solar and starlink, but it's still an investment and water is a real challenge that's probably the most limiting factor. You also need an address for mail and to get a job, though there's options like a PO Boxes or services to register an address like a shell corporation, but you'll need something like that for various things as benign as vehicle registration, licensing, and taxes. From what I understand slideouts are a big failure point, and older rvs like that tend to develop leaks with stuff like the roof or black tank without regular maintenance and whatnot. Lots of private rv parks won't even allow rvs older than 10 years without approval because they don't want an ecological hazard from leaks or broken down immobile vehicles. A trailer park might be an option if you're looking for long term places to stay cheaper. Probably the most economical thing is living out of a van and finding inconspicuous places to stay, but that's a grind and wears people down from what I understand. Stuff like planet fitness memberships for showers, constantly moving and sleeping in parking lots, finding bathrooms, all that sort of stuff. It can be economical to live smaller though, just need to think through the pros and cons and what you're giving up. If you're looking to take time off from everything and have a hatchback or something you can throw an air mattress in and sleep out of, you might consider just doing that for awhile and camping out at state parks and whatnot before buying something like an rv. I just think you might find yourself underwater really quickly with an older rv like that.
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Apr 18, 2024 14:33
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rufius posted:Recognizing this is an RV thread, but if you have the land, seriously consider a Yurt. There’s some pretty affordable kits for them from places like REI. Aside from obscenely bad weather, they’re very durable and easy to heat/cool. Their cost will be similar to a cheap RV and it’ll be a better structure. Oh yeah, yurts are awesome! Some of our state parks have yurts available to rent in addition to cabins, and they're pretty luxe. Stupid question about jacks... I've got two of these swivel jacks on the rear of my trailer. I'm looking to swap out the front square jack on my teardrop with a wheeled jack, but I'd like to be able to additionally relocate a swivel jack from the back to the tongue in case I need more height to get over the ball, or stability, or whatever since I can just pull the pin and move the jack as needed. To do this I just need to bolt on a male pipe mount bracket, however the only one I can seem to find is a weld-on mount. Ideally I'd rather just bolt it on than modify the frame, especially since I no longer have a welder. Does anyone know if someone sells this pre-welded to a plate I could bolt on? Or would I have to purchase a mounting plate (possibly like this?) and weld the pipe mount to it? Half of me wants the excuse to purchase a stick welder, and the other half of me would rather just take this somewhere and have someone skilled fabricobble a mount. All of me would rather just buy a pipe mount already welded to a bracket as the easiest solution, but my google-fu apparently sucks and what I thought would be a standard part doesn't seem to be a thing. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
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Apr 21, 2024 22:10
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:Guess who didn't put antifreeze in the water lines? Guess whose water tank emptied into the bulkhead as fast as it was filling? Guess whose pump filter is split? Guess who's taking the family for the first campering trip of the year in two days? Ah poo poo, that sucks... glad you got it all figured out and fixed though! If it's any consolation I ran into a similar gently caress you last weekend that postponed my plans to go camping, when the thermistor on my 12v cooler fridge conked out and froze everything inside. I was hoping it was just a loose connection, but when I popped out the sensor I noticed the pins and housing were pretty corroded. Tried electrical contact cleaner but that wasn't quite enough, and even though it's a new fridge, it still took awhile to get in touch and go back and forth with iceco's customer service. They finally offered to send out a replacement thermistor so I'm hoping that'll fix the issue.
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May 16, 2024 02:49
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