2016 Camping Thread- RVing Edition

[Shazam]

Yay I get to do the same thing next weekend.

Leak was from the clearance light. Grr.

[Ace]

So I didn't get out at all in 2016 due to some life changes, and i'm looking ahead to 2017 to possibly have a permanent spot for the 4-ish months, so i can just jet out on a dime. Looking for suggestions on great locations.

[ken0042]

What are your priorities?
- Distance from Calgary
- Power and water
- Price
- Privacy, or would you rather be close to neighbours?
- Activities?

[Violator]

Originally Posted by Ace

So I didn't get out at all in 2016 due to some life changes, and i'm looking ahead to 2017 to possibly have a permanent spot for the 4-ish months, so i can just jet out on a dime. Looking for suggestions on great locations.

I'm pretty partial to castle falls recreation are these days found Peter lougheed pretty boring the few times i went.Its a little farther but the scenery and drive is pretty nice.

[Ace]

Originally Posted by ken0042

What are your priorities?

- Distance from Calgary

- Power and water

- Price

- Privacy, or would you rather be close to neighbours?

- Activities?

I'd say my radius is max 5-6 hours, under three would be better but I'd sacrifice distance for a better permanent spot.

Power and water and sewer would be a must I think, I could ditch the power.

A place with a pool would be awesome.

[Madman]

Radium has a place with a pool and other nice amenities.

We went and looked at it last year, but I wasn't fond of the drive, price, layout so we decided against it.

[ken0042]

We had looked at this place, but ruled it out as it was 4 hours from SE Calgary. If you are on the west end of town, you'd be looking at just under 3.5 hours.
http://springbrookresort.com/
Power, water and sewer for $2000 per year. Lots of good lakes nearby.
The downsides, the sites are a little close together, and highway 93 is right beside the park.

We also looked at this place which is closer; just over 2 hours.
http://crowsnestriverrvpark.ca/
Once again has power, water and sewer. However we found the sites too close together, and the price is starting to creep up there at $3000 per year.

Myself, we ended up going with a place without services. We get enough power from our solar panels, and both the place we were at for 2016 as well as our new place for 2017 have water delivery for $10 and sewer pumpout for $25. We found that worked out better as we ended up in a much more private spot with more mature trees (nothing had to be ripped out for water and power lines.)

[Ace]

Originally Posted by ken0042

We had looked at this place, but ruled it out as it was 4 hours from SE Calgary. If you are on the west end of town, you'd be looking at just under 3.5 hours.

http://springbrookresort.com/

Power, water and sewer for $2000 per year. Lots of good lakes nearby.

The downsides, the sites are a little close together, and highway 93 is right beside the park.



We also looked at this place which is closer; just over 2 hours.

http://crowsnestriverrvpark.ca/

Once again has power, water and sewer. However we found the sites too close together, and the price is starting to creep up there at $3000 per year.



Myself, we ended up going with a place without services. We get enough power from our solar panels, and both the place we were at for 2016 as well as our new place for 2017 have water delivery for $10 and sewer pumpout for $25. We found that worked out better as we ended up in a much more private spot with more mature trees (nothing had to be ripped out for water and power lines.)

Where's the spot you went with if you don't mind sharing?

[Ace]

Originally Posted by ken0042

We had looked at this place, but ruled it out as it was 4 hours from SE Calgary. If you are on the west end of town, you'd be looking at just under 3.5 hours.

http://springbrookresort.com/

Power, water and sewer for $2000 per year. Lots of good lakes nearby.

The downsides, the sites are a little close together, and highway 93 is right beside the park.



We also looked at this place which is closer; just over 2 hours.

http://crowsnestriverrvpark.ca/

Once again has power, water and sewer. However we found the sites too close together, and the price is starting to creep up there at $3000 per year.



Myself, we ended up going with a place without services. We get enough power from our solar panels, and both the place we were at for 2016 as well as our new place for 2017 have water delivery for $10 and sewer pumpout for $25. We found that worked out better as we ended up in a much more private spot with more mature trees (nothing had to be ripped out for water and power lines.)

Where's the spot you went with if you don't mind sharing?

[Flacker]

Originally Posted by ken0042

We had looked at this place, but ruled it out as it was 4 hours from SE Calgary. If you are on the west end of town, you'd be looking at just under 3.5 hours.
http://springbrookresort.com/
Power, water and sewer for $2000 per year. Lots of good lakes nearby.
The downsides, the sites are a little close together, and highway 93 is right beside the park.

We also looked at this place which is closer; just over 2 hours.
http://crowsnestriverrvpark.ca/
Once again has power, water and sewer. However we found the sites too close together, and the price is starting to creep up there at $3000 per year.

Myself, we ended up going with a place without services. We get enough power from our solar panels, and both the place we were at for 2016 as well as our new place for 2017 have water delivery for $10 and sewer pumpout for $25. We found that worked out better as we ended up in a much more private spot with more mature trees (nothing had to be ripped out for water and power lines.)

Well that and the fact that Skookumchuck quite often smells like a bag of ###holes, due to the pulp mill there.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Ace

Where's the spot you went with if you don't mind sharing?

PM sent.

[bossy22]

I really like this place
http://ferniervresort.com/

[Superflyer]

I have a question. We like to go camping, in doing this we go to spots that are not serviced. The issue is that we need a little bit of electricity to charge devices such as phones and such. What do you guys use for this? Solar panels, small generators etc. I do not want to put a lot of money into this since it is just for charging small items.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Superflyer

I have a question. We like to go camping, in doing this we go to spots that are not serviced. The issue is that we need a little bit of electricity to charge devices such as phones and such. What do you guys use for this? Solar panels, small generators etc. I do not want to put a lot of money into this since it is just for charging small items.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mo...2014p.html#srp

[bossy22]

Originally Posted by Superflyer

I have a question. We like to go camping, in doing this we go to spots that are not serviced. The issue is that we need a little bit of electricity to charge devices such as phones and such. What do you guys use for this? Solar panels, small generators etc. I do not want to put a lot of money into this since it is just for charging small items.

I have a goal zero yeti 400. We really like it. I charge it fully before we leave. I do have a solar kit to charge it for when we are without service for a couple of weeks. It's overkill for small devices, but we sometimes need to take laptops if my wife needs to work. The yeti 150 would be sufficient for small devices.

http://www.goalzero.com/p/164/goal-z...-power-station

At the bottom of the page they have a chart that will show you the number of charges per device.

The sherpa looks pretty sweet too. It's quite a bit smaller

http://www.goalzero.com/p/207/sherpa-100-power-pack

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mo...2014p.html#srp

I have the same box. You can easily charge phones and tablets for a few days with one of those. If you need extra power, you can grab the following solar panel to charge it:
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/co...2043p.html#srp

Watch for that panel to go on sale. Often goes to $125, and a few times per year as low as $100.

I'd get the power box first. While the solar panel could technically charge something, you want the power box as a buffer. Think of gasoline, and the power box is a jerry can, and the solar panel produces a drop of gasoline every few seconds. If you want gas for a lawnmower, the jerry can works much better and easier. Solar would be good if you need to produce more energy than can be stored.

[foshizzle11]

You can also get the BioLite gear, looks pretty cool. I don't have one but we thought about it for charging smaller things such as cell phones and what not while off the grid.

http://www.bioliteenergy.com/products/energy-bundle

Before I knew these types of things existed, we bought two 6 volt batteries and put them in series to create a 12 volt system. We got a 1500 watt inverter off of Kijiji for like $40, the batteries were also off Kijiji (like new from costco), and a solar panel from CT, the 40 watt coleman for $95, wait until they are on sale for sure. We spent about $300 all together and they run great. We can run a small fridge, lights around the camp site and charge all our devices, the solar panel is good at keeping the batteries charged as well. So far we are pretty happy with them. We can easily get a weekend's worth of battery power.

If you want something convenient, it looks like the goal zero yeti is an awesome product, thanks for posting Bossy.

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by ken0042

PM sent.

I would also like to know as last year I gave up my perm spot and stored the trailer on a lot all year. Don't want to miss out again this year.

[MacDaddy77]

Does anyone have recommendations on RV repair places or guys from Kijiji? I had water damage last year leaked through the window and i'm going to have to replace the wall behind the bed. not sure but probable have to take apart the bed and rebuild after. Also looking at getting lino and carpet ripped out and laminate put in for flooring.

I've used Horton RV in the past and they were good but looking to compare.

Thanks

[temple5]

We are going to Dinosaur Provincial Park to camp in late June. We were there last year and its a good spot for little day hikes with small children.