2013 Camping Thread

[pylon]

Originally Posted by slots881

Fixed this guy up last summer, can't wait to get out this summer in it.

Spoiler!

I. HATE. YOU.

I saw your Boler, and I have been humming and hawing for a few years about buying a super light weight. I go on Kijiji and start browsing, for the hell of it, and by the end of the day today, I found and bought one of these 2007 Aliner Sportliner:



Really neat unit, they fold down like a tent trailer, but give you the benefit of hard walls. 980 lbs dry weight, so I am guessing if I travel light, my Subaru should handle it, at least that is what the internet and the guy at Woody's said. The interior is beautifully finished in the one I got, and it has everything but a shower, and AC. Neither matter to me.

Found a great deal on one on Kijiji, and low and behold, I ring the doorbell, and find out they are a customer of our dealership that bought an EOS a few years back. I should paint the thing orange, and it will be very appropriate to my namesake on here. Anyway Slots881, you are responsible for emptying a significant chunk or my bank account today.

Anyway, I guess I am in the camping club with my ghetto mobile. This is the photo from the Kijiji ad:

[slots881]

Originally Posted by pylon

I. HATE. YOU.

I saw your Boler, and I have been humming and hawing for a few years about buying a super light weight. I go on Kijiji and start browsing, for the hell of it, and by the end of the day today, I found and bought one of these 2007 Aliner Sportliner:



Really neat unit, they fold down like a tent trailer, but give you the benefit of hard walls. 980 lbs dry weight, so I am guessing if I travel light, my Subaru should handle it, at least that is what the internet and the guy at Woody's said. The interior is beautifully finished in the one I got, and it has everything but a shower, and AC. Neither matter to me.

Found a great deal on one on Kijiji, and low and behold, I ring the doorbell, and find out they are a customer of our dealership that bought an EOS a few years back. I should paint the thing orange, and it will be very appropriate to my namesake on here. Anyway Slots881, you are responsible for emptying a significant chunk or my bank account today.

Anyway, I guess I am in the camping club with my ghetto mobile. This is the photo from the Kijiji ad:

That thing looks awesome! Congrats!
Yeah, one of the main reasons I went with a Boler was because I was looking for light weight(1000lbs dry weight) and the comfort of hard walls. I've tent camped my whole life but we used the Boler once last summer and its nice not to have to sleep on the ground. The convenience of having somewhere to hide out of the weather turns bad is great also.

[Ace]

After doing a lot of research about weights, I came to the conclusion that payload is the most important stat to look for,

The vehicles I have been looking at run out of payload before they run out of towing capacity.

Same for the weight of the trailer, this makes the tongue weight more important to consider (adds to your payload).

And you should run a brief check of the tire weight & axle rating.

These are the weak points.

I took a 'test tow' to the cat scale on Barlow and for $15 or something you can get a pretty good dry estimate of what your GVW is with the trailer attached.

Towing capacity actually seems like the least important number (a lot of this info I gathered from CP last year...thanks guys)

[Hockeyguy15]

Question for you guys, I'm sure I will get a good answer or two. I live in an apartment, so I have no way of parking my trailer infront of it for a day before camping to plug in. I was thinking of picking up a battery charger, specifically this one http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en

Will this charge both of my 12V batteries (one at a time)? My plan is to take the batteries from the trailer a week or so before we camp, and charge them at my apartment. Thanks in advance.

[Madman]

Don't know about charging 2 12V batteries at once, (highly doubtful), but this is the charger I use to maintain my 6V batteries over the winter.

http://www.princessauto.com/pal/product/8368771/

I would highly recommend it.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by Madman

Don't know about charging 2 12V batteries at once, (highly doubtful), but this is the charger I use to maintain my 6V batteries over the winter.

http://www.princessauto.com/pal/product/8368771/

I would highly recommend it.

Yeah I was planning on charging the batteries one at a time.

I was just curious if that specific charger would be suitable to charge the 12V trailer battery. For the princess auto one it says "Completely charges a battery with the power of a larger bench charger" what does that mean? It makes it sound like I need a bench charger and this is an adaptor.

[Tailgator]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Yeah I was planning on charging the batteries one at a time.

I was just curious if that specific charger would be suitable to charge the 12V trailer battery. For the princess auto one it says "Completely charges a battery with the power of a larger bench charger" what does that mean? It makes it sound like I need a bench charger and this is an adaptor.

I think it means it has the same power as a large bench charger. I have a bench charger and it's pretty good for both the trailer and the vehicle batteries if needed (as you said though, charge one at a time).

If you can do it at any point and it fits into your budget, we bought solar panels a few years ago and I haven't had to charge the trailer batteries since (just keep an eye on the water levels). The panels keep the batteries charged enough all winter.

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

For the princess auto one it says "Completely charges a battery with the power of a larger bench charger" what does that mean? It makes it sound like I need a bench charger and this is an adaptor.

I have that exact charger and use it on my 12v battery.

It just means its does as good of a job as a larger charging system.

I installed a battery shut off on my trailer just yesterday as I had a slow draw somewhere I could not find and hopefully this will allow me to have it sit for a few weeks without being drained out.

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by Tailgator

If you can do it at any point and it fits into your budget, we bought solar panels a few years ago and I haven't had to charge the trailer batteries since (just keep an eye on the water levels). The panels keep the batteries charged enough all winter.

Did you do this yourself or have it done? I was actually interested in going the solar route as well but the $3500 I was quoted made me balk as that price would buy me a nice generator and fuel it for quite some time. Just didn't seem like a cost effective idea, however I think the guy saw me coming a mile aware because I know nothing about the solar setups.

[pylon]

Solved my towing issues today by buying a Tiguan with a sport package, and factory tow package.

Yup, $35,000 small SUV..... to tow my $6000 Kijiji trailer. Thank god for employee purchase incentives.

So much for a cheap weekend hobby.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

I was actually interested in going the solar route as well but the $3500 I was quoted made me balk as that price would buy me a nice generator and fuel it for quite some time.

Deciding to go solar is a multi-step process. I looked into a solar setup for a full time cabin, and came in much less than $3500. Here's what you need to do:

- Determine how much power you need. For example wanting to run A/C off solar isn't cost effective. But how big is your trailer, what applicances do you plan on using, and how long do you plan on dry camping.

- Find our where you can reduce your power use. The single biggest savings can be found by going to LED bulbs. There are other things you can do like if using a television going to a 12 volt model instead of a 120 volt TV and an inverter.

- See how much power you have right now, and how much more you need. For example I found that when I camp in the fall I tend to use around 10-15 amp hours per day. My battery is 100 amp hours, and with not wanting it to go below 50% that gives me 3-5 days out of my battery.

Now be conservative with your math. To replace those 10-15 amp hours I was going to buy a 100 watt panel. Now you might be thinking that would give me way more than I need, but here's where the losses come into play:

-100 watts is at ~20 volts. So 5 amps instead of 8.3 amps
-The charge controller takes those 5 amps @ 20 volts and gives you 5 amps of 13 volt power.
- Now only count on 3 hours of direct sun per day. Unless you want to spend the whole day moving and re-aiming your panel, you wouyld aim it at solar noon and count for 1.5 hours on each side.
- There's my 15 amp hours replaced. If it's a really sunny day I will get a few more hours at reduced amperage.

That all being said, I went out and bought a 40 watt panel. Why? Because it was cheap, and I really don't plan on dry camping more than 4 or 5 days in a row. So even at 5 days of 15 amp hours used, I am putting back 30 amp hours so my battery would be down to 55 amp hours remaining.

Now I do have a small trailer so it's easier to heat, and uses fewer lights. So my math won't work for everybody.

I will leave you with a link to the LED bulbs I am now buying; which use 1/10 the power of your regular bulbs: LED Bulbs

[Madman]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Yeah I was planning on charging the batteries one at a time.

I was just curious if that specific charger would be suitable to charge the 12V trailer battery. For the princess auto one it says "Completely charges a battery with the power of a larger bench charger" what does that mean? It makes it sound like I need a bench charger and this is an adaptor.

As the others have said, it's a fully functional charger that probably works better than most big chargers out there but isn't a big bulky charger.

I hook my 2 6s up to it and leave them all winter so they'll be in great shape come springtime.

I'm no charging expert, but the one I linked doesn't just dump power into the battery - they have a specific pattern and smarts to charging the battery to ensure the best charge and battery life.

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by pylon

Solved my towing issues today by buying a Tiguan with a sport package, and factory tow package.

Yup, $35,000 small SUV..... to tow my $6000 Kijiji trailer. Thank god for employee purchase incentives.

So much for a cheap weekend hobby.

I feel your pain.
At the RV show picked up a new primetime executive tracer.
Last week picked up a new ram 1500 to tow said trailer as my old tacoma wouldn't have the juice.

[FlamesKickAss]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

I feel your pain.
At the RV show picked up a new primetime executive tracer.
Last week picked up a new ram 1500 to tow said trailer as my old tacoma wouldn't have the juice.

Lucky that you have your's already. We bought at the RV show as well and are still waiting........ We bought a dutchmen from Sunridge.

[Tailgator]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

I have that exact charger and use it on my 12v battery.

It just means its does as good of a job as a larger charging system.

I installed a battery shut off on my trailer just yesterday as I had a slow draw somewhere I could not find and hopefully this will allow me to have it sit for a few weeks without being drained out.

That shut off is a good idea!

If you have one in your trailer, the slow draw might have been the LP Detector. Those are hard wired and can't be shut off without pulling the fuse.

And in regard to your question about the solar panels, I had them done at the dealership - electrical freaks me out a bit. Everything was already roughed in for it. There's also a place in town (in Calgary) called Hobo Camper Country. Really small place that doesn't look like much, but they have a ton of stuff and their service department is awesome. Might be a little cheaper than a lot of other places. Don't quote me on that though.....

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by Tailgator

That shut off is a good idea!

If you have one in your trailer, the slow draw might have been the LP Detector. Those are hard wired and can't be shut off without pulling the fuse.

And in regard to your question about the solar panels, I had them done at the dealership - electrical freaks me out a bit. Everything was already roughed in for it. There's also a place in town (in Calgary) called Hobo Camper Country. Really small place that doesn't look like much, but they have a ton of stuff and their service department is awesome. Might be a little cheaper than a lot of other places. Don't quote me on that though.....

The shut off I picked up was this:
http://www.princessauto.com/pal/prod...-Master-Switch
Then I just picked up a starter to switch cable from Canadian Tire ( http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en ) to wire from the shut off to the battery. All it was $20 bucks and about 5 minutes to install.

I will check out the place you mentioned for solar. All I need when it comes to solar power is for my battery's to be able to run my lights when needed, a few hours of the stereo and to keep my batteries at a reasonable level during the 2 week gaps between my trips. I am sure I can get by with a rather small system.

[FlamesKickAss]

What are everyone's thoughts on power tongue jacks and stabilizer jacks? Worth the cost?

[GreenLantern]

With camping season comes fishing weekends.. 5 more days..

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by FlamesKickAss

What are everyone's thoughts on power tongue jacks and stabilizer jacks? Worth the cost?

Putting down the jacks is one of the setup jobs of my boys; so for me not worth the cost. I also see it as another point of failure down the road. (Which is also why I'm not a fan of slide outs.)

Power awning- sure!

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by FlamesKickAss

What are everyone's thoughts on power tongue jacks and stabilizer jacks? Worth the cost?

I have both and because I am lazy I really enjoy them. I also like the fact that my wife can operate them.

What I do not like is if your battery is dead you have to connect the 7 pin to bring it up enough to attach the trailer to your hitch. I left a light on and went through this a few weeks ago which is why I installed the battery shut off.