2014 Camping Thread

[ranchlandsselling]

I'm reading through last year's 2013 camping thread and surprised there isn't one for 2014. Time to start one I guess.

Have you been out yet?
Where are you going?

Picked up a 27 foot Jayco this spring. Taking for the maiden voyage this weekend down south. Doing 5 days outside Kelowna later in the summer, another trip around Sylvan Lake and then out to Vancouver Island once I feel I've got the hang of it all.

A couple of things I'm working on with the camper

- LED lights, although I'm having trouble changing just the regular lights, not sure how I'll figure out to do LED's or what to order of the site Ken provided.

- power capacity, first two trips are to sites with power/water but I don't quite understand the differences in power some sites list. 20/30/40 amp, actually just checked, I'm staying at one with 15 amps what can/can't I do with various amperage's?

On a related note, where do you guys/gals buy all these gadgets? The 2013 thread talks about checking your battery charge, charging it, etc. I have 2 fairly large looking batteries that were new in mid-2011 and have it plugged into the house hoping it'll fully charge

- I did figure out how to sanitize, left the bleach mixture in for about 24 hours, ran it all out, filled with clean water, ran that through, then hooked up to my tap and used "city water" to flush the taps 100%.

Do you all bring a hose with you? How long? And where do you buy? I was shopping for garden hoses last week at Lowe's and Costco and they all had warnings about not drinking from them. WTF. When did drinking out of a hose become bad.
Also I thought I could drink out of my fresh water tank - a lot of talk from people in the other thread that they won't.

Generators seem to be the devil, lol. I'm doing a 7-9 day Van Island Trek and didn't expect to have power. Do I need a generator? Or is light over rated? All I'll need is cell phone power, fridge power and water pump for taps.

Whoops - didn't really mean to go that overboard on the subject.

[calgarygeologist]

We only tent camp and so far we only have four nights booked for Canada Day down at Whitefish Lake State Park.

For next year I am thinking about picking up a small trailer. I looked at an R-Pod this weekend and it would be perfect for us. Last year we rented a Vibe travel trailer for a trip to Yellowstone but I felt the Vibe model we had was a little too big. I also found it wasn't very space efficient.

[Ironhorse]

If you're staying somewhere with 15 Amp service, you can't run your A/C, that's all.

For your water hose, get a white hose from one of the RV supply places. The white hose is rated for potable water.

A lot of people won't drink out of their fresh water tank due to bacteria buildup. We have a brita type filter on ours, I've used it but we mostly buy bottled water when close to Wally World or something.

Edit: When at the RV place, consider picking up a 30 amp to 15 amp plug converter as well. That way your 30 amp plug (if you have one on your trailer) can convert to a regular 15 amp plug.

[Canehdianman]

If you get a generators get an inverter generator, otherwise jerks like me will piss in the gas tank and wrecks it.

[Johnny199r]

Planning on tent camping in Oregon for Canada day weekend along with hopefully getting to Jasper, Fernie, Canmore and maybe Whitefish|Glacier for a weekend.

[ranchlandsselling]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

If you get a generators get an inverter generator, otherwise jerks like me will piss in the gas tank and wrecks it.

http://www.costco.ca/Champion%E2%84%...100054909.html



Acceptable?

[Wormius]

Looks like we're tenting in Nakusp for this long weekend; depending on the weather. Doing some "yurts" along the Oregon coast for the last 2 weeks of summer. Not sure how that will be. I guess one less thing to pack.

[Canehdianman]

Originally Posted by ranchlandsselling

http://www.costco.ca/Champion%E2%84%...100054909.html

Acceptable?

Definitely.

[calgarygringo]

I have 2 of those and they are nice and quiet so no worries. You can chain 2 together for double the power if you do want to run everything at once. Most of the time just micro, toaster and charging batteries is all that is required so one is good.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by ranchlandsselling

- power capacity, first two trips are to sites with power/water but I don't quite understand the differences in power some sites list. 20/30/40 amp, actually just checked, I'm staying at one with 15 amps what can/can't I do with various amperage's?

Some basic amounts of power various thing draw. Some of my numbers are a little high just to allow for a certain margin of error.

- A/C 14-18 amps. I have been successful at turning on my A/C at home on 15 amp power, but I had to do it very carefully. Turn on the fan first, let it spin up, then A/C on low. However you cannot have anything else turned on.
- Fridge is about 5 amps.
- Electric water heater- 12 amps
- Microwave- 12 amps
- 12 volt power adapter- 3 amps on standby
- each incandescent bulb is about 1/4 amp.
- Furnace- 2 amps

So add up the cumulative amps based on power you have. If you have 15 amp power, as mentioned A/C likely won't work. I typically put my fridge into propane mode if I have 15 amp power, then keep in mind you can only use one of the water heater or microwave at any given time. And if using the either one, make sure the furnace isn't due to cut in or you don't have a dozen lights burning.

If you have 20 amp power available, you can use A/C by itself, or one of water heater or microwave without really having to worry about other things. With 30 amp service, you really don't have to worry at all about what is on with too much.

A few other quick points:
Walmart often has RV parts cheap. Like a drinking water hose for $12

Regarding using the batteries, you have 100 amp hours in most batteries; however you don't want to drain them below 50%, so 50 amp hours. So that gives you either:
- 166 hours of fridge use on propane mode
- 12 hours of water pump use
- 33 hours of incandescent bulb use, or 350 hours of LED bulb use. (Both 921 style bulbs)

So just looking at 2 of those, if you only have 1 hour of water pump use, that brings your incandescent bulb use down to 30 hours. Have 3 bulbs running, and you are down to 10 hours. (I hope that makes sense- trying to do this quickly.)

You can also plug into your truck and run the engine to charge the battery, but you only put back 2 amps per hour. So running your truck for 4 hours only gives you 8 amps back into the battery.

[ranchlandsselling]

Anywhere in Calgary that sells the LED's or should I use one of those website?

Wife is getting pretty stressed out about power and wants a generator. I said the only time we "might" need it is for our longer than 5 day trek at the end of the season.

[ken0042]

All the RV shops sell them; or at least any that I have been to. (Woodys, Rangeland, Bucars.) However they want about $20 per bulb as opposed to $1-2. I think the ones at the RV shops look to be a little better build quality, but not 10 times better.

[Hevishot]

Check online for LEDs. People in town want 8-12 bucks per and that aint cheap.

[Canehdianman]

way cheaper online.

WAY WAY WAY cheaper.

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by ken0042

All the RV shops sell them; or at least any that I have been to. (Woodys, Rangeland, Bucars.) However they want about $20 per bulb as opposed to $1-2. I think the ones at the RV shops look to be a little better build quality, but not 10 times better.

Based on our last dry camp outing I am thinking LED is probably a good plan. Which websites do you guys suggest buying them from?

[ranchlandsselling]

Originally Posted by greyshep

Based on our last dry camp outing I am thinking LED is probably a good plan. Which websites do you guys suggest buying them from?

Here's Ken's post from last year

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...97#post4262497

I'm trying to figure out which ones I have to buy and how to install them.

My Jayco has little bulbs the appear to stick into a little white clip that seems to slide into a plastic socket. I tried a light pull on the bulb, nothing, tried pulling out the white square piece that looks almost like a wire harness clip, but no luck.

[ken0042]

Edit- ranchlandsselling found the post I was looking for.

[ranchlandsselling]

Where's a good/cheap place to find supplies like this



From what I've heard this is essential in knowing that the drain has finished emptying so you don't open with poop or gret water flowing out, or trickling out.

Or maybe it's this one?


Also items like pressure regulator, electric supplies, trailer toilet paper, etc.

Also does anyone use chemicals in their black/grey tanks?

[Hockeyguy15]

I don't have one, and I haven't had an issue with what you are talking about.

You let your black water tank out first, then the grey water. The grey water flushes all the black water out so there should be no issue, pending you do black and then grey.

Yes, chemicals in your toilet holding tank are a must.

[Boblobla]

Are those LEDs universal for all trailers? I bought a Jayco last year and need to replace some bulbs.