Question:
I didn't buy it as a houseboat, but with all the rain we endured,
it almost became one. For our shakedown trip, we camped at Ray
Roberts SP in Texas, about 45minutes north of our house. Got there
without incident...thanks to the tips on this board, I loaded more
stuff than last time in my front trunk and the 'jumping' was much less
noticeable after bumps. Guess more tongue weight was the ticket.
Set up Friday night about 8PM, no probs. Great site, beautiful
campground, lots of trees and shade. Then the rains came. No wind,
so we were able to leave the windows open without fear of rain being
blown inside. Gentle rains all night, good nights rest.
Saturday, it rained on and off all day. Cooked meals twice outdoors,
puttered around the campground, enjoyable day overall. Saturday
night, however, torrential rains for hours! Flash flood warnings all
over the place (mainly south of us), but still very heavy rains.
Those poor tent campers! I saw several tents go down in the night as
tenters scrambled for their cars. We enjoyed the night warm and dry
in our popup. The camper paid for itself right then and there in my
wifes' opinion. We've been in such rainfall in a tent before...not
fun. I rememberd to drop one side of the awning down a few inches and
was amazed at the runoff.
Woke up early Sunday morning to take the girls' fishing. Saw a lot of
wet, haggard looking tent campers around. Rain started up again about
10AM, so we struck camp in the rain and went back home.
Options I'm glad we purchased:
-Built-in cassette potty. What was I thinking? With a wife and two
little girls, we would have had to make at least 15 trips to the
campground restrooms had it not been for this option. I didn't even
'shop' for this option, it just happened to be on the trailer with the
other options I was looking for. What a lifesaver. The privacy
curtains for it also make a nice dressing area.
-A/C: I upgraded to the 15,000 BTU model, but it'll freeze you out if
run on full-blast mode. We ran it most of the time at low cool, and
even then only when we had to completely seal the trailer up.
Otherwise, running the fan mode seemed adequate.
-Hot Water heater: Made a big difference during dish detail and during
general clean up. With all the mud around (and the afore-mentioned
little girls) I used the outside shower many times to hose down dirty
feet and legs.
Options I want/must invent:
-Some form of shelf for our bed. I've seen the bunk-end shelf units
that Coleman offers, and I may just buy one of those. But the hanging
vanity option we purchased just isn't enough for all the stuff you
need nearby. I couldn't find a place to keep the weather radio that
was close by (other than under my pillow).
Things I forgot this time around that I really needed!
-Level....I had to eyeball it this time, used a marble from one of my
daughters' games (stuck it on the tongue) as a down-and-dirty way of
determining when the trailer was level. Our site pad was on an
incline, had to jack up the nose quite high.
-Propane grill for outdoor grilling...quick trip to Wallyworld on the
way up fixed this.
Problems noted:
None at all....until we hitched up to leave. All the way home, my
truck/trailer made 'groaning' noises. I couldn't find the problem,
have the truck in the shop for some warranty work (hitch recall), but
I doubt that was the culprit. I chalked it up to the fact that I've
only towed the trailer when it's been dry outside, and pulling it home
all wet and damp may have 'settled' things a bit. I'll wait for the
trailer to dry out and then try towing it again. We are going to
Durango in a couple of weeks, and I want to make sure it's fixed
before then.
Answer:
I wouldn't have admitted it, but yes, I did feel a bit smug seeing all
the tents floating away! I even overhead one guy telling his relative
in the camp store just how much his wife was pushing him to buy one of
those pop-ups after spending the night bailing water out of the floor
of their tent!
