An Overwhelmed Beginner's Journey
Hello there! After reading tons of great threads and info on this site for a few weeks now, this will be my first post. :) And while the topic of my first post is (as I’m sure has been the case fo...
Forum Discussion
See, I knew this was the right place to be as soon as I came across the site :) As much thought as I've been putting into this (my wife calls it "obsessed", but I think that's a bit harsh lol), you guys are already giving some great new food for thought and also reassurances to thoughts I did already have.
A couple of you mentioned A-liners. I have had these on my radar, for exactly the reasons you point out -- they fold down to fit in my garage, but give hard walls and quiet / privacy.
But, I was actually surprised to find that this was something my wife challenged me on. She actually preferred the thought of being more exposed to the outdoors. She has great memories of sleeping in her on bunk in her family's pop-up growing up, and wants that experience for our son. Like toedtoes mentioned, the experience of hearing the crickets and frogs at night. I have to say I like the idea of it as well. Now, admittedly we're naive and this is something we could easily grow tired of as well -- especially when we're setting that sucker up in the rain like some mentioned, or we have noisy late-night neighbors, etc. But I actually figured on starting with a cheap, used PUP first that we could get our money back out of quickly if we did end up being miserable in it, LOL.
Some of you mentioned getting out and starting camping now. Great minds think alike :) I've been working on that exactly. In fact, years ago my father gave me a brand-new unopened tent he picked up at a garage sale, which I'm ashamed to say remained unopened and stored in my garage until just this past weekend. I finally unpacked it in the backyard with my son's "help" to check it out, and found that it had been stored so long that the instruction manual disintegrated! But the tent and the parts and pieces are in great shape still. Somehow I actually managed to figure out how to assemble it without the instructions (even with an excited 4-year-old running away with the parts and stepping on my hands as I worked). Now planning to start picking up the basics (sleeping bags, cookware, etc) and getting started on something close to home for practice (after some backyard camping first, indeed!). Actually, the closest campground to my house is Fort Wilderness LOL, so we may just cut our camping teeth there! Only caveat is, it's July in Florida and without some form of AC I think it's going to have to wait for the temps to go down a little. Maybe September or October.
Back to the TV for second. I've found that a few makes / models have AWD options that take it from 3500 lb to 5000 lb max for around $2K extra. It seems that 3500 should handle a modest PUP, but what I also gather is that you can never have too much buffer to work with. But some models on the table (the Honda Odyssey for example) don't have a 5000 lb option. Do you think its a big advantage to make that jump to 5000 from 3500?
Also -- many make the recommend for an F150, and while I definitly realize its one of the best at getting the towing job done I believe a truck is going to be a hard sell for us to make in terms of keeping it a family vehicle most of the time.
Anyway, great food for thought so far! Thanks much for those taking the time to help a newbie out, I'm feeling less apprehensive about it already!
A couple of you mentioned A-liners. I have had these on my radar, for exactly the reasons you point out -- they fold down to fit in my garage, but give hard walls and quiet / privacy.
But, I was actually surprised to find that this was something my wife challenged me on. She actually preferred the thought of being more exposed to the outdoors. She has great memories of sleeping in her on bunk in her family's pop-up growing up, and wants that experience for our son. Like toedtoes mentioned, the experience of hearing the crickets and frogs at night. I have to say I like the idea of it as well. Now, admittedly we're naive and this is something we could easily grow tired of as well -- especially when we're setting that sucker up in the rain like some mentioned, or we have noisy late-night neighbors, etc. But I actually figured on starting with a cheap, used PUP first that we could get our money back out of quickly if we did end up being miserable in it, LOL.
Some of you mentioned getting out and starting camping now. Great minds think alike :) I've been working on that exactly. In fact, years ago my father gave me a brand-new unopened tent he picked up at a garage sale, which I'm ashamed to say remained unopened and stored in my garage until just this past weekend. I finally unpacked it in the backyard with my son's "help" to check it out, and found that it had been stored so long that the instruction manual disintegrated! But the tent and the parts and pieces are in great shape still. Somehow I actually managed to figure out how to assemble it without the instructions (even with an excited 4-year-old running away with the parts and stepping on my hands as I worked). Now planning to start picking up the basics (sleeping bags, cookware, etc) and getting started on something close to home for practice (after some backyard camping first, indeed!). Actually, the closest campground to my house is Fort Wilderness LOL, so we may just cut our camping teeth there! Only caveat is, it's July in Florida and without some form of AC I think it's going to have to wait for the temps to go down a little. Maybe September or October.
Back to the TV for second. I've found that a few makes / models have AWD options that take it from 3500 lb to 5000 lb max for around $2K extra. It seems that 3500 should handle a modest PUP, but what I also gather is that you can never have too much buffer to work with. But some models on the table (the Honda Odyssey for example) don't have a 5000 lb option. Do you think its a big advantage to make that jump to 5000 from 3500?
Also -- many make the recommend for an F150, and while I definitly realize its one of the best at getting the towing job done I believe a truck is going to be a hard sell for us to make in terms of keeping it a family vehicle most of the time.
Anyway, great food for thought so far! Thanks much for those taking the time to help a newbie out, I'm feeling less apprehensive about it already!
