1st time TT owner, with questions
My husband and I love to camp, but with a 2 year old (and hopefully one more child in the next year or two), we wanted something a little more "enclosed" than a tent -- particularly for naps and earli...
Forum Discussion
Had to do an Internet search to see what kind of camper you have there. That's a cute little thing. Still at almost 3,500 pounds (loaded) that might be a bit to move by hand with a dolly. There again, an electric dolly is going to set you back between $2500 and $3000. For me, that's just not worth it.
Practice, practice, practice backing the camper until you "get it!" Then park in your spot. Also, if you have a larger garden tractor or riding lawn mower, you could put a ball hitch on it and perhaps use that to tote around your property. I did that with our pop-up and a Sears Craftsman 12 horse riding lawn mower. But my first trailer (18 feet long) was just too heavy.
To weigh your trailer, you should load it up and then take it to a CAT scales (at a truck stop), unhitch with the tongue on the scales and pull the tow vehicle off. Or some truck stops have hand scales (like a very large bathroom scale, or maybe even a grain elevator).
Cargo inside my camper never affected anything. But because your camper is pretty light, you want to make sure you keep a good tongue weight, don't overload the back, making the tongue light. This will cause fishtailing of the camper. Never good. Keep items inside your camper evenly distributed. Unless you're hauling an ATV or a motorcycle, you probably don't have much to worry about. Plates, dishes, clothing, food, end up all over the camper, stowed from one end to the other, and naturally the weight gets distributed without you even thinking about it.
Supplies? Whatever you use in your house, use in the camper. That's it! Nothing special there. However, over the years we have better quality items in the camper than we use in the house. We deliberately made this happen so we can keep our camper something really "special", considering it's about our only hobby and it's also our vacation resort. We've put the best items in the camper, better linens, blankets, cook ware, dishes, silverware, cups, even the toilet paper! Make it special! Make it your vacation destination! And you'll figure out how to outfit it!
Basic items you need for set-up are: chocks, blocks for leveling (anything works, you don't have to spend a fortune), extended electrical cord, water drinking hose, and sewer hose. How much (how long) you take is your choice. No two campgrounds are ever the same. After that, everything else is just personal preference.
Congrats on your new camper ... and my I recommend you do a few drive-way camps before you hit the road! This will teach you a lot about your camper and will also help identify what items you really need and use. FYI...if you take an item from the house ... leave it in the camper and get a new one for the house! Or buy the new one and put it in the camper and then put the old one back in the house! (that's what we do).
Enjoy! Love that baby... they grow up sooo fast, that 2 year old will be 22 some day! And when they turn 28, they return home with kids of their own because life threw a curve ball at them, and then you wonder where the time went when you look at those grand children!
Practice, practice, practice backing the camper until you "get it!" Then park in your spot. Also, if you have a larger garden tractor or riding lawn mower, you could put a ball hitch on it and perhaps use that to tote around your property. I did that with our pop-up and a Sears Craftsman 12 horse riding lawn mower. But my first trailer (18 feet long) was just too heavy.
To weigh your trailer, you should load it up and then take it to a CAT scales (at a truck stop), unhitch with the tongue on the scales and pull the tow vehicle off. Or some truck stops have hand scales (like a very large bathroom scale, or maybe even a grain elevator).
Cargo inside my camper never affected anything. But because your camper is pretty light, you want to make sure you keep a good tongue weight, don't overload the back, making the tongue light. This will cause fishtailing of the camper. Never good. Keep items inside your camper evenly distributed. Unless you're hauling an ATV or a motorcycle, you probably don't have much to worry about. Plates, dishes, clothing, food, end up all over the camper, stowed from one end to the other, and naturally the weight gets distributed without you even thinking about it.
Supplies? Whatever you use in your house, use in the camper. That's it! Nothing special there. However, over the years we have better quality items in the camper than we use in the house. We deliberately made this happen so we can keep our camper something really "special", considering it's about our only hobby and it's also our vacation resort. We've put the best items in the camper, better linens, blankets, cook ware, dishes, silverware, cups, even the toilet paper! Make it special! Make it your vacation destination! And you'll figure out how to outfit it!
Basic items you need for set-up are: chocks, blocks for leveling (anything works, you don't have to spend a fortune), extended electrical cord, water drinking hose, and sewer hose. How much (how long) you take is your choice. No two campgrounds are ever the same. After that, everything else is just personal preference.
Congrats on your new camper ... and my I recommend you do a few drive-way camps before you hit the road! This will teach you a lot about your camper and will also help identify what items you really need and use. FYI...if you take an item from the house ... leave it in the camper and get a new one for the house! Or buy the new one and put it in the camper and then put the old one back in the house! (that's what we do).
Enjoy! Love that baby... they grow up sooo fast, that 2 year old will be 22 some day! And when they turn 28, they return home with kids of their own because life threw a curve ball at them, and then you wonder where the time went when you look at those grand children!
