Howdy from TX Hill Country
Nic is wiredgeorge and my real name is George. I just bought a truck camper and am really stoked! Camped one night at a MISERABLE RV camp in Rockdale and that served to answer 90 percent of my quest...
Forum Discussion
I have a .pdf copy of the owner's manual and the camper sits on my truck exactly like the one pictured in the 2002 owner's manual.
We bought the camper from a fella in Nacogdoches and it is about a 370 mile home. By the time it was loaded and we got a cursory briefing on how stuff worked, it was lunchtime so we drove as far as Rockdale and it was getting dark. I was getting tired and we stopped in at the Walmart there on US79. My wife suggested we stop for the night and there was an RV park right across the street. The park is called Shady Oaks RV Park. The education began.
It was raining. The park doesn't have any attendant and you stop in at the Comfort Inn next door and pay. First hint was that they have you pay cash or pay an additional $7 for using a card. They hand you a key to a slot and send you to the park. The park is on the side of a hill and there are no level spots. The road to the spots was mud and when I opened the locked electrical box, I plugged in the camper and filled the water tank and lit the propane heater. All seemed OK as the rain came down hard. My wife put my supper in the microwave and NADA... the brand new microwave didn't work. Called the PO and he was kind enough to let me know that the microwave wouldn't work unless the truck had power from the 30A box. The microwave is 110VAC only. That was a hint that the electrical box didn't work. Walked back to the office in a driving rain and got another key for another box. The gal had no idea which electrical boxes worked and which didn't.
Pulled into slot 24 after disconneting and BINGO, after plugging in, the microwave worked and I had a hot TV dinner for supper. The truck was setting pretty uneavenly and the camper sat at a slant as a result. I learned never to park at a slot that is sloped.
The dogs belonging to all the permanent campers barked all night. My wife wouldn't let me shoot them and suggested I shoot the owners. I didn't.
When I finally got to sleep on our air mattress with a topper, I was woken by a drip of water on my arm. Couldn't figure out where it came from as the ceiling was bone dry. Second time it happened I figured out that since it was cold and humid outside condensation from the warmer insides formed on the aluminum rail inside the emergency hatch and with the trunk on a slope, dripped about one and hour on my arm. I read in the owner's manual that you are supposed to crack a vent to keep the condensatin down.
The mattress is horrible, by the way and I have a new inner spring mattress coming from Overstock.com via eBay.
The next morning, went to take my first showeer and the water was ICE COLD. After taking a quick shower in cold water, I checked and the pilot light had gone out. The gas tnak had run empty! There is a volume gauge on the tank which never moved off 1/2 full. It doesn't work. I did shut off the gas and turned the water heater to off.
I went outside while my wife roused herself and the ground was a mud mess. There was no gravel on the parking spot, just dirt/grass. I dumped the water tank and when I went to dump the black and gray water tanks, found the sewer hose we inherited with the camper didn't have a fitting to go into the sewer so my missus had to come out and hold the thing. The hose also was cracked and leaked. The adventure suddenly left the trip and we stopped right away, once on the road and scrubbed our hands good. I pitched the hose when we got home and bought a Rhino hose kit.
I have also bought a TV mount, a 3 step step to get in without drama, a couple of grab handles to get up into the bed and a DVD player.
I will be sure to pick my camping park more careuflly in the future. A camp ground with clean and private showers will go a long way as well. We are going to camp the weekend of Feb. 17-19 at the Big Oak River Park just outside Camp Wood which has all these things.
Oh yeah, the place in Rockdale claimed to have cable and wifi and they didn't. Cell reception with our AT&T phones was sketchy as well. It was an adventure and we actually enjoyed it as we had a great breakfast Sunday morning at Lee's Landing diner in Rockdale... pretty fine breakfast tacos!
We bought the camper from a fella in Nacogdoches and it is about a 370 mile home. By the time it was loaded and we got a cursory briefing on how stuff worked, it was lunchtime so we drove as far as Rockdale and it was getting dark. I was getting tired and we stopped in at the Walmart there on US79. My wife suggested we stop for the night and there was an RV park right across the street. The park is called Shady Oaks RV Park. The education began.
It was raining. The park doesn't have any attendant and you stop in at the Comfort Inn next door and pay. First hint was that they have you pay cash or pay an additional $7 for using a card. They hand you a key to a slot and send you to the park. The park is on the side of a hill and there are no level spots. The road to the spots was mud and when I opened the locked electrical box, I plugged in the camper and filled the water tank and lit the propane heater. All seemed OK as the rain came down hard. My wife put my supper in the microwave and NADA... the brand new microwave didn't work. Called the PO and he was kind enough to let me know that the microwave wouldn't work unless the truck had power from the 30A box. The microwave is 110VAC only. That was a hint that the electrical box didn't work. Walked back to the office in a driving rain and got another key for another box. The gal had no idea which electrical boxes worked and which didn't.
Pulled into slot 24 after disconneting and BINGO, after plugging in, the microwave worked and I had a hot TV dinner for supper. The truck was setting pretty uneavenly and the camper sat at a slant as a result. I learned never to park at a slot that is sloped.
The dogs belonging to all the permanent campers barked all night. My wife wouldn't let me shoot them and suggested I shoot the owners. I didn't.
When I finally got to sleep on our air mattress with a topper, I was woken by a drip of water on my arm. Couldn't figure out where it came from as the ceiling was bone dry. Second time it happened I figured out that since it was cold and humid outside condensation from the warmer insides formed on the aluminum rail inside the emergency hatch and with the trunk on a slope, dripped about one and hour on my arm. I read in the owner's manual that you are supposed to crack a vent to keep the condensatin down.
The mattress is horrible, by the way and I have a new inner spring mattress coming from Overstock.com via eBay.
The next morning, went to take my first showeer and the water was ICE COLD. After taking a quick shower in cold water, I checked and the pilot light had gone out. The gas tnak had run empty! There is a volume gauge on the tank which never moved off 1/2 full. It doesn't work. I did shut off the gas and turned the water heater to off.
I went outside while my wife roused herself and the ground was a mud mess. There was no gravel on the parking spot, just dirt/grass. I dumped the water tank and when I went to dump the black and gray water tanks, found the sewer hose we inherited with the camper didn't have a fitting to go into the sewer so my missus had to come out and hold the thing. The hose also was cracked and leaked. The adventure suddenly left the trip and we stopped right away, once on the road and scrubbed our hands good. I pitched the hose when we got home and bought a Rhino hose kit.
I have also bought a TV mount, a 3 step step to get in without drama, a couple of grab handles to get up into the bed and a DVD player.
I will be sure to pick my camping park more careuflly in the future. A camp ground with clean and private showers will go a long way as well. We are going to camp the weekend of Feb. 17-19 at the Big Oak River Park just outside Camp Wood which has all these things.
Oh yeah, the place in Rockdale claimed to have cable and wifi and they didn't. Cell reception with our AT&T phones was sketchy as well. It was an adventure and we actually enjoyed it as we had a great breakfast Sunday morning at Lee's Landing diner in Rockdale... pretty fine breakfast tacos!
