Trek of the Americas review
Hi all, I am posting this as a warning and to hopefully save some others from making the same mistake we made. My wife and I traveled in our truck and camper on the Trek of the Americas caravan ...
Forum Discussion
Brad,
Interesting post. Caveat emptor! I'm really sorry that you had such a bad experience. The Tour of the Americas was on my radar when I was younger but I put it down by making multiple trips to Baja California in the 60's -80's.
People who ply off-road style truck campers (XTC's) are by and large a solitary lot. Why is this? Experience. Almost every time Jeanie and I took a neophyte TC-er out, or tent camper, or hard core jeeper out on a remote pleasure cruise, there was inevitably a clash of style of operation that forced us to make up the difference and pick up the pieces. Yes, your close circle of friends who are of the same TC- ilk are like old shoes. No problem to big to be solved on the fly. Our antidote to this is to rely more on our own devices and just go off by ourselves. It's not that we are unsociable, but just been stung too many times with people who don't have a clue. My College saying says what I need to say: We know what we know. We don't know what we don't know. The problem is, we don't know that we don't know what we don't know.
IF....i were to do the Americas I would find someone who has done it before and anxious to do it again. Then, I would limit the group to maybe three rigs. The very important part would be the woe that you eluded to, namely the importance of thorough preparation. When i was a hard core jeeper, I carried a LOT of spare parts along including an on-board stick welder, axles, tie rods, bearings, u-joints, plates and angle, a 2-ton come along, winch, 12 ton jack, scissor jack, 60 inch farm jack, distributor cap, fuel pump, full oil change, spare transfer case, all hoses, a couple main springs, and....you get the idea. preparation for any contingency. Used most of it over a 30 year period.
Thanks for the heads up. If just one person is spared because of your post, it was time well spent.
jefe
Interesting post. Caveat emptor! I'm really sorry that you had such a bad experience. The Tour of the Americas was on my radar when I was younger but I put it down by making multiple trips to Baja California in the 60's -80's.
People who ply off-road style truck campers (XTC's) are by and large a solitary lot. Why is this? Experience. Almost every time Jeanie and I took a neophyte TC-er out, or tent camper, or hard core jeeper out on a remote pleasure cruise, there was inevitably a clash of style of operation that forced us to make up the difference and pick up the pieces. Yes, your close circle of friends who are of the same TC- ilk are like old shoes. No problem to big to be solved on the fly. Our antidote to this is to rely more on our own devices and just go off by ourselves. It's not that we are unsociable, but just been stung too many times with people who don't have a clue. My College saying says what I need to say: We know what we know. We don't know what we don't know. The problem is, we don't know that we don't know what we don't know.
IF....i were to do the Americas I would find someone who has done it before and anxious to do it again. Then, I would limit the group to maybe three rigs. The very important part would be the woe that you eluded to, namely the importance of thorough preparation. When i was a hard core jeeper, I carried a LOT of spare parts along including an on-board stick welder, axles, tie rods, bearings, u-joints, plates and angle, a 2-ton come along, winch, 12 ton jack, scissor jack, 60 inch farm jack, distributor cap, fuel pump, full oil change, spare transfer case, all hoses, a couple main springs, and....you get the idea. preparation for any contingency. Used most of it over a 30 year period.
Thanks for the heads up. If just one person is spared because of your post, it was time well spent.
jefe
