First TC Trip Report! - Western Virginia

[BMW442]

So we got the camper (1985 Palomino Mini L) back in May, did a ton of work on it, removed/reframed all the bad wood in the cabover, rebuilt one side of the roof & corner support, intense cleaning & new exterior paint job (Rustoleum high gloss white worked great), all new cushions & bed (my wife made em) and assorted bells and whistles.

Went with the old style Brophy stake pocket tiedowns due to camper's light weight & the much lower cost.

Just took it down to Western Virginia (from Mass) for a week. Camped out half the time and also stayed in some hotels because of the whole polar vortex thing. (It went from 70s to 20s in one day!)

The camper worked flawlessly. No problems at all with the lift mechanism, small heater (Mr Heater Little Buddy) kept it nice & toasty, no leaks in a driving rainstorm, etc. After staring at it in various states of disrepair in our driveway it was awesome to finally put it to use!

The tie downs & turnbuckles worked like a charm (I was a little nervous about that because so many people talk down about the stake pocket set up) and it performed great on some seriously crazy back roads - esp Rt 40 in Southern VA. Had a few people approach us on the trip and ask about it because they had never seen a pop-up TC before.

We did just under 1800 miles and saw some real cool stuff: Shenandoah Caverns, Natural Bridge, Monticello, and Dinosaurland were highlights. Ate a lot of good food (fried chicken, country ham, shrimp & grits) and met tons of nice people.

Originally we were gonna stay up in the Nat Forest campgrounds but the weather was kinda dicey in the higher elevations so we stayed at a small family run place in Edinburg called Creekside Campground (30 sites with hookups on the water, we were the only people there), cooked outside & caught some fish, made friends with the owner, and paid $20/night for everything.

Also stayed at a KOA near the Natural Bridge which was great. Again, because of the mid-week/mid-November style we pretty much had the place to ourselves, surprisingly wooded & secluded site, spotlessly clean bathrooms, hot showers, and the best firewood I've ever bought. That was only $28 and 4 miles to the park.

We mostly avoided the big highways (81) except for the first & last day, tooling around the smaller old roads and exploring some real cool little towns. We had never spent any time in that part of the state and were really impressed at how pretty the land is. We drove the Blue Ridge Parkway for maybe 40 miles but hit some seriously sketchy ice patches & decided to play it safe. Lost the outside vent cover to the fridge (which we're not using anyways) somewhere along the way, but aside from that everything was perfect.

I'd like to post some pics but am on a super old computer & it didn't want to cooperate with any of the directions I read in the FAQ. I know there's a real easy way cuz I did it when I first got the camper but cant seem to remember now.

Just wanted to share & say thanks to everybody who has given advice over the last 6 months. I'm still a newbie in the TC world but this forum has been a HUGE help! We're hunkering down for the winter now but are already starting to plan our next trip for April, can't wait!

[BMW442]

Totally! The Olds 442 is my dream car, (I especially like the '67-'69s)

The BMW is actually my initials

[whazoo]

Hey a pop-up, very cool. Good that all things worked well, bad that it's now winter. Say, I thought Oldsmobile made the 442, I always lusted for one.

[CptnBG]

Glad you had a good trip! Good decision on avoiding I81, can be bad at times.

[dakonthemountai]

Yay! Congratulations on your first trip and the camper work you did! Glad it all went well and you are happy with your setup! Kudos! 🙂

Dak

[Joe417]

It's great that the first trip went well. You may be hooked now.

You did know that it can turn into a habit?? Kind of like cigarette addiction, when your hooked, you can leave it alone but you'd really rather have it.

I notice you're using the jack mounts to tie it to the Brophy's.

You may have already thought about this, your rear turn buckles need to hold the camper back during braking or hold straight down on it. In an emergency stop your camper might tip forward and scratch up the paint on you roof. Also pushes on the truck box front wall.

It's center of gravity is quit low so isn't too big of a chance.

In the picture, the camper tie down eyes look to be at much better angles for your turnbuckles. They also usually have a backer plate or large washers to give it strength for pulling down. The jack mounts may not be installed as well for pulling down on them.

Also, in many campers, one of the tie down eyes, usually the left front, is the common chassis ground tie point.

It's a fairly light camper so I don't think it will be a major issue.

Enjoy the new toys.

[Carb_Cleaner]

Awesome area for camping. It looks like you got there before all the color disappeared. Lots of vineyards around there, too.
I like your floor insulation technique. Dual purpose.

[Driftwood132]

Looks good, I had one a couple of years , really liked the camper and everything worked but only problem I'm 6'6" tall so the bed was a little to small for me. I ended up buying a hard side with a queen bed. I had mine on a f150 4x4 ,hardly knew it was on the truck. Sounds like you had a nice trip . someday I want to do that trip also. I used to live in Va. And did all the traveling when I was young and lived at home with my parents ,now I want to take my daughter.

[Snowman9000]

Cool, very cool. Congrats!

[BMW442]

OK hopefully this will work...

[NautiqueFamily]

Glad you enjoyed our "neck of the woods"....Looking forward to visiting yours!

[silversand]

Sounds great! Congratulations. Could you post a pic of your rig "on the road" when you get to posting thing worked out?

[JumboJet]

Glad the stake pockets worked for you and you had a great trip.

Posting pictures is easy from a hosting site such as Photobucket.

Grab the URL in the Photobucket Direct box and place it between (without the spaces)
[I M G]............[/ I M G]



To see what I did, click on the quote for this post.