Although we got Nate back in April and have traveled and slept in him a couple times, we've never actually gone camping with him until now. Yoly and I were escaping the oppressive 90 degree heat of north Georgia. Traveling the easy 100 miles to the mountains of western NC brought us to a beautiful Nantahala National Forest Campground called Van Hook Glade CG at an elevation of 4,115 feet. It was located off Hwy 64 just west of Highlands, NC. Daytime temperatures hovered around 76 each day so we really enjoyed our time. This is Day 1 of a 2 day adventure.
naturist wrote: Nice video, good work. Looked like a new EZ-Up. Let me warn you not to leave it up in the rain unless you monitor it. I did once with a brand new one, had a gully-washer, and up bagged up enough to collapse destroying the frame. It sheds water fine, it just rained hard enough to get ahead of the runoff.
Thanks for the heads up. The brand name for the pop-up is Wenzel and they're made in Minnesota. We've had it for about 3 years now. We gave it a couple of liberal coatings of Scotch Guard when it was new and it does shed water well. The frame has substantial bracing for the roof structure but I also know the weight and power of water should it ever get excessive so I will definitely keep your words in mind if it ever rains hard.
Nice video, good work. Looked like a new EZ-Up. Let me warn you not to leave it up in the rain unless you monitor it. I did once with a brand new one, had a gully-washer, and up bagged up enough to collapse destroying the frame. It sheds water fine, it just rained hard enough to get ahead of the runoff.
I will be updating my initial post with the Day 2 video when I get it edited and uploaded. It will include our visit to 4 waterfalls as well as a near miss by inches of a collision with an 18 wheeler that wasn't supposed to be on the tight twisty little mountain road.
The Eureka is certainly not as big and roomy as our previous Adventurer and we do miss that just a bit. However, after selling the Adventurer we were able to pay off the loan balance and purchase the inexpensive Eureka reducing our monthly payments to just the truck. The money we would otherwise be paying on the Adventurer loan can now be set aside for travel, which was our overall goal in this downsizing exercise to begin with.
We've lived in small spaces before and we're ok with that, once you accept that as reality and focus on the upsides. The bed and couch are really comfortable. The windows offer a great view and storage is adequate with the seat removal from the back of the crew cab. The 2500HD Ram doesn't feel the weight of the camper at all and everything about it is easy to deal with. We ran the little Honda during the day to charge the battery and run the 5K BTU A/C (easily on Eco mode) as well as the induction cooktop (no Eco mode there) but ran everything off the inverter after 7pm (25 inch TV, PS4, 2 laptop chargers and compressor fridge) as well as the 12 volt draw for LED lights and Fantastic Fans.
The only lesson that we came away with after this initial outing is that we may want to add an additional 100Ah AGM battery (2 total). I've never used an inverter before and not used to the usage characteristics and battery depletion cycles. I keep tabs on it and begin to get concerned when the gauge indicates 12.4 volts (I know 12.2 is the 50% level and end point). As soon as I shut things off, the voltage climbs right back up to about 12.7 volts in about 20 minutes so I'm not sure what the actual battery condition is ?
