What's your longest TC trip?

[gorohoff]

I'm curious to hear about peoples longest trip they've taken in their truck camper? You don't hear about full timers in tuck campers a lot, but I know they're out there. Other than the obvious problems with small living space and limited holding tanks, I'm curious what were some of the other challenges that were faced when living for a long time in a truck camper.

[seraphim]

Cincinnati around aAlaska, and back. About 11000 miles IIRC and about three months. Saw some fantastic sights.

[Less_Stuff]

Last trip was 11,481 miles Washington state to Cabo San Lucas and back.

Sold the camper after that trip.




We had the camper for over 10 years and visited all the colored in places on these maps.
Taking four big trips in that time:
Washington to Key West,
Washington to Fairbanks,
Washington to Guadalajara, Mexico,
and
Washington to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Truck camping can be lots of fun!
But travel is lots of fun for us.
Going to lost wages next week, and then planning a European trip for next spring.
Have fun with your TC. Though it's not the only way to travel fun.

[JimK-NY]

It seems that most TC owners take short trips. When I retired, my wife and I sold the house and took off with the 2 cats for full time travel. We only lasted 2 years because of grandkids. Now we share a house with my daughter, son in law and the grandkids. RV travel is less than half of the year. This trip we traveled since the beginning of August and drove from NY to Oregon, on to Yellowstone and now Utah. My wife just flew back to NY due to a medical issue. I will continue on for another month or so. After the holidays in NY we have planned a trip to Hawaii. Then it will again be camper time.

[DWeikert]

My longest trip so far is one that I've made a few times. PA to Yellowstone area and back. 4443 miles.
Yellowstone trip report

[bighatnohorse]

Seattle to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Approximately 3200 miles one way. (We came back.)

[67avion]

Jane and I are reading, and enjoying, this thread from a campground in Terheijden, Netherlands. We have been traveling through Holland, Germany and Denmark in a Tonke truck camper mounted on a Mercedes diesel "Sprinter". It's the furtherest we've wandered from home. I'm planning on writing up this experience when we get back to the US. Best of luck on your travels.

D

[bighonkinf350]

In 2012 my wife and I spent 44 days on the road from Vancouver,Wa to St. Augustine,FL ,to Los Angeles & lots of places in between. Approx 8500 miles.
One night was spent on the dock along side the USS Hornet in Alameda,CA. We had our chocolate lab and a cat with us the entire
trip too!

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

Just did a 6400-mile drive around the Pacific Northwest in 20 days 🙂

[Jeepers92]

14,000 in 2011. Alaska +
7,000 +. In 2013. Canada, Noviscotia, eastern coast
7,000 + in 2014. Gulf Coast to Baja - up coast of Cal to Oregon - back down mts of Calif

[narcodog]

Longest, 78 days in MT, that's not including the travel back and forth to home.

[bka0721]

jefe 4x4 wrote:
Bryan, you certainly have a way with words. I loved the 2009 kicker. Do you have any estimate of your miles covered since 2009? I know you tried to stay with a $ budget on fuel use, but now that diesel is cheeper again, has that allowed you to cover more miles yourself, or do you stick with a slow, deliberate pace in covering the mountains majesty and across the fruited plain?
jefe

Hi Jefe!!

Thank you very much for your kind words. To many, I have travel many days but not many miles. For me, when I am pointing the truck and rolling, a long day might be, 40 miles. But in the country I travel, well, that could be just another wonderful valley or mountain range to spend days wandering. I haven’t even gotten close to calling it quits. Well, there are just too many RV.net’rs I still am looking forward to meeting out in the middle of nowhere.

Since I rolled out of Boulder, I have put on just over 33,000 miles, on my 08 F550 in 7 yrs & 3 months. Even with the cheaper fuel, I have no desire of changing my snail like pace. But, I must say saving $60-$80 a tank full on each fill up is nice. I just put it in my savings for those special times I need to send a birthday gift to one of my grandchildren. I enjoy reading all of the stories and adventures of so many of you, enjoying the road too. No matter how fast you do it.

Jefe, I hope our paths will bring us together, this season, again.

b

[free_radical]

gorohoff wrote:
Thank you for all the replies. I probably should have asked more specifically, what is the longest amount of time you've spent in your TC, but distance question is also interesting question that brings up other questions about truck maintenance with the wear and tear of a very long trip.

The reason I asked the question is that I'm planning on taking a year off with my family and traveling the US and Canada in our TC. My two young daughters would be home schooled (or camper schooled) during that year. I'm probably completely crazy to try and get a family of 4 to live together in a TC for that long, but my family is on board with the plan and I wanted to give it a go while my daughters are still young.

I've spent couple summers living in TC while working in Alberta,to save enough money to retire early ,but in winter stayed in a motel,,no TC is built to full time comfortably in winter in Canada
for full time living or with more then one person I'd get some small motor home..

[Ramblin__Ralph]

I'm a month away from wrapping up my 10th year of traveling in my TC for about 6 months. A typical year is 9K to 10K miles, but when I went to Alaska it was about 12K. Total mileage when I get home will be about 97K. I typically camp in USFS (or similar) campgrounds, and usually camp about 120 nights a year (excluding "driveway camping"). My big trip for each year is to go to Montana and stay with my cousin for 2 weeks (camped in his driveway). That takes 3+ months. I probably average about 100 miles per day. A 200 mile day is a really long one for me. The rest of the 6 months I'm traveling in California and primarily visiting my kids and friends, but with some camping.

At then end of 6 months I'm not burnt out from camping and traveling, but it is nice to have a bit more comfort. I travel solo and my TC is perfect for my needs. I would like to have a more comfortable place to sit and read, though.

[Super_Dave]

I haven't retired yet so 2 weeks has been it. What scares me is that at about the 2 week mark I'm fully immersed and think things are getting good. My wife, on the other hand is about to lose her mind and wants to be home. When I do retire, I was hoping for trips that were a month or 2 long but don't think it will happen due to the other half.