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.

[sundowners]

Raften wrote:
Wow, after reading all these posts I am such a mileage light weight. We just stay mostly in CA, OR or AZ and never run out of places to go. I salute you long rangers.

The mileage is not really relevant----we have had some great trips really close to home-------------------
Our longest trip, so far, was our first in our present T/C-------
We flew from UK to TX, bought our 06 4x4 Cummins Dodge 3500 dually, drove to OK to buy our 97 Lance, put it all together and headed for R66 and LA. Via. Grand Canyon
Spent a few days near Lake Tahoe/San Francisco ---headed for Calgary Stampede (2010)----Dalton Highway AK---Top Of The World to Dawson City(LOVED IT)----Back to Montana---Cody----Niagara Falls---Chicago to pick up the start of R66----back to our starting point at OK on R66----total 17.500 miles in 5 months-----shipped the rig from Galveston Oct '10---------we would have rather done this trip over a year or two, but we could only get visas for 6 months.

Since then we have used the camper a lot---------spent a winter touring Spain and Portugal-------spent 2 months --6000 miles touring Norway/Sweden/Finland.
Loads of local trips, including the one we are doing at the moment, currently in a camp-ground in Wales.
Most of our nights are wild camping (boondocking).
We are hoping to get to Morocco/Portugal this winter.
Since we have had the camper back in UK we have added a solar panel, a second house battery, Ctek 25 amp charger and we always carry a 1kw Honda genny. Fitted a luggage box on the roof so that we can carry more junk around--including a small awning.
It is not a perfect set-up but it works OK for us. We sometimes take our grandson with us, but really we are set-up for two. We now carry a mobility scooter in the back of the cab for Pamala.
Nigel & Pamala

[Raften]

Wow, after reading all these posts I am such a mileage light weight. We just stay mostly in CA, OR or AZ and never run out of places to go. I salute you long rangers.

[ejfranz]

20,000 km coast to coast in 8 weeks. All 10 provinces and the northern states.

[gorohoff]

I suppose it's only fair that I come clean with my longest trip. Despite my more ambitious goals, to date my longest trip has only been about 1000 miles, 10 days, and two states. Down the Oregon Coast and back during my daughters spring break earlier this year.

[dave17352]

2BLAZERS wrote:


We are blessed to live in Oregon, lots of great camping areas seriously minutes from home.

Yes you are. We traveled there last year and I have been there before, the country there is awesome!!! Being from the flat lands I am more than a little jealous.

[NEOK]

Not sure about the number of miles but the longest two or three stays have been about 6 weeks. The longest drive was from Oklahoma to Canada and for about 4-5 weeks.

[JoeChiOhki]

10,000 miles around the northern US over the course of two months, (9-13-2012 to 11-16-2012), hit 19 states.

[Jeepers92]

14,000 miles in 1911. GA to Alaska by way of 20 states and 4 Canidian provinces.. 7,000 miles this year...Ga to Novi Scotia by way of 12 states and 4 Canadian provinces.

[ronday]

For us in 2007 to Alaska, 13,000 miles, 10 weeks. 2010 to the west coast and up to the Calgary Stampede, 10,000 miles, 8 weeks. 2012 to the southwest to finish all 50 states, 10,000 miles, 8 weeks. Same truck camper but 2002 truck in 2007. Ron

[spacedoutbob]

I took a crazy 10,004 mile trip in my camper back in 1990. Went through 33 states and 3 provinces of Canada in 33 days. I still can't believe I drove that much in such a short time and managed to see a number of places.

Bob in Calif.

[skipbee]

We have spent 4 to 5 months on a number of trips. To Alaska, to the West Coast; California, Oregon and Utah, and several winters in Florida and the Keys. Our Grandchildren have traveled with us and have flown to join us at various locations. We could not be more pleased with the usefulness, comfort and versatility of our truck camper. As we tend to stay no more than 2 or 3 days in one location , the TC is very easy to set up and pack up to be more mobile than stationary.

The tent and air mattress we carry in a roof pod operate as our guest house. We have had children (Grown), and grandchildren in various combination. The convertible sofa will accommodate an adult and a child. The back seat in the crew cab has been a good single bunk also. When the weather has been foul, we have, in smaller State and County parks, set up the tent under cover when a pavilion was available. In the past ten years of extensive travel we have most often boondocked where ever we found a likely spot. We have never been bothered or shoo'd.

Many years ago we were setting off on a circumnavigation in our Ketch "Imagine" with our three children aged 9,8 and 5. Linda found an article written by a woman who had just completed an around-the-world cruise with three kids. She said, " Sailing with children is like traveling fourth class on a Bulgarian Railroad." Limit the quantity to obtain quality, we discovered, the hard way!

[vermilye]

While I'm not in a TC, I'm traveling in a trailer with less square footage than many truck campers. For what it is worth, I've made 2 long trips; 111 days & 132 days. I'm currently two weeks into a year long trip. All of them are blogged at the website in my signature.

[bigfootford]

11,xxx miles, Cal-texas-Maine-Across Canada-home... 7+weeks.
Wife, Dog n Me...

Jimbo

[2BLAZERS]

My longest vacations are usually about 10 days total length. Which is enough for us to go to Glacier N.P. in July and Southern UT for ATV riding in August. We hit about 55 nights a year in the camper. Which I feel is great for being a small business owner who works more then fulltime and having a daughter in school.

We are blessed to live in Oregon, lots of great camping areas seriously minutes from home.

[gorohoff]

bka0721 wrote:
With further comments, from the OP, the old phrase; “Well, that is a horse of a different color . . . “

I traveled around the country, vintage car racing, for 18 years on weekends and time off. Often the kids and wife were with me, so I have some traveling experience with family. But, I have never traveled with my family in my Truck Camper. But, I do feel comfortable in sharing that I would be very concerned with subjecting my kids for long periods of time, in a small truck camper. Short trips or long vacations, I would feel perfect with a family along.

Here is the rub; essentially when someone is standing up in a truck camper, the other person needs to be seated or out of the way, when you compound this with additional people, well, you get the idea. The other rub would be; where would you store everything for a family of four for a yearlong trip? I don’t doubt it can be done, but what will your kids be left with, after an adventure such as you are planning? The therapy world is littered with children from parents that thought that they had the best intentions for their children. There are many examples of a families traveling together on you tube and blogs, so it has been done. But your plan is in a truck camper, that leaves me with pause.

None the less, I would enjoy following your travels, on your blog or here in this forum. It would be fun to see you succeed and your children prosper!

b

Thanks for the comments.

We do have a lot to figure out in order to make this work, and I do hope this isn't something causes my children to end up in therapy later in life. 🙂