sbstryker
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Re: Winter is a comin
We just camped this Thanksgiving long weekend at Sandbanks here in Ontario. On Friday it was cool during the day (10 Celsius / 50 Fahrenheit) and at night it was pretty cold (3 Celsius / 37.4 Fahrenheit). Then on Saturday it got a lot warmer, and then Sunday it was around 18 Celsius / 64.4 Fahrenheit, and then on Monday it was 22 Celsius / 71.6 Fahrenheit! We were in shorts and t shirts on Sunday and Monday. The weather was unseasonably warm all weekend and there was zero rain. We love the cool weather but the warmer temperatures were definitely welcome since we're in a pop-up. That's it for us for the season though as the majority of Ontario parks are closed up for the year now and for the few that are open in the winter our pop-up just doesn't cut it in the dead of winter. We'll be back camping in May 2016.476Views0likes0CommentsRe: Winter
We just put our trailer away in its rental spot in a farmer's field for the winter. I'm in Canada so we get some hardcore winters. Here's what we did: Made sure the tongue was higher up than the rear so that any rain and melted snow can run off Put a tarp that's a foot wider on each side over the roof put a 4x4 on the roof, under the tarp, 2/3 of the way up the trailer (closer to the tongue and beside the top vent) to create more of a peak. The wood also sticks out a bit on both sides so there's ventilation At the back the tarp goes all the way to the floor and we peaked it out behind the trailer (like the train of a wedding dress) so that there was more ventilation and we secured it to the ground with four cinder blocks Tied down the front of the tarp in the middle and the sides so that it wouldn't blow away. Hopefully what I said makes sense. I neglected to take a photo so I tried my best to explain it well. Basically any water will run off, the roof between the tarp and the trailer can breathe, and it won't fly off.399Views0likes0CommentsAnderson Levelers
We finally got to use our pop-up for the first time this weekend! Wow, what a difference from tent camping. More on that later in another thread though :) I had originally bought these levelers: Tri-Lynx leveling blocks I had never used them and everyone here said "forget those and buy this instead!": Andersen leveler So trusting all of your years of experience I bought the Andersen leveler and used that instead. Oh my gosh, using the Andersen leveler was SO EASY! What an awesome product. So a big thank you to everyone here for your suggestion. Using that leveler was so easy. You saved me from dealing with stacking blocks.2.1KViews0likes11CommentsRe: 2006 Jeep Wrangler TJ
Sorry for the late reply! We had the chance to tow our pop-up with our Jeep this weekend. We had zero issues and barely even noticed that we were towing anything. We went 260 km each way to the camping area and back, so just over 500 km round trip (323 mi for my American friends). We were able to drive 100 kph without issue and didn't go faster than that. I'm sure if we had gone 110 kph or 120 kph (which is speeding) that there would have been some stability issues though. I think a few things help. 1 - We're super light packers. Everyone always laughs at how simple campers we are. Our gear is small and weighs less than 50 pounds. Many years of car camping and using tents and us being no-frills type of people anyways has led us to being light campers. What little gear we have we loaded to the front to add to the tongue weight. 2 - We don't have an after-market hitch installed to our bumper. Our bumper has a hitch built in. This is the bumper we have: rear bumper 3 - The bumper is installed with this amazing things from a manufacturer here in Toronto (TMR Customs) that are called frame tie-ins. These tie-ins allow for reinforcement of the Jeep's rear cross member and attach directly to the frame rails giving you a rigid and exceptionally strong mounting configuration. They're an absolute must for towing with a Wrangler: frame tie-ins 4 - We had very little elevation on our trip. Southern Ontario is pretty flat. 5 - Our TJ is a manual transmission with the 4 liter inline 6 cylinder engine. The engine is a beast. I think if we went any heavier or longer though it would be a problem because of our wheelbase. Another interesting thing we discovered is that our fuel economy didn't change at all. Which is awesome. Wrangler TJs are pigs on gas to begin with so it was nice that our fuel economy stayed the same. THAT SAID, I wouldn't want to constantly be towing with the Jeep. I'm still on the lookout for a replacement vehicle for our Civic that will allow us to tow. We want to be able to bring friends with us too and our Wrangler only fits two people. So the hunt for another vehicle begins!557Views0likes0CommentsRe: This is a reason why Pop Ups aren't selling......
I kind of see your point. We finally made the transition to a PUP a month ago and we are (hopefully) using it for the first time this upcoming Thanksgiving weekend (if our Jeep gets out of the shop in time). We've been camping since we were toddlers. We're in our early 30s now. We had it with tents. We looked at new PUPs and we found the prices were crazy in comparison to travel trailers. But it's all about demand. It seems like PUPs are more popular than travel trailers because they're lighter therefore you don't need as big as a vehicle to pull the larger trailers. If we had a big truck (it's not practical living in Toronto) we'd still probably get a PUP over a travel trailer. Well, either a PUP or an A liner. I like how easy they are to store and the airiness that they offer and they're easier to use across the provincial parks. We're very simple campers as well and don't bring a lot of stuff with us so to us, the PUPs are better suited to our lifestyle. That said, we found the prices for new PUPs to be crazy, so we bought an old one that we're renovating to be exactly what we want. We got a 1983 Lionel for $1,500 and we've put $1,000 into it to make it modern and awesome.342Views0likes0Comments
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