RVhavingfun_
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Re: What are the pitfalls of camping in a Hybrid?
drenjoey wrote: I almost wrote a reply yesterday but not as detailed as Dan. My thought was: You only live once.....so enjoy, and have fun. If you start worrying about any or all of the above, camping life is not for you Dre I couldn't agree with this more! :)425Views0likes0CommentsRe: What can my Suburban safely tow?
travelnman wrote: We tow a TT dry weight of 6,200lbs loaded with dry tanks it must be 7,500lbs. GM says our 1500 Suburban with the 5.3 motor and 3.73 axel can tow 8,200lbs, it does pretty well. Never ever any sway but do have to pull the trany down when in the mountains and go 20mi hour at times in 1st gear on very steep grades. Extreme winds are also a effort don't expect to get gas mileage there either but the suburban comes thru so we are very happy campers. I also turn off the air conditioning during these times and pretend its the good old days. I image the six liter would be a big boost over the 5.3. I have been looking for a 2500 with the six liter but they are really hard to find and the new Suburbans are out of my price bracket and can only hope the FBI has a auction. In the future I'm wondering who will be able to afford a tow vehicle and RV, camping is getting to be for the rich. I have seen some nice motor homes for a fraction of their original cost with low miles. I'm going to consider that. Never consider them before. It really is expensive! We aren't willing to even consider updating our tow vehicle at this point, perhaps someday though. I think one thing that really hurts our Suburban's tow capacity is that whoever owned it before us put every stinking option you could possibly get on that thing! I'm guessing that must add weight? Our payload capacity is slightly under 1,400lbs! We will also frequently be towing in the mountains, so we want to stay as far under our tow capacity as possible. Aside from finding out that our Suburban doesn't tow any where near what we thought it would I'm pretty in love with that truck! I certainly don't miss my minivan! Lol!701Views0likes0CommentsRe: Newbie need help with purchase decision
SoundGuy wrote: RVhavingfun? wrote: I posted a thread asking about the drawbacks of owning a Hybrid in the Hybrid forum and received many very helpful replies from experienced owners. And here's that discussion. As one would expect because it's posted on the Hybrid Forum most respondents are current hybrid owners and predictably view hybrids favourably, unlike many of us who once did have a hybrid but now have moved on to a travel trailer or 5th because we're so done with tenting and have no interest in ever owning a hybrid again. :R This discussion however has caused me to think of the hundreds we've met over the years here in Canada and across the US who are avid campers, quite a few of whom we still camp with ... of that group I can only think of two couples who have owned a popup or hybrid (i.e. a camper with tenting) and still have it - one here in Ontario with a hybrid and the other couple in NY state with a popup ... virtually everyone else has long since moved on to a travel trailer, 5th, MH, etc. The reason? ... eventually reality sets in and the romance of "camping under tenting" or the illusion that you get something for nothing - i.e. the convenience of a 30' trailer in a 20' package - proves to come at the cost of inconvenience in other areas. Some smarter that I saw the light before the fact and saved themselves the aggravation and a lot of $$$$$ in lost depreciation by simply skipping the hybrid entirely, moving from the most common trailer with tenting - i.e. a popup - directly to a trailer without any - i.e. travel trailer, 5th, etc. Wish we'd done that! :R I fully expect that at some point we'll be ready for what basically amounts to a rolling vacation home, but for now we've realized that we really want our kids to feel like they're camping—a real departure from life at home, not just a new location to live it in. I wanted to minimize the set-up involved in tent camping, but didn't feel the need to eliminate it completely. Reading some of the replies here actually helped me come to the realization that for now, while we're young and healthy, I want there to be a little work involved in camping. I'm sure that makes me a bit of a weirdo, but when I think back to those childhood memories that have my brothers and I doubling over with laughter, it's not the luxurious vacations that I recall, it's times like when my Dad and his buddy took us survival camping and we ate biscuit root and drank pine needle tea while they snuck off to the cooler they had hidden in the woods and shared a beer and some laughs over our misery. Or, when my cousin (who is used to the finer things) accidentally reserved a dump of a vacation rental for our big family winter vacation and hilarity ensued, including my Grandma wandering around offering everyone truffles at 2:00am and the boys wiring a very complicated antenna out of wire coat hangers and trying in vain tto get the Super Bowl on tv. We've been lucky enough to stay in some posh places, and they are lovely memories too, but there's something about "roughing it" that really makes the memories stick and insure future belly laughs. In my experience anyway. Basically, total ease and comfort is not what I'm after. Just enough to encourage us to venture out more often. For now. I'm not opposed to future rolling luxury. :C Anyway, I'm sure you're right that most hybrid owners come to regret their purchase, and maybe we'll find ourselves in that group as well, but in our minds we have good reason to be choosing a hybrid at this point in our lives. I've been tent camping for 37 years, and my parents have spent over 60 years hauling their tent camping supplies (and for many of those years they hauled young kids too) into the woods. Heck, my 88 year old grandma still sets up her tent and camps in the wilderness with my parents. If they can do it, I feel like I can deal with some canvas tent ends for a bit. But I am going to enjoy a lot less prep involved in our next family camping trip! Maybe I'll use the free time to fry up some biscuit root and chill some pine needle tea for my dad to enjoy when he's done setting up his tent.;)431Views0likes0CommentsRe: Newbie need help with purchase decision
I am no help at all as I am a total newbie (picking up our first HTT tomorrow), but we just had to make a very similar decision. I posted a thread asking about the drawbacks of owning a Hybrid in the Hybrid forum and received many very helpful replies from experienced owners. Just thought maybe it could be valuable for you in your decision making process. :) One thing I thought of when reading through this thread is that if you plan to mostly use the trailer by yourself, and occasionally with other adults, would it be possible to use a hybrid like a regular TT for those quick one night stays? That way you don't have to deal with the tent ends (although they don't seem all that difficult to set up) on short trips, but you have nice big beds that can accommodate adults when you need them. It does seem like most of the bunks in the BH models were designed with children in mind, which is one of reasons we went with a hybrid.430Views0likes0CommentsRe: What are the pitfalls of camping in a Hybrid?
drenjoey wrote: And nowadays the hybrids are so easy to set up....no more bungie cords or whatever......just bring the doors down, install the poles and you're good to go. In less then 3 minutes, the beds are done.....wow !!! I watched some YouTube videos of people setting them up and was surprised by how easy it was! I had been concerned because so many people mentioned what a pain to set up in the rain it was. I was thinking it was more complicated than I had imagined. I mean, of course it's no fun to do anything in the rain, but a few extra minutes compared to a full hardside TT doesn't seem all that bad. I lived in Oregon, so I'm used to getting rained on from time to time. Lol! Of course being a newb maybe there's something I'm not taking into consideration.425Views0likes0CommentsRe: What are the pitfalls of camping in a Hybrid?
Thank you everyone for the great responses! You gave us lots to think about and I'm happy to say that we are joining ranks with the hybrid crew! We bought the Starcraft for a great price and think it will be a good way to introduce ourselves to the world of Rving without taking on much debt. We pick it up tomorrow! :)332Views0likes0CommentsRe: What are the pitfalls of camping in a Hybrid?
coolmom42 wrote: RVhavingfun? wrote: coolmom42 wrote: Another consideration if you camp in bear country---you are in a tent-sided trailer, along with all your food and other bear attractants. Not a safe situation, for sure. Well, we do camp in bear country, but I grew up camping in tents in bear country and knew plenty of families camping in pop-ups. It's something to be aware of for sure, but I would be aware of that danger in any camper, hybrid or otherwise. The truth is a bear can open up any trailer if they want in badly enough. Yosemite used to have a car door on display that had been pulled open by bears. I'd be clearing my trailer of food and cosmetics and using provided bear boxes in any environment where bears and humans regularly interact. Right, and having to move all the food etc out is a huge pain in the behind. Apparently bears do not regard hard-side trailers as food sources, to my knowledge there's never been an incident of one being broken into in the eastern US, Yellowstone, or Glacier NP. Yeah, but I would go through the pain of storing all the food and toiletries in a bear box no matter what I'm camping in, even if it really wasn't necessary. It has been driven into my noggin since before I can remember that when in an area where there are bears you do not store food or consume food where you are sleeping. I think I would have a hard time resisting the urge to move the food even if I was sleeping in a tank. It's just one of those things, you know? Probably being too cautious, but I would have a hard time feeling at ease without taking that precaution.331Views0likes0CommentsRe: What are the pitfalls of camping in a Hybrid?
rwbradley wrote: The bear issue has crossed my mind a lot... The way I look at it, I have seen far too many photos and heard too many stories of hard side trailers opened up like a tuna can by a hungry bear. However... 1) I do not camp much in early spring or late fall when they typically are most aggressive/hungry 2) a hard side will not stop a hungry bear 3) I do not camp in Grizzly territory, black bears are far less aggressive (except in spring/fall or if they are a juvenile male establishing new territory) 4) if there is no currently active bears in the area, we pack all dried goods in huge (airtight and hopefully odor tight) ziplocks, take garbage away immediately, clean dishes immediately and clean with vinegar to keep odor down and of course never cook bacon inside the trailer :) 5) If bears are active, stored in the car or bear boxes. 6) bear spray hung beside the fire extinguisher just in case... Yup! I would take all these precautions no matter what I was camping in. I've had more than one encounter with bears while camping in the Sierras, and the truth is that they all turned tail and ran as soon as they realized a human was there. A bear in the wild that doesn't interact with humans (other than one hunting it) isn't nearly as concerning as the ones in NPs that see humans as pantries. And even in places like Yellowstone where Grizzly bears are prevalent and used to humans, the odds of one attacking a human is about 1 in 3 million! (but I still won't camp in Yellowstone! lol!)190Views0likes0CommentsRe: What are the pitfalls of camping in a Hybrid?
coolmom42 wrote: Another consideration if you camp in bear country---you are in a tent-sided trailer, along with all your food and other bear attractants. Not a safe situation, for sure. Well, we do camp in bear country, but I grew up camping in tents in bear country and knew plenty of families camping in pop-ups. It's something to be aware of for sure, but I would be aware of that danger in any camper, hybrid or otherwise. The truth is a bear can open up any trailer if they want in badly enough. Yosemite used to have a car door on display that had been pulled open by bears. I'd be clearing my trailer of food and cosmetics and using provided bear boxes in any environment where bears and humans regularly interact.169Views0likes0CommentsRe: What are the pitfalls of camping in a Hybrid?
Slamnslash wrote: Anmacc2 wrote: Closing up in the rain. Living in South Florida that was the deal breaker for us. Forgot that one. Here in NC we usually get the 6pm thunderstorms and the morning dew. Pack up wet then need to dry out. The only benefit they have is weight and size but with slides and ultralights it's moot. If I was worried about size and weight I would just get a pop-up. Well, one benefit we've noticed so far on our search is price! We aren't necessarily looking for new, but if we get used we want very gently used, and none of the ultra-lights that will comfortably fit our family have come close to the $15,000 hybrid.168Views0likes0Comments
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