Donno if anyone is still watching this thread, but while I explain why I think the Cricket fits a great niche, please chime in if you know another which fits my wants/requirements. Thanx
Why do I think this woks best for us?
The Porta potty camper trailer that we can stand up in and yet still fits in the garage.
We’ve tent camped forever, but we’re over the 50 hill now and getting up at 2am in 35 degree weather to walk down to a camp **************, in the cold, in the dark, is no longer something we’re game to tolerate. That and the set up pain are about it tho, otherwise we’re good with the primitive nature of tent style camping.
Given that, the Cricket is pretty Deluxe for us!
At it’s most fancy, we’ll be camping in the usual State/Fed “Pad” type site w/o elec., most of the other time totally Off Grid in the boonies.
Priority One - A porta potty INSIDE the trailer at night.
Inside where it’s still warm (and close by) on cold nites - Smells or not. (It’s typically a pee issue at 2am)
This is where the teardrop trailers, unfortunatly, can’t do what we want.
By warm, I realize that’s mostly just as warm as 2 persons body heat would help in an otherwise unheated space (not expecting to run the heater all nite), but with the wall and roof insulation, and when really cold sleeping with the Cricket TOP DOWN, there’s plenty of insulation to I’d guess raise the temp inside by 10-15 degrees even without running the heater, which you could a half hour before getting up in the morning (if you can hold it!).
Even a snug-ish standup nylon tent will hold in people heat at nite.
Looks to me like even this 6-1” guy could camel-walk his way over to the potti easily and the shower curtain could give some privacy if my wife wants.
No - We are not pee-privacy-phobes. The noises and smells and bare asses will be no problem, and will be considered a god send instead of a walk down to the freezing cinder block state pit toilet. ?
Priority Two - Must fit in our tandem three car garage.
Our garage door threshold height is 6’9”, so it looks like no problem if I keep in mind how I configure what might be perminantly attached to the roof, or how I’d modify the ground clearance.
Height is the only problematic issue I’ve found among many other choices, and the Cricket looks like it’ll easily fit.
Priority Three - Some Off Road capability.
Nothing extreme. We may find at some point we’d like to modify the trailer frame/base/suspension for more ground clearance, but otherwise I like the lite weight here and the low CG.
Rear overhang looks like the first thing that we’d find is an issue, but most of the dirt roads we’d consider will be rather nice and not challenging for any vehicle with this sorta clearance. Anyone have any experience with installed ?wheels (not to reduce the rear overhang clearance at the back end to deal with the 1% unusual situations? Might that work?
Semi-Priority Four - 4 Season Insulation.
Well, only sorta achieving this one is ok.
Expecting at nite we’d put the top down in winter and sleep in that config., but even that is way more insulation than we’ll ever get from a tent.
I’m not talking some sub zero location, but only thinking camping in the teens, if at all.
I’d be curious, with the top down and everything closed tight, if the Truma heater could be set to kick on at say 35 degrees, and it would only run occasionally, if it were say 25 degrees outside?
So, considering primarily the first three items, I cannot find another (mostly) hard side trailer that’ll fit those three caveats.
The tear drop interiors aren’t large enough inside, others are just a bit too tall for the garage, and some of the fiberglass bubbles just don’t look very off road-able.
So guys - Any other suggestions I haven’t heard of?
And no, we don’t want a porta poti tent just outside for the cold evenings. That would not even slightly help the cold temp issue at 2am. ? ❄️❄️
