I haven't done any updates on this in a little while as I've been busy with some other projects, but the first camping trip went great. Towed the trailer about 1100 miles round trip down to White Rocks campground in the Jefferson National Forrest of Southwest Virginia. We only stayed 2 nights in the camper. The first night it was raining heavily, and the second it went down to 25 Deg F. But, overall the setup did great, but I definitely need to do some more work to it.
The bad parts were a long set-up time, the top bed is too heavy, and the old Ford Ranger leaf springs are a little too soft. Setup took me (mostly by myself because the wife was with the baby) about 1hr total. Now that is with the kitchen and everything, but still too long. I hope that a lot of that will go away once I get the canvas tent made up, and the onboard kitchen is completed. Also, because of the weight of the wooden top (about 250lbs) and the soft springs, it is a little too top heavy, and there was a significant amount of lean in the trailer when taking turns. I'm used to body lean, as I don't run sway bars on my truck, but the trailer would sometimes out lean the truck on off ramps and tight turns. Other than that, I need a little more tire clearance, so I think I'll add and "add-a-leaf" to the rear spring pack to make things a little stiffer and give some more height. Also, as noted, the top is too heavy. I have to figure out a way to lighten it up and still keep it strong enough. Fiberglass may be the answer, but it needs to support 400+ lbs sleeping, and about that much from canoes, wood, etc. on the roof when driving, so I'm not sure of the best option.
The good parts is that it towed great, and allowed me to take a lot (probably too much) stuff with us. The only thing I had in the truck on the trip was 3 adults, 1 kid, 1 dog, a small cooler and food. Everything else went in the trailer. 4 suit cases, tent, tarp, 12' ez-up, 2 camping boxes, 1 camping kitchen, camping stove, tools, lanterns, sleeping bags, chairs, 15 gallons water, 5 gallons fuel, propane, tarp poles, another BIG cooler, presents for my niece, etc. Even on a couple badly rutted Forest Service roads, it pulled great and articulated well, but did suffer a little from the body lean, and touched the body a couple times with the new 35's. No damage to either, other than putting a black marks on the rear of the fender wells. It also did well on the washboards, but I look forward to getting the brakes hooked up so the down hill turns aren't as exciting.
The overall weight fully loaded was about 300lbs heavier than I had estimated. The whole thing weighed 1750lbs excluding ice in the big cooler and the 5 gals of fuel, so say 1800lbs cruising down the road. Took the truck's mileage down about 1-1.5 mpg to 13mpg.
I'll post some more later about other thoughts and some questions for the group, but for now I'll just add some pictures. Enjoy.
During setup:
Mostly set up right before it started to rain for the rest of the night:
Enjoying breakfast after the 25 Deg F night:
All the hiking (about 6 miles of AT) and camping kept the little guy (7.5 months) pretty tired:
