It lives!
Well I got everything back together and sealed up just in time to pack up and head to the Overland Expo East and the ultimate test of weather protection seeing as how much rain, wind, and general nastiness we had that weekend. We did 5 states in 6 days and the camper did great. We got into a good routine of setup and take down for travel and learned a few more things about what will work better for us in the future. It was a great trip. Three nights in CG's, 2 nights at OXE, and 1 night dispersed in N. GA.
Clothes: In the past we've packed everyone in their own separate duffle bags and it seemed like we were always fighting those bags. They were never in the right spot and as the contents were transferred to the dirty clothes bag the bags lost their shape and were harder to stack. A few trips ago we started using these little zippered flat cubes to organize the contents of our duffle's and it turns out they fit great under the bed. For this trip we took a hard look at what we had stored under the bed and ditched some of it and stored the rest elsewhere. Our flat folding table was replaced with an aluminum roll top Alps Mountaineering table that stores with our chairs on the floor. We carried one extra blanket and stored the towels in a different cabinet. The pop up privy fit behind the couch (both with the couch up and setup in bed mode). All in all this worked pretty well. You could raise up the bed platform and have everyone's cubes of clothes easily accessible. We each have our own color of cube so it makes it easy to grab what you need. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of this. We also found that as clothes transferred to the dirty bag that the dirty bag was something we had to store. Towards the end of the trip we shifted cubes around and used the under bed space for dirty stuff too. The only drawback was if someone was up in the overhead they had to get down so you can get your clothes to get dressed. Some prior planning on my part would help since I was typically the one getting up earlier to make coffee and get outside so others had space to get dressed.
Kitchen stuff: Since our preference is to cook meals outside we needed to carry our kitchen stuff in a portable manner and have a stove that we could setup outside. This past year we picked up a partner 22" stove and a 10# propane tank. We also got a Blue Ridge Overland Gear bag for the stove. Both have been great. I have been tweaking my Pelican 1600 kitchen and use it just about everywhere we go. It sets up nicely on top of the fridge area when inside and when we're done the lid closes and makes a flat area to set things. When outside we set it on the table and have everything we need without going in and out of the camper constantly. We still use the inside stove for morning coffee and cooking when the weather is bad. I'm not sure if consolidating down to the Partner and using it inside will work for us or not.
Water: The on board tank is 22 gallons. Since we were going to be at the OXE and I wasn't sure how much water we would be using I put a 7 gallon reliance jug in to fill up if needed. We also took our new 10L Scepter jug for filling water bottles and such. In the end we got a solid 4 days of use out of the 22 gal tank alone with no showers (used campground bath houses). There was water left on the 5th day when we filled up. This means that we should be fine for the average weekend and can maybe squeeze a shower in there with frugal water use.
Canopy: We took our EZ-up canopy cause it's all we had. It worked ok but I can see the merits of having a nice side awning. We set it up so that the truck and camper was blocking the wind and it held up fine but is another bulky piece to have to store inside when we take down.
Hooks: We need more hooks inside. It seems we were always needing a place to hang jackets, wet clothes, etc.
Step platform: Although bulky, it is still one of the best and most stable ways for our kids to get in and out of the camper. I would like something that I didn't have to pack up and stayed attached to the truck but since I haven't found it I'll keep using this. Since we sometimes pull a trailer most hitch based steps won't work for us.
Tie downs: I initially used the heavy duty ratchet straps. Back earlier this year I stumbled across a deal on Craigslist that was too good to pass up. It was a full HappiJack tie down system for my model of Dodge with the stainless steel anchors. I hadn't gotten to install it yet as I was still working on the camper at the time. Now that we're looking at a FWC, I may still install it and run external tie downs for the FWC instead of the eye bolts through the bed floor which I'm not real crazy about doing. I used the rear anchors and they are nice and much cleaner option than the straps.
Ok, enough rambling on to the pictures...
I'm always working on something. Where are you located?
