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Likes to Drive and Ride
New AT Clamshell vs. Big RV trailer
I towed my big, old, 30-ft travel trailer over the Sierras and back this weekend to meet with family on the other side. The meeting place was up on the west side of Highway 4 at 5,000-ft near the Calaveras Big Trees state park. Those familiar with Hwy 4 and Ebbetts Pass know that nobody has any business ‘attempting’ to pull a large RV over that road. It's a tight, narrow road with switchbacks and is about 1.5 lanes wide in places with no center line. It's a terrific motorcycle road!
Our only option was to pull the big trailer up and over the parallel trans-Sierra Hwy to the north, Hwy 88, down to the foothills, south to Hwy 4 then back up the western side. It would have been much shorter to just go up and over the top of Hwy 4. I could have easily done it with a Four Wheel Camper on the back of the F350 (don’t have one), or dragging the Chaser with the 4Runner. But since we were meeting people with a big 5th-wheel in an RV park, the Chaser was a bit privative.
BUT! I think an Adventure Trailer clamshell trailer would have been a very nice compromise of comfort and towing size/connivence. Taking the short twisty route over the top of Hwy 4 would have been fun and easy with something about the size & weight of the Chaser, but with stand-up room/shelter and a few of the niceties we have discussed here as option. Only thing it might not have would be a inside shower and power/water hook-ups, which we didn't need for just two days.
I was motivated enough to want something smaller that I can tow with the 4Runner that I looked at Airstream Travel Trailers briefly this afternoon. Maybe someday, but I already have something very similar, a 30-ft 1978 Avion. Even a small 16-ft Airstream would be a lot to drag over Hwy 4, but not the future AT Clamshell...
I towed my big, old, 30-ft travel trailer over the Sierras and back this weekend to meet with family on the other side. The meeting place was up on the west side of Highway 4 at 5,000-ft near the Calaveras Big Trees state park. Those familiar with Hwy 4 and Ebbetts Pass know that nobody has any business ‘attempting’ to pull a large RV over that road. It's a tight, narrow road with switchbacks and is about 1.5 lanes wide in places with no center line. It's a terrific motorcycle road!
Our only option was to pull the big trailer up and over the parallel trans-Sierra Hwy to the north, Hwy 88, down to the foothills, south to Hwy 4 then back up the western side. It would have been much shorter to just go up and over the top of Hwy 4. I could have easily done it with a Four Wheel Camper on the back of the F350 (don’t have one), or dragging the Chaser with the 4Runner. But since we were meeting people with a big 5th-wheel in an RV park, the Chaser was a bit privative.
BUT! I think an Adventure Trailer clamshell trailer would have been a very nice compromise of comfort and towing size/connivence. Taking the short twisty route over the top of Hwy 4 would have been fun and easy with something about the size & weight of the Chaser, but with stand-up room/shelter and a few of the niceties we have discussed here as option. Only thing it might not have would be a inside shower and power/water hook-ups, which we didn't need for just two days.
I was motivated enough to want something smaller that I can tow with the 4Runner that I looked at Airstream Travel Trailers briefly this afternoon. Maybe someday, but I already have something very similar, a 30-ft 1978 Avion. Even a small 16-ft Airstream would be a lot to drag over Hwy 4, but not the future AT Clamshell...
