Campground owners/ideas/links

[mwechtal]

Bird,
Thanks for the info. We have 2 Wal-Marts in our area, so hopefully that increases my chances of finding them. Of course, we pass many Wal-Marts in our travels, so I'm sure I'll find the brass quick connects. Until I find them, I don't think I'll even bother with the plastic type.
Mike

 

[Bird]

Mike, I'm looking at one of mine now and it says "Cascade . . Made in U.S.A" on the female connector. If I'm not mistaken, Ace Hardware and True Value Hardware also sell them. Even after we quit traveling and were living on the farm, I had a bunch of them; all my garden hoses, nozzles, sprinklers, even the hoses, wands, etc. on my pressure sprayer/washer.

 

[5030]

Bird:

I read the whole thread with a lot of amusing thoughts. my wife and I go to horse shows in our Lance 9 1/2 foot slide in truck camper. We have stayed a quite a few campgrounds too. We have also dry camped in the woods. Having a Lance on our Ford 350 4x4 allows us to go places that motorhomes would have to get towed out of. I have had the Lance up in Northern Michican, snowmobiling with my buddies in weather that's below zero. It sure is nice to park at a trail head and get "home" to a warm camper, take a hot shower and cook dinner. After dinner, tell a few tales and off to bed all while the wind is howling and the snow is falling.
Getting back to the campground experience, we have stayed at KOA's too. My wife and I call them Krudgrounds of America. We find their rates awfully high and the campsites devoid of trees. I guess that living in the country, we could "camp out" in the back yard, but that's not always feasible. Some of the best campgrounds we have ever stayed in were private mom and pop operations. The first thing I do when I pull into a campground is go look at the shower/bathroom facilities. If they are dirty and have mold on the walls, if possible we will go to another if close by. The toilet/shower facility will give you a good idea of the parks quality without a drive through.
Most of the time, we don't just stay overnight. If we go to a show, it's usually at least 3 days and usually through the week. Most of the time, we have our choice of sites so I tend to pick one with trees and away from other folks. I appreciate my sleep and some parks don't have a curfew for kids.
I always use a pressure regulator and a inline filter if I am using shore water. I also carry 2 different plug adapters so I can hook up to either 15 or 30 amp shore power.
We carry a generator, a Yamaha 2800 Inverter model. It will give true sine wave 60 Hz. regulated power so you don't fry your microwave or air conditioner. The Yamaha is great for camping in the woods. It's so quiet and has a USDA approved spark arrestor. In fact, it makes so little noise, that I usually set it in front of the truck and inside the camper you can't hear it.
We also have a solar array on the roof to keep the 12 volt system charged. Everything in the camper is 12 volt except the microwave and the a.c.

 

[Bird]

Daryl, our first RV was a 10.5' slide-in Sandpiper (they went under and the name only was sold a few years ago to another manufacturer; no relation to the manufacturer that made ours). It wasn't a bad rig, but for many years now, the Lance has been the leader in the slide-ins. It would be my first choice. Of course we only had a slide-in for about about 11 months before changing to a travel trailer. I guess you know that KOA was a franchise operation; some were pretty good and some were pretty bad. And an awful lot of them went out of business or changed hands and got away from the KOA franchise.

 

[Slamfire]

For the worst "urban" campground, I'd like to nominate the one at the Chinese Docks in San Francisco. The entrance was under an unfinished (on purpose) freeway, and that was the only shade in the whole place. I'd judge about 3 acres of asphalt with parking spots lined out in white paint. There were hookups. We were assigned a spot just across the fence from a city bus stop, but had to circumnavigate the half of the campground just to get to it. Cheap too, only $35 a night in the early 90's.

Hands down best A Canadian Provincial Park a little way outside of Vancouver, B. C. Every camper wishes he'd find one as nice.

 

[mwechtal]

Bird,
Thanks for the updated info. We've got Ace and True Value around here too, so I should be able to find them somewhere.
Mike

 

[5030]

Bird:

I replied to your post the other day, but somehow, probably through my own ignorance, it got "erased".
I will try it again.
All is not peaches and cream with the Lance. I'd never purchased a truck camper before, I had a popup and sold that years ago. Sleeping on the ground wasn't an option because at my age, I'd probably not be able to get up after a night on the ground!!
I bought the Lance in Tenessee. I went to the somewhat local dealer (about 3 hours from here) and got sticker shock. They wanted (tax included) almost 19K for the one I have. Living in the computer age, I jumped on the internet, went to RVTrader.com and quiried for Lance dealers. The dealer in Tenessee was no sales tax and said he could get the model I wanted in 4 weeks from the factory. I ordered one, gave him a deposit and he called me in 3 weeks and said the camper was in. I took off my tailgate and drove down to his place (he is right down from Dollywood). No problem. They installed the tie down system, loaded the camper and I returned home. The 350 Ford handles the Lance like it isn't there. When I got it home, I noticed that there wasn't a heat register in the bathroom even though I ordered the cold weather package. I also had some leaks in the water system which I tightened up and the drain in the shower leaked (which I fixed). I used the camper for horse shows and snowmobile trips and the cold weather insulation is really good. You just have to leave the bathroom door open or you freeze your *** off. This year, after I summerized the camper, the 3 way fridge quit working. It would backfire and go to error on the digital readout. I got to looking around the chimmney/vent and saw the infamous yellowjackets coming out. I waited until dark and carefully removed the vent cover. I had a "city" in the chimmney. I did "urban renewal", and removed the nest. There is a stainless screen that goes across the chimmney to prevent this from occuring. When Lance installed my feed for the solar roof array, they cut the screen and fed the wires in that way instead of running them through grommets. I had to re-route the wires through holes and grommets in the flashing and then re-screen the chimmney top.
Many e-mails to Lance have gone unanswered. Phone calls are un-returned. The unit is still under warranty, but as far as I am concerned, the warranty is garbage.
Overall, the Lance is a good unit, I'd never buy another one however. My next truck camper will be an Alpenlite. www.alpenlite.com

 

[5030]

Bird:

I might add, you will probably see the Lance and my wife and I, in person next year. I think we will be coming to Texas to check out some retirement real estate. I'll be sure to stop and see you.

 

[Bird]

Daryl, I haven't even looked at any of the slide-ins in quite a few years. Last time I looked, the Lance seemed to be well made, but pretty heavy. I don't remember what the weight was, but at one of the RV shows they had one on display along with a big sign saying for 3/4 and 1 ton trucks and it was heavy enough that I wouldn't have even considered putting it on anything less than a 1 ton dually. I had just bought that 10.5' Sandpiper on a 3/4 ton Chevy when I learned that I was being sent to the Northwestern University Traffic Institute in '71. While I was up there, I found a published study of camper accidents in the Northwestern University Transportation Library. Of course many of the accidents were attributed either to crosswinds or blown rear tires (there weren't that many dually trucks around back then) and I found that my truck was actually overloaded, so that, along with my wife's desire for something bigger, led me to keep the truck, but trade the camper for a 25' Holiday Vacationer travel trailer. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

It seemed that the slide-ins were real popular in the 60s and even into the 70s but then their popularity seemed to decline and a number of manufacturers quit making them. I still see very few on the road around here, but several years ago even Fleetwood started building them again. I know when Fleetwood first got back into that market, they said specifcally that theirs was for 1 ton dually trucks only. I don't know what they're making now.

Now you've probably realized that all RVs, and especially those used infrequently, are high maintenance items, as much so as haying equipment. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I haven't looked at an Alpenlite in quite a few years now. I really liked the construction, quality, and features of their fifth-wheels some 15 years ago, but then we went with a Carri-Lite instead for two reasons when I retired; (1) it had the right floor plan to suit us, and (2) I had a brother selling Carriage products so I got a pretty good deal. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Let me know when you're coming down this way and we'll try to get together somewhere around here.

 

[5030]

Bird:

I've got the weight of the camper in the literature in the camper itself so I can't say exactly what it weighs. It ain't light for sure.

My 350 handles it really well though I put air bags on the rear so I could hold the truck level. Actually, the unit rides level with no air bags on back, It's just in crosswinds that the air bags really help. I also threw out the stock rubber sway bar bushings and replaced them with Energy Suspension Poly bushings. Besides, they are bright blue!!

As far as stopping in, when we come down, I'll drive right to your door. It's only a pickup with a house on the back!!