Posts Tagged :

d.l. bliss state park

Safely Positioning Your Trailer into Tight Spaces

 150 150 gavin
By:
0

Safely Positioning Your Trailer into Tight Spaces
One undoubtedly will encounter situations on adventures where it may be tricky getting their small travel trailer into its spot.  These types of events often occur when arriving at a destination and either access is difficult (e.g. narrow entrance, steep entrance, tight turn, etc.) or the parking spot itself is challenging (e.g. trees or other potential hazards surround the site).  The key to successfully overcoming these obstacles is to take things slowly, have a helper if possible, and carry along a couple of useful items (e.g. walkie talkies and 2×4 wood parking chocks).

Since backing into a site is a very common approach at many campgrounds, it’s important to have eyes behind the trailer during the backing up process.  A backup camera on the small travel trailer can help, but it’s always best to have a helper outside and behind the trailer who can speak via two way radio with the driver.  We always carry a pair of small walkie talkies with us in the tow vehicle and use them pretty much every time we arrive at the campsite (an inexpensive pair will do since distance between radios is very limited).  Your partner will safely guide you into the spot and give a rough countdown in feet until you should stop backing up.   Before backing up into your spot though, park the tow vehicle if possible and get out and walk behind the trailer to survey the parking site.  This also lets you talk to your partner and arrive at a general understanding on the best area to place and park the trailer.  It’s good to take into consideration which area of the site is most level, shady, allows the trailer door enough room to open, has a level surface for the rear stabilizer pads, and any other desired features.  If you don’t have a helper, getting out of the vehicle is really important as well to help you survey the campsite.

Taking things slowly is the best way to avoid any mishaps.  For small travel trailers, this means always backing up slowly and taking the time to stop backing up and pulling forward to straighten out before backing up again.  Straightening out the trailer whenever the angle between the trailer and the tow vehicle starts to get significant makes backing into the spot much easier.  Ideally, it’s easiest to back into a spot with no or almost no angle between the tow vehicle and the small travel trailer.  This may mean straightening out a few times, but, overall it makes the process much easier (vs. backing in at a radical angle).  It also may make hitching up the trailer again when leaving easier if the hitch is parallel to the entrance to the campsite.  Once you have identified all potential hazards after surveying the trailer’s parking spot, proceed with caution and listen closely to your helper over the radio (or, if working alone, take time to go slowly and park and get out whenever necessary to check on your progress).

The easiest campsites to get into are the ones that are called “pull through” sites.  As the name suggests, these sites just involve driving straight into the campsite tow vehicle first.  We visited such a site at Pismo Beach North Beach Campground.  Pulling into our site here was a breeze (and right next to the beach)!  We simply drove through the campground and then drove right into our site.  We did unhitch and move our tow vehicle a few feet forward so we could easily raise and lower our electric tongue jack for leveling the trailer.  Hitching back up and leaving was also a piece of cake.  We have only stayed at a couple of campsites so far at a pull through site.

Most of the campgrounds we have visited have been campsites which require backing the trailer onto the pad.  For the most part, this is generally pretty straightforward (while following the tips above).  However, occasionally we have had times when the campsite pad was angled such that driving in only one direction would make backing onto the pad possible.  We encountered this at one of the first campgrounds we ever visited, D.L. Bliss State Park in Lake Tahoe.  Our campsite was located near the bottom of a steep narrow road overlooking the lake.  The campsite pad was angled forward toward the lake, making attempts to try to back onto the pad fruitless (greater than a 90 degree angle in the wrong direction between the road and the pad).  And, the road was so narrow that there was no room to use the tow vehicle to angle the trailer in such an extreme way.  Fortunately, a neighboring camper was watching and he informed us that there was a turnaround at the bottom of the road so we could approach the pad from the opposite direction.  Once we turned around, it was very easy to back our Scamp 13’ into its spot since the angle of the road and pad were compatible in this direction.  We’ve also had other experiences where driving a little forward onto the shoulder of the access road was necessary to straighten out the trailer enough to back onto the pad.  This usually occurs when the main road is very narrow.

One of the most difficult approaches to make with your trailer is when there is a steep transition onto a driveway (see video).  This usually happens when staying at someone’s house or other private location.  Backing in slowly and having a helper calling out the progression is of utmost importance in these situations to avoid scraping the rear parts of the trailer’s undercarriage and or damaging the front trailer tongue jack.  If the transition is too great and parts of the trailer will not clear, having a couple of 2 x 4 boards (short wheel chocks may work) might mean the difference between getting into and out of the driveway unscathed or either giving up or suffering trailer damage.  The most important thing is to go very slowly and stop as soon as it looks like something on the trailer may scrape on the driveway.  You will need to assess if the boards you are using to raise the rear of your tow vehicle will be satisfactory enough to provide proper clearance.  It’s important to note that if something looks too dicey it’s always better to forgo the attempt and park somewhere else than risk damaging your trailer (we’ve done this before and elected not to take the risk and parked on the street instead).

We did experience the above type of situation while visiting my sister’s house in Oakland on the 4th of July.  We didn’t want to park and sleep on the street in East Oakland because it gets very rowdy in this area on this holiday.  The transition angle from street to driveway at my sister’s house is severe and although the bottom rear of our Scamp 13’ just cleared, it was evident that our electric tongue jack was going to hit the driveway if we proceeded (see video).  So, we stopped the trailer and took a couple of our 2 x 4 wheel chocks and placed them under each rear wheel of our tow vehicle.  As we drove up on the boards, the tongue jack raised enough to navigate over the steepest part of the transition and avoid hitting the ground.  That wasn’t the only challenge we had on this driveway!  The clearance on each side of the Scamp 13’ was minimal due to a fence on one side and home wall on the other and having a helper watch each side of the trailer as I backed in slowly was essential!  It is important to note, that we also needed to use the 2 x 4s when pulling out of the driveway as well (adding the 2 x 4s in front of the rear wheels at the same spot where the tongue jack initially wasn’t going to clear).  Everything worked out well and we have stayed in my sister’s driveway a couple of times now using this method without incident!

With careful planning, taking things slowly, having some proper tools and preferably a helper, navigating your small travel trailer into tight spaces will become not only entirely possible but very rewarding.  The satisfaction gained is only recognized after having done it!  And, after you do it once, you may want to do it again and again (or not)!

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything correctly. 

Why it’s Smart to be a Zen Boondocker, Even if You Never Plan to Go Off-Grid

 150 150 gavin
By:
0

Why it’s Smart to be a Zen Boondocker, Even if You Never Plan to Go Off-Grid
If you plan on using your small travel trailer anywhere other than at a RV park or home with hookups, it will benefit you greatly to have the skills to go off-grid (even if you never plan to do serious off-grid camping).  Many National and State Parks (as well as regional parks) offer no hookups (although shared water spigots are very common and sometimes central Dump stations are available).  On a recent visit to Joshua Tree National Park, we discovered some water spigots at the entrance, but no hookups at the end of the long road at the Jumbo Rocks Campground.  Taking ample water supplies for our kitchen and shower along with fresh drinking water made the trip there very pleasurable.  And having solar panels and a separate battery power station meant we didn’t need to worry about running down our Scamp’s onboard 12-volt battery.  Propane provided power for our gas stove, refrigerator, water heater, and furnace.  And, using our Holy Grail Portable Grey Water Tank Solution effectively doubled our Grey Water tank capacity and, in turn, staying capacity to about 5 – 6 days!

To make things even more interesting and enticing to be a Zen Boondocker, there is also often a significant daily rate difference for sites with and without hookups for campgrounds which offer them.  We discovered this on our visit to Oceano Dunes Campground in Pismo Beach.  Hookup spots (Electric & Water only) at this campground were $40 per night and only $25 per night without hookups at the time of our trip!  While it’s tempting to select campsites with hookups over ones without if they are available, there is often another substantial benefit other than monetary to choose a non-hookup site instead.  Hook-up sites are sometimes at newer locations within a campground which may be less scenic and/or with sites much closer together than older sites farther away from the utilities. For example, at Oceano Dunes, the hookup sites were much smaller and closer together all clustered at the front of the campground in a parking lot near the entrance.  And, the non-hookup sites were much farther back from the entrance in their own section with much more green space surrounding them (each with a picnic table and fire pit!) and alongside a scenic lagoon and walking trails.  So even when visiting campgrounds with hookups, it’s still a great benefit to be able to choose a non-hookup site and go for a few days without having to plug into an electric outlet, hookup to a water hose, or connect to a dump line.

Another great benefit of being a Zen Boondocker is that it makes staying on friends’ and family’s driveways and Boondockers Welcome sites nice and easy (even if they don’t have a water hose or electrical outlet at the driveway).  No problem!  We’ve found that for longer trips (e.g. travelling from our home in Carlsbad to northern locations like Lake Tahoe or even Oregon) stop overs at family homes in Santa Barbara, Oakland, and even Boondockers Welcome locations provide great break points to reduce overly long tiring drives.  So, being able to easily spend a night or two with no concerns about water, power, or dumping makes our small travel trailer truly self-contained and very useful.

Site availability is another factor which allows Zen Boondockers with small travel trailers more campground options.  It’s not uncommon for the larger sites with hookups to completely book out very quickly, often leaving the smaller non-hookup sites as “scraps”.  However, we’ve found these “scraps” to not only be more likely available but also often ideal and more desirable.  For example, at D.L. Bliss State Park in Lake Tahoe, we skipped the larger hookup sites farther from the lake, and, instead, opted for a tiny 15’ spot in the tent camping area.  The site we chose was the closest to the lake and had no hookups.  However, there was a water spigot close to the site and we were able to set up our solar panel.  It turned out the site was fantastic and we could see the water from our bedroom!  After looking over the entire campground, we felt our site was probably the best one because it was so close to the lake and had a fantastic view.

Factors for Zen Boondocking
Here are the essential factors to consider in order to become a Zen Boondocker and enjoy all of its benefits:

Conservation
We try to use water sparingly, but are not overly obsessive about it.  Many boondockers are super conscious about catching water and reusing it, taking bird baths or only bathing once per week, ….  Our philosophy is to be comfortable during our trips while still being able to extend our stays without having to relocate.  We do try to rinse our dishes outside if water is available and it’s allowed at the campsite.  But, we also take short hot showers at the end of each day and brush our teeth at the sink.  In order to compensate, we plan our trips so we are not dry camping more than a few days straight which means with the measures taken below it’s possible to be a Zen Boondocker and glamp out (2 showers a day, etc.) at the same time!

Food & Water
It’s helpful to know how long you will expect to be gone on your trip to help plan out your food and water needs.  Provisioning (e.g. store shopping) during the journey may be necessary if it is a long one.  We’ve found that for a 10-day trip, we can carry all the food and drinking water we need in our SUV.  However, we do need to resupply our fresh trailer water reserves during the 10-day trip around every four days (assuming we are carrying our two 6 gallon jugs of resupply fresh water for sink/shower/toilet).

Food
We always map out our trip before leaving and write down every meal for each day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner).  We turn on our Scamp’s refrigerator a couple nights before our trip and then fill it the day before we leave (our Scamp is stored in our home’s garage and has electricity).  We load most of our food into cardboard boxes and store them in our SUV.  We can carry up to 12 days (enough for 2 people) of food in cardboard containers within our SUV.

Drinking Water
We always bring two 4 gallon BPA-free water jugs in the back of our SUV for all our drinking and cooking needs when we go on a typical 10-day trip in our Scamp.  We fill these tanks at home by using our reverse osmosis system.  By carrying an additional 8 gallons of fresh water in our tow vehicle, we are effectively increasing our Fresh water tank supply by 67% (12 gallons Fresh increased to 20 gallons)!!!  This gives us a lot more fresh water supply.  Health experts typically recommend a person drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day (8×8 rule), which is about ½ gallon of water per person per day.  So, by using this rule, two people would bring 10 gallons of water on their 10-day trip (1/2 gallon/day x 2 people x 10 days).  We tend to drink slightly less water than this amount because we also drink coconut water, macadamia milk in our cereal, oat milk in our tea, sometimes soup for lunch, and we eat a lot of juicy fruits (like oranges).  So, for us, bringing 8 gallons of fresh water on a 10 day trip works out great (we always have extra water when we return home).

Fresh Water for Trailer
In addition to bringing drinking water, we also will fill two separate 6-gallon jugs if we are heading straight for a dry campsite (no water or water spigots nearby).  We use these to refill our Scamp’s fresh water tank (12 gallons + 6 gallons in hot water heater tank) when it runs low (usually after a couple of days with 2 people showering daily).  We stayed at a Boondockers Welcome location right outside Joshua Tree National Park which had no hookups.  Having the extra 12 gallons of fresh water to fill our Scamp’s Fresh water tank made a couple day stay smooth.  And, with our portable jugs, it was easy for us to refill them at a visitor’s center close by without having to relocate our Scamp.  We can go about four days before having to refill our Scamp’s Fresh water tank.

Electricity
It’s best to start your journey with your small travel trailer’s 12-volt battery completely charged.  We plug our Scamp into our 110-volt outlet in our garage a few days before we leave and keep it plugged in while we run our refrigerator before the trip.  The trailer’s 12-volt battery will also charge while we are driving since the Scamp is plugged into our tow vehicle and receives a charge.  To keep our 12-volt battery charged when we are at the campsite without hookups, we bring a 100-Watt solar panel briefcase and hope the sun is shining.  The solar panel does a great job of keeping our batteries fully charged during the day and provides enough power so our 12-volt battery can easily last the night.  We can still go a couple of days without the solar panel if we are careful to just run the essentials sparingly (LED lights, water pumps, fan, etc.).  To help reduce the draw on our Scamp’s 12-volt battery, we also carry an auxiliary battery power bank (which we also fully charge before we leave home).  Our Jackery 500 is a 518Wh lithium battery which we use for charging our phones, cameras, drone, television, and an electric toothbrush when boondocking to reserve all of our Scamp’s 12-volt battery power for essential devices/functions.  On longer trips between campgrounds, we usually place the Jackery 500 at the back of our SUV and charge it with the tow vehicle’s 12VDC port so the Jackery 500 energy is replenished during our drive.

Propane
Propane does a great job of powering all our appliances which can run on this gas.  Propane is efficient and can last a long time.  Appliances in our Scamp that can run off propane are the gas stove, refrigerator, furnace, and hot water heater.  The great thing about propane is that you can carry a lot of it (we always carry 2 Viking composite propane tanks) and it can be run without hookups.  One just has to take care to follow proper safety protocols when running propane.  Small travel trailers are usually outfitted with combination smoke / carbon monoxide detector alarms.  The one in our 2020 Scamp 13’ is located near the front door under one of the dinette seats.  It’s essential that every small travel trailer have one of these alarms because smoke and carbon monoxide exposure can be lethal.

Holding Tanks
These are the tanks that hold the Fresh, Grey, and Black water.

Fresh Water Holding Tank
The Fresh water holding tank has already been addressed above within the Food & Water section.

Grey Water Holding Tank
The Grey water tank is generally the Achilles heel for small travel trailers.  This is the place where used fresh water goes (e.g. waste water from the sink and shower).  For us two people (taking 2 showers each night), our Scamp’s twenty-one gallon Grey tank fills up in about three days.  To extend our time off-grid, I developed the Holy Grail Portable Grey Water Tank Solution.  Using this solution (which utilizes four 5 gallon jugs), we are able to almost double the off-grid capability of the Grey water tank.  And, it certainly is nice not having to limit campground visits to only 2 – 3 days due to Grey water tank size.  For the Scamp’s 21-gallon Grey tank, this system effectively doubles time between dumps from 2 – 3 days to 4 – 6 days (depending on water use).  And, it’s also really great not having to pack everything up and drive to a central Dump in the middle of a trip and then have to drive back to the campsite to set up the trailer all over again (which we had to do in the middle of our 3-night stay at D.L. Bliss State Park at Lake Tahoe).

Black Water Tank
This is the holding tank for the toilet – it holds sewage and waste water.  In our Scamp, we’ve found that the 9 gallon Black tank takes much longer to fill than the Grey tank.  Our Black tank usually takes about 6 days (two people) before needing to be dumped.  There isn’t really a clean way (pardon the pun) to extend the time between Dumps for the Black tank.  Some people dump this biohazard material into portable containers to extend their time off grid, but we choose to only drain Black Water at a Dump station.  In turn, our Zen Boondocking needs to be refreshed with a Dump every 5 – 6 days.

Conclusion
Being a Zen Boondocker will open up new worlds for you and your small travel trailer.  You will not only be able to go to remote off-grid locations, but, more practically, enjoy the many advantages of choosing campsites without hookups and extend your stays at these locations.  For example, you might be able to stay at more scenic and roomy campsites for longer periods of time at a lower cost than campsites with hookups.  And, visits to places without hookups (such as Joshua Tree National Park) will no longer be limited to just an overnight stay.  So, find your center, and become Zen with your Boondocking spirit!

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything correctly. 

No AC, No Problem!

 150 150 gavin
By:
0

No AC, No Problem!

If you are a California camper and/or can be flexible with your travel plans like us, then you might chose to forgo the installation of an air conditioner unit on your small travel trailer.  When ordering our 2020 Scamp 13’ small travel trailer, we strongly considered adding the rooftop AC option.  We thought it would be great to be able to cool the trailer if we ever stayed in hot weather.  And we didn’t like the idea of going to a location reserved months in advance and being surprised by an unexpected heat wave.  Ultimately, though, we ended up not ordering AC because our goal was to store the new Scamp in our home garage and the factory rooftop AC would eliminate that option.

We decided to travel with our new Scamp 13’ without AC for a year and then make a determination if AC was really necessary.  I did some research and found a couple of possible options if we did think we needed AC that could be added on later (e.g. slim rooftop model, small back window removable AC).  Since California has varied geography, including ocean, mountains, and deserts, trip planning to avoid uncomfortably hot weather would focus on these regions based on the seasons.  First, we tried to avoid travel during any type of heat wave since this condition can affect any location.  For summer and warmer conditions, we avoided valley and desert areas since they can be devilishly hot.  This meant planning summer trips along the coast and in the mountains, which are typically cool areas year round.  In the late fall, winter and early spring, the deserts make for great trip locations – often offering warm sunny days and cool nights.

Our first Scamp trip was to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in late February 2020.  The weather overall at this desert location was perfect – sunny warm days (low 80’s) and cool nights (50’s).  It was a little warm on our first day however, reaching into the mid 80’s, but our powerful rooftop Maxx Fan was enough to keep the air moving and comfortable.  In June, we travelled from San Diego up the coast and onto Lake Tahoe.  We made stops in Santa Barbara, Paso Robles, and Oakland before spending several days at D.L. Bliss State Park in Lake Tahoe.  Once again, the weather was great on most of the stops, with the exception of our overnight stay in Paso Robles (an inland location that we needed to pass through on our way to Oakland).  We arrived at the Harvest Host location (an olive oil farm) in the late afternoon and it was still 95 degrees outside!  Fortunately, we were able to make camp in the shade behind the barn.  We opened all the windows and ran our Maxx Fan.  It was fairly windy outside and, with all the air blowing around, the temperature was tolerable but not comfortable in the Scamp.  Fortunately, the temperature dropped quickly (into the 60’s at night) as soon as the sun set.  Our other Scamp trips in 2020 (Observatory Camp @ Palomar Mountain, Mammoth Lakes, Coos Bay Oregon, Joshua Tree National Park) were also very comfortable experiences, none requiring AC (some were very cold at night, but the Scamp furnace is fantastic and kept things cozy).  So after a year of travel in our Scamp (7 trips, 23 locations, and 33 nights), we could have enjoyed using AC only a couple of days.  Given these experiences, we have decided for now to hold off on installing an aftermarket AC solution.

Although we really didn’t need AC much in the past year, we were still a bit tempted to have a low profile unit installed just in case.  However, after doing some more research we decided the benefit of AC just wasn’t there for us in the way we travel when also considering the disadvantages of having AC installed.  First, a rooftop AC costs a bit of money.  The one that would likely work for us is a Coleman Mach 8 Plus low profile unit which runs about $900 including tax and hundreds of dollars more to install.  And, having an AC likely will mean additional costs down the line for maintenance and eventual replacement.  Additionally, a hole needs to be cut into the roof which can possibly introduce leaks if the AC is not installed correctly.  Side note:  we ordered our Scamp 13’ “AC Ready” (at no extra cost) so all the wiring is there and the roof is supported in case an AC is added later.  There’s also the issue of additional weight (close to a hundred pounds) and drag an AC adds to the trailer which can potentially reduce trailer handling quality and fuel mileage.  Noise can be another complaint people have concerning running an air conditioning unit right above their heads in a small travel trailer.  And, possibly the biggest elephant in the room for us regarding a rooftop AC (beyond not fitting in our garage), is that it cannot be run when dry camping without a generator!

The last point above (ACs require hookup electricity or a generator) turned out to be a big deal breaker for us in considering adding a low profile AC unit for occasional use.  Most of our trips involve a high percentage of non-hookup locations (e.g. State/National/Regional parks and Boondockers Welcome locations).  In turn, we would need to haul around a generator and fuel to use the AC at most of the places we visit.   Scamp recommends the Honda EU2200i which runs around a thousand dollars and weighs almost 50 pounds.  It is recommended never to haul around a generator in your car because the gasoline fumes (even from an empty tank) can overwhelm you.  For those, like us, without a pickup truck, a tongue box is often used at the front of the trailer to house the propane tanks and the generator.  These are often custom built and can be expensive.  There’s also the issue of how to safely haul gasoline without a pickup truck.  Lastly, exhaust fumes (carbon monoxide) from a running generator are deadly and the generator itself can be a potential fire hazard.  Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas that can cause sudden illness and death.  So, it’s recommended that a generator be downwind of the trailer so the exhaust fumes don’t blow into the trailer and some say to keep it at least 10 feet away from any windows on your travel trailer.  Side note:  a friend of ours got so fed up with dealing with generator issues and hauling fuel that he got rid of it and told us that if the weather ever got hot he would just go to a campground with hookups to run his AC.

Now that we’ve had a year of experiences, and considering the type of travel we like to do (mostly non hookup locations), we are very happy we ordered our Scamp 13’ without an AC unit.  We would have ordered AC had the garage height not been an issue.  It just turns out that this height restriction worked in our favor.  We are still glad we ordered our Scamp 13’ “AC Ready” though, because if our goals change and we decide we would like to take different types of trips, we might possibly add an AC unit in the future.  For example, if we were planning a cross country trip then having an AC would probably be a must.  Or, if we frequently crossed certain “hot zones” like California’s Central Valley on our way to mountain lakes, then the AC also would be very good to have.  So, for many, AC still is very desirable or an absolute must.  But, for people like us, having no AC is no problem!

Update July 2022:  we’ve still found that strategically planning trips has eliminated the need for AC over 95% of the time.  However, when heading to mountain lakes in the summer months, we have either needed to make stops a bit out of our way or drive non-stop to cross the hot parts of California (e.g. Central Valley or Mojave Desert) to beat the heat.  These heat avoidance workarounds have meant taking less efficient longer routes or very long rides straight to our destination.  So, we’ve recently added a temporary window mounted mini AC solution!

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything correctly.