Camping Chris

Travel Trailer vs 5^th Wheel

How to decide on the right trailer? While everyone has their own preference on what type of trailer they want, there are many who cannot decide. Here are a few pointers.

Prices are probably the first thing that will jump out to anyone just starting out. Then you have the tow vehicle issue. The 5^thwheel needs the classic pickup truck to move them, and to do it with comfort, the ¾ ton series diesel trucks are what you need while the travel trailer can be towed by either, the pick up or the SUV.  The one big problem with trailer searching that I find is that the customer looks at trailers that they just don’t have the tow vehicle for. So make sure you do your homework and have the right tow vehicle before you fall in love with the trailer of your dreams.

5^th Wheels; the traditional 5^th wheel of years ago were more for the couple who were out traveling without kids and had the 2 door or extra cab pickup. Today’s 5^th wheels are totally different. Now they have bunk house models and are designed for the whole family. The storage in a 5^th wheel is plentiful, inside and out. Tall interior ceilings with tall high cabinets, the 5^th wheel also will give you the split level living. Master bedroom usually up front with the main bathroom, great for keeping kids in the rear bunk area and the parents up front for quietness, especially with older kids .

Towing is the major factor in a 5^th wheel over a travel trailer. Backing up and hooking to a 5^th wheel is so much easier than the travel trailer. Line up the pin box to the 5^th wheel hitch and slide in until it locks. Hook up the 7 way electric power chord and raise the landing gear and you are ready to go.  While towing a 5^th wheel, you will not get the swaying or pull over feeling when a big truck or bus passes you on the highway. But, the 5^th wheel is a bigger trailer. Average heights can be from 12 to 13.4 feet high. So you have to be careful with the towing and getting under low overpasses, gas stations, trees etc., plus the room to park it, whether at home or on the road. The size will sometimes scare the shopper away.

So there are a lot of factors to consider when buying an RV trailer, whether its  5^th wheel or travel trailer. Remember there are so many additional types of campers out there, from pop-up tent trailers, Hybrid travel trailers, light weight travel trailers to motorized motorhomes in class  A, B, B plus or C.

There are so many different types and prices, that there is definitely one out there for everyone’s family and budget.

When you are out looking for a camper of any type, stop by one of the Campers’ Barn RV Superstores. Their main store is in Kingston, NY and their newest store now open in the south, is in Byron, Ga. They carry a full line of Jayco RV products from pop-ups to Class C motorhomes and everything in between. Plus a full line of Monaco gas and diesel Class A motorhomes.

Stop in check them all out and tell them CampingChris sent you.

Ya know- sometimes you just have to… umm… clear out the pipes… and just where on earth do you do that? Here’s what you DON’T do:

Cousin Eddie (PG13)

From www.SaniDumps.com- ” There are many RV dump stations around the world, but as a visitor, a tourist, or a recreational vehicle traveler, you may not know where they are! In fact, you may be surprised that there are recreational vehicle dump stations in your own city that you are not aware of. Take a look at our comprehensive list of recreational vehicle dump sites in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and United States. You can also find RV dump locations in Belgium, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. We also welcome other countries to submit their locations to join our comprehensive RV dump station directory. Put simply, Sanidumps.com is where RVers find RV dump stations, camping dump stations, trailer dump stations, sani dump stations, and dump points information for dumping gray water and black water holding tanks. Busses and commercial users also use this web site for finding dump locations to empty their holding tanks too. Now you can find dump stations and dump sites around the world, When RVs have to go… We know where to go…™ The type of recreational vehicle (RV) dump stations you will find on Sanidumps.com include: private, public, RV park, non-park, municipal, state, provincial, truck stop, rest stop, campground, camping, resort, commercial, pay, donation, and free, etc. The RV dump station, dump point, or sani dump station you choose to empty your gray water and black water holding tanks is up to you; we’re hoping that you will choose a green, environmentally friendly method and location.” Well, now you know where to go- just make sure you don’t get help from someone that is a “couple of pliers short of a toolbox”

Be Careful Who Helps You Out…

Hope you are laughing as hard as I am!

Camping Girl

Hotels? Why I prefer my RV!

I recently took a 2^nd honeymoon trip to celebrate 25 awesome years with my wife. Instead of taking out our 5^th wheel and driving to some secluded RV Resort surrounded by palm trees (and there are RV Resorts out there like that) thousands of miles from the Northeast, I thought I would fly to Florida, spend a week in an upscale resort and fly back.  That way I would not need to worry about driving in the snow, re-winterizing the RV and time was limited.  All sounds great until you run into a horror.  Our first night was at a Hilton hotel, (big name right?), while it looked nice from their website and from the outside when we arrived, the inside was old and somewhat outdated.  That was only the beginning! There was a charge for everything, including $15 per day to park. One would think with the money you are spending ($200 a night) and the pictures portrayed on their website, you would get something decent. 

Now the Horror! 

Get back to the hotel expecting to relax after a nice dinner, only to listen to the hotel bar crowd until 2:00 am, which was off the lobby and 3 floors below the room.  Then pull back the comforter on the bed and find a large dried blood stain, yes blood, on the sheets. After witnessing that, first I wanted to do was get sick, second I wanted to get back on the plane and go home.

That is just a small taste why I love my RV: I know it’s my bed, my sheets, my blankets, my towels in my bathroom. Secondly, not all campgrounds are as their pictures might appear, but at least you know your RV is what you expect. Third, even if you stayed at the most expensive RV Resort out there, I find it highly unlikely it will cost $200 per night plus an additional charge to park.

Bottom line; if it is dead of winter and you want out of the cold and you have the time, get your RV out and drive south to the warmth.  There are plenty of RV parks along the warmer lower 48 states to enjoy.

If you don’t own an RV, go out and look at one.  They come in all types and prices, from large Class A Motorhomes to Pop-Up Camping Trailers.  If you are in New York, stop by Camper’s Barn of the Hudson Valley in Kingston, NY or one of their two new stores, Byron, GA or coming soon to Lake Park, GA.

Why best time to buy is NOW!

Thinking about buying an RV/camper for the new year? Want to wait for the spring for the sales. Well right now is absolutely the best time to look at RV’s.

While it might be cold and snowy out and camping is the last thing on anyone’s mind right now, it is a great time to buy.

Why?

 The new model year inventory is in the dealerships getting stocked for the upcoming season.

There are no crowds, which gives the sales departments more time to work one on one with the customer and show more of the inventory.

“No one wants to feel rushed when they are making an investment,” and while dealerships have sale prices throughout the year, you don’t have to wait for a sale to get a great deal, just the right time.

 Which means the right time to make a deal is now.

Campers’ Barn is always eager to work for the customer’s satisfaction and it starts with the Barn’s sales staff.

Campers’ Barn also offers other great savings that other dealers do not; Free storage until spring with the purchase of any new or used RV. Their inventory has over 270 new and used units from Class A Diesel motorhomes down to 8 ft pop-ups. They are the Hudson Valley’s only Exclusive Jayco dealer, Monaco motorhomes, Pleasure-way camping vans and more. Besides sales, The Barn has 18 service bays, with a staff of RV Technicians, service writers, warranty dept., detail dept., body shop with state of the art paint booth, a fully stocked parts dept. and a RV Superstore all at one large location in Kingston, NY. 

Stop by, visit them on the web or becomes friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter is @campersbarnNY

Facebook is “The Official Camper’s Barn”

Just Remember-

Live to Camp and Camp to Live

Camping Chris!

From a true City guy- Eddie Smith:

“As the Baby Boomer generation ages, different ideas of retirement begin to creep into everyone’s mind. Now that the kids are grown and healthy people in their fifties, sixties and seventies don’t have to work anymore, questions arise about how do they spend their free time? One very popular retirement fantasy is life in an RV. Why not cash in the assets and travel around the country? Back when the Boomers were kids, Trailers were generally small, clunky, ugly, and uncomfortable. Trailers were synonymous with camping in some bug-infested woods or as bait for tornadoes in trailer parks. To me, Mobile Homes were the only homes poor people could afford. The thought of using an RV as a permanent home certainly never crossed my mind. Indeed, for a city kid like me, the very mention of the word Trailer meant roughing it about one step above pitching a tent. One day my next door neighbor bought something like the trailer in the camping picture.   

I crawled in and suffered a horrible attack of claustrophobia. How do people stand these things? In those small, cramped quarters, believe me when I say the thought of actually retiring in a trailer never crossed my mind. For one thing, I would be cut off from civilization. The thought of living without a TV was nearly unbearable. It seemed dangerous too. If you got in trouble in a remote spot, I would be helpless because there were no phones. What if my car broke down? Or I had a heart attack? Or what would I do if bad guys showed up to rob me or worse? Those kinds of fears made sense back in the Twentieth Century. However times have changed. Technology that was unimaginable back when the Boomers were growing up has made the RV Lifestyle seem much safer. Think about it. Telephones are wireless. The Internet is wireless. TV is wireless. GPS makes it easy to navigate anywhere. Instead of snail mail, you can pay your bills online. For the first time in our lives, a mobile home might actually have all the conveniences of a normal home.”

Yep, that’s what it’s all about. You cannot even begin to think what all these campers can do.

In the next couple of months, I will really get into the nuts and bolts of RV’s and what this brave new world of camping is really all about- then we are gonna hit the open road!

Live to Camp!

Camping Chris

Why Winterize?

The cold, dark days of winter are here! Is your RV winterized correctly? With the extremely cold temperatures coming, if your RV unit is not ready for the winter you could have a really expensive spring problem or the possibility of summer plans ruined or even worse; you could LOSE your RV!
RV’s are the same as owning a home or even an automobile. If you do not take care and maintain them, you will eventually have problems and the damage can be costly.

Some of the things that can go wrong if you do not have the RV winterized correctly:
Broken water lines
Cracked holding tanks, (fresh/black/gray tanks).
Roof problems like leaks
The toilet itself could crack, the faucets, a washer/dryer if you have one, ice maker in the refrigerator or even worse- the water heater tank! Some of those things you would never know about until you are almost out using the RV next season.
One of the small things I found when talking with some fellow Rvers is they forget one thing on their unit, and that’s the outside shower unit. Even if you do not use the outside shower during the season, it still needs to be winterized every winter.
Also the inside of your unit needs to be winterized as well. That means: do not leave anything that can freeze inside, like bottled water, soda, bathroom items, etc. It will make a mess!
If you are ever unsure of what needs to be done on your RV, especially when it comes to winterizing, call the Service Dept. at Campers’ Barn in Kingston, NY to schedule an appointment with one of our technicians and have your unit done correctly. Nobody likes wet floors, especially when they are camping!
Enjoy the winter and remember, “Camping is the Life”
Camping Chris

Dutch Oven Cooking Tips

A Dutch oven is a must for delicious camp-out feasts. Just about anything you cook in a regular oven-pies, bread, stew–can be whipped up in a Dutch oven, and the flavor of the fire is incredible.

The cast-iron pot cooks on hot charcoals in the site’s campfire ring. Place three times as many coals on the lid as underneath the oven. (The flat lid will hold the coals in place.) For easy cleanup, line the bottom and the sides of the Dutch oven with aluminum foil.

Use a wooden spoon to stir, and always cook with the lid on. Unless you like ashes in your food, don’t tilt the lid when you remove it.

You can even cook a turkey! Holiday camping is the greatest thrill!

When you do remove the lid or handle any part of the hot oven, use cooking gloves or hot-pot tongs.

Before use, the Dutch oven will have to be seasoned with oil. Once a Dutch oven is “seasoned” it should never be scrubbed with soap. A Dutch Oven won’t rust if it is seasoned correctly and kept dry. Store the oven in a warm, dry place with the lid cracked so air can circulate inside. A Dutch oven seems indestructible, but it will shatter if dropped on hard cement or it will crack if cold water is poured into a very hot Dutch oven.

Stay tuned for more “Hot” Camping Tips…

Camping Chris

Hey out there! I’m Camping Chris, and I am going to give you everything you will ever want to know about camping!
From how-to to where and why- follow along while we gear up for Camp 2012!

Just moving around a little inventory...