Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My wife and I have been toying with the idea of getting a travel trailer or pop up camper. Anyway, I don't think we would want to park it someplace for the whole summer but would rather go away every couple of weeks for a weekend. My kids are now 3.5 and 2.5 so they would be 4 and 3 next summer. Are they old enough? What campgrounds are kid friendly?
I think your kids will be old enough. Heather at www.pittsburghmom.com got a pop-up (or some kind of camper trailer) this summer and used it with her kids at some nearby campgrounds (who are 5 and 4, I think). You may find some helpful posts on her site.
My wife and I have been toying with the idea of getting a travel trailer or pop up camper. Anyway, I don't think we would want to park it someplace for the whole summer but would rather go away every couple of weeks for a weekend. My kids are now 3.5 and 2.5 so they would be 4 and 3 next summer. Are they old enough? What campgrounds are kid friendly?
My question is - what are you going to use to haul it?
I have several trailers, everything from a tag along 6 x 8 to a 24' long trailer that I use to haul my race car. I have a 2009 Avalanche that is practically worthless when it comes to towing a trailer.
With today's vehicles which are designed more for gas mileage and less for hauling heavy loads,unless you can afford to own a second vehicle - one that is equipped to haul heavy loads, it would not be a wise investment to buy a camping trailer right now. Not to mention the fact that if your trailer is too big or too heavy - then you have to carry a medical card to drive the truck to haul it.
A entry level trailer is called a pop up. It is basically a tent on wheels.
You will find that once you start to go camping that you will quickly outgrow those style of trailers and that they are a bad investment in the long run because the depreciation value of them is not very high.
The next style of trailer is a tag along. Most start out in the range of about 16 feet. They have a table and booths to sit in, a kitchenette to cook in and a refrigerator to keep food in and a oven and a furnace for heat and a water heater and water tank and sewage tank for the discharge water. Usually the middle of the trailer converts into one big bed and you might get two bunk beds that pulls down out of the walls. If you are really lucky, it will have a small potty and shower.
You will quickly out grow that one also.
The next biggest style is the Hi Lo - where you tow it to where you wish to camp, then you hit a electric switch and the roof pops up and you have a nice size living space. A larger shower and bathroom and a kitchen to cook in. A larger bed and some storage area.,
The next size up from that is a permanent camper say 26 to 36 feet long.
Those campers are really nice, you can get ones with more then one bedroom and a nice bathroom - although skimpy compared to your bathroom at home - just a little more then a 5 gallon bucket to sit on and a small shower. A nice kitchen to cook in and storage space through out the trailer.
The thing about it is , depending on where you live, you probably won't have room for most of these campers to be parked on your property.
My advice is to buy as big of a trailer as you can afford to buy.
Buy a diesel pick up truck - 3/4 ton or 1 ton.
Find a camp ground where you can establish friends and leave your camper there during the summer and bring it home in the winter and keep it under a roof someplace. Storage = what ever, just as long as you keep it out of the weather.
Most all camp grounds are kids friendly, that is the purpose of going camping. The problem is - not all camp grounds are going to have small children for your children to play with.
Young people - as a whole - doesn't go camping much anymore, due to the fact that it costs a lot of money to go camping and most young people just starting out doesn't have a lot of extra money to go on those mini type vacations. Some young people will use their families camper on off weeks when the main owners are not using it. But cannot afford a camper and camping spot of their own.
My advice would be to find a camper sales that would rent you a camper for a week or two and try out camping before you take the big plunge and buy a camper of your own. Part of the camping experience is to find a camp ground that you really like and not just go to ones that are local or that other people have gone to in the past. Campgrounds are just like people, some are really nice while others are nothing but rip off joints.
Yeah, I wanted to get one too, and was disappointed to find all but the tiniest pod-style popup required quite a beefy truck to tow - the type of truck with incredibly poor gas mileage that I wouldn't want to use for a daily commute.
I think my kids are still a little young (next summer 4 and 3) but I fear that if we wait that much longer then sports are going to prevent us from camping. Honestbob, you confirmed all of my researc. Basically, you will always want something bigger. I was hoping to convince my wife that a Hyrbrid travel trailer is the way to go and that we could get something used for less than 6000 but I don't think my minivan could pull it. We are due to get a new car in the next year or two so we could trade in my sedan for a big V8 SUV but I have never wanted one of them. Either we will get a very cheap pop up or wait until we get a new car and see how much trailer we can tow.
I have friends that rented an RV in the past and it was really expensive for a weekend but I guess that is better than getting stuck with an trailer that you don't use or with one that you hates.
When I hauled my race car trailer - empty, other then my carpentry tools up to Erie - 125 miles away on the 4th of July, my truck only got 4 MPG. A diesel on the other hand, might get as much as 25 MPG hauling the same load. Yes diesel fuel is more expensive and yes you do have to do more maintenance on a diesel truck as opposed to a gas jobber. But a 3/4 ton or 1 ton truck will haul much nicer and get better gas / fuel mileage then a gasoline vehicle that is too small to do the job.
A pop up is a lousy investment. But on the other hand, I don't understand where you get thinking that sports is going to take over a little kids life when they are 3 and 4 years old.
YOU are the parent, and YOU have to be the one that tells them, THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO!
My dad was really good at being the disciplinarian and the boss.
A Mini Van is a lousy choice for a tow vehicle. You need a vehicle with heavy duty wheel bearings, load rated tires, hook up for electric brakes. Room to haul all your stuff in.
My suggestion to you is to find a camp ground that you would think that you would like and pay someone - what ever they wanted to haul your camper for you. Have them haul your camper in the spring and then back again in the fall. That way, all you would have to own and use is your primary vehicle.
Just yesterday, I wanted to go for a four wheeler ride 20 miles away on a school mates property. By the time that I hitched up the trailer, loaded up the four wheeler. Checked and filled up all the tires. Pumped up the air compressor, filled up the spare air tank, loaded up all the tools that you need to change a trailer tire or make small repairs if something goes wrong.
Tied down my load, Filled up a cooler with beer, loaded up some spare clothes - in case I got muddy. It took over two hours. Now just think - if you have two small children, you have to load up all the food you are going to eat for a entire weekend, all their toys, everything you need for the weekend. Make sure your vehicle is road worthy.
It took me two hours to do all of that stuff. How long is it going to take you?
My dad rents a camp space in a place called Sarah's - which is right next to the peninsula for lake Erie. I don't know what it costs to camp there, I never asked. They have both short term and long term camping. He leaves his trailer there all year. Several times a year, he goes there to do work on his trailer. He seems to get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
The problem is that my mom is really sick and cannot go with him.
So basically they have a camper and pay for a camping spot and then they can't enjoy it.
It's too far to just jump in the car anytime you want to go up to your camper for just a day.
Dad made a lot of friends up there and he refuses to move it closer to home.
As far as the cost goes, a Friend of mine has a old pop up camper that needs some work that he would probably sell for a couple of hundred dollars. The tent fabric doesn't last forever.
Especially if you leave it down all summer in the shell. It gets moldy.
I could buy a tag along trailer right now for $100
But by the time you fixed and cleaned everything and made it road worthy again, you could just go out and buy a nice camper. Dad sold his 16' tag along for $800 and thought he made a profit because he had it for 16 years and only paid $800 for it.
He didn't realize the summer he spent replacing the floor and all the work he did to it was worth something. Or that the electric brake axle and the all steel frame was probably worth more then the whole trailer.
My suggestion is to save your money, maybe rent someone else's camper for a weekend to try it out and then to buy the right camper. Buy it once and keep it as long as you can.
Take care of it and you should have no problems getting 25 years out of it. Look at it as a long term investment. Your kids in the long run will be a more rounded person - if they are able to go camping on the weekends and will know more then just the little neighborhood that they live in. They will realize that there is a whole big world out there.
When they get older, you can invest in a good used pick up truck and haul the camper and take them places on vacation and all you will have into your vacations is the price of fuel and the price of a campground spot for the night, weekend or week.
You'll do ok on I-79 going north of PGH with your minivan (assuming a decent sized V6) towing only a pop-up but I wouldn't go any larger than that. 79 is relatively flat from PGH to Erie. Just check your Owner's manual for max. tow capacity and make sure your pop-up and all your other gear doesn't exceed the tow capacity for the vehicle. Heading South and East of PGH will be more difficult with all the hills and it will take a toll on the minivan. You can go to U-Haul and have them put on the properly rated hitch and wire up your minivan.
Another option would be to just rent small cabins that are available at some of the campgrounds and see how the kids enjoy it before you make the jump into buying everything right off the bat. And if you do buy, definitely buy used. It is a buyer's market right now for all "luxury" items like boats, campers, etc. Another option is to buy a nice tent for your size family (can even have rooms), some nice blow-up mattresses, a small port a potti for emergencies (like the ones on a boat) and a portable sink (they have ones with expandable water bladders that fold down to save on space) and get into camping that way. You should have plenty of room in the minivan for your stuff and if you don't, you can get a car top carrier or a hitch mounted carrier for extra capacity.
As for campgrounds, the Jellystone campgrounds are set-up just for kids: Jellystone Park Camping and Campground Locations
I think all have cabin rentals of differing sizes. They have kids activities and lakes for fishing and watersports.
Glendale year Around is a nice campground and the the state park surrounding Glendale Lake has cabin rentals. There are beaches at Glendale.
There are cabin rentals up at Pymatuning Lake in Crawford county and in the summer time, they have beaches there.
The KOA campgrounds scattered across the state usually have stuff for kids at them.
My kids are 2.5 and 4 and they love camping, especially the campfires, makin' smores and fishing.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
