Am I being unrealistic?

[a_guy]

I find myself at a point in my life where I want to just go, just take a long trip, maybe a few weeks, maybe a few months, but leave home and not know when I am coming back. Maybe drive out to the smokies, rockies, Arizona, Texas, Florida... Wherever I want.

Instead of dealing with hotels I became kind of enamored with the idea of buying a teardrop or mini trailer and living out of that. However this is partly a product of not enjoying the song & dance of hotels -- wondering if your room will be clean, if it will have bugs, and having to pay each night you are there...

I find it to be a very romantic idea to have a trailer I can drive up to the mountains and camp for as long as I want (realistically speaking, obviously if I am boondocking I will need water and food).

However, in doing some research on brands online, it seems like the fairly universal opinion is that "reliability" as a concept for a trailer / RV doesn't exist in the same way that it does for, say, a Lexus or Toyota SUV. One can simply expect that their GX 460 SUV will drive for 100,000 miles and only need an oil change maybe once a year. But it sounds like no matter the trailer you get, even if it's a brand known for quality like Airstream or nuCamp, you should expect to have problems. Water systems will break, appliances will break, et cetera.

So that kind of leaves me wondering what I should expect. I was going to purchase something like an Airstream Basecamp. But ideally I want a system that is highly robust, will be reliable, and is easy to fix. It sounds like I might be barking up the wrong tree. I have started to look into car camping -- a truck with a topper on the back. That way I could fill it with simple components -- a cassette toilet, a bed, a portable shower, etc....

Obviosuly this solution is quite a bit less luxurious than a trailer, but if they really aren't that reliable, maybe it isn't for me.

Have I been steered wrong? My ideal trailer would be one where I simply do some routine maintenance, you know, sanitizing water systems, cleaning, etc -- and I can simply trust that it will work.

[Pmullen503]

You should rent or borrow a teardrop and try camping in it. An extended trip in a tear is different than a larger camper. Though an Airstream Basecamp is large by TTT standards.

Car camping is at the other end of the spectrum. You should try that too before deciding.

A camper will never be as trouble free as a car. But lots of people have RVs so it can't be the hell scape it can look like it you just read online forums.

[mary and bob]

Look at the fiberglass campers, Scamp or Casita. We still have our teardrop but now only camp in our Casita SD17. Scamp makes a 13 foot and a 16 foot model. Casita now only makes the 17 foot camper but has a few different floor plans. In the past Casita also had a 13 foot model and a 16 footer, both now discontinued. If you move up from a teardrop size trailer you will need to keep in mind the tow rating of your vehicle, and tongue weight capacity. A Casita 17 tongue weight is in the 450 lb range.

[tony.latham]

But it sounds like no matter the trailer you get...you should expect to have problems.

This is absolutely true with the mass-produced RVs such as Jayco, Keystone, and many other American RV junker brands.

But... Camnp-Inn, Vistabule, So-Cal, TC... and lots of other finely crafted teardrops, a big nope. They are well known for their craftsmanship, and you won't have any issues. You could also build a quality teardrop but that's another story.

Every spring, we head south with our teardrop to southern Utah and spend about a month boondocking without a specific date that we'll turn north.



Fortunately, it's not for everyone, but for us, it is.

Tony

[a_guy]

I like the look of the Vistabule from their website. However I always get nervous about smaller companies since there is far less data on reliability long term. Also their pricing scares me a little.

I've been considering trying to find a teardrop camper with standing room but without the parts that usually fail, like running water, so I can simply fill those parts in myself, so that way I will know how each system works and I can repair it myself easily (i.e. I can simply use a cassette toilet). Something about the size of a Basecamp 16 or maybe even smaller, but just high quality aluminum weatherproof exterior and high quality doors and windows -- so I can fill out the rest. I'd probably use gravity for flowing water, a cassette toilet, and then I'm not suer what I'd do for heat and cooling.

Are there any units like that? Or will I have to build it myself?

Edit: It seems like Runaway Campers might be the closest thing that exist to that. About $10k for their standup model.

[DJ Davis]

Check out the "Playing with sticks" YouTube series. Drew covers a lot of models, some for extreme boondocking.

Cheers on the advent of your adventures! Maybe we'll cross paths and share a campfire somewhere.

[rjgimp]

If I understand correctly you are ok with some bare-bones accommodations- car camping, cassette toilet, no running water. Rather than navigating the various brands of campers and their reliability or lack thereof, or building your own from scratch... I have been following a channel called Gonagain on youtube. This guy and his wife spend anywhere from a few days to a few months at a time traveling the fruited plain in a cargo trailer which they are constantly reworking and building on to suit their changing interests and needs. Start with a solid used trailer and just throw a few essentials in there- a cot, a camp stove, jugs of water, etc... and just give it a go. As time goes on you can pull out the interior wood and insulate the thing, install a galley, a heater, solar...

https://www.youtube.com/@gonagain

[Capebuild]

I started using my teardrop a couple of years ago. Since then I find myself continually going back and tweaking things.... or fixing things that don't function the way I'd like or just break. My 4 pop open windows fall into this category. I'm on my fourth (and hopefully last) revamp of the pop open mech. I think of my teardrop as a prototype which I'm fine tuning. As others have said, you're never really finished. You make your build campable and go from there.

John

[bobhenry]

My old home-built teardrop has never failed to start, kept me warm and out of the weather never leaking a drop on my head, I have never had to change the oil of fill up the gas tank. I get a lot more interested folk that want to take a "Peek" at this unusual critter thereby meeting a lot of neat people Nope keep your diesel dinosaurs and your shiny silver homes on wheels I will always be quite happy with my 5 x8 rolling bedroom / kitchen on two wheels.

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[Modstock]

Hello. Try some weekend camping 1st. It can be easy to get burnt out from jumping into a month long trip.
Every trip we have done, we always try to improve the next time out weather it be a new item, fixing something or trying new locations.
Winter camping is now my favorite, something about the challenge of it.
Not for everyone though.
Also look into other types of small trailers such as cargo conversions.
I hear the fiberglass trailers are thin and not much insulation.
Cargo conversion trailers you can add a good inch of insulation inside the walls.
One thing about all trailers though is having a covered place to store it.
I highly recommend that. Tarps and covers just doesn't do the job especially in high humidity areas wich can lead to mold/rot.

Sent from my SM-A115AP using Tapatalk

[cdnred]

Welcome to the forum. Not sure of your background, whether you've camped in a trailer before or not or what tow vehicle you plan to be using. I suggest as Pmullen503 has suggested that you rent each type of camper that you'd like to try first for a weekend before buying to see how it tows and suits you. That should help to narrow down what you'd like to get. Each type of camper will have their own pros and cons. From what you've posted, you're looking for a camper that you can stand in that's fairly bare bones inside that you can setup tp your needs..