Kudzu's Karavan - Project canceled

[KCStudly]

Aw, no build.

Yippeee, instant camper; go camping now!!!

[kudzu]

But KC, King of Clamps, what am I to do with all those clamps I've accumulated over the past year? Bought them every time I saw them at good prices so now I must have a couple dozen.

Leaving this afternoon for first camping trip. Two people, three dogs, one folding kayak, one modular kayak, one bike, one recumbent trike... oh my. Packing this time will be a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle but we'll figure it out. I am so excited! I swore I would never put my beloved trike on a rear rack. Never say never. I am now planning to purchase a special rack for that heavy duty bumper of the camper. That will make us able to just climb in the camper sleep if we pull into the campsite super late or in a rainstorm. Oh, and the weekend after this I've already planned the second camping trip & we'll be boondocking. Will camp at least once in December. Then in Feb or March, exact dates to be determined, there will be a cross country trip to San Diego. Talk about ambitious!!

To make this foamie related I will tell the reason this camper was in my price range. The prior owner brought it in for repairs after he either hit something or something fell on the trailer near a rear edge. It bent the aluminum edging deforming it enough to cause it to pull away from the panel. Newer Aliners only have very little wood, basically just the cabinetry. However, my 2005 is a sandwich of aluminum, foam core, and inner layer of wood. When the water leaked in it caused buckling of the plywood in that corner and some rot. Owner traded damaged camper in on new one rather than try to fix it. I bought it from the dealer, who fixed the exterior damage, solving the leak & warrantying that work for 90 days. The damage didn't extend past that panel. Though the wood framing for the under bed cabinets show staining, the floor is undamaged. It looks perfect from underneath. The floor is supposedly specially treated to prevent water damage and must guess it works based on the lack of water damage. Thankfully the interior damage doesn't effect usability but we plan on fixing that over the Winter. Will use it as is for now. When we fix it we'll be using "the mix" on the new wood we put in. BF had a good laugh when I said, "I can probably fix that with foam & canvas." But we'll use wood & the "wall paper" and seam tape the dealer gave me. (free of charge, bless them)

If I'd stuck with the plan to build a foamie I could have avoided the risk of rot that I now face with the new camper. Plus the camper would have weighed about 300 lbs less. My build would have initially cost hundreds less to build but I'd planned to add things over time that would have brought the cost up to something comparable to what I paid. Truly, the real reason to build a foamie seems already confirmed based on comparisons to my new, used, cheapie camper. Foamies are lighter & less prone to rot. Meaning a foamie would be cheaper in the long run. Still I'm happy with my choice as physical limitations were making the building part increasingly difficult.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

[Mary C]

Kudzu, Now just because you have a camper and you are not building you are always welcome to hang around and to help keep us up to date on your camping adventures. I am excited for you.

Mary C.

[kudzu]

Mary, I'm not going away. You can't get rid of me that easily. Might still build a foamie for sis & bro-in-law to use so we can all camp together. Well, at least I plan to mention the idea to bro-in-law, offering him a place to build & store it here. I just wanted to camp sooner rather than later & this camper came available at a price I couldn't refuse. Though it certainly doesn't have the floor space or toy hauling abilities I'd initial wanted, so far it's great, with amenities I'd not have had in a homemade unit.

I'm ready to camp now. Let me know if you want a camping buddy. Haven't been to Cloudland Canyon or Cheaha in a long time. Am looking forward to going back. (subtle, no?)