Starling Travel

I saw this interesting 1967 Shasta 13′ Travel Trailer on eBay the other day.

It’s an interesting glimpse at a Shasta I’ve never seen before. The difference is (Continue Reading…)

A few months ago, I came across this image, not knowing what it was, but in love with it anyway: Jeep camper copy of Wagonaire camper attachment?

Just a couple days ago, however, I was able to recognize the styling. (Continue Reading…)

If you own a pickup truck, here is a way for you to create a tiny tent camper on the back.

• Patent US20120248817 – Pop up quick camper

This is something you could create yourself using a pre-made pickup bed cover, like a Snuglid, or building your own. When the cover is closed, the tent folds into the truck bed.

When is the truck bed cover is fully opened, measure the area open between it and the truck bed for your tent material.

It even shows how to attach the tent to the truck bed cover. You would have to install snaps onto the side of your truck for the tent to attach at the bottom.

You could achieve the same thing with a camper shell and turn your pickup into a sleeping area as efficient as a teardrop trailer, but camper shells are difficult to put on and take off, whereas a truck bed cover could stay on the back of your truck all the time and only be used for camping when you need it.

If you have a pickup and are trying to think of ways to set up camp quickly without a huge tent, this might be a great option for you.

You can download the entire patent filing here:

• U.S. Patent #20120248817: Popup Pickup Camper

At the Utah RV Show a couple of weeks ago, I finally got to see a T@B S floorplan. It was so beautiful that I LITERALLY kissed it, but it was PACKED with people looking at it, so I didn’t get any good pictures.

Fortunately, the dealer posted a whole bunch of pictures of it online: KSL Classifieds: 2013 Little Guy TAB S FLOOR

From the outside, it looks just like a normal T@B Trailer.

The real difference is INSIDE the trailer. (Continue Reading…)

This article from Campfish has a bulk approach to camp dishes:

• How to Wash Dishes While Camping

She says:

After each meal, fill three dishpans with water. Then add liquid detergent to one bin, bleach to the other and leave the final bin clear water. Each camper then washes their dishes in the detergent water, then moves them to the bleach water and finally the clear water.

All wet dishes go back in the bag, which are then hung on a line outside.

I really like the idea of the mesh bag to dry dishes.

That was the idea behind this Hanging Camp Organizer by UtiliMate.

The only problem with the UtiliMate is that it’s $16, where mesh laundry bags cost MUCH less. Heck, here’s a set of EIGHT of them for ten bucks:

• B&E Home Essential Laundry Mesh Wash Bag Set (Small * 2, Medium * 2, Large * 2, Bra Wash Bag * 2) – Set of 8 at Amazon.com

Of course, it’s just as easy to take a towel, DRY the dishes and just put them away, so maybe this whole idea is superfluous. Every time I see something that looks like it would make things easier, when I think about it, they just complicate things. In the end, nothing packs as light or dries dishes as quickly as a simple towel.

When we are camping at a place with electricity, it makes cooking food so much easier. I found a bunch of all-in-one toasters that act as a coffee maker, tiny oven and cook top all in one.

This one is my favorite: Nostalgia Electrics 3 in 1 Breakfast Station.

Honestly, the reason I like it so much is (Continue Reading…)

I thought this idea from White Trash Repairs.com was pretty ingenious. It’s a way to add an air conditioning unit to a popup camper.

Their submitter wrote:

Figured out a way to cool my 1979 pop up camper. 98 dollar a.c. from walmart and some dryer vent hose!

It’s a kludgy way to do it, but it looks like it might actually work. On the other hand, here is a poster on Popup Explorer who added an A/C unit in a tent camper.

Buttrys used an inexpensive home air conditioning unit:

Well, after a weekend “test” for the A/C and some talk here on the board I went back and did some re-design to my A/C setup. Since then I added a “duct” that directly channels the hot air out of the camper from the rear of the unit and also added two vent holes under the camper directly into the A/C cabinet. So far it seems to run cooler and should be more efficient.

Outside vent with grill…

Buttrys also had to add an intake vent and drainage tube underneath the camper.

All of that could be avoided if you put your inexpensive A/C unit under the bunk end over the hitch. Then the intake, venting and drainage happens naturally outside of the camper.

Bciaralli on the Popup Portal Forum showed how a previous owner had added A/C to a tent trailer.

Outside, the A/C unit is mounted over the hitch.

Here is the same A/C modification made to an Apache Hard-Sided Popup Camper:

There is always the option of adding a rooftop air conditioning unit like this Dometic A/C Brisk Air Roof Top Air Conditioner, but they are EXPENSIVE!! It’s hard justifying paying over $500 for an A/C unit when a similarly powered one is only a hundred bucks at Home Depot.

I’ve even seen temporary solutions where a family placed the A/C unit near a window and placed the vent through the window, like this evaporative cooler on Adam Alvarez’s old tent trailer.

Here is another example of adding an inexpensive A/C unit through the door opening from Angel and Mike on Flickr:

Here’s what it looks like from the inside:

It’s hard to think about cooling in a tent trailer when the top temperatures outside right now are below fifty degrees, but summer will be here soon enough. Time to get my modifications done NOW so that camping in the heat of the Utah desert will be pleasant instead of miserable.

This trailer was completely beyond me when I saw it on KSL Classifieds the other day. It’s a 1977 Coachman Fifth Wheel on a Flatbed Trailer.

It’s a towing nightmare just waiting to happen. (Continue Reading…)

I was poking around the U.S. Patents, looking for interesting things and I found this:

• United States Patent: 3719244

The description (Continue Reading…)

I found this ad on Craigslist and had to share it with you. It’s for this 1948 Teardrop Trailer.

The ad reads: (Continue Reading…)