Let me tell you about why I miss my pop up camper. We decided to purchase a 30' camper with a slide out. Really nice unit. It's an Avenger ATI 27BBS. Lots of room. Also takes up a lot of real estate! We camped this past weekend at Locust Lake State Park in PA. Really nice SP however, the campground roads are very narrow. Just wide enough for a vehicle, no real room on either side and littered with trees on both sides of ALL roads. First when we pulled up to the check in booth the attendant asks about the size of our camper and says "I don't know if you will fit". I said the website says it will take a 30' TT. She sataed that the website may say so but, you can't go by that. She was kind enough to give us a campground map of other open sites that she felt were suitable if we did not fit. I got to the site (34) right along the lake separated by a bike/walking path. Had to back the trailer in and turn it almost 90 degrees. I was not confident since this was my first time backing into a site. After 2 tries I was going to give up and move on. Gave it one more shot and got it in. Got out and realized I demolished a stabilizer jack trying to turn around on a back road when I missed a turn to the campground (damn GPS). No big deal. The entire trip went well after that. Another couple had pulled in with similar size equipment as us and could not get backed into there site because of the narrow roads and all the trees. Not sure if a pop up could have even maneuvered into that site. Site was big enough, just to many trees positioned at just the right spot to block turning. I directed them to one of the other sites from the map I was given and the camp host helped them also.
Then it came time to leave. Got everything hooked up and ready to roll. Those trees again!!!!! No room to get the truck turned well enough to avoid rubbing the brand new awning aginst a tree. Truck tire (front left) ran up over a small tree truck, slid off and slice the sidewall. Could not avoid rubbing the tree with the awning so I went for it. Managed to get out of the spot with a flat tire and NOT ripping the brand new awning. I had to change the tire in the middle of the campground road. Luckily it was Easter Sunday so the park was relatively empty.
So those of you who are thinking about moving up to "big & better", the grass is not always greener on the other side! That must be why there were so many pups there. Some of you may have even been there laughing at that idiot with the big, new camper.
Just think, you can fit just about anywhere. The rest of us need to be a lot more cautious picking sites!
Sorry to hear about the casualties , glad you didn't give up on that 3rd try. Still sounds like you had a fun time out with the big rig. this can go both ways, you could be laughing at me in August when i am in my 1984 viking pup with out ac and I am sweating like a hot tar roof in Alabama. As you enjoy all the amenities of your big rig including air conditioning. But seriously I currently have a 16 foot pup that opens to 21 feet. By years end I hope to upgrade to a hybrid TT like a 19 foot 3 bunk jay co. So will only be like 23' with the tongue. It will only be about 7 feet longer and still acessable to all the campgrounds but yet have many more amenities then i have now. But I do know one thing I will def. check around look at reviews and try to talk to people on the canvas and other forums to make sure i can get into and out of a camp ground site before I go. I will remember your story and not rely on the web site saying so.
Your story kind of hit home for me. last year my younger brother came for a visit and saw my camper in the back yard liked it a lot , went back home to Wisconsin and called me to tell me he bought a new F150 pick up and a 32 foot fifth wheel travel trailer. He was at the end of his driveway and wanted to know exactly how to back that thing around into his property LOL. Only advice I could give him was have your wife or kids guide you so you don't wreck anything and grab the wheel from the bottom only (6 o'clock position) and when backing up which ever way you want that bad boy to go turn turn the wheel the same way. he sent me a nice picture from his phone when he got it tucked away. sure is a pretty rig but I would have to pay for storage wouldn't fit on my lot.
Hope you ENJOY your new Big rig for many years to come I am sure you will get use to it's size after a few more test runs.
Thanks for your reply. I must say I would not be laughing at you not having ac. Our pup did not have ac either. Even now with an ac we need to have electric or an expensive generator. It is getting harder to book electric sites at state parks. You still have the ability to open everything up and let the air flow through. We are stuck with a few small windows. Pros & cons of both kind of even things out. The biggest bonus for our famiy of 4 is space. Tough to move around in a pup with bad weather. Hope you are able to "upgrade" to the hybrid and have a good time with it also.
Yes I do understand about placing big units in small places.
I have a new job working at an RV dealership. My job is to move the RVs. Yes I move them in/out of the repair bays, move/park them in the lot, dig them out for customer pickup. NOW GET THIS. We have 2 shops. One of them used to be a MAACO. trust me, that lot was built to handle subcompact cars, never designed to accomodate 45' diesel pusher motorhome busses, not to mention these new 3 axle 42' 5ers. To add to that, my usual tow vehicle is a 00 FORD 3/4 P/U, with a 5.4. Sometimes (like today) I get to use the transport truck (2011 Chevy 1 ton, 4WD, D-max) those days go smooth like butter. The FORD is a decent truck for the smaller stuff, but way too small for those Cyclone 5ers.
[quote author=mlong link=topic=2955.msg28648#msg28648 date=1398180421]
We camped this past weekend at Locust Lake State Park in PA. Really nice SP however, the campground roads are very narrow. Just wide enough for a vehicle, no real room on either side and littered with trees on both sides of ALL roads. I got to the site (34) right along the lake separated by a bike/walking path. Had to back the trailer in and turn it almost 90 degrees. I was not confident since this was my first time backing into a site. After 2 tries I was going to give up and move on. Gave it one more shot and got it in. Got out and realized I demolished a stabilizer jack trying to turn around on a back road when I missed a turn to the campground (damn GPS). No big deal. The entire trip went well after that. Another couple had pulled in with similar size equipment as us and could not get backed into there site because of the narrow roads and all the trees. Not sure if a pop up could have even maneuvered into that site. Site was big enough, just to many trees positioned at just the right spot to block turning. I directed them to one of the other sites from the map I was given and the camp host helped them also.
So those of you who are thinking about moving up to "big & better", the grass is not always greener on the other side! That must be why there were so many pups there. Some of you may have even been there laughing at that idiot with the big, new camper.
Just think, you can fit just about anywhere. The rest of us need to be a lot more cautious picking sites!
We are around 50' overall with the extended cab 8' bed and 24' HTT. You should get a prize for getting a 30 footer into and out of that campground. We stayed one night there last fall on the way to Vermont on site 21 which is a few away from 34 so I know exactly what you had to deal with.
