Installing Camper Bed Lift Kit

We love the new camper but it needs a couple upgrades and a little bit of organization to make it functional for our family. We have bought some totes and baskets to organize cabinets but the bed lift was a must have!  Any camper that has a queen bed normally has a storage space underneath it.  Our old camper the bed lift came standard this one it did not.  It took one trip to figure out this was a must have to make this space use able.  With out it you must use your head or body to hold it up while you are trying to look under the bed for what you need.  This kit was by far hard to install but you will need some construction knowledge and a little bit of time.  The directions are not one size fit all plan on adding more blocking so you have good mounting points and also plan on moving mounts a few times to figure out prime operating location since all camper beds are different weight.  It is installed now and can not wait to try it out on our next camping trim!

How do you maintain your camper?

So today I started thinking about more camper upgrades and maintenance.  I am pretty handy and with a new camper I want to make sure we keep it like new.  There's a lot to think about when you own a camper winterizing, packing bearings, cleaning, waxing, roof maintenance, and much much more. I will admit our last camper lasted 12 years with minimal maintenance but it was used minimally and I think luck played a huge part.  I plan on showing you every step of the way but I would like to hear from you and what you do to keep you camper up and running.

First YouTube Video on Tools for travel

With it being winter things in the travel trailer world are pretty slow except for planning.  We continue to plan our trips but now I am focused on planning what we will need with us.  I made this short video on a tool kit I picked up from Home Depot.  I got the following-
200 Piece tools set with tool box $79.00
3 Piece Adjustable pliers set (Channel locks) $10.00
3 Piece Pliers set (Side cutter, needle nose, and linesman)  $10.00
3 Piece crescent wrench set $10.00
Total spent $109.00
This should be a good starting point weather we need to work on the truck on the road or fix a kids bike this will get us going.
Watch the video below to see more about it.  Subscribe and like I have a lot planned for the travel trailer season.

Being ready for the un known...

The thing with camping is generally it evolves travel away from home.  Most of us like to travel and explore near and far but normally you are far enough away from home that it is not convenient to go home and grab a tool to fix something that is broken, grab more food because a raccoon ate what you left our on the picnic table, or even grab a band aid from your medicine cabinet.  We all camp and travel differently and what we will need is dependent on how you travel.  My list is built off my rig and my family.  We travel in and older truck a 2001 Ford Excursion pulling a camper and I travel with 2 kids 10 year old boy and a 5 year old girl and my wife.

Tools - I bring enough tools to do small repairs to my truck, trailer, or even a bicycle.  The goal here is to get us through our trip or back to civilization where we can do a complete repair if needed.

Husky metal toolbox and 200 piece mechanic set bought on sale for $79 - This is a prime set it gives me the basics 1/4,3/8, and 1/2 sockets and ratchets, wrenches, and allen keys.  Not only does it give me a great base but it gives me a place to store other tools as well.

Screw drivers

Pliers

Cutters

Crescent Wrench

Good breaker bar with the right size sockets for all your lug nuts. 

Air compressor - Not only could this save you but it can make one happy kid that needs a bike tire filled.

First Aid - We do not pack much more then purchased first aid kits.  I like larger kits that have some gauze, tap and other items.  We do not go crazy but like to be prepared these kits are to get us to safety if need be.  I like to have one in the truck, one in the camper, and one in our day pack if we are going hiking.  We do pack separately from the kit a package of band aids any one who has ever had a kid knows how many band aids you can use! 

Flashlights, lanterns, and batteries - You can never have to many! batteries die bulbs brake and things get lost.  This year I have told my self I will have more flash lights then I need and I will always be able to find one for me or my kids.

This is a list of the must haves I could go on and on with chairs, coolers, marshmallow sticks but I really want people to think what will I need in a worst case scenario?  2 years ago I was caught out of town with a bad wheel bearing and I wish I had more tools on me.  I got it changed with some loaner tools from an auto part store and some tools I had to purchase.  But this experience was an eye opener.  This year I want to be prepared so I can take care of what you need to on the road close or far.

Getting the truck ready to tow

The list goes on and on but I am trying to do everything I can to get the truck ready for this summer.  The first step was to swap out the 10 spark plugs and the 10 coil packs. These were not necessarily bad but I'm not sure when or if they were ever changed. The truck now has 130,00 miles and just think this was good routine maintenance. The truck is a 2001 Ford Excursion 4x4 V10.  

The removal and install was pretty painless none of the horror stories you hear about. No stuck plugs, broke plugs, blown plugs they all pulled out and went back in almost to easy. By the look of the plugs though they were probably original and it was time.  Now after changing the truck ran about the same but I am hoping it will be more reliable and run more efficient.  Many more things planned for this big truck over the next few weeks to get her ready for the new camper!

Book and Book Early!

So we have been planning and booking our summer trips for this year and SURPRISE! a lot of parks are booked!   Maybe they are not 100% full but for our 10 day trip to Michigan one park at the end of July does not have the Sunday we need available, and a Memorial day finding parks with openings was hard.  I have been thinking we were doing real well since its only January and have almost the whole summer planned but I guess we need to plan earlier.  Since we are a family camping I hate to go somewhere with no reservations.  When you do not have a reservation there is always that chance you will get turned away and with kids that means big disappointment.  Kids do not handle the whole Walmart boondocking that well and to be honest my wife does not like that idea to much either.  I still believe we have a couple days open on our calendar that we plan on flying by the seat of our pants but that will not be the norm.  In Pennsylvania at least there are many state parks that do not fill up nearly as fast because they do not have power.  I will take my time and convince my wife we can do these parks with close to the same comfort as any other camp ground (although we may avoid them in the heat of summer).  So I guess the moral of the story is you can never plan to far in advance and camping is becoming more popular!  Check out my pages with my camping schedule and after we visit a camp ground a full review of the campground and surrounding areas.

Why did we choose a Keystone Passport 3220BH?

We decided late last year probably our lasting camping trip that it was time to lock into the camping life style and start looking for new campers. As anyone would do we got on the internet and started googling, looking at reviews, and trying to decide what would work for us. First thing we decided was lay out we wanted a bunk house and soon decided a 4 bunk system would work better better then the double over double 2 bunk configuration. With 2 kids 10 and 5 it will not be long before we have friends wanting to tag along. The second thing we looked at on layouts were slides. Generally when a kitchen slides out there is an island the issue we had with this is it is impossible to get into the frig with out sliding it out and second since its on the awning side of the camper you loose outside living space so we decided to stay away from that lay out. So now we know what lay out we want the funny thing is all manufactures have such similar layouts it was time to dig into features. An out side kitchen was not a must have but we thought it may be nice to have a small frig out side. Aluminum framing was a must have to this keeps weight down and seems to be a stronger setup since we had our last camper for 12 years we want this one to last until the kids are grown. These couple features are also available by multiple manufactures so on to the last feature that threw me over the edge. Dual awnings! Yes it has two awning we take advantage of outside living as much as possible that is what camping is about right? No matter what little feature the other manufactures had I kept coming back to the dual awnings. I really think this will be a great trailer for our family and hope we find its quality and features up to our standards as we spend more and more time in it.