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.

Planning out the summer

I have been planning out the summer and we are getting closer and closer to having a 2016 Camping Calendar.  Lots of updating and a lot more reservations to make but here is what I have.

Why a camping blog and what is the plan?

I decided to do the camping blog as we bought our new camper and decided we were going to do a lot of camping come spring/summer.  I started planning trips and found few resources for family's that enjoy to camp and explore.  I had a lot of questions and most of them still remain unanswered.  I know how to hitch my camper up, dump my black tank, and most of the normal camping thing since we have been camping for 12 years but a couple questions I have are-

How long/far can we really drive in a day?  I know a camper slows you down and so do kids but what is a realistic goal for a day and how far away can we get comfortably?

While doing long vacations/trips should you camp in one spot and explore or move locations often and explore distances?  This question came up while planning our Michigan Upper Peninsula trip.  We do not have unlimited time to explore so we want to get the most of the time we have there knowing we will not make it back for possibly a couple years.

Can we truly camp on a budget?  The whole purpose of getting the camper was to hopefully extend family time and fun with out breaking the bank and is that possible?

There is a lot of great people online blogging and on YouTube but a lot of them are backpacker, couples, single people, or even motor homers and that is similar to what we are doing but not exactly the same two kids and two adults in a camper is just not the same dynamic.  We are just a normal family and I will share our experiences to hopefully help you plan your next trip!

 

Same campground or new campgrounds

When planning out camping trips do you lean toward campgrounds you have visited before or campgrounds that are new to you? I have always found it funny a lot of people I know including our selves tend to visit the same camp grounds over and over again. I began regretting this when we started planning our 10 day trip to Michigan this year and did not have enough time to see everything we would like to.  I started thinking I wish we would have visited more places when we lived there.  So my goal is to start hitting as many unique to me campgrounds as I can. We now live in Pennsylvania and just like Michigan there is so much beauty to see in this state.  We will can make weekend trips into so many state parks, national forest, and even reach the Appalachian mountains! I'm excited to see where this new camper will take us!

Truck maintenance, repairs, and upgrades before the summer trips

So my tow vehicle being a 2001 Ford Excursion 4x4 V10 with 130,000 some miles there is always maintenance, repairs, and upgrades on the mind. Right now I ordered and received the first lump of parts. The truck currently has an occasional misfire and I have 10 new plugs and 10 new coil packs. The coil packs are a known issue and due to the miles I think it is just a good time to change those all out and hopefully get some that are reliable for a long time. I also received a new hitch. I am changing this out because the current one is rusted out and I believe having a secure hitching point is a must. I learned that the trailer hitch on the Excursions is different from the ones on the super duty trucks. I have new front ball joints to install. I have one sloppy ball joint currently and figure if I am changing one out I will change them all with ones that can be greased. Changing these out will also allow me to inspect a lot of the front end seals. With these few maintenance issues taken care of the truck should be ready to roll for a while. Now the body on my Excursion I would love to start working on. The truck has some small rust spots and needs a little attention and I plan on starting this this summer just tackling one spot at a time. What kind of upgrades would I like before summer??? Well of course I would love things like cool tires, lift kit, and sweet new bumpers but unfortunately right now I am looking at more functional upgrades. I would love a new roof rack something that could hold my small row boat so I could have a boat with me to explore lakes. I found a great rack that loads a boat on top of the roof to watch for that in the future. Maybe some extra lighting for unloading?   Time will tell I am excited to see where it goes!

Michigan Upper Peninsula Trip Plan July 22nd 2016 to July 31st 2016

Me and my wife both grew up in Michigan and always loved camping and exploring northern Michigan.  Since moving to Pennsylvania are ability to adventure around Michigan has been limited but this year that will change.  Our first plan consisted of trying to hit some sites in the lower mitten and also fitting in the Upper Peninsula we quickly found out time was limited and decided this trip would be devoted to discovering Michigan Upper Peninsula an are both me and my wife have not had much of a chance to explore and now we will with our kids.

I plan on using this blog to keep track of our travels, camp grounds, and sites so we can review them and other campers can decide if the areas we picked are the areas they would like to stay at.  Planning a trip like this there is a lot to think about so please read and make suggestions we can always use new ideas!

The Plan

We have 10 days to get to the Upper Peninsula Explore and get home so here is our plan!

Green markers are camp sites red markers are destinations

We have two night with out any reservations Sunday into Monday the camp ground we wanted to be at is booked that day so we will just boondock.  Then our last night away Saturday into Sunday, we decided that day we want to drive and explore at our own rate with no pressure to get any where so we will find a place when we are ready to stop.

There will be more planning on this trip and other smaller trips please follow.  

Planning trips

With the summer coming up we are getting excited for our new camper!  This year we have taken a different approach. We have been booking and planning trips trough the summer.  Part of the reason for the extra planning is we would like to get our moneys worth out of the new camper.  In years past we have had one or two trips planned and never fitted in any more we would run out of time, this year we are making time don't we deserve it?  The biggest trip we are planning is 10 day trip to the upper peninsula of Michigan.  This trip will be our families main vacation and will be a fun adventure. Most of our other camping trips will be weekend get a ways. We will document and review all the camp grounds we stay at this summer and you can see our planned trips on our pages on the right.

Our Rig ( Truck and Trailer)

Our Truck -It is a 2001 Ford Excursion 4x4 with a 6.8L V10 Engine.  The truck is stock and is not a bad tow vehicle.  There is two main reason we have this as a tow vehicle reason 1 new trucks are way to expensive, and reason 2 I have worked on and can repair almost anything on this truck.  The Excursion is built on the Super Duty platform so parts are readily available and there is a ton of resources on line.  I will be honest I would love a diesel but the V10 will do for now.
Old Camper - This is our 2004 Jayco JayFeather 22U it was bought for me and my wife.  With a queen bed, dinette and a full bath it was everything we would ever need.  But now with a family two kids 10 and 5 we have out grown this camper.

New Camper - After a lot of thinking we decided to buy a new camper.  I did a lot of research and we did a lot of thinking but we decided on a bunk house.  The Keystone Passport 3220BH was our favorite.  With 2 slide outs, 2 awnings, and a out door kitchen it fitted all of our needs.  This camper also is framed with aluminum so it keeps the tow weight down so if we ever got a half ton truck it could handle it.  We put our deposit on it Thanksgiving weekend and are awaiting pickup once the weather is nice.

Gone Camping

For years we have been camping on and off.  One thing I can tell you is it is always fun now matter what your age.  In 2004 me and my wife bought our first camper a small Jayco.  With two kids son 10 and daughter 5 we have out grown the little trailer.  The kids are enjoying our camping trips now more then ever so we have decided its time to buy a camper!



More to come setting everything up :)