The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151219   Message #3528028
Posted By: JohnInKansas
19-Jun-13 - 03:36 PM
Thread Name: BS: Trailer Tent. Anyone used one?
Subject: RE: BS: Trailer Tent. Anyone used one?
The one Mr Happy linked is only a little bit bigger than the ones people here drag along behind their Harley.

When I started going to our big local festival (Winfield ca. 1983) everybody was in tents, with the exception of a few performers' tour buses and a couple of "old people" (migratory snowbirds) with self-propelled bus-sized campers. Gradual aging of the regulars has swapped the proportions so that now tents are becoming fairly rare, and almost everyone has some sort of towable or self-propelled. Fifth-wheel units up to about 60 ft long are common, and self-propelled units are occasionally a little bigger.

We recently sold our ten year old 21 ft trailer because it was "too big" for an old fart like me to manage, so we may have to start a reversal of the trend and go back to a tent - or just drive down at dusk and home in the morning, since our main interest was always the campground pickin'. (It's only about 100 miles (160 km) round trip.)

Lots of people assume that when you get older a "self-contained" facility will make camping easier. There's some merit to that argument, but hookup, towing, and maintenance present their own difficulties depending on "how you age" so it's not a clear choice in all cases.

(As a side note, tires on low-mileage vehicles rot at about the same rate as the canvas on a foldup, so at around ten years you'll probably need a full new set. Anything over about ten ft long (folded) probably has four wheels - and maybe a spare. If buying a used unit, be suspicious about how old the rubber is, since most dealers - and many private sellers - are less than fully open with the info.)

John