RE: Prior to entering Zion NP
Another vote for staying in the park and buying showers at the Zion Canyon CG in town. The setting in the canyon can't be beat.
RE: Silverton or Ouray?
How about this: skip Canon City altogether and spend all the time you have in the Ouray/Silverton area! We prefer to stay in the Silverton area, as it is really in the heart of the San Juan beauty. However, Ouray has more in the way of quality restaurants. Both towns have more than enough souvenir shops to keep you busy for a day or more. Silverton gets quiet in the evening after the last train has left. In fact some businesses close down fairly early. If you're bringing your CJ with you, there is more immediate access to more 4x4 trails right out of Silverton. To us, the prime attraction in Ouray is the Hot Springs Pool (shh, don't tell the pool here in Glenwood!). The setting is outstanding. The drive into Yankee Boy Basin is not to be missed. As far as CG's go, we typically boondock in the Silverton area so can't offer any advice as to the few CG's near town. Silverton does operate the Molas Lake CG south of town which is in an amazing setting. We've also stayed a number of times at the NFS CG up South Mineral Creek two miles north of town. the Silverton/Ouray area is one of the nicest places in the country. We typically spend a week there every year.
Don't worry about the US 550 drive. A 3/4 ton PU with a 9' camper is just not an issue.
RE: How far from home??
We've gotten to the point that for long distance/short time frame trips, we'll pack our tents, sleeping bags, cookware, etc. in our luggage and fly somewhere...
Most airlines won't allow stoves anymore, even if you totally dry them out and don't bring fuel. How'd you manage that?
anage with tents, sleeping bags, pads and cookware thrown in to boot!Before we went, I looked at the various airline websites we were flying for restrictions. We have a MSR stove which doesn't have a tank but rather uses a separate fuel bottle. We washed out the fuel bottle and just put it in the checked luggage. Post 9/11, we've flown to Alaska (2004) and North Carolina (2006) w/o a problem at all.
RE: 2008 Niagara Axle Replacement
I did not see anyone mention this, so...
There have been quite a few threads over the last year or so about bent axles on newer Niagaras. It seems to me that Fleetwood put too light of an axle under the Niagara (not sure on other models).
Given the opportunity, I would look at upgrading the axle- otherwise you may end up back in the same spot down the road.
Good luck!!jlwardn's description above of replacing the axle tube with one from the 5300# axle is only a way to improve the stock axle w/o the extensive and expensive true upgrade of going to the 5300# axle. Ngatel has done this upgrade and it cost him something like $2000. See pics here and a description here. Expensive but might be worthwhile if one does a lot of travelling and also drives on gravel/dirt roads where the axle sees higher loading due to the compression on bumps and dips.
What we can all hope for is that Dexter Axle recognizes a demand for a higher capacity on its D35 axle and tweeks the engineering to increase the max load to 4000#. The trailer makers would probably be happy with this (although they'd probably all increase their trailer weights to accomondate the larger load), but there's also an aftermarket demand for replacement axles on all these heavy Fleetwood/Coleman HW's. My guess is they've already sold more than a few 5300# axle tubes to slip in the D35 axles to try to beef up the system.
RE: How far from home??
The only time we have had issues has been on a couple of weekends in a couple of National Forest Campgrounds and really only with excessively loud, drinking up a storm, having a party, type neighbors. We weren't scared, just annoyed at having to listen to "F-ing" this and that til 2 am. I of course got up early and made a lot of noise getting ready to get on the road;)! They looked like they could use some Advil!We have found that Friday nights are the worst. People have been working and after work, drive several hours to get to the campsite. They're wound up and take a while to wind down. Wherever we are, we always expect Friday nights to be somewhat raucous.
Vacation time and kid daily car time tolerance has thus far prevented West Coast trips.... We've gotten to the point that for long distance/short time frame trips, we'll pack our tents, sleeping bags, cookware, etc. in our luggage and fly somewhere. When we've travelled at spring break, a week isn't long enough to get to Georgia or the Carolinas (and summer's not the best time to visit there anyway), so we flew out and saved enough on hotels to eat out several times. And with only a month to do Alaska, we flew to Anchorage and rented a car. Did a lot of tent camping, interspersed with backcountry rental cabins and the occasional motel to get cleaned up. It's not PUP style camping, but we get to places we otherwise might not.
RE: Can a Highlander pull a folding trailer?
Ken,
After my original post, I corrected myself and said that we have a 6 cylinder - not 4. We don't have a tow package, so I am not sure how much we could pull even with a 6. I am going to check with a local Toyota dealer.
Thanks for your post.Sorry I missed your second post. The V6 will definitely open up more options. Adding a transmission cooler might be a worthwhile investment if you get a trailer that's closer to the towing capacity of your rig.
RE: Looking for a Project....
Here is a link to a whole bunch of mods that Campingfools did to his '07 Niagara.
Another person who has done a lot of mods is ngatel. Check out all of the pictures to get an idea of the possibilities. And if you've followed this forum for a while, you know that Niagara's are notorious for bent axles (the trailers are very easy to overload). So go all out and put a 5200# axle under your unit. He upgraded his axle from a 3500# unit to a 5200# unit with info here and pictures here.
Yes, I have these sites bookmarked and haven't moved one more inch toward starting any of these mods. Of course the "honey-do" list for our house will keep me busy for years anyway!
RE: Suggestion For Winter Covers
I'm trying to convince Allison that the best cover for the PUP would be to build a deck off of the master BR and store the PUP underneath! A little more expensive than a cover however.
RE: My Wish...
I don't know if you've run across the dinette seat shower mod, but here are a couple of examples:
Version 1
Version 2
Another option for the hot water if you're away from electricity is Colemans Hot Water on Demand System. My brother has done this mod in two different PUP's he has owned. Outdoor showers are all well and good if it's warm, but when it gets in the 50's or below, being inside is really nice. If he is using cold water out of a well or river, he sometimes has to run it through twice to get the water comfortably warm.
As far as a toilet system, a permanent mount toilet will require some sort of black water tank. On the newer Coleman PUP's, the black water tank is right below the toilet and sits on the floor (not below the trailer like the gray water tank is). There's a 4" (IIRC) diameter hole cut through the floor where the sewer pipe goes to the dump valve. Run a water line and you're set. Or go with the cassette style toilet used in many PUP's (maybe this is what you already have).
RE: Bears & Pop-ups!!!
. . .back in the the 60's my parents saw a NC Black Bear enter the front of a VW Beetle and go out the back window. I was too young to recall this, but a bear did come to our campsite in broad daylight to "ask" for the candy bar I was eating.Reminds me of when we went to Yellowstone when I was a kid. We were having a picnic lunch at a table overlooking Yellowstone Lake when a bear came along, looking for something to eat. All of us except my mother moved on away from the table. My mother stood on the opposite side of the table from the bear and started grabbing food off the table and yelling at the bear to go away. The bear did! I guess the bear recognized a wild mother protecting its young and decided not to get involved!
RE: Can a Highlander pull a folding trailer?
It seems everyone is referencing a 6 cylinder vehicle, but I've reread your post several times and you state that it is a 4 cylinder model. According to several sources on the internet (if you can believe them! ;) ) max towing capacity with the optional towing package is 3000# (I believe it's 1500# w/o the tow package). But your biggest drawback is the 160 HP rating of the 4 cylinder engine. We had an early '90s Toy Pickup that had the 150 HP, 180 ft-lb V6 and towed a Coleman Chesapeake with a dry weight right around 1500#. Loaded, it was around 2000#. It was a nice combination, but I wouldn't have wanted to pull anything much bigger power-wise. And it was just two of us in a lighter vehicle.
So you need to find out if your Highlander has a tow package or not. A Toyota factory tow package might typically includes an upgraded radiator, transmission oil cooler, and a larger alternator. The radiator and transmission cooler are important options needed to protect your vehicle if you're going to tow.
With a tow package, you can look at some of the smaller, lighter models offered by the various manufacturers. Some models with an 8' or 10' box have dry weights around 1500# to 1800#. I'd look into those.
RE: Bears & Pop-ups!!!
Unfortunately, bears learn from experience. A recent study on bear intrusions in vehicles showed that they disproportionately favored minivans over all other vehicles. The authors hypothesized that because minivans often are used to transport children, there are often snacks in them along with spilled food. So bears have learned that they get a better "reward" for breaking into minivans!
BTW, if bears can pry open the door on a locked car, the doors on 5'ers, TT's, TC's, etc., won't provide much security anyway.
We often judge how much we remove from our PUP by asking the campground host (not the ranger) how much bear activity there has been during the summer. We've been in CG's with bear warnings everywhere, but not a single bear had been spotted all summer. Rangers will always be overcautious in their recommendations.
RE: Dry Camping in a PUP in Cold Weather - Lesson Learned
Sandisue: if you're camping where there are elctric hookups, you really should be able to stay warm down to 20 degrees at least. It's when you're dry camping w/o hookups that it's a little more of a challenge and that's what the OP is talking about.
2. A lightweight plypro balaclava makes a great night cap.Some of the best advice here.
We use sheets with a big king sized down comforter that keeps us warm well down into the 20's w/o a furnace. Being follically challenged, I'll put the balaclava on once it's in the 30's. Allison has a full head of hair and often a full head of cats laying on it. With this set up, we only run the furnace before bed if it's really cold and again in the morning when we get up.
RE: time to set up?
So what is the 20 minutes? Even with leveling we usually do not have 10 minutes set up time.Camp in some of the boondocking locations we do, and leveling alone will take 10 minutes if you don't want blood going to your head all night!
Besides the few minutes it takes to raise the top and extend the beds and pull the slideout, we've got beds to make, the table to set up, the stove to ready for cooking, the cookware and dishes to get out, the spice rack to get out, the awning to unfurl and stake down, the grill set up, the bathroom walls set up, the clothing bags laid out, etc. etc. Yeah, we get a little carried away, but we like our comforts and our space. (We'd never fit in a Chalet.)
OP: when you're comparing setting up a PUP to a tent, remember that the 15 minutes you talk about is just for your sleeping arrangements. If you do any cooking, you're always dragging the stove, dishes, food, etc. in and out of the car or wherever. As I mentioned before, we also had a hybrid for four years. I would say the PUP takes around five more minutes than our hybrid did.
RE: How far from home??
Just wondering how far from home does everyone travel with their pop-ups? Our's has been from Indiana to Moab Utah. What we have decided is it probably is better to travel during vacation season. We went out there in late September and a few times in colorado the state parks were pretty much empty, maybe 6-10 trailers and we didn't feel real safe. That's exactly why we like travelling in the off season. We've camped near Moab a couple of times at Thanksgiving and there were only a handful of people in the parks. Other than the short amount of daylight, these were the most enjoyable times we've had at those CG's. That's also why we boondock a lot in the summer -- to get away from packed CG's.
Our longest trip with a PUP was from CO to Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho, then across to Glacier NP (Canada) and Mt. Revelstoke NP, westward to Vancouver, BC, around the southern tip of Puget Sound, then westward to Olympic NP. For our return trip, we came back though WA, OR, and ID and south to UT. Over a month on the road. I guess the rain doesn't bother us -- it's just a part of the camping experience.
RE: BLM camping in Utah
Around Moab, there are quite a few limitations on where you can boondock. Go to the Moab BLM camping page for info on boondocking and also info on some of the BLM CG's in the area. Here is a detailed PDF map showing the dispersed camping restricted areas.
For BLM CG's, we enjoy those along the river, esp. UT 128. But in May, CG's and even prime boondocking areas fill quickly, esp. on weekends.
As noted, if you're heading into the Grand Staircase-Escalante NM area, you'll need to visit one of several visitors center to get a free camping permit. For developed CG's, the Calf Creek campground near Boulder is quite nice, esp. if you have a PUP. North of Boulder, there are several NF CG's off the highway, although you may need to check to see if they are open in May. We like Singletree CG up there.
RE: New tires needed on Niagara
popupbound:
Check out this discussion and this thread for futher info on what jlwardn found out from Dexter about his 5300# axle tube.
RE: time to set up?
I guess we're slow. It takes us around 1/2 hour to set up and get the beds made. Of course we use sheets and blankets, not just throwing down some sleeping bags, so making the bed can take some time. But that time also includes getting the trailer properly situated and leveled (we don't often stay where there's a level parking pad), which can take us 10 minutes or more in some boondocking locations. And of course we have to get the litter box ready for the cats! ;)
But when compared to a tent, it's so much more cushy in the PUP, esp. during stormy weather or when we camp in the fall and the days are short. We also tried the hybrid route for four years, and we're so much happier being back in a PUP.
RE: I 70 thru the Rockies
When we've been faced with snowy weather, we head west to US 191 and head south all the way to I-10 and taken that east to TX. If you're heading to more northerly portions of TX, turn east at I-40 instead.
If there's much new snow in CO on the weekend, you'll want to avoid I-70 regardless of how great the road conditions may be. The number of skiers using I-70 makes it a challenging drive on the weekends. Many times, I've seen semi's just pulled over and waiting for the hordes to go away.
