RE: Recommendation for campground at Yellowstone
We stayed at Red Rock RV....It is about 20 minutes from the park, but small, quiet, and awesome.
http://www.8004redrock.com/
Otherwise another idea is to stay between the Tetons and Yellowstone so you can go between the two and have hookups. Don't miss the Tetons, they are awesome.
RE: Long tavel in popup, need advice.
Pack light, take only what you need, and have the kids help. My husband, our daughter, and I can set up or tear down our pup in 20 minutes. We have times where we set up at 7 pm, spend the night, and are out of the campground by 7 am. No problem.
RE: Replacement Door Latch
We are on our third in a year. I don't know what happens, but the inside latch flips out and then you can't open the door from the outside. It is so annoying, we have tried several replacements and haven't found something we like. I got ours from the local RV dealer. What a poor design!
RE: Yellowstone trip
If you are in Jackson, and like beer, grab a bite at the Snake River Brewery, they have a section for families to dine in. In addition to very good beer the food was tasty. Otherwise Bubba's Barbeque was good too.
Just be prepared for crazy drivers who don't pay attention to where they are going. That little town was worse than rush hour here in MN!
RE: Yellowstone trip
What I would suggest is taking less time in South Dakota and taking a trip to see Glacier National Park. The National Parks of Montana and Wyoming are awesome!
Not sure of what way you are going home, but if you are driving across Wyoming, stop and see Independence Rock, you can climb up on top of it and see all the signatures from people who were on the Oregon Trail. Even my crabby teenager liked that.
One thing we learned was to split the time between Yellowstone and the Tetons. We found after a few days we wanted to see something besides bubbling pots and went to the Tetons, then after a few days in the Tetons we went back to Yellowstone. They are close enough that you can do that, even if you are camping in one park. Make sure you check with the rangers at Old Faithful. We were lucky enough to see Beehive go off, which is bigger than Old Faithful.
Sunrise in the Tetons was the best part of our vacation. You have to get up early, but we saw moose, elk, bear, and pronghorns. Not to mention the light on the mountains, absolutely beautiful.
If you want to see some of our pictures of our trip you can at:
http://www.eburkedesign.com/AGW3/ArokGoesWestIII/Welcome.html
Enjoy!
RE: Yellowstone trip
We just got home from a trip to the same places. After being in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, South Dakota was a bit of a let down. I wish we had spent more time in Wyoming. However, visit Wind Cave National Park, just south of Custer State Park. Have fun, I wish I was still out there!
RE: Anyone towing with a 2008 Grand Caravan ?
We have the friction sway bar, and the one time I forgot to put it on I could really tell because the trailer was all over the place. It does amaze me that something so small and simple makes such a difference.
RE: Towing with minivan. Looking at SUV.
I downsized from a Durango to a Town & Country. Hands down my T&C is a much better vehicle than my gas hog SUV ever was. I can fit more people, more stuff, and it tows just fine. The thing I love most about my van is my stow-n-go seats. I did buy my van with the "towing package" which included a heavy duty radiator and the ability to tow 3800#. The Durango got 9 mpg when towing, my T&C gets 19-21 mpg when towing.
I would take a look at the total package and how the vehicle will work best for you. You might want to take a look at different vans, they will have more room for your kids as they get older, and there are several out there that have great towing capabilities.
Don't let the stigma of a van bother you, I know my van doesn't look cool, but I love the looks on people's faces when I am at Home Depot and am shoving a 4x8 sheet of plywood in the back and closing the gate! I could never do that with my Durango!
RE: Anyone towing with a 2008 Grand Caravan ?
We have an '06 Chrysler Town and Country and it tows just fine (Fleetwood Timberlake). We used to have a Durango, and the only time I really notice a difference is when pulling up a big hill I don't have the power I had on the Durango. I LOVE the stow n go seats, the space below them is a great place to store items when going camping.
We did make sure to buy one with the tow package. When we hook up our camper the rear suspension doesn't move a bit and I can tell the transmission cooler helps. We had to do some searching for one, but wanted the larger towing capacity.
Enjoy!
RE: What accessories should I get?
Sometimes I feel really stupid when it relates to these things. The good thing is that I am a quick learner, so hopefully soon I will be the expert sharing my knowledge. Oh well, live and learn.
RE: What accessories should I get?
If you get dual propanes set up, make sure to get an automatic switch over to permit continuous propane supply. Then if one tank runs out (most likely) in the middle of the night, it will automatically switch over to the filled tank. No need to get up freezing, go outside to manually switch your connection to the filled tank. Believe me, if anyone has done this once in the middle of the night (like we have), this auto-switch is a 'MUST HAVE' when you have two tanks!
Have a great trip!;)
Great idea, I didn't even know there was such a thing. I will have to get one of these! Thanks.
RE: What accessories should I get?
Thanks Ruide, the pictures really help. I am sure DH will have fun trying to figure out what he can build to take care of it.
Yes our camper came with 2 adapters, and actually we have never even used the shower, which is why I forgot there were 2. We are not staying anywhere where the shower will be used (unless the CG showers are gross) so we may just get a hose to go from the sink to the sewer hookup and if the shower is going to be used we can just switch it around.
RE: What accessories should I get?
Have you got leveling figured out? Cheapest way is to have three 2x6s of increasing length and chocks to hold the camper still on a slope.
Get a pressure regulator if you will use full hookups. I've never used mine.
IMO, skip the 50-30 amp converter mentioned above. I've never seen a site that had a 50 amp outlet and NOT a 30. They may exist, but they are very rare.
Find a Dollar store and go nuts. Its much easier to leave things in the camper all the time then pack and unpack each trip. Get plates, cups, bowls, mugs, pans(Goodwill), dishpans, dishrack, rags, towels, soap pumps, clothesline/pins, whisk broom, knives, cutlery(Goodwill), serving bowls and so on....
Not much else beyond your tent camping stuff is really needed. Optional perhaps, but not needed. Wait and see what you wish for.
Our first purchase for the camper was a BAL leveler, which we love!
We had lots of stuff from when we tent camped, but found that we only filled about 1/2 our cupboards. The one thing we made sure to get was a coffeepot, we have both the electric one and the Coleman camping one. We are pretty minimalist when we camp, plus we only have 3 of us, so that helps. Even the front storage compartment is about half full. So we have LOTS of room for fun stuff!:B
RE: What accessories should I get?
Ah yes, I have the corkscrew, but plastic wine glasses (not real glass although they look like glass)... I am originally from Wisconsin, so of course we will have cheese with us, it goes on everything, DH has even put it on cake!
I don't have A/C, so no worries on the power. I will pick up the adapter, because most of the places we are staying are "RV Parks" and list 50/30 amp, so if the 30 amp isn't working my choice is the 50 amp. Thanks for listing the water pressure regulator, I would never have thought to get one.
My electricity is on the left side when looking at the side of the camper that is on the driver's side when towing. The cord that is attached to the camper pulls out to over 10' all by itself, but an extension cord is probably a good idea.
As for the gray water, I hook up garden hoses to a "Y" adapter then run a garden hose to the gray water drain adapter? Does this adapter hook up to the sewer hook up? Sorry, a little confused on this. I have larger drains that I have an adapter to attach it to a garden hose. Guessing off the top of my head they are maybe 1 1/2 - 2 inches in diameter, is there anything that can hook up directly to them?
Thanks everyone!
We outfitted the inside of the camper with the items we needed last year (dishes, etc) but never got anything for hook-ups since we didn't camp anywhere that had them. The memory foam is on the top of my "to buy" list, after 2 nights that little mattress feels like it is doing nothing and I am sleeping on plywood.
I can't wait for camping season, only a few short months away!
RE: Backing a trailer into a driveway/campsite. Help!
My husband can not back a trailer to save his life. I found that I have a knack for it, but I can only back to the right, not the left like everyone is saying to do. I guess it is due to the fact that we always came home a certain way and that was the way I had to do it, now it is the only way. Good luck, it does take time, but I just took it really slow.
Now, of course when you get to the campground no matter how much practice you have you will not be able to park it with anyone looking.... that is always my problem.
What accessories should I get?
We purchased our Fleetwood Timberlake last year, and only used it a few times at campgrounds, most of the use was on private land. We have an adapter that allows us to plug our camper into a regular outlet and a water container to catch the gray water from the sink. We are going on a 10 day trip in July with the camper and I am wondering what "accessories" I should buy ahead of time to be ready for these campgrounds.
Are there certain adapters, hoses, etc that I should get to use "full" hookups? My sink and shower have separate drains, is there something I can get to hook both of them up to the "sewer hookup" at the campground?
Is there something I should get for the city water hookup? We have never used this, and we do have a white 10 foot hose that we use to fill our water tank, is that going to be long enough?
Also, our camper came with one propane tank that is held on by these metal hooks that screw on. I have looked all over for these, does anyone know where I can get these? We want to add a second tank so we don't have to cart the second around in the van when traveling.
And any other accessories that would help on a long trip will be appreciated as well;)
Thanks for the help!
RE: Outside Showers
I got a nice water container that has wheels and a handle. That way the sink water drains into it and I can use the handle to wheel it to dump. Most of the time we are on private land so we can just dump it, but when in a campground we stick it in the van and take it up to the dump station and dump it out.
RE: Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park or Yellowstone KOA
Yes, the $70 was the KOA. For a deluxe site with DH and our 16 yr old daughter the website said $72 per night! For that price we might as well stay in a hotel in my opinion. And there were so many sites at the KOA I was having nightmares about waiting in line for the shower and worrying about running over small children who are running all about.:B
