Starling Travel

While looking at campers on YouTube, I found this Duct Tape Camper from a family in De Pere, Wisconsin. Here is a video of the camper construction.

Using 7 rolls of duct tape, a utility trailer and some PVC pipe, they made a fun little trailer for the kids. The inside of the camper was sticky, so Randy (the girl in the video) and her friend decorated it with wrapping tissue. The trailer survived the drive to the campground 27 miles from their home, but they didn’t drive over 55 mph. Based on that camping trip, they believe the camper wouldn’t have survived highway speeds. After that one camping trip, they broke down the trailer to store for the winter and haven’t made another one since.

When I was looking for a lightweight camper that I could make myself, I never thought of using duct tape. Even though it wasn’t quite what I was looking for, it’s an ingenious idea and a fun project for the family!

This video shows an RV park in 1937. I thought it was so interesting to see all the old trailers.

It was basically a commercial for Chevrolet, far before the “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet” tagline. Still, even this commercial is a lovely time capsule into the past.

Via: Weird RVs: Getaway From Walton’s Mountain

One of the cool things about my new teardrop trailer is the sink that came with it. It’s a five gallon jug that fits nicely in a recess in the galley hatch. You fill it with water like any other water jug, but once it’s full, you can use a hand pump like a water faucet to fill the sink within the jug. Here is a video showing you how it works.

This sink was made by Reliance back in 1989, but I can’t find anything from them that works as nicely. They do make the Wash’n Go 3 Gallon Sink, which is a similar design without a hand pump faucet, though.

It is also a water jug with an integrated sink. I suspect you could add this Leisure Components Hand Water Pump to the lid of the product and connect an aquarium hose to the water spout at the bottom of the sink for a similar experience as my Reliance camping sink.

Reliance also makes the ON TAP Powered Washing Station Camp Sink.

This sink requires a separate water reservoir. You put their powered water pump into the water source and it will be a pressurized sink, just like at home. It’s so rare that I have electricity when I’m camping that I think this setup would be bad for me. Additionally, the reviews on Amazon make it sound like it is flimsy and overpriced.

In the end, this sink from Reliance that came with our trailer is ingenious and very rare, so we are doing our best to take good care of it.