Starling Travel

I can’t believe I haven’t written about the Volkswagen Bug MiniHome Motorhome. The plans for it were in the June 1977 issue of Mechanix Illustrated.

You can buy plans for this camper here: (Continue Reading…)

One thing I loved about the teardrop trailer was that I could work on it in my own garage. That is a feature that is shared with a tent trailer. After a trip, I can pull our tent trailer into our garage, lift it up and out and be able to change sheets, unpack clothing and food and do whatever repairs are needed.

Here is a photo of our Jayco Eagle deployed in our garage.

As you can see, when the bunkends are pulled out, the trailer barely fits lengthwise. When the roof is raised, there is less than a foot’s clearance from the trailer roof and the garage door when it’s opened. A similarly sized travel trailer wouldn’t even fit under the garage door, so I wouldn’t be able to store it in my garage. I would have to find a storage facility for it. Not so with the tent trailer.

Before a trip, I can open the trailer up and stock up the cooler, pack our clothes and other gear. I love that I can set things up perfectly before we go on our trip. Knowing that we have packed everything, calms my pre-trip jitters.

If my tent trailer was any bigger, however, I wouldn’t be able to have this luxury. Our box is only 8 feet, so we can fit lengthwise. We don’t have a high-wall camper, so we are short enough to fit under the garage door when it’s open.

This is a feature that I wasn’t expecting when we bought the tent trailer. I had enjoyed renovating our teardrop trailer in our garage and I wasn’t even sure that a tent camper would fit even if it was fully packed up. I’m so grateful that I can pack the camper before a trip and empty it out afterwards in the comfort of my garage.

The dinette table in our tent trailer is HEAVY.

I know why this is the case. It needs to double as the middle support of a bed so our camper can sleep six people.

But we don’t need to sleep six people.

So, I took the table out of the trailer and we haven’t put it back in.

But a nagging part of me thinks that I should bring the table on our travels to put outside, letting it be the focus of our outdoor cooking. And another nagging part of me worries about leaking bunk-ends in the rain with the three of us huddled on couches, wishing we could just turn them into a bed like they were intended.

But then again, that table is so HEAVY! I weighed it on my bathroom scale and it tops out at 16.3 pounds. No wonder I almost throw my shoulder out every time I try to move it!

I looked online and found some options. One of them solves the outdoor kitchen problem. A forum poster on Popup Portal named hsr posted his homemade outdoor galley and it looks much lighter than my table.

• Popup Portal: My Homemade Outdoor Galley

Built this to replace the Cabela’s Deluxe Camp kitchen. It was just too big (especially to store inside the PUP), heavy and had no easy way to level.

The only problem is that when he weighed the two parts of that outdoor galley, they topped out 23.5, which is way lighter than the Cabela’s Deluxe Camp kitchen, but heavier than my dinette table. I could make something simple like my original table, however, that would weigh about ten pounds or so.

And what about the bed and that supposed leaky scenario where we are all huddled into the middle of the camper? I found an option for that as well. Instead of a heavy table, fritz_monroe used a few wood slats to bridge the middle.

• Popup Portal: Dinette bed slats

My kids are getting to the point where they won’t share one of the king sized bed ends. So my daughter has been sleeping on the dinette. However, we like to use the table in the screen room when we are camping. So I needed to come up with a way to support the cushions for her. I didn’t want to use plywood. So I connected a bunch of 1×3 fering strips with nylon webbing. This is what I came up with. The spacing allows the boards to fold up accordion style.

That many strips of boards might be foldable and easy to stow away just in case we need them, but will they weigh less than six pounds? Maybe, but now instead of a simple table, which can go outside for cooking or come inside to make a bed, I now have two kludgy replacements that weigh almost the same as the original table.

I guess that dinette table isn’t so heavy after all…

Since our trailer is so small, there isn’t room for a porta-potty in it. We needed to find a privacy tent that was small and easy to set up. After much searching, we found one that worked for us.

The first privacy tent we tried was the Texsport Hilo Hut Privacy Shelter. We bought ours at Sportsman’s Warehouse for $39, even though it was cheaper through Amazon because we wanted to be able to easily return it if it was too hard to put up. I wanted something that didn’t take forever to put together. Unfortunately, I didn’t find out how long it took the Hilo Hut to put up because the cheap plastic connector on one of the poles broke the first time we tried it. I returned the tent with the offending part taped to the outside of the box. It was very disappointing.

There was a bigger and better looking privacy tent at Sportsman’s Warehouse that looked like this Texsport Deluxe Camp Shower, but this one looked even harder to put up than the smaller one. More importantly, the box for this tent was HUGE and I couldn’t imagine where we would store the tent. I was keenly aware of the fact that I’m only getting a port-potty and privacy tent for those incredibly rare situations when we are camping without any hookups or access to bathroom facilities. They might be used if the campground bathroom is so far away that it feels dangerous to walk that far in the dark. This isn’t a necessity that we MUST make room for. It’s a luxury that I’d like to keep hidden in storage unless we need it, so this huge tent just wasn’t an option for us.

We ended up buying the Trekker Fold-A-Privy from Cabela’s. It was the right size for Mike (who is quite tall), and set up was insanely quick. It is a pop up shelter, kind of like the sunshade Mike and I have for our windshield. All we had to do was pull it out of the bag and it popped open. Then we unfolded it and it was ready to be staked to the ground. There were no fiberglass poles to unfold and thread through the tent. There were no weird connectors to snap into pieces. It was a breeze. Additionally, it was a very small tent when folded, so I could easily squeeze it into the under seat storage in the trailer. It did cost $20 more than the Hilo Hut. My reluctance to buy it wasn’t based on price, setup, or size, however. I was really worried that I wouldn’t be able to get it folded back up. Fortunately, I found this video showing me how to get it folded back into the carrying case.

After watching that video twice, Mike and I were easily able to fold up the tent and get it back into the case. It really is a great little privacy tent for us.

If you don’t have a Cabela’s near you, I found a very similar tent for the same price on Amazon. It’s called the Matter of Time Instant Privacy Pop Up Shelter. It looks like the Fold-A-Privy and I’m sure that the folding technique is the same. We were just eager to buy ours from a store where we could easily return it if we didn’t like it, so Cabela’s worked out for us. Look how good the Matter of Time looks with this retro Apache Hard Side Pop Up Camper.

If you are looking for a way to have a port-potty and need a small privacy tent, I really feel the pop up tents are the best option. If it’s not easy to put up and takes up too much storage space, then you won’t bring it with you and it won’t be there for those emergency times when you need it.

It looks like we might be boondocking when we visit Quartzsite this year. I’m hoping that we have a spot in a campground with hookups, but if we don’t, I need to be prepared. We had some severe limitations because our tent trailer is so small that there really isn’t room for a port-potty in the trailer, so we have looked at a TON of portable toilets over the last few days.

The best flushable toilet we found was the Thetford Curve. It was the only flushable porta-potty that felt like a real toilet. I didn’t have to squat to sit on it, which was a real benefit. Unfortunately, because of that, we weren’t able to purchase this one. It literally did not fit anywhere in our trailer. Since we are looking for a port-potty option for “just in case” we are forced to boondock, I couldn’t imagine carting around this huge thing and letting it take up so much space. Additionally, I couldn’t justify spending $150 for something that I might not even use. If we boondocked often, I would definitely go with this option. You can see a video review of it here:

We had the same trouble with the Luggable Loo Portable 5 Gallon Toilet. It felt really good to sit on because it was rather tall and sized well. It may be just as tall as the Thetford Curve, but it was also lightweight. Since it’s basically a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat, it didn’t weigh very much at all. Even better, it worked with the Double Doodie Bags, but it was just SO large, that I couldn’t justify how much space it would take up in the trailer. At 19 bucks, it was a great deal, however. It made us want to look at other potty options that used bags. Here is a video review of the Luggable Loo, but take it with a grain of salt because this guy is an Apocalypse Prepper.

I liked the idea of the Fold-To-Go Collapsible Portable Toilet, even though the $38 price tag was almost twice that of the Luggable Loo. A foldable toilet like this would take just a tiny area in the storage of my trailer. I didn’t like how far down I had to squat to use it, but more importantly, it felt REALLY flimsy. I was sure that those plastic legs would collapse right out from under me if I sat on it for any amount of time, so I had to pass on this one as well.

We ended up buying this Foldable Toilet at Sportsmans Warehouse for only $14. It is lightweight, stores absolutely FLAT and takes up hardly any space in the trailer storage bins. I tried sitting on it to see if it would hold my weight and it performed beautifully. It’s a little shorter than the Luggable Loo and the Thetford Curve, but not so short that I have to squat uncomfortably to sit on it. I really liked that I was able to use it with the Double Doodie Bags, so the smell wouldn’t be that bad. I found a video about it on YouTube. You can see it here:

If we regularly camped without hookups, then we would have made a very different decision, but because this porta-potty is to be an emergency toilet, not a regularly used one, the folding toilet made the most sense. If our trailer was big enough to house the Thetford Curve, I probably would have optioned for that one, even though it costs literally TEN times the cost of the foldable toilet because it was such a nice option. In the end, I was limited by our small trailer and liberated by our ability to stay at campgrounds with hookups, so we ended up with a tiny option that takes almost no space in our trailer.

I love this camping setup on YouTube: Glamping Bedroom from Glampingqueen.

This is a Broadstone Beaumont Cabin Tent and it has it all:

• A front porch where you can take off any wet gear or muddy shoes.
• A bedroom with a queen sized inflatable bed
• A den where you can sit and write or a separate room for children
• A bathroom with a port-potty, vanity and sink

I love her ingenuity. I have a camp kitchen very similar to the one she is using for a vanity in her bathroom. I never once thought of using it for a bathroom sink and vanity. She is using the cupboards for storing towels and toiletries instead of food. Brilliant!

She also has a video tour of her showerhouse. I LOVE that tent and I’m wondering what brand it is.

Update 12-09-12: She got back to me and it’s a Broadstone Privacy Shelter.

She also has great ideas for easy ways to fetch water while you camp. Since we camp at many primitive camping sites in Utah, we are lugging water jugs all the time. This is a wonderful idea to make that chore easier.

Here is her camping kitchen tent. I prefer to cook in the outdoors, but when it’s raining, it makes cooking a miserable chore. She has a pretty good setup for that situation.

Glampingqueen also runs a blog about camping and ATVs. You can read it here:

• Clamping Info

Many times, I’ve thought about building my own teardrop trailer, but my skills are lacking right now. When I was looking at the local classifieds, I came across this camper: $3,000 Custom built trailer Murray, UT

This looks EXACTLY like what I was looking for in an inexpensive trailer.

I AM worried about how the roof is attached, however.

It doesn’t have a full sized door, but it does look much more roomy than a teardrop.

According to the description:

This trailer is 11′ long, 5′ wide, and 6′ high. The table folds to a queen size bed. Lots of storage.

It looks like there are lots of cupboards for storage in the trailer.

Here is the view from the outside, looking in.

The reason I decided to look for a teardrop trailer instead of building my own is because I don’t think I could have built anything better or cuter than this. Instead, I found the American Teardrop Outbacker and fell in love with it.

Sometimes it’s better to just buy the camper of your dreams rather than try to build it yourself.

After seeing Zadi’s favorite traveling apps yesterday, I was surprised that NONE of my favorites were in the list. After looking through my archives, I’ve talked about these apps a couple of times, but never really featured them. Here are my absolute FAVORITE apps for camping and travel.

Coverage?

The Coverage? app [iTunes link] easily tells you whether you will have cell phone coverage where you’re going. I talked about Coverage? before here:

• Starling Travel » Do You Have Cell Coverage? Find Out With Coverage?

Back then, I said:

If you look at the map on the right, you can CLEARLY see that there is a big white hole in the middle of Valley of Fire State Park. This is the beauty of the Coverage? app. You can see immediately how likely it is that you’ll have coverage on your travels.

Connectivity is really important to me, so I use this app every time we travel someplace new.

Allstays

The Allstays iPhone App [iTunes link] shows you what camping sites are near you. This app really bailed us out when we were at a loss for a campsite in Missouri. I talked about it here:

• Starling Travel » Moncur Epic Journey May 2012: Beacon RV Park in St. Joseph, Missouri

The beauty of leaving our travel schedule open was that Mike and I could drive as far as we wanted and when we were tired we could find a campsite to stop at and sleep. The irresponsibility of leaving our travel schedule open was that we were driving home during Memorial Day weekend.

Fortunately, using Allstays, we were able to find a beautiful campground in a spot we would have never imagined.

Allstays ALSO has listings for gas stations, RV repair facilities and all the Walmart stores that allow (and don’t allow) overnight stays. I talked about that here:

• Starling Travel » How To RV at a Walmart

Camp Where

As good as Allstays is, it’s not perfect. The holes in its list of RV campsites are filled nicely by Camp Where [iTunes link] We used it to find the beautiful campground at Gore Landing in Oklahoma. I talked about it here:

• Starling Travel » Moncur Epic Journey May 2012: Gore Landing, Oklahoma

We found [the campground] on the Camp Where app. I looked through comments about the site and one of them mentioned that there was no sign for the campground on the main road. They weren’t kidding.

If the app hadn’t been so thorough, we wouldn’t have ever found that campground. We’ve come to depend on Camp Where when we plan a trip and when we are out on the road, dead tired and in need of a break.

Cost2Drive

When planning a trip, it really helps to know how much it’s going to cost in gas to get there. Cost2Drive [iTunes link] has been really helpful in that matter. In fact, it was the deciding factor when I was doing research on our next epic road trip. I wrote about it here:

• Starling Travel » Disney World Cost Analysis: Driving the Teardrop VS. Flying

I want to go to Disney World. I’ve never been there and I really want to experience all Disney World has to offer. We live in Salt Lake City, Utah, however, so every time I bring it up, everyone in the family says that we should just go to Disneyland instead. It’s almost the same and it’s so much closer.

In order to convince them, I have to do RESEARCH. How inexpensively can we do this trip? Today, I did that research for a trip in February and what I found, surprised me.

Without these few apps, many of our trips wouldn’t have even come to fruition because we wouldn’t have had the information to leave our house without them. They’ve been my faithful friends for months now and I am so grateful I can turn to them when we get the bug to travel.

I was perusing Google images for redneck campers when I came across this blog entry:

• The Journey of the Redneck Express: Classic Campers: Del-Rey Tri-Level Sky Lounge and Kamp King demonstrating the strength of their camper’s construction

It’s about the Del Rey Sky Lounge Truck Camper, which was a feat of engineering.

Built in the mid-Sixties, it was a truck camper with THREE levels. The first level was the kitchen area, the second level was at the fore of the camper with seats so travelers could watch out the front. The third had a bed up and to the middle. Even better, the top popped open so you could enjoy yourself on the roof and the back popped out for more room as well.

I really love the retro look of this camper.

You can see all the photos I’ve found and even a couple of brochures after the break… (Continue Reading…)

“I’ve been obsessed with teardrop trailers lately,” I said to Matt back in March. This was before I bought the Teardrop American Outbacker (and sold it) and even before we bought the Palomino tent trailer.

“Yeah, me too.” He answered, which surprised me.

“Really? I’ve been trying to convince Mike to let me build one,” I confided.

“Want to see my design for the one I want to build?” He asked.

He pulled up a Sketchup design for a teardrop that could hold his two motorcycles during the drive, but then fold down to a bed for him, Christy and the kids once they got to the campground. It was ingenious and I told him so, but neither of us have the woodworking skills to make our teardrop trailers happen.

Fast forward to November and I was perusing the Net when I came across Utilitoy. It’s a teardrop trailer that is meant to haul your gear and then turn into a couple of beds at the campground. I was shocked at how similar the design was to Matt’s.

Here’s a video giving you a tour:

I love that it’s waterproof on the inside so that you can just hose the mud from the motorcycles out after you haul them home.

I also love the design for the bed. The origami metal fold outs are AWESOME!

Those huge doors on the back make this trailer so useful for hauling gear, antiques or whatever you would have used a pickup for.

Check out how easy it is to put a motorcycle in the Utilitoy.

According to Utilitoy’s Facebook Page, the Utilitoy is very reasonably priced (especially compared to other teardrop trailers):

Brand new fully loaded Utilitoy with AC and 19″ High Def flat screen TV available now for $8700 factory direct.

I, of course, immediately emailed Matt the information about this eerily similar teardrop camper and toy hauler. Matt’s reply? Only three words…

“Requesting a quote!”