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Leah

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Apr 3, 2009
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Just curious if there's anyone here that goes camping with their families?

How often do you camp?
Do you have a trailer, 5th Wheel or tent?
If you have a trailer/5th wheel, what kind do you have and what do you like/dislike about it?
Do you go for a weekend at a time, a week, longer?
How far do you travel?

We camped this summer (first time in 6 years) for two weeks while the kids took swimming lessons. The campground was only a half hour away from where we live (in a town that DH grew up in). We borrowed a little hybrid trailer from some friends of ours and while it was nice (it's only a year old), it was a wee bit squishy for the 5 of us. But we had a great time!

So for next year...I'm thinking we need to buy our own trailer. But we're trying to decide on a couple of things - do we buy new/used? How big should we get? Where's the best place to get the best deal (we've heard buying in the US is way better!)

I grew up camping (tent/trailer) and DH loves to camp as well. Yes, it was our first time camping in 6 years, but our kids are at that age now where camping is not as painful as it was 6 years ago (tent, hot/humid, screaming baby = not fun) and it's something that we would like to do more often.

So...input please? :)
 
Its been like 10 or even more years since I went camping. (Im not really a camping kinda of girl. I just have to have my shower everyday ..hehe.) But when we went it was in a tent. DH said it aint camping if you are in a fifth wheel...hehe. He likes to rough it out in the wilderness. Its just not my thing. But if We had our 5th wheel out there then I could do it all the time.. ;)

Im sure some of the girls will add some input too :)
 
We enjoy camping. We don't currently have a trailer, but have had one in the past and now we just use my parents when we go! We would love a bunkhouse camper though. I personally would buy a nice used one just to not take the hit of a new one, and not getting your value back out of it. We are looking for a 30' - 34' bunkhouse trailer. We generally do weekend trips - long weekends, and usually in our state - maybe within about a 2-3 hr. drive. Hope some of that helps and have fun looking! I have no clue if trailers/fifth wheels are cheaper in the states here because I have nothing else to compare it to! the bunkhouses that we are looking at are going for about $12-$15,000 for a nice used one (like 2-5 yrs. old)
 
Oh yah Amanda - you'd be paying over 20 grand here for something newer with the bunks. We like the 12-15,000 range!
 
i used to love camping but we've never gone since having kids. maybe we'll take them camping soon, since they're definitely all old enough now. but i can almost guarantee it will be tent camping. no spending that kind of $$ for us. not for something we hardly ever do.

good luck in finding what's best for you guys though. hope you find a great deal!
 
We have an RV - it's a 36-foot diesel motorhome, so I call it "princess camping" but we have a great time when we go. We use it at least once a month in the spring and summer months, and usually try to get out a few times in the fall also. We bought it used, which is something I never thought I would do, but it was in amazing shape, and we never could have afforded it new! LOL! It's funny - the RV suits us and our personalities very well, but if I had kids, I'd either tent camp, or get a small trailer so it had a bathroom and small refrigerator. Kids have SO much more fun when they're hanging outside, and they don't care at all about "comfort" like I do at this point.
 
We have been camping just about every weekend this summer. We own a 27' Pull-Behind Trailer and its got plenty of room. But now that we are really using it, I would love a trailer with at least 1, if not 2, slide-outs. They just provide more room, IMHO. Wish we could get a 5th wheel but then we'd have to have a truck with the capacity to pull one so that's pretty much out of the question. We also use our camper all during the fall months until January 1st as we spend alot of time at deer camp but at least my ol' man keeps the trailer super clean.
 
That sounds like us Melanie...must have slide-outs. Some people that we talked to said that if you're going to buy one, get the slide outs otherwise we would regret it very soon after. Mind you, their trailer was absolutely beautiful! That's my idea of camping...a 2nd home! hehe
 
We camp a bunch too.... tent camping all the way for us. It's just easier and we don't have anywhere to store a trailer, so that's that. We did add cots to our supplies this year and I LOVE them. :) i bought totes for each family member that slide under the cots so the tent is nice a tidy. :)
 
I agree with slide-outs - they are a must!!! Do a little search on Craigslist (do you have that there?), that is where we look to buy used things like that!
 
I would actually not recommend buying used from a private party, unless you really know what you're looking for and what you're doing. We did the craigslist thing 3-4 times, and each time it was a "too good to be true" type situation. Things were wrong with the RV that the seller claimed they didn't realize, and when you buy from a private party, you are definitely getting an "as-is" deal. We ended up finding our RV from a local dealer, and they guaranteed that everything on the unit will work - we had 30 days to bring it back for 100% fixing. After 30 days, they split any repair items with us 50/50 for 6 months. So that gave us quite a bit of time to get it out, use it, work out the bugs, and be able to feel relatively secure that we weren't getting screwed. Now, a trailer is a LOT different than a motorhome, since there's no engine stuff to worry about, but you still need to think about the mechanics of the slide-outs, any electronics (like a satellite system, TVs, appliances, etc), generator (if it has one), quality of the holding tanks (definitely NOT something you want to have issues with), things like that. We got a really good deal on our RV, but even so, in hindsight, it would have been worth paying extra to get it from a dealer as opposed to a private party.
 
Camping.....I only do that if it's got electricity, plumbing, air conditioning, internet. My idea of roughing it is the cabin at Reelfoot we go to, it's a 2 minute walk to the pool--through gravel.
 
We love camping! Unfortunately we only get to go maybe twice every summer. We go about an hour and 45 minutes from home to a lake campground. It costs $18 a day but each site has power and water and there are showers. We just camp in a tent and definitely take a fan! I would love to have a camper but I don't think we'd spend as much time outside as we do now.
Our puppy also loves camping and swimming! Good luck buying a camper! It would be so nice to have that air conditioning and a real bed to sleep on!
 
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