Over in Indiana
Unfortunately none of these are being sold in my area, but I’ve seen one once before and thought they were well built and using quality materials in their construction. Their 8.0 and 10.0 offer room for a crowd on down days. They don’t require a big vehicle to tow and sit high enough to negotiate some rough turf.
http://www.livinlite.com/index.php
If you…
– Last Updated: Aug-01-09 9:37 AM EST –
looked at my pictures I used a Guide Series{Gander mountain} Pop up shade. It is 12'X 12'and I have had 6 people around a folding table playing cards in the rain at 50 degrees with a small electric heater inside and the walls up,and we were in our shirt sleeves. The Pop up already comes with walls,or screens for rain/cold or bugs.It is square and inside height can be 7' at the lowest point,so you can stand everywhere inside. Also the SUV {SportZ} tent was 12' X 12' and had 5 people inside a rainy day. I doubt you will find a camper with that sized living space,that you can tow without a $50,000 truck. It all packs up and stores inside the teardrop,with the coolers, food boxes,and duffle bags for clothing. Teardrop can store all the camping gear ready for use the next time out. Throw in food and coolers and ready to go in 15 minutes. You can drag it by hand over to the car to hook up,and park it at the campsite without backing the trailer with the car.
As for the Aliner. Ex girlfriend had one. Nice camper but the angled roof doesn't allow you much room to stand up at the outer edges. 4 people in an Aliner is a crowd. At the dining table the two who sit closest to the edge have to twist their heads to sit at the table.That side is known to Aliners as the kids side. They can sleep 4 people,but really only spacious if used by 2 people. Great concept,super fast set up,but they have limitations.Can't count how many time I banged my head in one getting up out of bed,and sitting at the table.
I consider a regular Pop up trailer as a royal PITA as far as set up,and tear down. If it rains when folding up,everything gets wet inside. They have tons of bed area,but limited seating area.
These are the reasons I ditched the hard side,and pop up trailer in favor of the teardrop. Ease of towing and saving gas,very much more adaptable for space,minimial storage needed for the trailer,and gear. Easier to be towed by smaller cars,and just plain easier to tow period.Trailer didn't need backing into the space,just push it in place. Set up of trailer,and pop up shade or SUV tent didn't take any longer. If you set up the pop up shade or SUV tent first when it rained you pushed the teardrop under it to finish unpacking dry when raining. Try that with a hard side or pop up trailer in the rain. The pop up shade & tent went up in less then 5 minutes. I guess that when us teardroppers showed up at camp sites everyone in the campground was amazed by our set ups,and ease of set up.Even the Motorcoach crowd came to see our rigs. We were done and partying while they were still backing,leveling,and setting up. We had lots more fun with the teardrop then any other camper we owned.
billinpa
We bought a used Aliner
1997 bunk style. We love it! Yes, it’s relatively heavy and we have to pull it with a Ford Ranger, but it’s easy to set up and has lots of storage. I can’t sleep in the cold due to asthma, so it’s the way we camp. We rented a regular pop-up once before we bought our camper, but I feel a bit more secure in the Aliner because of the hard sides.
We carry the boats on the truck. I can’t imagine racks being secure attached to the camper. Would you just keep the boats on the ground once you’ve set up?
Livinlite 8.0
I’m familiar with this one, and it is really nice and well built. Only drawback, it takes two people to set it up.
Just lazy/efficient
The reason I’m wondering if the trailer could double as a kayak hauler is to make it a multi-use kind of thing. I can get my boat on top of my SUV, but it’s a pain sometimes and I don’t expect it to get any easier as I get, ahem, older. Figure I’ll eventually have to go to a trailer system, hence, wondering about possibility of camper/kayak hauler option.
Hard sides have other advantages also
By “safe” I assume you mean safe from bad humans.
The hard sides are also better for bear country, or for when bears are unusually bold. Some campgrounds here occasionally are closed to all except those using hard-sided campers.
I like hard sided enclosures for another reason: they’re much, much better at blocking noise than any fabric structures. (Mine is just the back of a pickup truck, in a topper, but it’s still way quieter than a tent.) If you doubt this, on some night when loud, rude “campers” are around, go into your car and close the door. Huge sound reduction.
Lightweight campers for rustic adventure
– Last Updated: Aug-01-09 11:28 PM EST –
These campers are the industry's attempt to try to meet the needs of the outdoors, off the beaten path community. Although they all have been built and are shown in their web sites or catalogs, apparently a number of them never got beyond the prototype stage because they could not figure out how to build enough of a profit margin with them or make them less expensive then the more dressed out campers already in their line up. The Coleman Switchback was one that piqued my interest, but never got beyond them building more then one prototype of it.
http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODE/PopUpTimes/
This one is available, but very pricey.
http://www.sylvansport.com/
alternate POV
if you have to set up tents & tarps to accommodate people why not just tent camp???
swedge…
I think you missed the point of the poster wanting something light to tow,reasonably inexpensive and be able to sleep off the ground with a kitchen,and may have storage/tow issues with a bigger camper. Personally I don’t care what they do I just gave a suggestion and some background for them to make a decision.
billinpa
Motorcycle camper
We have a Trailmaster Aspen motorcycle pop-up that we can tow behind our VW Jetta TDI diesel Sportwagen. The car is rated at 1000 lbs. and it tows this easily and it’s light enough to also enable us to carry a lot of gear, clothes, food and canoes. Because it takes two of us to set it up, and I have arthritis and am not a lot of help, we are looking to sell it and get a small A-liner. It opens up to sleep 2 very comfortably or 4 crowded.
Solo Setup Essential
A few of the options mentioned here, like the one above, refer to needing more than one person to set them up or, in general, being difficult to set up without help. The ability to easily set it up alone is essential – anything less is a deal breaker. One reason I’m drawn to the Aliner was a guy I met while we were each filling the tanks on our respective gas guzzlers. “It takes 60 seconds to set up,” he said. “Wanna see?” And he then proceeded to set it up, right there by the pumps, in less than a minute.
But you’d have to take your kayak off
– Last Updated: Aug-04-09 9:08 AM EST –
..to do what he did. With a teardrop, you could leave the kayak on.
I have seen Aliners, and I agree with what someone above wrote--I cannot see sitting in there and playing cards with four people in the rain anyhow. The roof is much more slanted and in the way for mobility than you;d think--you should see one.
I would have used a 10x10 instant up canopy (4 minutes up), and enjoyed the waterproof inside for sleeping. Easier access, when you;re on the road side at a rest stop (no putting up Aliner to get inside--and if you had kayaks on top of Aliner, no getting in at all).
Have you seen Tab brand campers? Put kayak on vehicle, and pull tiny Tab camper--there was a dealer north of you at one time. Pontiac maybe? Youtube "Tab Camper"... perhaps a compromise for you. Nice videos.
T@B is Cute
I definitely will give the T@B points for cuteness. Need to measure my garage door to see if it would go inside. If it fits, I’ll keep it under consideration (what the heck, I’m just dreaming now anyway, maybe I’ll dream up a taller garage while I’m at it). Nearest dealer is 90 miles away.
Scamp and Casita
Fitting your garage may be an issue, but the vehicle weight of these two would challenge an Aliner, Chalet or T@B’s weight plus probably give you the most interior volume. Also being all fiberglass eliminates rot or leak issues. They show up on Ebay and Craigslist once in awhile.
http://www.scamptrailers.com/
http://www.casitatraveltrailers.com/
Testing
There was always a chase vehicle with some spares. Usually you’d just abort the test when one of the temperatures hit the spec limit, and hope the test engineer had left enough margin in the test profile so no actual damage had occured. We did change fluids fairly frequently.
The fun part was getting to the top of the grade with a smoking hot engine and then having to pop the hood and swap a part so you could go back down and do it again. Thermal sleeves and gloves were your friends.
Lots of tradeoffs trying to balance cooling performance, fuel economy, noise, weight, and cost: Fan sizes and speeds, radiator and condenser configurations, auxilliary fluid coolers, transmission shift patterns, and many more.
Underhood heat management is also important. I remember seeing one early prototype come back in with the oil filler cap melted all over the valve cover, and charred hoses and melted wiring weren’t unusual until component placement and heat shields got sorted out.
It takes a lot of work to make a relable modern vehicle at a competitive cost.
Casita
I owned a Casita for several years. It was a fun trailer and was easy to tow. We towed it with a Ford Explorer. It was very reliable and we had no problems with it. Used ones are in high demand and had an excellent resale value when I had to sell it.
I would be happy to answer questions specific to Casita.
Jill
Had a 12’ Pop Up
I don’t like the Aliner much because not much head room.
We had a 12’ popup when the kids were younger. Like preteen. There was plenty of room for everyone to sleep, and did not have to pack bedding for 6 every trip. We also left a lot of stuff like chairs in there. We went camping once or twice a month, and it really cut down on the packing time.
We both feel like we got our money’s worth out of it. Kathy got it when we separated, since she had three kids, and I only one. She continued to use it. We sold it after we reconciled a few years later. By then the kids were grown.
BUT they are a pain if you have to pack it up when wet. We mostly used it for camping in the Eastern Sierras in summer where rain is really rare, and the low humity dries things out very quickly. We would store it over there for the summer so we didn’t have to pull it over Sonora Pass several times a year.
Now we have a conversion van. Four seats and a king sized bed. Its great for our weekends at the beach, now that is it is just the two of us. Big problem is no way to take kayaks. I can take the Frenzy to the beach, but that is all. Kathy doesn’t go out on the ocean, anyway.
For the Sierras she would drive the van and kids/grandkids in the van, and I would follow in my Toy truck with kayaks. Sounds crazy, especially when gas was so high, but we both enjoy driving over the Pass.
Now that we have plenty of RV storage at the new place, we are debating what to get for our summer Sierra trips. Kathy wants a hard trailer, and I want another small tent trailer.
Towing
An Explorer can handle a variety of trailers and weights, but how would it have been towing the Casita with a bigger 4cyl (lets say a 2.5 liter) or a small 6 cyl (3.0 - 3.5 liter) ?
weight
That’s still the problem–trying to find a trailer light enough to tow with a 4 cyl. fuel-efficient car. That eliminates both the Scamp and Casita. Ideally, I’d love to have a Hi-Lo, but then I’d have to get rid of either the 30 mpg Vibe or 45 mpg Jetta and get an 18 mpg whatever. It would be cheaper to get a motel room…
For a pop up
The smaller Quicksilver Livn-Lite’s (link above) can be towed by a 4cyl. as they are all aluminum construction and the cabinets are injected plastic rather then pressed board. I’ve seen one, but a bit pricey and hard to find a dealer near many of us, but I thought they were a quality build. Outside of that it seems Europe is the place to go for what some of us are looking for.