Morning Skuzzybucket, and all to follow.

 

Good morning everyone. The weather looks good today until late afternoon.

 

Howdy to the Oregon Patriots.......

Jim..... Enjoy that fine camper.....

I am sure glad we don't have the flooding around here........

Been a nice morning of slacking...... Time to make some breakfast and get my butt in gear.....
I still must take it easy with the back surgery..... but I can get something accomplished........

 

Good Friday morning Charlie, Andy, Evan Roy and those to follow.
55° here.

 

Good morning..

 

Good morning Oregon and everyone everywhere else. 52° now. Was blue sky earlier with a heavy marine layer rising up over the Coast Range to the West. We sit in a semi circular hole here at the convergence of the Grande Ronde/Yamhill River Valley and the Willamette Valley so we have Coast Range mountains 5 miles to the West and part of town is in the Coast Range to the North. Makes for some interesting weather patterns at times. At least the River, 500 yards away, usually stays in its banks here, but does periodically cause problem for the far east end of town.


Isn't that the truth. Our first slide in camper came in 1980 after an elk hunting trip when we had a major storm blow in off of the Pacific. Everything in the tent was floating. The boys were sliding down a mud hill like a couple of otters. The only way we had to clean them up and warm them up was in the front of the pickup with the heater on high.
That first camper was not much more than a camper shell. It had an Ice box and a small sink, a hand crank faucet/pump with a 10 gallon water tank and a two burner propane stove that was used for cooking and heat. The benches on either side of the aisle formed the bottom bunk, and the back of the bench seats folded up on a hinge and attached to I bolts on the ceiling with a snap on a chain for the top bunk. You pulled the table out and set it outside. If I wanted to stretch out while laying down, the back door had to be open so my feet could stick out through the door. When the goys got older, we ditched the camper and went back to tents.

In 1987, the year our daughter was born, we picked up a used King of the Road. It could sleep 6, had a 3 way refer, an electric water pump, a no shower head, and hydraulic jacks. It also had a 'furnace' that worked by lighting the oven and turning on the furnace fan which simply blew heat out a vent in the over door. As long as the weather was good the kids always wanted to sleep out in their tents. The boys liked their tents...it was easier to sneak out without being caught so they could go meet up with the girls that always seemed to be in abundance around the Diamond Lake Resort across the Lake.... Sandy was aloud out in a tent after she was around 5, but she had to stay in one of her brothers tents. They weren't too happy as it interfered with their 0200 girl chasing rendezvous.

In 1994 a jack collapsed out from under the King and I salvaged it out after the insurance company totaled it. After we had gotten everything out of it we wanted to, I took it down to the south horse pasture on the other side of the creek. We hooked a chain to it and the tractor. Dad went one way with the camper while I drove the pickup in the other direction. We then poured a little diesel in it, stood back and pitched a road flare in. That thing burned so fast and so hot that it was all said and done in 5 minutes with just a pile of melted aluminum left behind.

We went back to tents and stayed in tents until after the 3rd surgery I had in 6 months in 2013. We still have the stove out of the King and use it out side, mainly for canning which helps keep it cooler in the house. I still carry the water pump with us so I can pump water out of buckets into the camper tank. It is really starting to show its age and I'll probably end up replacing it this year.

This new camper is something else. It has two key fobs, one for rolling out the rear awning and turning the built in awning lights on and off, complete with dimmer and the other to run the electronic combination lock on the back door. The remote for the camper jacks is dual purpose. It runs the jacks and runs auxiliary stuff like the dining room slider. It will take a while to get used to all the bells and whistles on this camper. The instruction manuals and info 611 that came packed in it is like a set of encyclopedias. Our old Lance that got burned up had a zip up folder with the books in it. This one has a big zippered cloth grocery bag type of carrier for it.

 

Good morning Oregon!

Jim, Very nice camper! I have already liked the lance campers. I have never owned but my buddy had had a couple of them.

We pick our Host up on the 27th!

 

This is our 2nd Lance and 4th 'real' camper over all, so we were just a little biased by experience as compared to the other 2 brands we've had (which are no longer made). Even with that in mind, we did go into this with our eyes almost open to other suggestions. Well, I think my eyes and mind were more wide open than the Wardens....

It was really boiling down to the Lance or Artic Fox. If we would have had a place where we could have compared Host and Lance side by side (or just down the road from each other,) and then compared the spec sheets, it may have been turned out different. I was really interested in the Host Cascade, but couldn't find one to touch, feel and examine the construction of.

 

Our last slide in was an Artic Fox.
I got tired of it in the back of the truck
( more like OWMBO did)
we sold it to a guy nearby, he still has it, and loves it

I ended up with a 30' bumper pull Jayco Discovery
It's an 03, but for it's time, still top of the line, and in great shape. Does everything we want, so we're happy.
We pull it with the 02 f 250 powerstroke, so not a problem.
I have pulled it with the 06 E 450 box truck with the 6.8. that truck don't even know it's back there.
One day, I'll drag it out west......

 

Good Friday evening Oregon and Visiting Ford Fans.
Fun day at work!

 

Good evening Oregon and everyone everywhere else. Rain started coming down in torrents. Been getting the camper set of a week of camping. Actually, I think we just been hanging out out there in the camper listening to the rain fall and the stereo system.

Jayco are good RV's with good reputations. See quite a few of them in the campgrounds. If I were a millionaire I'd have a trailer for hunting and the camper for fishing and or getting into places where the trailer couldn't go.

 

I loved the slide in when we went off road beach surf fishing.
The TT has to sit in the camp ground down the road.
Nothing like dragging your house out on the beach with you

Both have their good and bad points, I've gotten used to the tt now.
We are restoring a 1972 Dodge Banner motor home. Figure it for good day/ several day trips.
The mechanical portion, and upgrade has been fine, but the camper part keeps showing Mr Murphy.
Really sorry I started the project with mechanical.
I would have scrapped it to be honest.
Sure is a lot of rotted wood hidden in that old truck

 

Good morning and happy Saturday!

I used to have a bummer pull years ago, right this moment and can't think of the brand but it worked real well. I would probably have another but I want to be able to tow other things along with us when we go camping. Like boats, motorcycle trailers, car trailer with the Bronco. So the truck camper is the ticket.

Jim, Our old camper was an Arctic Fox, we really liked the Host Mammoth but man that thing is big! We liked the layout of the Rainier, so of all thing we ordered one site unseen!

 

Good morning Oregon and everyone everywhere else. 46.4 with some scattered marine layer type overcast. Appears to be trying to dry out.
Exactly! You just nailed the main reason why I told the Warden that when we replaced the Lance & Alpenlite, we were going to do it with a unit that was less 5 years old.

Wood rot was the reason the jack failed on the King of the Road camper we had. I had religiously gone over the seams on that once a year scraping sealant and resealing when necessary. But, water still managed to get into the right front corner and rot out the wood the jack was anchored to. I had actually thought about rebuilding that for about 2 seconds. Had it not been for the fact that I had just spent all winter and spring helping dad do a complete skin off rebuild of my sisters camper, I would have probably taking the rebuild on. After what we got into with my sisters Caveman camper...there was no way I was going to turn around and start a rebuild on the King of the Road. Starting in replacing wood rot on those things was like opening up a bottomless pit bank account that just keeps on giving and giving and giving.


Yep, the Host Mammoth and the Lance 1172 were both not even a consideration for us. Way to much weight. Just no way to game the system with those two models and an F250 pickup -

I remember your AF from the GTG you were at a few years ago. We had the "Camper Row" set up - lined up down the road in front of Don's shop with the electrical hook ups daisy chained with Tiny's
You are going to have to think about bringing that brand new Host Rainer down the GTG this year. Been 4 years since you visited us at the last one...…

 

Good morning Charlie, Tim, Jim and those to follow.
51.6° and waiting for the marine layer to burn off.