Ultra-light (and ultra low cost) travel trailer project

[charlese]

A minor correction - Bozeman, Mt. is in Eastern MT. Everyone living in that state knows that East and West are separated by the Continental Divide. Bozeman is close to the Gallatin River, which joins with the Madison and Jefferson Rivers at Three Forks to form the beginning of the Missouri River.

Even Beaverhead County with Dillon is located in Eastern MT. However on a map you will find it to situated at the most Southwestern part of the map - But still in Eastern, MT

About a travel trailer- At least you will be sure there are no bedbugs:eek: . We have been vacationing in our motorhome for 18 years. The Mrs. love the fact that we carry our own bed with us. We don't cook much in the MH. Just coffee, breakfast and sandwiches. The hardest part of any trip is finding restaurants with large enough parking areas. (besides truck stops)

[robinson46176]

Our daughter actually lives at Belgrade MT but I usually just say Bozeman (my spell checker keeps insisting that it is Boseman) because you can see it on a map without a magnifying glass. I understand that she is about 10 miles north west of Bozeman near the Bridger Mountain area.
To an eastern prairie farmer Bozeman will always be in south western MT.
Here is a map showing her county. The red dot is Bozemen:

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Here is a picture she took recently near where she lives. I don't think she is ever moving back to Indiana.

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Such pictures often remind me of a family story that my paternal grandfather (who I only knew from family stories) once visited the Grand Canyon and that his only comment was "Hell of a place to lose a cow"...


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[robinson46176]

About a travel trailer- At least you will be sure there are no bedbugs:eek: . We have been vacationing in our motorhome for 18 years. The Mrs. love the fact that we carry our own bed with us. We don't cook much in the MH. Just coffee, breakfast and sandwiches. The hardest part of any trip is finding restaurants with large enough parking areas. (besides truck stops)

A smallish motorhome is on our bucket list long term but when we got to looking anything we found that I felt would be reliable enough and give decent mileage was more cash than we could put in one before winter. I don't really want to finance one. I have not had a car payment since the 1970's.
I would love to have one of the "toy hauler" type so I could haul my cycle or golf cart (depending on need) in it.

One of the many "other options" we discussed was replacing this Astro as a daily driver and rebuilding it into a small and probably unique class B.
As I said, there are a half zillion options... We once decided that we need about 6 different ways to travel depending on the trip. That however will necessitate my winning a big lottery and my odds are extra slim there since I have never bought a ticket...

BTW, I don't really consider this a viable option:
http://www.wagonteamster.com/
We saw him on the road one day and he camped just 2 miles from the farm. I don't mind driving a bit slower than the "pack" but Bob was rear-ended by a semi and was badly hurt as well as loosing his wagon and 2 horses.


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[cincinnati]

Farmer, before you get to building that trailer, you might want to take a look at a Scamp trailer. They make a nice small trailer with all the comforts. You likely can find a used one reasonably priced. Also. they might give you some ideas for the interior set-up for the one you plan to build.

There is a guy not far from me with a scamp 5th wheel like this for sale http://www.scamptrailers.com/Showroom/1 ... hotos.aspx

I'm not so much interested in a camper but watch them on Craigs List. I see some good buys often. My brother is into camping and we went to the Dayton Ohio RV show. They had some fantastic buys there. You can buy a much nicer camper for the $$$ than you could 5 years ago.
My point, Before going used first check what you can get new. The prices have come down from what we saw at the show.

[Ed in Tampa]

About a travel trailer- At least you will be sure there are no bedbugs:eek: . We have been vacationing in our motorhome for 18 years. The Mrs. love the fact that we carry our own bed with us. We don't cook much in the MH. Just coffee, breakfast and sandwiches. The hardest part of any trip is finding restaurants with large enough parking areas. (besides truck stops)

Chuck
You bring up two interesting points.
First Bedbugs. I know the media has had a field day reporting on this but I wonder how serious the threat really is? I have not heard of anyone I knew that got a bedbug invasion. Of course this may be something people don't broadcast. Is this real or Media hype?

The second interesting point is finding parking places that you utilize when you have a trailer connected to your vehicle. When we were building houses we often had a trailer connected to the truck. My son in law who drove oversized loads in the city for years, could put that trailer in places I considered impossible. I saw him park the truck trailer combo in places I don't think I would try to put a full size car. Yet finding parking at resturants was always a problem. How does that work for everyone else?

[letterk]

Chuck
You bring up two interesting points.
First Bedbugs. I know the media has had a field day reporting on this but I wonder how serious the threat really is? I have not heard of anyone I knew that got a bedbug invasion. Of course this may be something people don't broadcast. Is this real or Media hype?

It is real. Not the most widely read publication, but Lodging Magazine (targeted at the hotel industry) had a issue completely devoted to it. The industry also had a major conference devoted to it last year.

Probably not as big as it seems, but with bad PR, one hotel room with a bedbug invasion can spark a major blow to a location or chain. The industry has come up with a lot of methods to try to stop them. Mattresses are incased in a pillow case-type sack, headboards are attached to the walls with the bed slightly away from them.

I'm sure there has been a lot of training for the cleaning people since they are the first line of defense in discovering an outbreak.

[charlese]

Our daughter actually lives at Belgrade MT but I usually just say Bozeman (my spell checker keeps insisting that it is Boseman) because you can see it on a map without a magnifying glass. I understand that she is about 10 miles north west of Bozeman near the Bridger Mountain area.
To an eastern prairie farmer Bozeman will always be in south western MT.
Here is a map showing her county. (Gallatin County) The red dot is Bozemen:

Here is a picture she took recently near where she lives. I don't think she is ever moving back to Indiana.

Such pictures often remind me of a family story that my paternal grandfather (who I only knew from family stories) once visited the Grand Canyon and that his only comment was "Hell of a place to lose a cow"....

Yep! used to live in Belgrade. Was then a very nice little town. Then moved to Bozeman! Finally moved to Western Montana. Our Son Graduated from Montana State University (in Bozeman)

One of the most interesting remarks I've herd about the Bridger mountains is "Damn useless country - cant plow any of it". However,not at all true about the Gallatin valley. There used to be a large grain elevator in Belgrade. Wonder if it is still there?


To continue with the MT geography lesson ]

P.S. You'll have to excuse me - I am just a prideful Montanan presently residing in California. "You can take the boy out of the country but can never take the country out of the boy." anon?

[billmeyer]

Farmer, I don't think they understand! This is a woodworking forum. We build things, then we try to think up uses for them. Besides, I am sure that you have pulled so many trailers, equipment etc, that it is second nature to you.

Enjoy your trip! One thing I can't understand though is once you have been to eastern Kansas, why go anywhere else?

Bill in Southeast Kansas.

[dforeman]

Not trying to hyjack this tread but more trying to answer questions. We have had a lot of problems here in Maryland (specifically Baltimore City) with bed bug out breaks. I don't believe it was so much of an issue in the upscale hotels (they tend to be on top of this stuff) or in the rural areas of the state. But, most of the outbreaks tend to be where there are lower rent type hotels and residential row type homes (some of those Row Homes are over 100 years old and run down). The bed bug out breaks seemed to be most prominent where folks are concentrated in smallish type areas and they can be spread by transfer of linons/folks from place to place, such as Baltimore City, Ocean City, etc. So, here in Maryland the hype was very real.

As for finding places to park a trailer (restaurants, hotels, etc). I've never really found that to be a big issue. But, I don't tow trailers through Baltimore City or Washington DC. I usually stay away from restaurants with small parking lots anyway. But if I find a particular restaurant with a lot that is full/busy, I just move onto another restaurant. Sometimes hotels have provisions for trailers and sometimes they do not accomodate them. For instance when I go to Ocean City for Bike Week or Cruisin Week (hot rod week). If the hotel or condo doesn't have parking directly by, I can often find a spot along a side street nearby within walking distance. Of course it goes with out saying that you need to make sure everything is locked and secure.

[2bits]

One of the main issues (mythconceptions:eek: about bed bugs is that they live in the beds, bedding etc.. The live in the carpet, behind the trimwork aka in the room. The only get in the beds to eat.