In March of 2017 we purchased a new camper. It recently struck me that I never made any blog posts about it although I have posted photos to Facebook and Reddit.
This is the first post of several to come about our camper, modifications to the camper and trips taken in the camper. There will be a few in quick succession to catch up then more as events happen.
To the new readers: we have had two different pop-up campers in the past. We bought them both used, pulled them both out to our place in Montana a couple of years and then sold them. The dirt roads in Montana are pretty rough on a pop-up.
Since the kids are grown and mostly doing their own things we decided that we don’t really need a pop-up anymore since we really only need to sleep two now. So we started looking at tear drop trailers. There are many variations on tear drops, but I wanted to stay pretty small and light. The Vistabule was on the list, but they are pretty expensive. Cool as hell, but not cheap.
If my garage wasn’t full of motorcycles and was heated in the winter I would have probably built a Chesapeake Light Craft tear drop. They are inexpensive, are pretty neat and look fun to build.
Alas it was not to be. So we kept looking and found the Escapade Campers. While they are not a true “tear drop” they were in the price range and were local to boot! Well, somewhat local. They are built in Dassel, MN, which is only 55 miles away. So we arranged to go look at one.
We liked what we saw and the owner was very willing to make custom changes for us so we ordered a “5×8” (now called the “Base” model) in early March. We took delivery in late April and we love it.
Our tow vehicle is currently a 2005 Subaru Outback L.L. Bean edition. Since it’s the L.L. Bean edition it has the 3.0 liter 6 cylinder motor in it. I have upgraded the rear springs with RAlliTek Overload Springs and it pulls the camper without any drama.
The camper is pretty much a 5′ x 8′ box with a queen sized mattress in it. There is some room at the end for stuff. We love it.
We are storing the camper out at our friend’s place so we bought a “garage in a box” to park it in to keep the bird crap and tree droppings off it. (Something we should have done for the pop-ups.)
That about takes care of the first installment. You can see all the other posts about our camper by clicking here.
