Aluminum Camper Forum

Some great advice in this thread. One question about draining regarding the section between the city hook up and where it enters the main part of the system. Never winterized a camper myself before and just did the drain and antifreeze method last weekend. Some advice from a seasoned RV veteran was to push in the one way check valve at the city hook up when draining then again when filling with antifreeze, but my problem was not finding anything other than a screen that didn't look like it was removable. I'm pretty sure it was drained (it runs downhill and was loose enough to shake a little), but not so sure it refilled with the pink. Should I be worried? Every other part of the system was refilled, traps, toilet even some in the tanks just in case.

I have one, the 9000btu size and used it a lot in a tent. Can't say how much time I get out of a tank because it was only used for 15-20min at a time just to heat up before bed or in the morning. (I did fall back asleep one morning with it on, it was off an hr or two later) I have an adapter to hook it up to bbq type tanks but always use the 1lb type. I know the coleman type tanks fit better but I use the kind you get for plumbing because they're generally cheaper. The swivel the Buddy heater has allows the longer plumbing type to fit.

I think it's a pretty good little heater. Never had the low O2 sensor kick in so unsure if it works. I know it turns off when it's tipped over. It starts easy, heats up quickly and compared to some propane heaters I've used at work it's pretty efficient. One added bonus about bringing 1lb propane cylinders is you can use a plumbing torch tip to start a campfire and a propane lantern gives much better light than an electric one in my opinion.

One thing I remember is that there's different versions, like indoor and outdoor. The one I bought at Canadian Tire was listed as outdoor use only but it was on the American Mr Heater website as indoor OK. I've used it indoors with no ill effects. Even used a special air tester borrowed from work (MSA Altair 4x)and other than a little rise in CO, nothing. (You see more CO walking beside traffic). I'd use this in a smaller semi-enclosed space with confidence.

Never noticed an odour (other than a burst of artificial fart when changing the tank), have you used it since? Maybe you had to burn off oils or residues from the manufacturing.

"I saw 2008 in the topic headline. I meant 2018! How did that happen?"


I opened this thread thinking something so bad happened at an '08 meet that it took almost a decade just to be able to talk about it.
I'm a horrible person.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/campgrounds-tax-rule-small-business-1.3630235

"The Canada Revenue Agency has decided that certain campgrounds are too small to qualify for the small business tax deduction — a decision that could increase those operations' tax rates from 15 per cent to 50 per cent."

Looks like it's another shot at the small entrepreneur in Canada. Apparently a lot of family owned campgrounds don't employ enough people and it's the land that makes the money, not the hard work of the owners and their families. Not sure how this will affect the provincial parks (if that even matters) but I can see a lot of owners taking a huge hit and possibly selling off property. If the tax assessment is high enough, what are the chances that campground will stay a campground? Most of these places are far enough away from towns that their development value is pretty low. Their dollar value will plummet, people will go out of business and we'll have less camping spots to enjoy, and the ones that are left will have to charge a lot more.

When the powers that be understood how much money snowmobilers pump into local economies, trails were expanded. Same with ATV's and the legalization of them and UTV's on public roads in rural townships. I hope they realize there is the same effect with RV's. It's another case of urban elites being the tail that wags the dog.

Hey Grampa Kilt, welcome from one Canuck to another... Does Pacific Crest Trail mean BC? I'm Ontario here, the looney was about 0.75us when I put my deposit down 

Good luck on the hike!

Thanks for the replies... some good advice. I figure there will be sometimes it will to be de-WD'ed for tighter maneuvers, I'm going to have to be careful. As in weights, I wrote this reply a few days ago and the numbers surprised me until I realized I was adding the tongue weight to the tow vehicle without subtracting it from the trailer. Loaded up the van like it'll be used, extra full size spare, tents, gear and bbq. Found some scales near here that I'll visit soon.

The 200+750lb limits are from the GMC owners manual... it's a class III hitch, overkill for what it is used but chosen because it was WD capable for future use, (class IV will pull way more than the van itself could ever hope to). The low ratio gears can tow 5800lbs, I'm basing everything on the standard 5300lb regular gearing (cargo 2wd). The trailer weighs 3200 dry, TW of 550, I'm estimating that it will never weigh over 5000 (the trailer gvwr 5500lb)... (in the trailer 650lb atv, 40lb kayak, 320lb water, 150lb propane, 150lb batteries, 60lb fuel, 150lb for food and misc junk = 4750lbs that leaves 250lbs for AC and other things not thought of to stay under 5000, all weights are over estimated ex the atv is 620lbs wet). A gvwr of 5600lb, combined of 9500lbs, r axle 3100lb, f axle 2800lb. I still need to weigh it to get a true curb weight, they claim 3850lbs.

I'm sure the weights are in the TV capabilities... these safaris/astros aren't like regular minivans (esp the cargo versions, love how the insurance drops a LOT vs the passenger type), the weights are equal to some 1/2 ton PU's, the biggest problem is they can tow much more than they can safely stop and electric brakes on 2 axles should handle that. I think my issues will be ensuring a 15% tw and not overloading the van itself. Wind as well, the van itself can feel it, that's why I chose sway control. I intend to find a weigh scale, load the trailer as it will be used and decide where the atv will have to go to balance the 15%. A trans cooler for sure, need to upgrade the wiring, tow mirrors and maybe a back up camera for hitching (no spotter, sniff). Still need to decide on a brake controller, fixed or proportional (next post, haha). The hitch was inspected and re-torqued the past spring. I do my own motorcycle and atv maintenance but leave the vehicles to the guys with the air tools and proper lifts.

That's why I was so glad when LL decided to do a last run of the 6x15s. Any TH in the same weight class is pretty much pressboard junk in my opinion, and anything with quality would have to have been shipped to Canada without any dealer support. I've seen a few smaller cargo trailers converted DIY style with living space but they were single axle death traps (road missiles?) with no consideration to weight or balance. A converted cube van was considered but I'd still spend far more than the +30K (I'm almost ashamed to admit cost so far) the LL was and it would still be home-made and only last the lifetime of the mechanicals.

ps - it's funny, I do everything else in metric but can't conceive weight in kg's.

Will be getting a Blue Ox Swaypro installed on a 6x15 toy hauler with an off road lift included. Not having any experience with weight distributing, I've been trying to find as much info as possible and there's 2 questions I can't find answers to, hopefully because they're not big issues.

1- Does an uneven road cause undue stress to the receiver? Some of the places I go can be fairly rough, think logging or fire road. Nothing you'd need 4x4 for and of course these roads can be driven very slowly. I'm hoping ground clearance of the hitch would be an issue before the angle of TV vs trailer forces excessive stress. Disconnecting might not be ok, my Safari only has a weight bearing hitch TW of 200lbs and the 6x15 should be around 500-600. I've never dragged my utility trailer on the same roads, but there will be a fair jump in distance between TV and trailer wheels.

2- Re-hitching in an uneven parking spot. I know the importance of a level surface for the initial installation, does an uneven parking spot cause a lot of headache for re-hitching when it's time to leave camp? Is it safe to say that as long as you have the right amount of links you might just have to work harder, and do you ever have to pull it to a more level spot before you set up the bars?

(and I know the off road kit isn't really for true off roading, just wanted a little extra ground clearance, plus it looks really cool )

"Use bike racks mounted on plywood. While camping put the plywood/rack under the camper:"

Request permission to steal this idea with minor modification for a kayak. I swear if anyone asks, full credit will be given.

I use an Ark Pak http://www.arkportablepower.com/  battery box, won't be necessary with the trailer coming, but for car camping or off grid cabin-ing it's been great not to mention black outs. It has 2x 12v, 1x 110v, an Anderson plug, usb, built in smart charger with a digital display. you supply your own battery (130ah grp 27 agm in this case). It's not the cheapest but a very nice turn-key option for keeping things charged when away. I'll get a week's use filling an air bed, charging phones, cameras plus almost nightly use of a laptop. Keep it plugged in at home in case of a blackout (aquariums) and it charges from a 12v socket too.

I like it because the battery is separate, most others have a built in battery. You can choose what you need and when the battery no longer works you don't chuck the whole kit.

I'm sure the cable supports need some reinforced attachment points on the trailer itself, but the jack underneath seems like such a simple idea. The only drawback I can see is that you might stress the hinge if the jacks aren't level, but that's easy enough to deal with. Could you use the rubber bumpers as a support point? I could see some light weight car safety jacks, maybe with a 2x4 spanning the length with holes half drilled that would accept the bumpers on one side and some sort of bracket that the jack could sit into. Or maybe 4 leveling jacks screwed onto the 2x4 or 2x6 that would turn it into a sawhorse kind of thing that would fold up relatively flat. You could glue some soft carpet onto it to save scratches on the door.

Could anyone post pics of a system they have? The links above don't seem to work for me.

Quote from: Pinstriper on December 21, 2016, 10:06:41 PM

Quote from: billmoore on December 21, 2016, 09:47:15 PM
Sounds good Paul! I didn't realize that Canadians use the British spelling. Wikipedia says "aluminum" is the North American spelling, so I assumed that included Canada...

I think they spell it "Canadia" up there. When in doubt, add an extra "i" and reverse the e's and r's.

Silly buggres.

No, no it's spelled "c-eh-n-eh-d-eh"... but I'm sure we can all agree no one should pronounce it "ahl-yoo-min-ee-um" no matter how many i's are in it. That's aboot it.

How did you wire the camera on the trailer, was it through the hitch wiring or did you create your own connection?

These things really carry pretty much everything!

I paid the deposit last night, kept the AC on the order and added a second fan for times without shore power. After really thinking about it, I realized that regrets about money are usually short lived... regretting a built in option would last the life of the trailer. Guess it's like a house, you can always change the doorknobs to better ones later, but skipping the second bathroom rough-in means it might not happen later. They were pretty good at the dealership... I asked for a few extra options that weren't on the original quote and they tossed them in because it was easier than going through the quote again, we just initialed the add-ons on the original contract. Not to mention they talked me out of the tv, said I could find a much better one on my own.

Plus I learned they do secure storage as well, at the lowest price I've seen. Granted it's over an hour away but I was going to store it outside the city anyways. I always go north and they're less than 2 minutes from the highway I would already be taking. $160-200 per month in the city vs $37. That means over an hour of my trip's NOT towing 4500lbs, plus no city traffic. They're ok with me bringing my utility trailer, switching the atv there and leaving the smaller trailer while I'm away. Some places weren't too keen on that idea because you're storing a vehicle, not renting a parking spot. The only catch is they want a few days notice in case they park another rig in front of it and in my case that's not really a catch.

Aaaannd just realized I put this thread in the wrong section, didn't notice this was Quicksilver TENT trailers. So much to learn haaha

www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/.../ForestsCrownLands/Camping-CrownLand.pdf

Looks like you can! Not sure if that link will open it, but I found a pdf file with "crown land camping new Brunswick", the hard part is finding out what land is crown. I think the key is also scoping out a place before hauling a trailer in. Here, most of the places are on logging roads, one way in and out. I've had to unhitch my little 4x8 to turn around because of narrow dead end roads.

It also looks like you guys can even rent crown land lots! Ontario stopped selling surplus land years ago

http://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/news/news_release.2015.09.0877.html

Another resource is http://www.backroadmapbooks.com/backcountry-maps/backroad-mapbooks/atlantic-canada-backroad-maps

I have one of the ON gps versions in my Garmin and can attest these maps are very accurate. I mean it goes down to overgrown atv trails. You can also download a free Canadian topo map from http://www.ibycus.com/ibycustopo/. It's pretty deep, you have to use a bit torrent to download it but again, it's a great contour map, uses military and satellite info. Takes a lot of space but you can break it down to specific areas to minimize that. The link has directions via youtube and even though it was years ago I remember it being fairly easy using Vuze as a torrent. The only issue is I can't use it to navigate routes but since it's only for the bush that's not a big deal. I switch to city navigator for the pavement. (Garmin Montanna, best off road gps EVER!!)

Still, nothing like BC. They have free spots everywhere, signed, on maps, supervised with outhouses even.