Aluminum Camper Forum

Mr. & Mrs. PEIslander (Ross & Heather) are looking forward to the get-togethers on both Friday & Saturday nights! (We will advise Carleton by email of our interest in participating in his BBQ on Saturday).

I haven't tried them. Thanks for posting the info --- might be a good mod. I liked the company's bumper deck system too.

Great news zonzin!

I have a 2013 CL11FDB with the off-road package. When I'm able I'll take a pic of my axel label. It's still winter big time here in the land of lawn tractors. Eventually things will thaw and I can see what axle they put on mine. I have plenty of clearance at the wheel wells.

I attach a pic of mine being built -- pic courtesy of Don, the former employee spoken about earlier in this thread.

Quote from: charliem on February 20, 2017, 08:18:09 PM

PEIslander,

If all that's so why the limited 12year warranty. I agree TPO is better than EPDM but TPO must degrade with exposure.

No they don't degrade from UV exposure - really. In the roofing world the standard warranty is 10-years but the manufacturers will happily extend them for up to 25 years for a premium. It is very unusual for a TPO membrane to fail and when they do it would typically relate to the detailing at curbs or expansion joints and not the basic membrane having issues. I believe in the USA there are only four manufacturers of TPO sheet although it is sold under many brands. The quality control is very high --- as it needs to be since it is used on the roofs where leaks would cause very expensive damage. Buildings with millions of dollars worth of precious contents are protected by TPO membranes with virtually no maintenance.

The point that the TPO membrane could be torn by a branch is valid. The aluminum roofs can be cut or punctured by branches too. No big worry for me as both can be patched. I like my aluminum roof -- I like that it is so simple - low-tech - and that it is structural. For me my only concern with the TPO Camplite roofs relates to the total roof assembly and not the membrane itself. Is it really just Azdel as the substrate? Hopefully a stronger version than they use on the interiors...

I ordered my small but mighty CL11FDB in the spring of 2012. I picked it up at the factory early in July while the factory was on its annual summer vacation break. (In northern Indiana where a large percentage of North American RVs are manufactured - including Livin Lites - all the manufacturers & suppliers close at the same time). The factory considered mine to be a 2013 model. At the time I ordered, the "orbit" front was an option. By the time mine was manufactured it had become the standard for the 2013 model year. I still had to pay the 'option' cost.  In the 2012 model year Azdel interiors had become standard. I paid extra to have them build mine with aluminum interior walls and Azdel wood grain on the cabinets. When I ordered I didn't want the A/C and they gave me a credit. When my trailer was being manufactured one of the workers was in robot mode and he cut the wall opening for an A/C just like he did typically on all the other Camplites. I had a panic call from the factory offering a free A/C - I accepted. Had I not they would have needed to have a replacement wall made and that would have screwed up the assembly line. The old Wakarusa factory had the trailers & truck campers really packed in there during assembly. I toured with no workers around and really couldn't imagine how they would safely work when everybody was there. There really wasn't much room for the workers. They build the Quicksilvers in another building that I didn't tour.   

I've never had any warrantee work done. The interior of my trailer still looks brand new. I really like having the aluminum walls. Outside it looks almost new - still very good other than a few minor dents from my grizzly bear encounter and a few other stupid things I did. Currently my fridge won't run on propane without starting a fire. I'll probably get that fixed this year. It's still winter here so I have a few months to figure out how to fix it myself.

Hi zonzin 

I don't have the membrane roof on my trailer but I know the material used is what is known in the roofing world as TPO Flexible Thermo Polyolefin single-ply roofing. It's been around since the early 1990's and has proven itself to perform very well. There are millions upon millions of square feet of TPO membranes used as roofs. Gross sales of TPO membrane roofing in North America exceeds all other flat roof types combined. I'm telling you this because nobody goes up on their flat roof and treats it with anything - so you don't need to either. Notably TPO does not degrade under UV radiation. It is also extremely stable chemically -- far more so than EPDM (synthetic rubber) or vinyl membranes that are also used as roofing membranes. The main reason for that chemical stability is there are no plasticizers added when TPO is formulated.

Putting anything on your roof membrane is more likely to hurt it than help it. So just sit back and enjoy another adult beverage while you contemplate that your TPO membrane won't likely ever need replacement.

Protection. It is an important question.

The double bag method is the safest method of birth control. Double bag, i.e. separate sleeping bags, has a very low failure rate.

Looks great Chappy133! 

I'd love to do that in my small but mighty CL11FDB but I'm worried the wet bath is too small.
How many inches does your sink stick out? How wide? Where did you source the sink & tap?

In August we may find the river too low for kayaks. Or at least right at the park. Earlier in the year maybe. Apparently there are some great stillwater areas miles upriver from the park --- but they probably aren't  accessible from the park without driving back to town (some say that takes 45 minutes!) and then driving miles up the road on the other side of the river.

Here's a few pics of the beach at the park that I found on Google. I don't know the time of year for the first -- likely in the summer.



The next two were taken in mid-June. I found them on a nice blog posting about visiting the park: http://thebookerblog.blogspot.ca/2015/06/into-wild.html





Maybe the idea of going tubing has potential!

Quote from: Chappy133 on February 11, 2017, 07:28:14 PM
Ross did you contact Rosemary? They called me because they needed your last name. I sent an email but did get a response. See you all in August.

Thanks for that email. I called Rosemary using the number you provided and she booked me into site R1. We'll arrive Thursday 3rd Aug and leave on Monday the 7th.

I really hope the park has their annual bbq when we are there. We'd likely get to meet lots of locals as I suspect it is for the volunteers and not just the campers.

One thing I noticed about the park on Google: It is listed with a lot of different phone numbers! I assume most of them don't work or aren't the current one that should be used. With the one on their website (207-290-0205) you can leave a message. The one Chappy133 gave me seems to be Rosemary's cell phone. I won't publish it here but if anyone needs it they can contact me. Chappy133 can likely help with that too.

Leslie, Merlin & Gbpack --- Yours truly, Mr. & Mrs. PEIslander (Ross & Heather), and our small but mighty CL11FDB will be your neighbors down by the river. We'll be in site R1.

When I spoke with Rosemary about making a reservation she seemed genuinely pleased our group were coming to the park. I was a bit surprised they didn't want a deposit. When we booked she said all the six sites (R1 thru R6) by the river were now booked. Perhaps we'll be joined by a couple of seasonals in those riverside sites.

I've done a fair amount of research on the Wilderness Park. All the sites are spaced out but overall the campground is modest in size so I'm sure it will work out well for us no matter which site anyone books. From the town the park is eight miles down a narrow, slow speed, dirt road. I read where one local wrote that when taking that road, it is highly unlikely that you'll meet anyone coming the other way -- and if you do the other vehicle will be going slow too. His point -- don't worry about it. I also saw where someone said only 250 campers use the campground each year! It is not uncommon to find references to the park as an undiscovered "hidden gem" and how well-loved it is by the locals and those in the know. There aren't lots of reviews on the web but it seems those that intentionally chose it as a destination universally love it. I did find a few reviews that were less enthralled but they seemed to be travelers who arrived without anticipating being so far back in the woods. (Sounds like its a bit too adventurous for the typical motorhome folks).  From what I've read that the campsite sounds much like an old Boy Scout campground - Kind-a rustic with a simple charm. It is in a little over 1000 acres of old-growth forest (deciduous & coniferous). Washrooms and showers are old & tired -- not up to the Disney Fort Wilderness standard. On the other-hand the manager Carleton that David mentioned gets rave reviews.

The Mattawamkeag River is the longest in Maine and the only one without dams. Heather & I are thinking about buying some inner tubes to experience tubing there. I hope others will pick up on this idea and join us. I'll bring a compressor. There's also more than 15 miles of trails in the immediate area. I've read that the mosquitoes aren't too bad in August.

I also read about Gordon's Brook that joins the river just where the road enters the Wilderness Park. Apparently there's a local legend of a boulder in the woods, somewhere near the brook, that has a gold vein in it. The location has been lost and is waiting to be found. Perhaps one of us will find it and live happily-ever-after!

As you can tell by this post -- I'm really looking forward to this gathering!

I think it is the hatch from 'LOST'. It can reappear anywhere...

Rideandfly - you bring joy to my wandering heart! The pics share what clearly looks to be a wonderful trip.Thanks for sharing and letting us travel vicariously.

I was surprised (and happy) to see the Canadian flags. I'm gobsmacked by Glacier NP.

I also wondered what's that tubular thingie you have on a little tripod? Are you transmitting microwaves?

Hi Paul -- It looks like you have yours less cantilevered than I did the first time. The second time I used them I had them set more like yours -perhaps even a little closer- and the did bounce less. It could well be that different vehicles behave quite differently. My Tacoma might vibrate quite a bit more than your Ford. I am thinking some form of add-on stabilizer like Mitch proposed, might be a good idea.

Did you check out Jack's campsite? -- Was it a tent or huge marble & chrome motorhome? Something makes me think it might well have been a tent.