Aluminum Camper Forum

Quote from: Chappy133 on July 05, 2018, 11:20:50 AM
We have a 16 TBS with no decals if you see us in a campground please do come over and introduce your self. 

We most certainly will! Even before we entered the world of CLs ourselves, I was dying to see one in person and would have definitely gone over to investigate had I seen one. Now that we have one, I think it may actually be illegal to run into another one "in the wild" and not say hello.

We leave to go get ours on the 20th, and I'm counting down every day!

I'm new to this (all-aluminum-construction, Camp Lites, and this forum, not to camping), and we would love to meet up with others. We are in southern PA, near Baltimore. We are traveling up to Ontario in just a couple weeks to go pick up our very first CL, and will slowly meander our way back down. We want to make sure any kinks are worked out before we get too far away from the dealer. Our summer is already pretty packed with camping dates around our local area, but we'd consider just about anywhere along the eastern part of the US once autumn gets here.

Here's a question, how often is it that you just randomly run into another Livin Lite product at a campground or park? I see Airstreams of course, but that's because they span decades. We generally do traditional campgrounds so that clientele may be less inclined to go the minimalist camping route.

Quote from: Merlin on July 02, 2018, 10:01:02 PM
First, yes, there are many folks on here that traveled long distances to get what they wanted. Multiple day round trips are very common! Unless you want a Jayco Jayfeather from your local kindling wood supplier, you almost have to expect to travel 

^This made me laugh out loud.

We are extremely lucky in that there's a Livin Lite dealer less than an hour away from us, if any issues come up once we get it home. But we do plan to spend about a week camping close to the dealer of origin, just to try everything out while we're still up there. Which (unfortunately) means we'll just have to hang out near Niagara Falls for a day or two. What a horrible thing for a family to have to endure, but we're up to the task.

That was sarcasm.

Quote from: Merlin on July 02, 2018, 10:01:02 PM
Have you checked on insurance? Be sure someone has insurance on it in transit to you and be sure you have insurance as soon as it's yours. That might be complicated with an International deal?

Yes, we'll be able to get insurance on it through our regular USAA auto policy before we head out to go pick it up. The dealer has 100% coverage of it until it changes hands somewhere just south of the US/Canadian border.


Oh, and my husband was just able to tap into a line of credit he's had with his bank for years but has never used. 4% for 5 years--that's better than we could get for an rv loan! Plus, we'll get the title in hand so this actually worked out surprisingly well.

I'm sure we are not the only ones who have found our dream camper which happens to be in another country. Specifically, we are in the US and we are buying in Canada. The dealer has been awesome and will take care of all the border red tape. They apparently sell a lot to US buyers so they drive the equipment over the border all the time. It wouldn't be us trying to import it, and having to deal with all the checkpoints and inspections. So that part we're very comfortable with.

However, our issue is with the financing. We love our credit union here (USAA) but they don't do international RV financing. We'd have to open a personal loan, be issued a check directly from the credit union, turn that check over to the dealer, and then we'd pay the credit union back. When they finance a vehicle or RV, they keep the title until payoff, so they have the vehicle itself as collateral. With a personal loan, we get the title right away, but that also means there's no collateral for them to hold on to, so the interest rate is higher (difference of about 5% APR). We're prepared to do this, but I thought I'd ask, are there any financial institutions that do do (doo doo?) international financing?

Has anyone else travel crazy distances to go get their dream vehicle?

Our pop-up is heavier than the Camplite! So we had a heavy-duty tow package put on the Edge, complete with brake controller, anti-sway and weight distribution kit. I feel pretty confident we'll be fine with the CL. The dealer is close to the border and will drive it over in the States for us. They apparently sell to a lot of Americans, so they've got it down to a science. We plan on spending lots of time at the dealer looking it over. I do feel better that it's a dealer and not an individual. And we're taking a few extra days to go camping locally around the area in case any issues come up before we get hundreds of miles away. We are so excited!

Hi! My husband and I have taken the plunge to upgrade from our pop-up. We thought we'd always be pop-up people (common words, I'm sure). The set-up of the camper it-self isn't bad at all; it's the double-packing involved with pop-ups in general. Load everything into tubs to put in the camper or cram into the tow vehicle. Get to campsite, set up camper frame, then unpack car and tubs, "move into" camper... Then go through it all again in reverse, unpack car at home, pop up camper again to store everything. It was fun wile it lasted.

We'd been talking about hybrids for a while, but nothing ever really caught our fancy. We are a family of just 3, with a tiny 9-year-old son. Occasionally we'll camp with another couple or maybe a parent with 2 kids. Our pop-up could sleep 10, and we never ever got close to that. We experienced wood rot without first camper, a teenager when we got it but it was a steal. Enough to get our feet wet to see if we liked it. Apparently, the camper had gotten much more than its own feet wet long before we ever got it. But we were the lucky ones to experience the roof going up one day, and all the canvas breaking away from the wood roof as we were raising it. The pop-up we bought after that still had some wood, but it was mostly an aluminum frame, something we were now sold on after researching. We wound up buying a Somerset Utah new. That experience also taught us that we probably don't want to buy new again. Oh, the warranty issues, and lack of support from the manufacturer. What a headache.

So we toyed around with ideas of our "perfect" camper. Something everyone does I'd bet. Still want a tent end, definitely don't want to feel too luxurious because it IS camping after all, but that being said, we agreed an inside toilet is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Dining table that isn't fixed so e can take it outside, and also a dinette that we don't have to break down into a bed each night. Room for the boy to sleep and feel like he has his own space. And a stovetop that sits flush with the counter so you don't have to balance a dish drainer on an awkward set of burners that we hardly use anyway. Outdoor shower would be nice. And towable by our Edge.

A Starlight 15 ft model came close to what we were looking for, but, eh. Then I saw Camplites! I saw the 11 ft model all over in my searches, but that's just a tad too small for us. And we'd have to break the table down for our son to sleep every night, which was a dealbreaker. I happened upon floorplans for the old 13 foot models. Oh my goodness, the interior flip-down bunk!? Perfect. beyond perfect. And I love the side tent bed. I could see the options available in the floorplan layouts, but couldn't find images or even videos of any that had both the flip out tent bed AND the interior flip-down bunk. I guess people didn't opt for those together often. I also learned that people don't tend to sell their Camplites like folks do with other non-aluminum campers. It seems like they really hold onto them (which is a good sign I think). I kind of get the feeling they have followings like T@Bs and Airstreams (and air-cooled VWs, another passion of mine).

So I figured the 13BHB I coveted was just a unicorn. Something too rare I'd never see one. I kept pages with those floorplans bookmarked and would look at them once in a while. ... And then it happened. I found one for sale. And it's baby blue. I know I shouldn't buy a camper based on color, but that certainly didn't hurt. My 67 VW was baby blue. I had him for 17 years. So at this point, I was pretty much a lost cause. My unicorn!

We're in talks with the dealer and have put down a deposit, but it isn't a done deal quite yet. It's an 8 drive to Canada to go get this thing, so we want to make sure we've covered everything beforehand! Now I want to get all my ducks in a row before taking the plunge. What things should I be looking for? It's a 2014, one previous owner, a family who traded in for a larger camper. The dealer will take our pop-up as trade, which is another plus. The only warranty issue the salesman told me about is the main entry door, which apparently has steel somewhere within the door itself, wasn't sealed correctly, so there is now corrosion that can't really be covered over. The factory sent a replacement door, but since the baby blue isn't available anymore, the replacement door is white or silver. We'll deal with the mismatch in order to save the $1,000 (Canadian) custom painting fee.

Any advice, cautions, kudos, or anecdotes would be appreciated! This is a big decision!

Thank you!
Mel