Aluminum Camper Forum

In May 2024 we took a trip from our home in Central Florida out to California, up the west coast to Seattle then east to Montana, through Idaho and Utah to Colorado and then home.  It was an amazing trip running from May 3rd to June 29th.  We still hit snow in some locations but nothing that really hindered us.  The strangest was towing the camper through an accumulating snowstorm in Idaho on June 17th.  The biggest issue we faced was some heavy rains in Texas on our way west and very strong headwinds heading west.

Our stops were Williams, AZ for the Grand Canyon as well as Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments.  The Grand Canyon is a favorite of ours and we really enjoyed the National Monuments.

From there we went to California, stopping at Joshua Tree National Park where we met up with our daughter and son in law.  We enjoyed that.  From there we hit Pinnacles National Park, which was nice, then Lassen Volcanic National Park which still had a lot of snow and was absolutely amazing.  The snow drifts were much taller than us.  The main road was closed in the middle but you could walk it when you hit the point of closure.  From there we went to Redwoods National Park and enjoyed hiking there. 

After California we headed north to Seattle to visit our niece and her family.  We really enjoyed Olympic National Park (took the ferry to get there) as well as North Cascades National Park. 

From Seattle we headed to Glacier National Park in Montana, staying at the West Glacier RV Park.  That was a REALLY nice campground and the National Park was AMAZING; Easily one of my favorites.  The Going to the Sun Road was open up to Avalanche Creek so be sure to make reservations to get on the road from the western side.  Lake MacDonald Lodge was really nice to see and the scenery all around the western side was beautiful.  Since we couldn't drive the entire Going to the Sun Road, we drove around the southern end of the park to visit the Many Glacier area of the park.  That place was incredible.  We saw a lot of wildlife, the highlights being a female grizzly and her two cubs on the hiking trail as well as a large male grizzly that came out of the woods and entered the trail we were walking towards about 30 feet in front of us.  We also saw a moose and her calf swimming across the lake near the Many Glacier Lodge.  I highly recommend this National Park.  We were threre 8 days and I'm ready to go back.

After Glacier we headed to the Craters of the Moon National Monument.  We were really surprised how much we enjoyed that stop; very surreal environment and great hiking.

We then headed to Torrey, Utah to visit Capitol Reef National Park; the last only Utah National Park we've never been to.  That park was very scenic, easy to plan, had great hiking, and you could see most of it in 3 or 4 days. 

We then drove into Colorado and visited the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Montrose, CO.  We stayed at the Riverbend RV Park and really liked it.  The park is beautiful and while we only styed on the west side, there was planty to see. 

From there we headed home.  It was a long two month trip but we are still talking about it today; a trip of a lifetime.  The camper was great (21BHS), and while the truck certainly was revving high on some really steep inclines in the mountains, it did a great job towing.

Hope this helps! I know not everything is on your proposed route but I wanted to put it all out there just in case.  If you're taking I-90, consider Glacier but if you're up there in early May the snow may be an issue.  We didn't arrive until June 9th and aprt from the Going to the Sun Road being closed we had no issues in terms of weather.

After retirement back in '21 we did a long trip out west to visit sites and friends.  I still want to go back to Alaska one more time, we were stationed there '86 - '90, and still have friends there. 

We have become true Florida snowbirds.  Will be headed south to Florida in late January to visit friends and my Mother along our way to Key West for February and March.  Then reverse the travels in April to back home in Pennsylvania. 

No summer travels planned yet but I would like to visit Maine again too. 

Happy Trails! 

We are planning our first time taking a major camping trip in the spring. Past extended trips have all been summer/fall, but in 2025 we'll be heading out in early May.

The rough plans are to head west from Michigan on I-70, then north on I-15, then west on I-84, then spend some time on the west coast, and then head back east to Michigan on I-90. Any ideas for things we shouldn't miss are welcome.

I know mountain passes will still be snowy in May and we'll need to avoid freezing overnight temperatures, but it will be nice to not have campgrounds closed from summer forest fires (and driving through miles of endless smoke). We are also looking forward to not having to deal with 100F degree heat that wiped up much of our trip west in August 2023. 

Good find.

A pre-Thor 16 TBS for sale in Florida.  https://www.rvtrader.com/listing/2015-Livin+Lite-CAMP+LITE+CL16TBS-5034183418?cmp=email_rv_search-alert

The Weboost Drive models come with an omnidirectional antenna. I've screwed mine onto the outside of camper, using the short mast and mounting adapter that comes with it. I admit it was mentally hard to drill a hole in the camper for the wire! I fastened the indoor antenna to the ceiling using industrial Velcro right over the couch where we use the phones. The booster is plugged into 12V and in a cabinet.

All carriers and all current technologies are boosted. 5G is a bit complicated because real 5G is only in cities and has a very short range. What most carriers call 5G for marketing purposes is really just a slightly faster LTE and it is boosted. I don't know if real 5G is boosted, but I don't camp in cities. 

https://www.weboost.com/products/drive-reach-rv-2

As Charlie noted, you can use a directional antenna like a yagi if you want to aim at a particular cell tower with a home booster. Interestingly, if you use a directional antenna, you have to get both vertical and horizontal aiming accurate to get a signal.

Lots of questions to address here. The directional antenna does need to be aimed. As such it is really only useful for home applications or campsites where you intend to stay for weeks. For overnights it's too much trouble unless you just have to have cell service. The antenna needs to be on a mast so you can rotate and aim it. Finding the correct direction can be from the mapping program or a signal meter but that's more hassle. Best to just use a roof mounted omnidirectional antenna, an amplifier, and take what you get.

The available signal amplifiers should work with multiple services, multiple frequencies, and 4G/5G. You just have to check the specs before buying one. The frequencies are allocated by the FCC to all vendors so they're common.

I spoke with three more neighbors today.  Two had T-Mobile and were happy with it. The third had "Mint", which he claimed was owned by T-Mobile, uses the same infrastructure, but was cheaper.  Mint requires you to bring your own phone... the prices are low enough that I could buy a phone directly from Apple and still save money.  I'd need to program the "ESIM" chip myself, but if my neighbor could do it then I probably could too.

I expect that I will still need to turn on wifi calling, so I appreciate the points made by others earlier in this post.  If I run into trouble with reception, I'll try the "wifi" only approach that Merlin mentioned.

I've always wondered about using a signal amplifier with an external antenna, either at home or in the TT.  If the antenna is directional, do you need to point it?  How do you know where to point it?  Does one use the cellmapper.net map that Merlin mentioned to try to aim at a particular tower?  Also, will the amplifier/antenna work with different technologies, including 4G(LTE) and 5G?  A look at cellmapper.net suggests that towers with the same technology may have multiple transmitters at different frequencies.  Does the amplifier/antenna work with all of these?

One last question... is the antenna on a mast?  Or is it simply mounted to the side of the RV?

Merlin's post brings up two important points. The most important improvement you can implement is an outside directional (gain) antenna. That will do more than any electronic gain you add. The gain and height of the antenna is all important. The second point is turning off cell service to force the phone into wifi operation.

Sorry you're having so much trouble.

WeBoost does make systems for 120V that you could move around, providing you had in/out antennas in both places. The WeBoost Drive is 12V so that would not work in your house. Lots of places sell aftermarket antennas, so it's certainly an option to move a booster. I did permanently mount both inside and outside antennas on my camper.

Before I moved to Starlink at my cabin, I had an aftermarket yagi type antenna on my own 40' tower pointed at an AT&T tower 12 miles away. It was connected to a SureCall booster and worked! 

I found that with AT&T and my iPhone, WiFi calling works well if I turn off cellular, forcing the phone to use WiFi. You might try that with Verizon, just making sure you turn cellular back on when you leave the house.