daveh
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Post by daveh on Jul 24, 2011 2:09:01 GMT -5
Caravans, or trailers, give more freedom than hotels and more luxury than tents. Randy's trailer tent is another option somewhere between tent and caravan, which some say gives the best of both.
If my maths is correct our fuel prices are almost half as much again as yours in the USA. I do get better fuel consumption towing than you do, Wayne - about 24 mpg, up or down a bit depending on the road. That equates to just above 18 mpg US. (Caravan is 18 feet internal and car is Volvo S80 6-speed auto, Diesel.)
The final result is that your travel is about half as much again as mine in the UK. However if we want to go Ireland or abroad there is the cost of the ferry to factor in. With caravan in tow I reckon we would need to stay more than 2 weeks on French soil before that became the cheaper option compared to hotels.
It's about 300 miles from where we live to the channel ports. Northern France and Belgium - Holland, Luxembourg and Northwest Germany too - are pretty easy to get to but if we head to the Mediterranean it adds another 1,000 miles and more to the round trip. When I was young we went to Spain (several times), Italy and Scandinavia in different years. Each was a round trip of over 3,000 miles. It seemed affordable then. Fuel was expensive in France at that time but very cheap (especially diesel) in some countries like Holland. I certainly wouldn't do a trip like that now unless we went for more than a month.
We tend to use the caravan for long weekends, doing round trips of 75 to 200 miles: not too expensive on fuel but far enough so it feels as though we have been away.
As much as I like the look of Oregon it's probably a bit too far for me to tow the caravan there.
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Post by nikonbob on Jul 24, 2011 9:14:47 GMT -5
Dave
There is another difference too between Europe and North America and that is the perception of what is a great distance. From where I live it would be an easy 3000 miles return trip to the west coast of Canada and more if we went to St Johns NFLD on the east coast. To get to Toronto which is in the same province is a 2 day 800 mile trip one way. The province of Ontario covers roughly 344,000 square miles and France about 261,000 square miles. There have been times when friends and I have driven to a guns show for the day and it was a 400 mile return trip.
I think there is a difference too in how travel trailer dimensions are calculated. Here I believe the length is measured from tongue to rear bumper and in Europe it goes on internal length of the cabin.
Bob
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Jul 24, 2011 10:26:44 GMT -5
Bob,
Caravan length: we do tend to use internal length, but do need to know overall length especially for ferry crossing. The other thing is that we do tend to be bilingual in terms of dimensions. The overall length is 7.02m or 23 feet.
Distances: it is not the actual distance which I find is the killer, but what the road itself is like and the amount of traffic on it. The furthest I've done in a single day is 585 miles going from Spain to Paris, taking about 11 hours. Our trouble is that in the populated areas any incident and there is a queue. At its worst London traffic moves at less than 10 mph.
Dave.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2011 11:16:51 GMT -5
I think we'll probably focus on locations no more than 250 miles away in the future (although we really enjoyed this last trip). The longest day of travel we had was 385 miles from southern Oregon to the Seattle area. The total distance from Seattle home is 503 miles and we probably would have gone all the way in one day except my brother-in-law who was with us in his motor home, wasn't up to it because of a bad back.
On the Interstate we usually ran at between 60 and 65 miles an hour. But we also stopped every 1 1/2 hours (the back problems). That kept our average speed to under just under 50 mph for the entire day.
Wayne
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Jul 24, 2011 11:29:40 GMT -5
Wayne, 50 mph average isn't bad at all. What speed are you legally allowed to tow at? (I presume it differs from State to State.) I hope your brother-in-law has put his back troubles behind him now. It must have been an uncomfortable ride home for him.
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Post by nikonbob on Jul 24, 2011 11:42:18 GMT -5
Dave
Yea, Canada has specs in both metric and imperial and has been officially metric since about 1976. The US is another story. It is hard to know on an international forum which form of measurement to use. I tend to try and avoid big cities when we travel too for the same reasons. Probably easier to dodge them over here. We used to regularly run from home to Regina Sask ,about 800 miles, in one day but now do only about 5-600 miles a day. Getting old I guess.
Wayne
Back problems are sheer unadulterated murder on long road trips. You brother in law has my respect for being able to do it. We try and stop every 4 hours for food and gas but that is changing too because of age, don't have those 1000 mile kidneys anymore.
Bob
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Post by Randy on Jul 24, 2011 12:31:54 GMT -5
Our tent camper is about 17 feet from the ball hitch to the back bumper. I hardly notice it behind me until I put the brakes on.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Jul 24, 2011 13:16:08 GMT -5
Randy, certainly one advantage of collapsibles is that they lose the big frontal area that a caravan has and so tow with less effort.
By the way, what size are you towing hitches? Years ago we had 2", but then changed to 50mm which is of course fractionally less than two inches. I remember at some stage an old 2" ball and a new 50mm socket and spending some time trying to separate them.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2011 20:12:05 GMT -5
Dave. My hitch ball is 2 5/16 inches. we use a weight distribution hitch that uses spring bars to balance the weight of the trailer and the truck (keeps the truck level) This allows lighter trucks to handle heavier loads and tongue weights. Without the hitch the maximum tongue weight my truck would handle about 500 pounds and a gross weight 7,200 lbs. (combined truck and trailer). With the hitch it can handle tongue weights of about 1,000 lbs and trailers with gross weights of near 10,000 lbs. to 14,000 lbs.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Jul 25, 2011 3:38:19 GMT -5
Wayne, we actually have had a few sizes of towing ball, but the ISO standard settled on a few years back is the 50mm ball. We don't tend to have the spring loaded hitches so much here. The best self-levelling system was probably that of the Citroen cars of 30 or so years ago - when it worked it gave a level ride almost whatever. What has come in over the last few years is having an anti-snake mechanism in the socket (rather than a separate external arm). It is relatively easy to get the nose weight of a caravan about right, so for this use I think spring loaded hitches wouldn't really be necessary. It would be a different kettle of fish pulling a commercial trailer with its ever changing loads, both in weight and distribution.
Another thing that has changed is the electrical connector. Originally there was just a single 7-pin connector. As caravans started to get more equipment on-board a second 7-pin connector was added. The standard now is a single 13-pin (I think it's 13) system. The car has this, the caravan has old type so I had to get an adapter.
We heading off in a couple of weeks, for four nights, to Anglesey, an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It's only about 85 miles, so not a particularly taxing journey.
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Post by Randy on Jul 25, 2011 13:25:58 GMT -5
Mine is 2 5/16 also. I used to tow it with my 1 ton Dodge Pickup. We haven't pulled it with the Jeep yet.
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photax
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Post by photax on Jul 25, 2011 13:30:06 GMT -5
Wayne,
This must have been a wonderful trip, great landscape and a beautiful model !
Welcome back, MIK
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mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on Jul 26, 2011 10:51:49 GMT -5
My family's trip from Toronto to Victoria B.C.and back, almost 6,000 miles, was in a tent trailer similar to yours, Randy. Same colours too. But no indoor cooking or other facilities and we had to raise it by hand - no crank.
I don't know what size the ball was but I do know it was expert at creeping up and cracking one's shins.
It did manage to break a U bolt on one of its springs one Sunday morning when everything was closed.
It also cured me of ever again wanting to tow anything with my car.
Mickey
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Post by Randy on Jul 26, 2011 13:02:28 GMT -5
Mine is a 1976 model, and it's in pretty good shape considering the age. We haven't used it since I got struck down with this diabetic neuropathy, because I can hardly walk. I sit sometimes and look out the window, wondering if I'll ever go camping again.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2011 13:31:13 GMT -5
We had a tent trailer for about a year and used it exactly once. It just didn't do anything for us. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. In a campground in a tent trailer you hear everyone talking and the engines of all the vehicles and, if it's 90 degrees outside it's 90 degrees inside, too. Call me a sissy if you will, but I spent about 12 years sleeping outdoors in the desert. in both summer and winter, during National Guard maneuvers. That gave me all the "camping out" I needed for a lifetime. I like waking up in the morning in a warm dry place without having to shake out my shoes to make sure there are no scorpions in them. or buzz worms under my sleeping bag.
W.
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