Archive - Aluminium Camper Forum

Memory foam is really heavy, so if that's a concern, you might look for a local foam supplier who can custom cut open cell foam of any size, density and thickness. I still put a camp mattress under it to add a little cushion and more importantly to prevent condensation on the lower bunk. We just wrapped the foam in an old quilt, didn't bother with a formal cover.

That's great news, Sean. Are you going to notify all members when this happens?

Leslie, I think we have a little different idea of boondocking, though we did stay in a CSU parking lot when visiting our son in Ft. Collins. They didn't allow dogs in his apartment and there were no convenient campgrounds available. 

What is your husband afraid of?

We generally had about 15 gallons of fresh, variable gray. No problems. The screw on connection to the water pump did vibrate loose once. fortunately we always turn the pump off when on the road and noticed it right away because it didn't shut off when it should have. I think they've changed the layout, but in ours the water pump is in the same compartment as the inverter, less than ideal!.

Believe it or not, we have never used the black tank, though I was sorely tempted when I got up in the night to find a small blizzard had moved in!

We have a CL13BHB with the off road package, which puts it a lot higher off the road, and therefore cuts mileage, I'm sure. Plus we have the older flatter front profile. How much that matters, who knows? We started pulling it with an older Acura MDX rated for 3500 pounds. We ususally drive around 55. Mileage went from 22 without the trailer to about 12 with. It handled mountain passes reasonably well, but it felt like we were abusing it. We traded that in for a 2007 ML320 CDI (this was the diesel before the new additive - it is still cleaner than old diesels, no smoke, pretty quiet, and smells like chlorine, not diesel). With this, our mileage goes from 26 to 16 with towing at 55, so still about a 10 mpg hit. The big difference is that it doesn't even know it is pulling anything and laughs at steep passes. It is a small SUV that fits well in our small garage. A lot of the newer diesels, including the MLs, now come with no spare because the space is taken up by the urea tank. Given where we travel, this was unacceptable. We even replaced the mini spare with a full size one. It still fits by leaving the cover elevated a little in the back compartment. We have been very happy with our choice. Any new diesel was out of our price range, but hopefully we can keep this one running a long time. The main issues will be electronic, I'm sure. 

We took our 13BHB on a one month Sep tour of North Central Colorado, southwestern Wyoming, Idaho and back to Oregon. No hookups and very few developed campgrounds. We found some pretty rugged back roads to drive with our Off road version (I guess they are marketed as Bearcats now?) and it performed like a champ. (If you don't count leaving the upper bunk window unlatched when we drove off - it is now somewhere west of Yellowstone). Our favorite spot was along Gray's River Road south of the Tetons. Lots of gorgeous dispersed camping spots and some nice hiking trails. No one around except some bow hunters. The approach from the South is pretty rough, but you could tour a lot of the valley pretty easily coming from the north. We got snow when camping near Medicine Bow Peak, which wouldn't have been bad except for the 25 mile hour winds. Luckily nothing froze up. Other highlights were Dinosaur National Monument and Flaming Gorge. We were also incredibly lucky to see both a wolf and a grizzly close up while driving along a back road in the Tetons. 

Our Lifeline 230mAH 6 volt batteries AGM batteries gave us all the electricity we needed (lights, water pump, furnace fan and fridge controls) and held up fine with just the charging while driving. We went through 1 1/2 tanks of propane for the fridge and heat, with generally chiily nights. We tend to run the heat in the evening and then fire it up again just before getting up in the morning.

We now have about 20,000 miles on our 2013, and look forward to many more. Probably a quick trip to the coast next week.

Welcome to the small club of Oregon LL owners. Good idea to try hauling without the WDH first. We've had our 13 BHB for about 3 years now, and have never felt the need for sway control. Because it is so light, a Quiet Hitch is nice. Be sure to weigh your trailer loaded some time. You'd be surprised how fast the weight adds up. hubby just retired and we're getting ready to take off with our two whippets for about 6 weeks to the southwest, CA, AZ, UT and maybe CO at the end. We mostly boondock when able and love our little trailer.
FYI, we experience about a 10mpg mileage hit  going mostly 55, but maybe the curved front trailers do a little better than our older design. . .