Greetings from New Orleans!

504patrick · 06-17-2020, 04:44 PM

Hello Fellow Campers!

I've been lurking on the threads for a little while and saw some that really got my interest, so I pulled the trigger and signed up.

I'm Patrick in New Orleans; my fellow campers are my wife & two kids (14g / 13b). This is our 3rd summer camping. We started with a vintage camper, but realized that the charm of vintage didn't really match with the long-distance traveling we want to do, but the bigger issue was that it wasn't set up to have two adult-sized children in it. It got cramped really quickly. It seemed like we left for our 3 week road trip and the kids fit fine, and by the time we got back, they could barely get in their beds. Last spring, we upgraded to the Wildwood XLite 19dbxl - which was the smallest, simplest (no slides) trailer that we could all fit in (and that I could stand up in).

In addition to the annual road trip, we have a small piece of property about an hour north of New Orleans where we can swim and tube in a river and my sister in law and her family can park their trailer and we'll camp and cut up for the weekends. We're doing more of that this year since a big road trip doesn't seem like the best idea.

Topics that I'm particularly interested in that I hope to get from this group:
*Upgrading our batteries / adding solar - we're really curious about Harvest Hosts and know that we need to be off grid for 12-24 hours at a time. Dry camping has minimal appeal for us since most of the year it's simply too hot around here.
*Adding a brake controller - the trailer is pretty small, but I know I need to add a brake controller. I'm pretty settled on the Tekonsha Primus, just need to pull the trigger and decide if I'm going to try to install it myself or hire someone.
*Lamenting the sound of the Furrion stereo - I'll probably never change the exterior speakers because I don't want to risk adding a leak, but it really bums me out that I get so much better sound out of my little JBL bluetooth speaker.

Those are the things on the top of my mind today - at some point we'll also be installing a TV and trying to extend the bed. We'll share when we make those upgrades.

Happy Camping and Thanks for having me!!

-Patrick

**wmtire** · 06-17-2020, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 504patrick

In addition to the annual road trip, we have a small piece of property about an hour north of New Orleans where we can swim and tube in a river and my sister in law and her family can park their trailer and we'll camp and cut up for the weekends.

Welcome from about 4 1/2 hours northwest of New Orleans.