Howdy all! New 176SE here!

Blackcloud23 · 09-05-2018, 03:16 PM

Hi there!

My wife and I have been contemplating a tent trailer for a few years. We had a little girl last year and that finally pushed us over. So we ordered a 2018 176SE (no one within 1000 miles had one) and now camping is way easier.
This is the day we brought it home.

Blackcloud23 · 09-05-2018, 03:20 PM

First "shake down" trip was up to my folks. Trailer worked fine; we broke our dog.
He caught a toe nail in the slits in the step and tore it out.

SO- modification #1 was adding rubber step pads to close up the slits.

Blackcloud23 · 09-05-2018, 03:22 PM

My first "actual" mod was swapping out the 20lb propane bottles for 30lb.
We exclusively dry camp so I wanted to make sure we had plenty of capacity.

Witch Doctor · 09-05-2018, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackcloud23

My first "actual" mod was swapping out the 20lb propane bottles for 30lb.
We exclusively dry camp so I wanted to make sure we had plenty of capacity.

Very nice, now you need a new F250 4x4 , have a great time..[emoji41]

Blackcloud23 · 09-05-2018, 03:40 PM

LOL!
Looked at them. They couldn't come close to the deal I got on the Ram 2500 that is sneaking into the pic.

Wiscampsin · 09-05-2018, 03:46 PM

Welcome from Wisconsin and enjoy your new popup!

kraftengr · 09-06-2018, 01:04 PM

Your trailer looks awesome! Enjoy!

Just curious though...what part of the country are you from that you couldn't find a pop up in 1,000 miles?

IsleDog · 09-06-2018, 01:12 PM

great looking trailer!! you could just toss that in the bed of the truck you know

remember to wax the bed rails/slides and the roof rails.

and welcome!

Blackcloud23 · 09-06-2018, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kraftengr

Your trailer looks awesome! Enjoy!

Just curious though...what part of the country are you from that you couldn't find a pop up in 1,000 miles?

We're in Eastern WA. Dealer here has ZERO tent trailers. Dealer in the western part of the state had no 176's. Nearest I could find was CO.

Two years ago all the local dealers had a ton of hold overs so I think they got a little gun shy and didn't order enough this year. I can count on one hand the number of new tent trailers within 50 miles of me- which includes about a dozen dealers.

Blackcloud23 · 09-06-2018, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IsleDog

great looking trailer!! you could just toss that in the bed of the truck you know

remember to wax the bed rails/slides and the roof rails.

and welcome!

LOL no kidding! We really bought the little 8' so it could be towed behind my wife's Wrangler Unlimited, but I still need to convert the 4 pin on that to a 7 pin. So for now it follows my truck.

Thanks for the tip on waxing the rails- I was just pondering that the other day.

kraftengr · 09-06-2018, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackcloud23

We're in Eastern WA. Dealer here has ZERO tent trailers. Dealer in the western part of the state had no 176's. Nearest I could find was CO.

Two years ago all the local dealers had a ton of hold overs so I think they got a little gun shy and didn't order enough this year. I can count on one hand the number of new tent trailers within 50 miles of me- which includes about a dozen dealers.

That's very interesting! Here in the Mid-Atlantic area, we have more dealers with pop ups...but not many. I must say though, in our travels, we seem to see more pop ups the farther we venture to the west. ENJOY!

IsleDog · 09-06-2018, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackcloud23

LOL no kidding! We really bought the little 8' so it could be towed behind my wife's Wrangler Unlimited, but I still need to convert the 4 pin on that to a 7 pin. So for now it follows my truck.

Thanks for the tip on waxing the rails- I was just pondering that the other day.

if your wife is like mine, you have a million of those scentsy warmers around. just keep one or two of the used wax melts in a bag. its a super soft wax that worked great when we had our popup. candles works ok, but its hard and flaky. resist the urge to use a spray lube on them, i did and they got caked in grime in short order

when we went to trade our popup in, we found a few that wouldnt even consider taking it on trade because they thought they could not sell it. the dealer we bought our new one from took it on trade and sold it in weeks

ColoradoRick · 09-06-2018, 01:38 PM

Congrats on making great family memories camping! I am surprised one of your first upgrades was larger LP tanks and not a motorized trailer tongue jack! :-)

MCTroy · 09-06-2018, 08:37 PM

Welcome! That is a great trailer. Oh the memories you will make with your daughter. Congrats on both new additions.

Blackcloud23 · 09-08-2018, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ColoradoRick

Congrats on making great family memories camping! I am surprised one of your first upgrades was larger LP tanks and not a motorized trailer tongue jack! :-)

We decided the power lift was more worth the upgrade than the tongue. We exclusively dry camp so I wanted the propane capacity. When we tent camped I actually made a 7-port propane manifold so I could run all of the appliances on one 7lb bottle rather than carrying around a bunch of the little bottles.
Hopin to get out more this fall! It's been so smoky up here this summer.

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