I have spent the better part of an hour trying a search and looking through threads, to see if anyone has put there spare tire in a different location on their Casita? I want to make some room on the rear bumper for a 6"x5' PVC tube to carry an outdoor rug rolled up. The spare is in the way. I was also giving some thought to a reciever hitch on the rear bumper also, so I could also use a folding cargo carrier with a plastic box for outdoor stuff, chairs, grill, etc: Light weight things.


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I have used those cargo carriers before at work. They are alright, but nothing special. They really have a tendency to bounce around a lot. There is also quite a bit of lateral movement with them (need bungies to keep them from being so sloppy). I would probably look into something else before you spend the couple hundred bucks on that carrier. Another thought is that you would have to install a receiver hitch on the back end of the trailer? if so, that might place unnecessary fatigue on the frame plus another hundred bucks for the receiver. Seems like a lot of work for not a lot of space or weight capacity..

For a light-weight "stuff" box on the back, I always though the Brenda N. had a good idea. You can see the installation here if you scroll about halfway down the page:

http://www.members.shaw.ca/nova1/green_grape.htm

It's a plastic storage box mounted to the rear bumper with a few additional framing members. It might need to be modified a bit depending on the Casita rear bumper, but it's a concept.

Raya

Instead of that, would the holder fit if lashed to the bottom of the bumper? Or to the bottom of the tongue, close to the body of the trailer?

I carry the spare in the back of my tug (under canopy), so I'm not going to be much help.

Randya:

"I want to make some room on the rear bumper for a 6"x5' PVC tube to carry an outdoor rug rolled up".

It would appear to be less of a hassle, and this is just my suggestion, to affix your PVC tube to the stanchions holding your awning to your Casita at the roof line. The white tube could just lay behind the awning and and upon those stanchions and would be almost unnoticeable up there. I have considered doing the very same with a similar PVC tube for surf rods, capped with a rounded front end and a screw-on rear section, but decided to just put them inside, instead..

I appreciate the suggestions, I am apprehensive about putting much of anything on the back, except maybe a tube of some sort for our ground rug. I am one of those spur of the moment campers, you know, get home at 4;35 on Friday and decide, "Let's go camping"! So the more "stuff", I have on board, the quicker we can leave, and the "less" I foget to load!

I may just do as Donna, and put the spare in the back of my pickup, to free up the back bumper, I do like Brenda N.'s set up. Looks more solid. I am sure anything back there would take a beating.

Hi Randy,

I took my spare tire off the bolt on my Casita and added a spare tire carrier to the bumper. My welder friend reinforced the area with a piece of 1/4 inch steel. Over 7000 miles and no problems.

I too carry a rug. It's one of those green fake grass things. It has a tendency to shed some of the backing material, etc. I fold it up and stick it in a large garbage bag, then stuff the whole thing inside the washing machine tub (NOG fire barrel) that I carry in the back of the truck. The rug is so limp, I'm not sure I could stuff it in a container.

We used to have the green turf stuff, and like you I had it in the back of my pickup, well it is some where along I90 in Montana, we got caught in a thunderstorm at night on our way home, some where it got blown out along with the folding chair it was tied to!

So I orderd a patio rug last summer, for something different, and it don't fold to well, and to alleviate the chance of it getting sucked out of my pickup, I roll it up, tie it and stuff it under my tool box. So I came up with the idea to put it in a PVC pipe with a glued cap on one end, with a couple of drain holes drilled in it, and a screw cap on the other. Then if it is muddy or wet, I can roll it up and stuff it in the tube.

When deployed, our portable 'grass' is small enough to fit within the confines of our (opened) awning. When we move, the rug is rolled up (tube form) and stuffed into two (unused) 'bag chair' covers (rug is too long to be covered with just one, so we use one for the top end of the rug roll and another for the other (expossed) end, and this rolled rug gets lain on the floor inside the trailer. This also acts as a kind of buffer for anything else that might also HAVE to be left on the floor whilst in tranzit!!! (just thought you might have use for another idea??)