So why did you change from tent camping?

[Bobbie Mayer]

If you haven't really quit camping, treat the question as why you use the trailer when you DO use it.

Bobbie

[Chester Taje]

I was in Canadian Army----Sleeping on the ground or under a poncho was not fun, especially if it rained. I like some form of comfort.

[Doug Mager]

...seems as though the young ladies I was seeing/dating out at Falcon Lake (Whiteshell) 'preferred' being kept off the ground. literally, LOL!!!! (Can I say that here )

I then purchased a 1965 Emperor tent trailer made is Bresleau(sp?) Ontario

[Robert Brummett]

The "choose one" format just doesn't work.

I went from tents to pop-up to a Casita. Many of the poll-listed factors apply. Mainly, discomfort does not form an important aspect of the outdoor experience for me anymore.

[james kent]

Checked convenience 'cause I couldn't find ALL of ABOVE.
Actually wife bought it while I was at work and put it on MY visa.
Took a while to get used to the idea but wouldn't do away with it for anything.

[Donna & Chris]

Us too.
We went from a tent to a pop-up to a bigger pop-up before packing it up wet made us crazy.
You can't beat a tent trailer for room but the sideways rain on PEI makes you look at fiberglass in a new way.

[Byron Kinnaman]

I didn't check anything. Nothing fits. We still plan on tent camping, read backpacking. The reason for getting the trailer was because we were going to more and more event camps. We were camping with wood carvers and geocachers, along with our grown kids and grandkids in campgrounds. We got tired of getting dressed while laying on our backs. It's not a problem when we're at a remote spot, we get out bed, step outside and get dressed. A practice that's frowned on when in a crowded campground.

Also we were more and more limiting our camping to fair weather. Stepping out the tent and getting dressed in down pour or snow started loosing some of it's charm.

[Carolyn Patterson]

We had a Coleman pop-up. Just a small one and stored it in our garage when not in use (Homeowner Association Rules) So, when I was looking for a pot or a pan, out to the garage I'd go, pop it up, grab what I was looking for, put it back down - and continue what I was doing...

By doing so, I learned quickly how to put the top up and down whereas my husband only learned when we'd go camping. We'd get to our site, I'd jump out and ready for the 45min set up process. Hubby on the other hand had to re-learn what he'd forgot from the last time we went camping. It got to be that the first day of our weekend camping trip was a wash because we'd argue the first day/evening - One of us usually ended up going for a long walk as the other set things up themselves.

We had enough. We've been looking for something easier, dryer, and ready to go when the time arises (not having to spend half the day re-loading the camper from the last trip!)
We almost bought a motor home, until one of the sellers reminded us that "everything that can go wrong with your car and house can go wrong with a motor home" and all the problems with flat roofs on MH's and other TT's made the decision easy to look for something in fiberglass.

Our 16' Uhaul VT will make it's first (with us) camping trip on October 19th for a weekend, then we'll tuck her into her 30' rented garage for the winter.

[Gina D.]

I had to vote "Other"

Health reasons dictate I stay dry and warm. Being cold and or catching pneumonia can effect my breathing and could literally kill me.

Rather than give up camping when there is no guarrantee of weather, I decided to give in and go with a trailer to keep warm and dry.

[Frederick L. Simson]

I chose "convenience". MINE.

Robert and I have an Ocsar/Felix relationship.
In the morning, Robert gets right up and is ready to GO.
I need to ease into the shock of another day. Need Coffee

On one cross country trip, we stayed overnight in our tent at a KOA. Around 5:30 AM, I arose, threw on my pants, and went to the campground bathroom. After finishing my business, I looked forward to another hour-and-a-half of sack time. However, when I walked back to our campsite, I find that Robert had packed everything up and was sitting in the car.



The trailer is my self-defense that my bed will be there when I want it.

[Bobbie Mayer]

Great reason, Frederick!

It's interesting to me that no one has picked safety. I have never tent-camped in public campgrounds alone, and would be less likely to do so today. I used to sleep in my truck , with canopy and two Labs, and I used to backpack-tent camp alone. And I tent-camped at agility trials on a protected site. But for safety reasons I would not tent camp alone in a public campground, and I would probably feel safe to do so alone in my trailer (well, with the dogs.)

My real reason, though, is that it gets too cold in the winter to tent camp but agility trials don't stop and hotels are expensive.

Bobbie

[Joseph Domingos]

I agree with some of the previous postings, I kind of fell under several of the choices, I wanted a real bathroom (not a trowel, a roll of TP, and having to take a walk!), a refrigerator I didn't have to go buy ice for every day, and a real bed! But it all sort of wraps together into 'the convenience of a trailer'. I haven't have the opportunity to be able to do the 'just hitch up and run away on Fri spur of the moment' yet, being so busy with school and all, but I'm REALLY looking forward to that SOON! hehe Hopefully summer of 2008 or sometime 2009 those kinds of getaways should be REALLY possible! hehe

I DO still have a nice tent for OCCASIONAL use, campgrounds that ONLY allow tents, things like that, but if I have a choice, it's the TRAILER! YAY! hehe Joe

[Gerry]

After hikeing the Appalchian Trail in Maine back in the early 90's and sleeping on roots, ledges, bolders, twigs, wet leaves, in swamps and above tree line. I took a break and then in 2005, tried tent camping with the wife and it took one night of sleeping on hard ground again to convince me a Trailer is what I need. Age does things to your bones so they do not bend the way they use to.
Gerry the canoebuiler

[Carol Ann in TO]

I've got a good feeling that we might have gone for comfort by this point in our lives anyway but it was our dog that made the choice for us.
Molly has a great sense of "wrongness" and when she saw that the tent walls moved she decided that she was never going to enter a tent. Leaving her on her own wasn't an option.

[Alf S.]

Hi: Wet canvas/nylon/WHATEVER just doesn't cut it with me !!! Tried a Pop up once with the family... first night violent Thunderstorm woke every one...even the baby. Next morn. all wet gear to the nearest Laundry Mat everyone from the campground had the same idea 1ST. Tried a 40' M.H. with 2 colour T.V.'s +a slide out but no dishwasher ... On the way home found that the fuel cap. was 248 ltrs YIKES Sure makes our '77 Boler "User Friendly"
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[Greg A]

After backpacking most of the Appalachian Trail in my youth, moving out West I then switched to Ultralight backpacking in the desert. Done just about all the Grand Canyon trails and usually carry about 20 pounds including water. Never carried a tent in all those years, just the pad and bedroll.

Then came KIDS and we bought a huge four room tent and tried to introduce them to "car camping."

For those of you who don't know the SW we have a thing called the "Monsoon" in the summer with violent storms very similar to mini-hurricanes. These can be proceeded by a "Haboob" which is a giant wall of dust. Only occurs here and in the middle east, but it is something first time you see one. These storms can hit inside 20 minutes and you should try one in a tent if you never have.

Thus we now have Scamp.....

[Byron Kinnaman]

Don't those kind of sand blast paint jobs and gelcoat?

[Dianne Dohei]

A few years back on one of our last ever tent trips, we camped in the foothills of Alberta. In August. It rained and the rain was mixed with snow. Because of the chill (read - cold), my husband ended up pulling a groin muscle when he was getting up off the ground in the night. He swore off camping forever then. We did do some more camping in the tent after that, but having better weather didn't make getting up off the ground any easier - for either one of us. It was on one such trip we saw a very small trailer in the next campsite. It wasn't fibreglass, but the second we looked at it we both had a eureka moment! Two weeks later we were the proud owners of our Boler (we were lucky). Our first trip was over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend that year. We love our Boler and use it as much as our schedules allow. Which is considerably more often than we used to tent. If I had things my way, we'd camp from May to September, then head south for the rest of the year!

Dianne

P.S. - I don't post often, but read everything everyone posts every day. I'm addicted!

[Greg A]

Don't those kind of sand blast paint jobs and gelcoat?

Exactly why I'm not interested in putting a brand new paint job on the Scamp and work mostly on the interior.
I'll just get the oxidation cleaned up and keep her polished, but a new paint job might not look real good here after a "Haboob."

[james kent]

Byron's right!
Tent camping, trailering, cottaging, take your pick. It's like any other hobby. You don't stick to one thing you do whatever suits that moment in time. It's like saying " pick one of ... gardening... golf... photography." Why can't we still do each thing as we want?