Final Decisions Before Ordering Casita Liberty Deluxe

[Patrick M.]

Carol, we hope to meet you and visit Little Miss Scampi at a rally one of these months!

In comptemplating our future Casita we cannot but help missing the simplicity, yet completeness of the Scamp 13', and I think we will especially miss our big front picture window, as the Casita will have none of that. Not to mention now I have to know all about Weight Distributing Hitches, Sway Bars and pushing in steps to avoid knocking them off (ask me how I know that happens!).

But alas, an incident on our last trip to Portland pushed us (us?, the spouse says) over the edge and into Casita land. We were at a high-end RV resort in Bend OR. Very nice, very expensive, and oh did I mention, they lock the bathrooms at 9:30PM, and unlock them at 6:30AM. Okay, I can live with that, pretty much, maybe for a year or two more, but only if they indeed open them at 6:30AM. So it's 6:30. I be waiting at the door. Locked. Now it's 6:45, no one in sight. Return to the Scamp and eyeing vegetation hearby, wander back to the bathroom and now it's open, it's 7:00. So now thinking a more complete bathroom facility might be handy, and thus we now have you with the Scamp, and us in the Casita queue! Win - win!

[peterh]

My take:

• Antenna with Amp $129 -- With digital HDTV signals -- due two years from now -- you either get the signal on your antenna or you don't. Amplifiers won't help.
• Vinyl Flooring $195 -- I'd save the money and install laminate (Pergo-type) flooring for 1/4 the cost.
• TV Shelf ($49) -- I'd save the $50 toward an LCD flat panel & mount.
• Microwave ($185) -- Our trailer came with wiring for a microwave. Got a nice microwave for $30 at Home Depot and I could run it on a 1000w Honda generator if I really wanted to.
• Electric Jack ($250) -- Cordless Drill, $50, good for other stuff, too.
• Sway Bar ($155) -- I'd put the money toward a better brake controller that I can use the manual control on to stop sway. I'd only install a sway bar later if I found I needed it.
• Outside Shower ($115) -- This is one thing I would buy. Our trailer doesn't have one, but I may put one in for rinsing off after long, dirty hikes, to get beach sand off our feet before going inside, and cleaning my hands off after dumping.
• 25 Gallon Water Tank ($45) -- 6 gallon water bottle, $14. Easier to take to the faucet for filling than hitching up the whole trailer.

[Vivian]

Patrick,

I can understand your frustration with the locked restrooms, and wonder why they don't provide a key or "code" for their registered guests. Few are the people who can go (or not go) all night without a restroom. Thanks for the heads-up on that park...I think they changed ownership recently.

Vivian

[Patrick M.]

It was very odd. They cater mainly to the Big Rig crowd, who have saunas and other stuff and don't need their facilities. They did have a nice laundry, though.

Our next stop in Portland had push-button locks on the doors, which worked just fine.

Peter: Thanks for your ideas, which are spot-on, however this will be our splurge-expenditure for this decade so I'm trying to automate and eliminate-manual-effort on this one! The TV shelf is for the Directv Tivo tuner - there will be an LCD mount too!

[Brian B-P]

I just noticed the reference to cable for satellite TV... satellite receivers normally specify RG-6 cable, rather than the RG-59 normally used for cable TV service. They have the same characteristic impedance (75 ohm), but RG-6 typically has better shielding and lower loss. If you install your own cable, I suggest putting in decent RG-6, even though it will be stiffer and thus more difficult to route. The RG-6 is not needed for campground cable TV or the antenna connection, but it will be at least as good as RG-59 for those purposes. It's a lot easier to put the right stuff in first rather than change it out later!

[Patrick M.]

Having had Directv for 10 years, I have a house, garage, roof (flat roofs here in the desert) and former Scamp, full of RG-6!

[peterh]

Having had Directv for 10 years, I have a house, garage, roof (flat roofs here in the desert) and former Scamp, full of RG-6!

I wrote a regular feature about networking & communication for one of Microsoft's websites for several years . . . so, when we had a new house built, I had network cabling and telephone runs installed to every place I could possibly want one so I could write about it in my high-tech, gee-wiz kinda column.

There is a LAN connection on the side of the house, just under the roof eaves. Just in case I wanted to install an Internet-based automatic weather station on the roof.

There is a LAN+TV connection at the back of the house, near where the hot tub is. Every nerd's paradise needs a hot tub complete with remote controls to adjust the temperature before they get home and have the hot tub send email reminders to change the filter and let the owner know it needs watter added or chlorine or a pH adjustment.

The next people who own this house are really gonna wonder about me.

--Peter

[Donna D.]

The next people who own this house are really gonna wonder about me.
--Peter

And so do the people on this forum

Peter!

[Patrick M.]

Made our first and last change order today:

Casita will leave all logo and decoration decals off, but give them to me for future use.

This will give us a clean slate for possible decoration or personal re-badging! It will look like this:

[Suz]

Made our first and last change order today:

Casita will leave all logo and decoration decals off, but give them to me for future use.

This will give us a clean slate for possible decoration or personal re-badging! It will look like this:

I think you'll really like it. I took them off my '89 because of damage and while contemplating what I was going to put on, I really came to love the clean lines of no decals. So much so, that if I ever order a new one, I will have them leave the decals off.