Finally, took our Lil Snoozy Home

[Bill in Pittsburgh]

On Sunday April 1st, with a break in my work schedule, we made our long awaited trip to South Carolina to pick up our Lil Snoozy ordered in December.
We were very pleased with the ongoing communication we received from Alan and Nicholas Smoak during the build process. When we arrived everything was as promised.
It is fun to watch Alan's excitement with each new trailer. It is very obvious he has his heart & soul invested in building a camper he believes in.
We ordered ours with extra cabinets and a closet, as we will be utilizing the trailer several months at a time after my retirement. Other options we ordered included an additional picture window and additional bedroom window, Fantastic Fan, microwave, spare tire, and propane readiness.
I purchased via the internet a propane 2 burner stove, dual stage regulator, and a very cool fiberglass propane tank. I paid a propane company out of St. Mathews to do the installation and all the propane connections.
I opted not to get the casette toilet as I have no intentions of carrying water in my fresh water holding tank while traveling. The porto potty and it's 5 gal hold capacity suits our needs fine while traveling. When boon docking we will utilize the great outdoors.
We really liked the new tongue cover, air conditioner cover, and most of all the new tail and marker lights, Lil Snoozy is now utilizing. Not only are the lights much more visible to other traffic, but they look very nice as well.
On our return trip home, I found towing to be very easy and with much less wind turbulence than I anticipated. While I did notice a difference when climbing steep grades from towing my tent tent trailer (which weighed under 900 lbs.), the Lil Snoozy towed as easily. I typically lost 3 to 4 mpg when towing my tent trailer. With the additional weight of the Lil Snoozy I lost 4 to 5 mpg. This, however, was traveling a mountainous stretch through Virginia and West Virginia that is more than half of the distance between SC and our home outside Pittsburgh. We traveled with a tandem bicycle on the roof of our Cherokee and avg. 23 mpg going down while traveling a usual speed of 64 mph. On our return trip we added extended mirrors and avg 17.7 mpg traveling at a usual speed of 62 mph. I think slowing down a bit and traveling a less mountainous course may yield another mpg or two. By the way, our Cherokee is 2 wheel drive with a 5 speed manual transmission.
I also found that it is difficult to travel under the radar, as every where we stopped, people had questions. While traveling we received more than one thumbs up. This wasn't something I was accustomed to experiencing with my tent trailer.
Well, I think I will go out on our porch and look at the Lil Snoozy one more time before going to bed.

[BAMA & Pachyderm Posse]

goody for you I hope to pick ours up this coming week , have fun and enjoy.

[Mike Magee]

Thanks for the report, and congratulations on the great addition to your driveway. I'm glad to hear some real world mpg numbers. 17+ mpg at 62 mph sounds really great, and better than I expected.

[Robin G]

Congrat's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Pictures? We like pic's.

[MCDenny]

Hey Bill, enjoy your new Snooz. We missed you by two days at the Snoozy factory.

I agree Alan was most accomodating.

Good to hear your mileage figures. I hope I can do that well with my RAV4.

Regarding towing: Did you get a weight distributing hitch? Sway bars? How did the surge brakes seem to work?

I'm with Robin, how about a photo tour of your new baby. I'm especailly interested in the interior layout.

[Donna D.]

Alright Bill! Yeah, pictures are always good!

[Bill in Pittsburgh]

Questions Answered

1. No weight distributing hitch, though I think you couldn't go wrong with one.
2.The surge brakes seem to work good. I have nothing to compare them to as my pop up had no brakes and the 40 footer I towed 38 years ago had air brakes.
3. For pictures I have to wait for one of our more computer savvy off spring to come by and load pictures.