95 casita spirit deluxe

[JohnandD]

Hi, I'm John, my wife Deirdre and I found our Casita a couple of years ago and are very excited about it. Invested in getting a thorough going over by a dealer before we went anywhere. We live in upstate NY and have taken it out to Cape Cod a couple of times. Being old campers we love the life style. Thinking of a longer trip southward next year to beat the winter blues. Looking at setting up with solar for that one. Got a good deal on an ecoflow 2000 that we'll also use domestically for emergency back-up and probably on our boat as well and will set a couple of 100 w flex panels on the roof. I'd like to replace the batteries with lithium. how hard is it to get those old batteries out? Anyone have any thoughts on that? We don't and probably never will use the stove for cooking. We use butane outside - love that awning!! we don't have the original fridge, came with a cheap electric only. Any thoughts on replacing that? Anyone have or know where we can acquire a copy of the '95 spirit deluxe manual?
Good to be part of this community. Looking forward to getting to a meet at some point. Thanks in advance.

[mary and bob]

We are in Upstate NY and own a '96 SD17 Casita. For a few years we went south with it in the winter, staying in Georgia and Florida, mostly in State Parks that had electric hook-up.We had all our campsites reserved before we left home in mid November. Returned home early March. We now stay home for the winter and only do short local trips in the summer.

[JohnandD]

Thanks guys, thats helpful information. We have a bunch of research to do obviously.
Happy trails to you both.
Jan'D

[Jon in AZ]

Since you said 1995, I believe that makes yours a 16', which originally had a small 3-way fridge. A 3-way gives you the most flexibility for camping with and without services. Unfortunately, I don't think any manufacturer is making an absorption fridge in that size any more, and there may not be room for a larger model. You'll have to take measurements (HxWxD) and see what's available. You might also be able to find a used salvage unit in the right size.

But since you're planning solar and a lithium battery, a 12V compressor fridge is well worth considering. Modern 12V compressor fridges are very efficient and hold temperatures more reliably than older absorption fridges. A small unit that fits the space shouldn't be too power hungry, and between solar and generator back-up, you should be able to keep up with a basic 100AH lithium battery (200AH would be better, but you'll need to find a different mounting location). The advantage over your current 110V fridge is it will run directly from the battery without an inverter when off-grid (which adds additional expense and inefficiencies).

Do you have a propane furnace? Even Florida and other sun belt states can get cold enough to require nighttime heat. The furnace also uses 12V power for the fan motor.

I don't see an older Casita manual in the document center. You might want to order Eileen Glick's Casita Travel Trailer A to Z Owner's Guide. It's far more thorough than the factory manual and available in print or PDF format.

We do all our cooking outside as well, divided between a Coleman stove and a Weber Lil Joe charcoal grill. We like to grill meat and veggies in the evening, and then chop and sauté leftovers in the morning with eggs for quick breakfast burritos. We've used the onboard stove once or twice for a quick heat-up in inclement weather.

It's a little farther, but AZ is another great wintering ground with plenty of public land available for free dispersed camping as long as you're set up to be self-sufficient. The area around Quartzsite is a favorite, and there's a molded fiberglass trailer gathering there in early February. There are also some private campgrounds along the lower Colorado River, as well as very nice state and country parks scattered across the warmer parts of the state, but you'll need reservations well in advance.

[Tom Petit]

We had a Casita and now have a Happier Camper. We changed to a Happier Camper because we never used the stove, sink or heat and wanted to simplify as it is very annoying to maintain items that you don’t use. We mostly camp at campgrounds with electricity and bathrooms. The 3 way frig is complicated and expensive to fix. We added a 12v efficient frig with solar and lithium so unless we stay for several days, we have a frig, a nice bed, which is all that we need. On the one or 2 Occasions that we needed a bit of heat, we just ran our hair dryer before going to bed.