Corpusfishing.com

[frayed]

Is it generally feasible to get a tent camper down to big shell and beyond? I have a Yota 4Runner that does really well in the loose stuff (as long as you lock the center diff, found out the hard way; the rear diff if it's really nasty).

I grew up hiking and tent camping, doing stuff like hiking the grand tetons with the boy scouts. But those days are done, and I'd like something resembling a real bed, toilet and running water.

And I thought it would be cool to park a tent camper on the beach for the typical sunday fun-day with the family by packery or south of bob hall. Give the kids a place to nap and stuff while dad is fishing.

I've seen these neat off road models with bigger tires and a full storage area up front. But they are pricy. . . I was looking more at a conventional one, used, cheap.
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Jeff

Get Busy

[ironmanstan]

you won't have a problem when the driving is fair, its a use your better judgement thing. Always take a shovel. I think it would be great to have a camper with duals or really fat wide sand tires.
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I LIKE MINE FRIED.

[frayed]

Yeah, that's probably the key. Gotta spread the weight a bit with dual axles and wide tires.

Maybe get some 22" spinners, yo!

I was also thinking the tent camper would keep the ghosts out.
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Jeff

Get Busy

[robul]

Those offroad ones are $$$$.. I looked into them a while back. I couldnt justify it because it will only get ruined from the sand and the beach. Probably your best bet would buy a good used one and beef up the suspension with leaf springs and raise it up a bit with bigger tires. the only big issue I found is ground clearance on the pop ups. keep in mind too for that bad boy to be cool you gotta run a generator.. noisy!! lol

[frayed]

I thought those Honda generators were pretty quiet, no?

Yeah, too much $$ for the offroad models. Check it

http://www.roamingtimes.com/rvreports/jayco-baja-camping-trailer.aspx

I like your idea of beefing up a used, regular model for ground clearance. They are way lighter too.
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Jeff

Get Busy

[robul]

[Big Ed]

I bought a pretty good sized old pop up about 10 years ago. It had been made in the 70's (still had 70's orange upholstry). It had the small narrow tires but I still pulled it down the beach several times as far as about the 42. Never had any real problem, but be aware that many times you are literally dragging that thing since the small tires go right to the bottom of the ruts. Learned to just keep the speed up as much as you could in the shell. Also had to make sure everything was well tied down since we drove fairly fast. Now I don't mean we were heading down the beach doing 50mph, but we would try to keep it above 10 or 15 even in the rough stuff. Didn't have a/c, but I bought some 12 volt fans at Pep Boys and a good deep cycle battery and even during the summer could sleep pretty good with the fans. Kept the thing about 3 years and my wife decided she didn't really like camping on the beach for several days so I sold it for about $500 more than I paid for it. Since she didn't want to go with me for a few days, I could just sleep in the shell camper on my truck.
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Big Ed
San Antonio

"A word to the wise ain't necessary. It's the stupid ones who need advice.", Bill Cosby

[frayed]

Dang, the generator would kill the camper budget! Those Honders are great units.

I ended up going with a Honder 4stroke on the skiff. . . looking forward to running it.
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Jeff

Get Busy

[golucky]

My friends and I made it down to the 23 last year right, after Ike went through, pulling this popup. Drove till we got stuck, then setup camp.

Found this pic of it.

[frayed]

Lucky, did the camper get you guys stuck from dragging through the sand?
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Jeff

Get Busy

[golucky]

Kinda... The width of the Suburban tires and the width of the Pop-up were different widths, and the pop-up kept sliding back and forth from rut to rut. After the second time we got stuck going down, we had one truck go further down and check the sand. He said it was more of the same, so we pitched camp. We still had to swing the camper around so the door faced the ocean. It took a bit to get it were we wanted it,and balanced. But was worth it for the 5-day camp-out. We did get stuck four times going back up, but after a bunch of shoveling we made it. -golucky

Only problem is the pop-up tends to limit how far down you can go.

[ironmanstan]

A Long # 12 awg extension cord takes care of the noise, check out my generator when your here, hondas are the creme of the crop, but everyone is making the generators more and more quiet. if its got a straight axle we can do a swap out and beef it up. If you can get one with 14 or 15 in tires thats fine enough for hauling. If ya get stuck you can aleays call on me ...I'll find someone to come and pull you out..
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I LIKE MINE FRIED.

[Uncle D]

Yea I heard about a wrecker service that will come pull out lawyers for a special fee.

[delliott00]

The honda eu1000 and eu2000 generators can handle a surge demand for up to 6 seconds which effectively increases the amps it can deliver well above the ratings. That is specifically for A/C compressor unit startup.

I used my eu2000 on an old boat that didn't have a genset (save the CO warnings, I know how to use one safely). The eu2000i would easily kick on a 10k btu unit and once kicked on it would run that, a battery charger, and the fridge all at once. The eu1000i will run a 6k btu unit without any problem.

They are super quiet, light, and will run a long time on a tank.

I'm thinking an eu1000i and a $99 5K btu window unit in a tent would keep things cool enough to sleep. When our A/C went out at home and were waiting for it to be fixed, we bought the cheapest window unit that Home Depot had (a $99 Samsung 5K) and it cools a large master bedroom with no problem. Of course thats insulated, but a 4 person tent would be no problem IMHO.

I'd like to bring the boat down to the mansfield jetties, anchor out on the back side, and do some yak fishing from there. It has a diesel generator that will run the A/C for 4 days straight on 10gals of diesel. Maybe we could coordinate a joint boat/4x4 camping run down there, take an afternoon and run to the new artificial reefs that are nearshore and have supposedly been really producing lately.

-Dave

[Rebecca of Sunnybrookfarm]