the changes to your camping lifestle over the years.

[PKCSPT]

I haven't done it yet, money is a bit tight. I want to add a solar panel to mine and a battery. Right now I can spend the money camping or go with solar but can't do both right now. I never thought I would want it but now I realize, yup I do.

Well that and a birthday Coleman Lantern. You all have me wanting one now.

[robfisher]

The greatest change in my camping lifestye was after the ground got too hard for backpacking. I moved to a teardrop.

[bdosborn]

It's a natural part of getting older, most people don't want to rough it like they used to. I would have said you were crazy back in my 20s if you told me I'd have a trailer. Camping was throwing on a backpack and hiking somewhere away from the crowds. Now look at me. That's why I have to laugh at the people that think camping means leaving all electronics at home and only cooking over the fire - that's camping to them, it means that aren't very good at it to me. But 30 years ago I used to think that even having a camper was for wimps! Camping means something different for everyone and it tends to change over the years.

Bruce

[flboy]

I really enjoyed tent camping when my son an nephews were small. We would put the dirtbikes in the back of an open trailer and throw in some gear and go for the weekend (the girls did their own thing). We also did the backpacking minimalist thing too and I liked that.


Now that they are grown up and gone ( and my daughters and wife never took to camping), I have moved up to a converted cargo trailer toy hauler which I really enjoyed building. It is nicer and I can go into a store or something and don't have to worry about things walking away. It is more comfortable in weather and the older I get, the more I enjoy the comforts.

In a few years when I semi-retire and travel/camp a lot more, I expect that my wife will want to be going (which is good) and with that brings a new level of expectations (shower, etc.) . Since I always take dirt bikes or my cruiser, I will probably buy (or maybe build) a larger toy hauler that has all the household comforts she desires. Well see. For now, I like my 14*7 CTC which meets all my needs and fits in the back yard. I have built it up with most amenities... just not an inside shower or private toilet.

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=50647

[bc toys]

I started with a cabin in the woods on the river then we got a camper 21ft and used it on the lakes in N E Tx and then I move away from home and got me a 18ft trailer for a place to live and work out of had a jeep and a tent for camping then got married and had kids and wife so we got a 3 room tent and camped in it for yrs moved up to a pop-up camper to a 27ft hard sided that the only thing we ever used was the bed room and bath room kids where out on their own by the time we got it got rid of it and gpot a 5x8 cargo fixed it to hall all my cooking and camping stuff sold it then got a 7x16 fixed it up and sold it now I have a 6x10 v nose wife told me I had to keep it when its fixed up so I'm taking my time fixing it up the way I want it

[Roly Nelson]

As a little kid, my folks let me camp in a home-made burlap bag material pup tent in our back yard. At least we could do dumb things out there that the folks never found out about. Later, when I met the love of my life, my folks took us camping in Wisconsin and Canada, using their huge tent, when my sweetie found out you don't pee at night with one foot down hill. Later, after we married, we graduated to camping with the kids in Canada, in our station wagon, then moved up to a truck-mounted slide-in cab-over camper, which we used when the kids were little, driving to the midwest every other year, checking out the sights along the way.

Our next step was givng a 29 ft 5th wheel trailer a try, but my truck was too small to handle the load, so after I retired, we bought a 22 foot class C mini motorhome. We loved it and traveled in it for a couple of years, then graduated to a 28 ft class A motorhome, which we traveled in for 6 years, checking out our grandkids and visited 46 states and 245 highschool friends and relatives, all across the US. Unforgettable years, which I will never forget.

Gas prices sky rocketed and we sold it, and to my wife's dismay, (you expect me to sleep in that thing?) I built my first woody teardrop trailer. After a few trips to various sights and campgrounds, and meeting the friendly TD'ers, she was sold on teardropping and loved it. As time went on and we both became a private pilots, we continued to explore the western' US, making numerous trips to amazing airport locations, in such places as Death Valley, Catalina Island, Tombstone, AZ, Mexico and Central Calif dude ranches. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Wouldn't have changed it for the world. Now, life goes on, without her, thanks to my teardrop interests. Now in my aging years, I have an option to sit at home, watch TV and drink beer on the couch, or go out there and enjoy TD life.
Roly, Teardropping and lovin' it.

[MtnDon]

Car, small backpackable tent... many years, sometimes no tent, (if the weather looked good)
Small pickup with cap; sleep in back
Scout Traveler 4x4; sleep in back
Toyota FJ55; sleep in back
Toyota FJ60; sleep in back and then tow Boler trailer
Suzuki WJ410; back to a tent, but a bigger tent.
23 foot Class C, sleep in a bed and tow the BII or XJ at times. (below)
Bronco II; tent or sleep in back or be towed and sleep in C class
Jeep Cherokee XJ; tent and sleep in back (many years) or be towed and sleep in C class
Toyota Tacoma with cap; sleep in back
CT conversion; maiden trip in approx 2 weeks; sleep in queen size bed, tow with Tacoma

[HMK]

My camping has changed drastically over the years. Started out camping in the back yard way back in grade school. Dig hole, make fire, sleep on ground in sleeping bag.

Got drivers license, camped on private land in dry creek bed just about every weekend with a couple of buddies. Dig hole, make fire, sleep on ground in sleeping bag. Along about 83' Walmart used to sell these fish net mini hammocks. Started sleeping in one of those and continued for several years.

Present day. Pitch tent, blow up mattress, YIKES! No more digging hole for fire as we use fire pit.

Now in looking for a Camper! Double Yikes!!!

I guess I finally got civilized.

[Shadow Catcher]

I grew up tent camping, we camped two years ago at Big Basin Redwoods state park where my sister tells me we camped 60 years ago.

We camped in Death Vally when we first married and when we had kids we started camping north of Lake superior, in tents. And last year we returned.

I designed many of the things in the tear for exactly this, Part of this was to make it as easy to prepare and cleanup after meals as at home and to have some of the comforts and things we missed. Reading lights, sat radio... The Solar panel which allowed us to go eight days with out having to re-supply (it will keep thing frozen on the bottom at the right setting).
Some of the choices are primarily time savers, yes you can heat water to do the dishes on the 70 year old Preway stove but it is time consuming, and yes you can cook over a fire but that depends to some extent on weather...
Now camping for us is doing something, or not doing much but it is much less about mundane tasks that take time.

[hiker]

Grew up camping in tents, then folks got slide in for the truck, then a medium trailer then a large trailer.

I left home and backpacked my gear, married introduced mt beautiful bride & children to backpacking. We started in the home, in the yard, 50 feet from the car then hiking for 5-20 miles a day. Even just the two of us, we still backpack just harder to get away from other obligations.

This tiny trailer building exercise is a platform for
a) Weekend getaways – All gear ready to go at all times, insert food/drink in trailer and go. Not just camping but other events single or multi day. From a long day at faraway town to festivals, or even Field Day (not this year), shooting events.
b) Emergency housing for the odd guest.
c) Downsizing – Goal is to get all camp gear out of home, except maybe a daypack. Just gave away 4 tents, sleeping bag, kitchen, FAKs, to some family & friends. We still have a lot left over. Our group maxed out at 18? People. Goal is to have just enough for the trailer and 2 backpacks.
d) Retirement plan – Current retirement plan involves becoming “homeless” living in 18-24’ travel trailer. This is test for how we like working out of trailer. Trailer would be a basecamp extending our time away and storing our toys, optics, reference books, camera gear, amateur radio.

Yup, no One Trick Pony for me. I think I just named the trailer.

[Rainier70]

Much of our camping has always centered around fishing and hiking.

For me as a teenager and college aged student hiking and backpacking was the norm. But time goes on.... When our kids were small, car camping and day trips were more common. As the kids got older the main tent got bigger, but then we sprouted satellite tents! Next came a barebones popup trailer that served us well. After that a 24 foot bumper pull trailer. Yet during all that time we still did a lot of hiking and backpack camping. After all our kids were grown and married we sold the trailer.

Most of my camping was then back to hiking and a backpack tent or hammock and tarp. After my lungs got injured I needed to have my camping stuff ready to go all the time. I shifted to car camping then to a truck topper. The truck topper was good in some ways, but it was way too hard to keep the dust of our gravel roads out of it. Also we needed the back frequently for hauling things, so it was hard to leave it packed and ready to go.

Along came the cargo trailer conversion. I can leave it all packed up and ready to go including a backpack and hammock for those spur of the moment hiking trips. I can hook it up and be on the road in less than 20 minutes, yet be set to boondock camp for weeks if I need to. It is rugged for the rough roads and areas of our mountains, and it is small enough that it is easy to park or get turned around.

For where I am at in life right now, it is pretty near perfect, and I am a happy camper.

[Epbowen]

This is an awesome thread. Amazing to hear how lives changed canping.

[Oldragbaggers]

When I was a kid our family camped summers in the Smokey Mountains in a pop-up camper we borrowed from my grandfather.

The camping I had done as an adult (pre-teardrop) was either boat camping or was related to bicycle touring, and that was usually a small one or two person tent and a sleeping bag/pad.

It was bicycling that led us to learn about teardrops. This is our second season with ours and we love it. We have been to Florida and back with already this year. We find it's continually more comfortable, and also complex, as we keep adding gear to our collection. Which, of course, leads you to think that most of that gear that has to be unloaded and set up would not have to be in a little bit larger trailer. And the main deficiency of the teardrop for me is the lack of an indoor head. It's fun though, and beats the heck out of that tent and sleeping bag.

We will likely never sell the teardrop but definitely will add a bigger bumper pull at some point prior to our retirement. We plan to retire in Florida but our daughter and grandchildren live in California. We would like to be able to load up the trailer and go visit as often as we want, and stay as long as we please. For that I think we need something with a few more of the comforts of home and a better venue for getting out of the weather. (Oh, and that indoor head.)

[Tamarack Lady]

Almost forty three years ago we gave each other backpacks as our wedding presents. They were orange, externally framed from Sears..the only ones around. We used those for hiking and camping for years. When our son was one month old, we hiked and camped along the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Eventually we got better, internally framed packs.

Next came kayaks. We have ones with hatches to store our camping gear. Again, we traveled a good ways to buy them as they were not readily available. We have three of them and as soon as our son could handle it, that's what we used. We put three of them on the top of a Nova and drove West two times!

Finally, with age came the desire to get off the ground. Thus the teardrop. We are retired (though we have obligations with elderly parents) so there are more opportunities to "just decide to head out". Having everything ready to go makes that possible. With the teardrop and our solar set up we have comforts and the ability to have the cell phone charged so to be easily contacted if needed. We' started it just about two years ago and started camping in it that September. It's been many places...we just came back from Lake Erie. Love it!

Wendy

[Epbowen]

My wife and I started camping under a tarp, then went to a tent. Had kids, shifted to car camping...meaning a big tent, stove and ice chest. Then we bought a popup. A move to Texas and we bought a 29 ft travel trailer, drug it back to oregon. When the kids moved out we bought a 26 ft tt, used it for years. Then we looked around and went back to simple, a tent, and toys, like bikes and kayaks to travel light and just go. We found the tear as a lark, looking for a utility trailer on Craigs list, we talked for about 4 hours before calling and going to look at it. It was a project, but the idea was we could store it fully loaded in the garage, either of us could hook it up and pick the other up after work and boom, we are gone. This will be our first summer in the "escape' 2" and it will be grand.