Extreamly light, basic camper Idea

[Greg Barrick]

Good afternoon, everyone.
I've been sitting here for a couple days jogging my old memory and searching and figgerin,. (scary, huh)
Does any remember or ever used the old 50's-60's Apache tent campers? I mean the little aluminum box models with the canvass tent that pulled over the box (bed) and covered like an 8'x8' area beside the camper with a floor??? I had one years ago (sears model) when my kids were small. Really enjoyed that trailer. Extremely light, quick set-up. Not realizing what I had, I let it go. Now I think I'd like to build a copy of that in wood and canvass, as I have a couple frames for more TD builds.
Now I need to make up my mind weather to build the camper and have the canvass built to fit or buy the tent I want and build the camper box to fit the tent.
The wife and I really enjoy our giant TD (6.5'x 12' x 5'-4' tall) But it does kill our gas mileage and can't see over or around it well. And todays cars just don't have the power and braking my old junk truck has.
As we're "more mature", instead of the LONG camping expeditions, today we prefer to do multiple weekend campouts. Perhaps a 350/450lb tent camper would really be worth considering.
Any thoughts??

[Cosmo]

Every choice is a compromise.
At 65 mph I average 25MPG in a Subaru Forester (2104) without the trailer we get 33MPG

Lots of video's of the Apache on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... ent+camper

If you prefer hard walls an alternative could be the MyPod which weigh's in at 600 pounds
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... pod+camper

Good Luck
Cosmo

[Esteban]

Postby Cosmo » Sun May 15, 2016 11:12 am
Every choice is a compromise.
At 65 mph I average 25MPG in a Subaru Forester (2104) without the trailer we get 33MPG

Cosmo, my Subaru Forester is a 2015. Is your Forester really 89 years newer than mine?

[JaggedEdges]

This is the most recent, closest thing, I've seen to those...

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/lifetime-t ... 7730302.ip

That comes shipped to the curb on a skid I think, and you have to bolt it all together. Also think it's not meant to sit out in the weather all year packed up, and you either pack up the tent and bring it indoors, or garage it.

I believe that might have been discontinued by Lifetime and there's only a few remaining in stock. It was also sold by Costco, they went out of stock in Canada here, otherwise I might have been tempted to get one.

Edit: Though I guess if you sit there an analyze it, you're getting about a $1000 utility trailer and $500 worth of tent for that... buuuut it's hard to do it custom for that. The direct buy from China types of sites, have tents available that are intended for use with small trailers. Generally, they are more of the fold out to the ground type though, Europeans and Australians seem to like those okay. You might need to get a tent first (Expect 2 months surface shipping) and play around with it on stacks of skids or something until you figure the ideal trailer to make for it.

[JaggedEdges]

Oh, another commercial current product that's somewhat close is these...
http://www.livinlite.com/qs-tentcampers.php

There are a couple of other ones booting around, but they were even more ridiculous in price, like a more designery version of the Lifetime trailer, that didn't give you anything else, no kitchen etc, and trailer wasn't as adaptable for other uses, and they wanted $8000 or so.

[jstrubberg]

I've fooled around with designing one of these. The box and bunks are easy enough. I thought about using a conestoga-esque tent over the top with those fiberglass tent poles for support and Velcro to secure the whole thing to the bunks. Where I lost interest was in trying to figure out how to deal with doors and windows, as well as how to sew the darn thing.

I remember camping in one of these when I was younger and hunting a lot. Setup was easy and the whole thing didn't weigh more than a couple hundred pounds.

[Tomterrific]

My folks started camping with me in the late 50's , 1960 or so. Dad bought an Apache tent camper. I don't remember much about the camper.

T

[GPW]

Sounds like Someone needs a FOAMIE’ Trailer ...

[bobhenry]

That was the frame for Rip van winkle.......

Rip van Winkle turned out to weigh just under 525 pounds ready to camp.

[greygoos]

My family camped all over the east coast with the old style Apache. It brings back fond memories. There are some builds on here where they built built a motorcycle camper from the ground up, obviously smaller but same idea as what you were speaking about. Good luck with your build.

[kudzu]

You could build a box on one of those trailers & mount a trailer tent on top: https://cascadiatents.com/shop/cvt-07-trailer-tent/
When unfolded & set up, the bed is on top of the trailer & the rest folds out into a room. There is an included add-a-room to expand your living space even more. Set up of the main section should be relatively fast & easy. The add a room, should you choose to use it, would be a bit time consuming. Had thought it would be cool to built a base trailer with a kitchen built on heavy duty slides so it pulled out from the tailgate area and side access doors to match the zippered opening in the main body of the tent. That would give you two covered areas allowing you ready access to most of the trailer. You can also mount the tent on struts so you could lift it up like a lid on the trailer.

Here is a video. I believe it's actually a CVT-12 with rooms about 5 feet longer than the CVT-07 currently sold, but it shows you what it's like. The first section they walk into is the add a room.


There is also the 6x8 Jumping Jack, which I though was a cool little tent trailer. It has various configuration options including a dinette. It has multiple beds & can sleep 4 people comfortably. They offering small & large awnings. Am not sure they sell the tent without the trailer. So maybe not right for your plans. Here are some links: http://www.jumpingjacktrailers.com/6x8-tent-trailer.php
Set up video:

[jandmz]

We used a 1966 Apache Buffalo Mesa for about 11 years. It was headed for the scrap heap when we bought it for $350. We put about $300 into it reworking the canvas, replacing the cushions and mattresses, and putting new tires on it. It weighed about 700 lbs empty. and we pulled it with a Geo Tracker. It did well on the prairie, but struggled in the hills (we never ventured into the mountains with it unless we pulled it with the S10). The Geo got about 28mpg on its own and about 23mpg towing the camper. It had two pull out beds, and a dinette that folded down into a bed. An Eagle or Falcon model is about 450 lbs and would probably be easier to pull, but would also be smaller and sleep 4 people max.

We weathered some epic storms in that camper that would have sent us home in our tenting days. It kept us dry and off the ground, which was the important thing. If you are looking for a light, cheap camper, you can pick up an Apache Eagle, Falcon or Buffalo for a few hundred, and put a new canvas on it for about $900. There is a company that still has the original canvas patterns from the company, and still makes replacements.

This is our Apache on a camping trip in 2010. Not bad for a 44 year old camper.

[WizardOfOdds]

Wow, your Apache really takes me back! I picked up a used 1964 Buffalo in late 71. It was mostly like yours except the top was all tent, the sides and ends were a ‘sideways Vee’ (like the front on yours), and we had an integral zip-on awning. We had the same bed supports that extended to the ground (much better than the poles supports that many designs run between the bed edge and floor frame) and the same corner feet (but ours aligned with the sides rather than the ends). Same gold color.

What I really loved was the construction which did not depend on cabinets to maintain rigidity - the interior was totally open, no cabinets, no table, only two very low profile wheel wells. I could stand anywhere on the 6x8 floor. The frame was the X-design which maximized use of the plywood floor, very unique and clever. I actually got better mileage on trips than my normal driving which was at least 60% highway to begin with!

Twelve years later the 20 yr old canvas was still in good shape, but the screens had deteriorated and the seams needed to be resewed in a couple places (I failed to properly treat them after having a professional tent company resew them). We had to move 400 miles and I sold it (for $50 just to get rid of it). One of the big regrets of my life. But the memories will never fade.

[kudzu]

Have you seen this post? http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=64495&start=15#p1171760

[Greg Barrick]

Now THIS is what I'm talking about. Light, easy build. Making the tent is the difficult part. I love it.