Rainy trips... any tips?

[Socal Tom]

I've had my TD for 5 years now, and this weekend was my first rainy weekend camp out. My parents were next door in an RV, or we probably would have packed up and headed home. Made me wonder if there are any tips from those of you who deal with rain on a more regular basis. Specifically, where do you put on your shoes to keep your feet dry, and your bed clean?
Tom


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[GuitarPhotog]

I have a covered vestibule outside my teardrop door that keeps the entry dry. I put my shoes under the trailer just below the door to keep them dry.

I also use a 12ft X 16ft tarp from the galley hatch hinge to tarp poles to create a dry living/cooking/eating space. Doesn't work great in high winds, but little will except hard walls and roof.

<Chas>

[tony.latham]

Specifically, where do you put on your shoes to keep your feet dry, and your bed clean?

I put mine in a plastic grocery bag and set them on the back shelf.

T

[working on it]

Canopies, tarps, raincoats, and waterproof boots. It seems like half of my trips are rainy outings. Some with torrential rain. I use a canopy offset to one side, placed over my 4x8, to leave a 4 ft. area of shelter over my main door. On the other side, I either have a canopy sidewall or an attached side-tent, to shield it from rain (a door leaked once, when it sat partially open, and incompletely sealed; the canopy dumped directly on the seal). I place my chair, a plastic cookstand, and one of my attached side-tents under the sheltered side, and use a teepee type tent for my Luggable-Loo porta-potty (if I'm not using the floored side-tent, on the other side). I carry an extra canopy, two waterproof 8x10 tarps, and two ponchos as back-ups, to my gear. I store my raincoat and my boots inside my 4x8 trailer, in a small rectangular wastebasket in the corner, at my feet. Since I camp alone, this set-up worked well, last time out, and should be my regular procedure from now on.

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[Socal Tom]

Specifically, where do you put on your shoes to keep your feet dry, and your bed clean?

I put mine in a plastic grocery bag and set them on the back shelf.

T

I had a small bucket to put them in under the trailer( I normally use it to carry shower stuff back and forth), the issue was how to take them off and not get my feet soaking wet. I guess the tarp/awning set up of sometime would be required. I put my ez up over the galley, until the wind came up. It was a pretty good storm ( for Socal standards) we probably got over an inch in the 24 hours or so, most of it at night. We stayed dry inside, so my new PMF roof appears to have done its job. However once I got home it was evident that wind was blowing water under my doors. The interior was full of water, and my memory foam mattress is now drip drying in the garage. I guess I have some more sealing to do.
Tom

[TimC]

I can't say I would make it through a storm like you describe; unexpected showers while camping might be a little easier to be prepared for. I don't have an awning or shelter cover over my cabin doors which would help. To deal with taking off shoes in the doorway I built two pallet like wooden platforms that fit in my tongue box. They allow me to keep my feet out of the slop when the ground is wet. They really came in handy when I was camping in a sandy campsite last fall with the dew in the morning. Just enough room to get my feet into or out of shoes before swinging my feet into the cabin. They also come in handy when I set up my shower tent and use them as platforms to stand on instead of standing on the wet ground/dirt.

[RonS]

It was a pretty good storm ( for Socal standards) we probably got over an inch in the 24 hours or so, most of it at night.

That doesn't qualify as a storm, that's barely raining. A "pretty good storm" puts down an inch an hour...

[Socal Tom]

It was a pretty good storm ( for Socal standards) we probably got over an inch in the 24 hours or so, most of it at night.

That doesn't qualify as a storm, that's barely raining. A "pretty good storm" puts down an inch an hour...

We only get 9 inches of rain per year, so an inch in an hour would be a big problem.


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[daveesl77]

In that we do a lot of east coast camping, we get rained on alot. Depending on the trip is what determines what we carry with us. Like this last trip, we knew we would not be in a single location more than 4 days, so we brought along the 10x10 ezup canopy. On top of that I put a 12x12 white plastic tarp and secure everything really tight with lawn stakes from HD. The tarp also slides into a slot rail on the back of the trailer. This tarp acts as a complete rain shield on the top and some additional strength in strong winds/rain.

If we know we are going to be in a single location more than 4-5 days (like last Thanksgiving), then we bring a 10x20 large portable canopy. We love that thing and it takes me about 45 minutes to put it up or take it down. While heavier and taking longer to erect than the popup, you just cannot beat the strength or room inside it. The reason for using this canopy instead of the ez up is that it is massively strong and doesn't really take that much longer to put up.

Here is from last T'day. Walls were being used to block the wind. Since then we have cut down the height of the canopy from 6'8 side rail to 5'10" to allow the walls to reach the ground. Floor tarp not being used on that trip as there was essentially no chance of rain that week. We quit bringing the green astroturf rug since after about 10 years of use, it got a bit rough.

We have a set of 10foot long screen walls that work with either top and also a set of poly tarps we cut down to also act as 10 foot long solid walls. Finally, we bring along an old 12x24 grey poly tarp to use as a "floor" under both the camper and/or the extra room. The floor has lots of holes in it, which allow water to escape, and thus it keeps the feet pretty dry in the worst of weather. The screens keep out bugs, but also keep out light rain. If a downpour (or cold weather) we close off the tarp walls, which attach to a ground rope we string around either of the canopies. We carry one of those big, round propane heaters that mount to the top of a 20# tank and if needed we can fire it up to warm up the "outside room". We have had this system up in super powerful storms, like 50-60+mph winds and blinding rain amounts.

Now, if really, really crappy weather, like noisy, beating rain at night and we want to watch a movie but don't want to go inside the camper just yet, we use our minivan as a bad weather living room. We leave the 3rd row seats installed at all times, but never bring the middle row. That gives us reclining seats, tons of leg room and quiet against a raging storm. If my modifications I'm doing this summer work out, we won't even need to do that any more, as I'm hopefully building a system that will turn the platform bed into an adjustable "chaise".

Oh, and I'm adding in a convertible dinette inside the camper. Yes, a 2 person dinette inside a 5x5x10 camper. It actually works too. Pics to come when finished.

dave

[capnTelescope]

I built two pallet like wooden platforms

Ditto. They're good for any kind of weather or parking spot surface. Mine go in the TV.

[deleted]

I bought a grey bath towel and keep it folded up by the door so that when I get in my trailer, if my pants have gotten wet/muddy along the hems I can sit down, slip my shoes off, store them (either near the door on a small rack or I tie the laces together and hang them from an overhead hook), then swing my legs into the trailer and keep the wet/dirty parts on the towel until I slip my pants off. I fold them carefully over the towel then bundle the whole thing up to shake out the next morning.

[HossHoffer]

A lot of great ideas. Our two essentials for camping are a canopy and sterilite containers with lids that have locks on them.

[Cubbie0708]

- We almost always put down a set of astro-turf mats in front of our camper doors so we have a clean/dry-ish place to get in/out of the camper.
- We have a set of fender tables that we always put out - if the forecast calls for rain, we put our umbrellas on the fender tables, if it's super-windy, we tuck them under the camper.
- If we're wearing our raincoats, before we go to bed, we'll either hang them in our shelter or put them in the car and then use our umbrellas to and from the camper.
- We started out with a set of shoeboxes that we would put under the camper at night and then tuck at the bottom of the bed en-route. As it turns out, we almost always wear Crocs as our camp shoes and it doesn't matter if they get a little wet. I put my Crocs on my fender table at night, rain or shine, my husband will put his on his door mat and then slide them under the camper if it's going to rain - he doesn't like wet feet in the morning. If it's going to be windy, we tuck our shoes behind the wheel (under the camper) - so far we haven't have any problems with lost shoes or creepie-crawlies...yet.
- On our last trip, we had to bring our shoes in the camper a couple of times (gale force winds, rest area overnight) which I didn't like. I have a set of Eagle Creek travel shoe bags that I now keep in the camper in case we have to bring our shoes inside again - they're lightweight, collapsible, and they have a plastic lining. My shoes fit in easy, my husbands (size 11) trainers are a bit snug. Here's the one we have: https://shop.eaglecreek.com/packit-orig ... oryId=1201 and here's the new model: https://shop.eaglecreek.com/packit-spec ... oryId=1201
- I made a mesh gear hammock for our camper cabin to store our coats/clothes at night (so they doesn't get lost in the bedding) - if our clothes are wet, at least they're off the bed and have a bit of air flow.
- My favorite thing: bathrobes! Don't have to get properly dressed to go to the bathroom. A pee-bottle is another foul-weather friend.
- Fantastic Vent - unless it's a real storm, we can usually get away with cracking the vent fan, just enough to get it to run. If you get a 12' shelter, I've seen a lot of set-ups where the galley, camper doors, and vent fan are covered.

[dmb90260]

This is a Kelty carport. I do not know if they make them anymore.
Easy to secure and provided privacy when getting up in the morning.


It could be moved to cover the galley if I did not want to use the pop-up