I have returned from my trip to the Badlands. I know it was kind of a duplicate trip; my dad was just there a little over a month ago, but it was a worthy excursion. I picked it as well because it was a place I wanted to visit, it was only a weekend drive to get there (though it turned out to be a lot longer than I thought). My dad had prior experience with the area, so I knew where to get water for the camper and stuff like that, and it was close enough to KY that if something went horribly wrong (like my truck left its transmission behind) someone could come rescue me.
Here are the pictures with a quick blurb about each album. It would be nice if Google allowed you to nest albums, but Google doesn't believe in organization.
10-23 - Drive to the Badlands
Pictures from the drive up.
10-24 - Badlands National Park Hiking
I did three trails, the Door Trail, the Window Trail, and the Notch Trail, which I didn't finish.
Some photos of the exhibits in the Visitor Center where I filled up the camper with water.
10-24 - Badlands National Park Scenic Loop
The scenic drive. Saw lots of views, lots of wildlife.
10-25 - Mount Rushmore
Pretty self-explanatory
10-25 - Black Hills and Crazy Horse
I drove through the Black Hills from Rushmore to get to Crazy Horse. Lots of exhibits at Crazy Horse.
10-26 - Badlands National Park Scenic Loop (take 2)
It turned out TripAdvisor lied about what I wanted to do on Tuesday being open. So instead of the Delta-9 missile silo and the Badlands petrified forest, I did another round on the scenic loop and stopped at the places I had missed on the first either because I had a trailer and there was no parking, or I was running out of time.
10-26 - Wall Drug
I stopped at the Wall Drug store, which is a big tourist attraction.
Campsite Badlands Boondocking
Pictures from the campsite where I stayed.
Camper Shenanigans
Some of my experiences with the camper.
10-28 - Driving Home
Driving home.
In addition to the scenery, this trip was also a validation of the feasibility of using this format to tour the country. For the most part the results were good. The camper has plenty of storage, there was plenty of space, even with all the extra stuff I brought. The 12V battery is adequate for several days boondocking. I used significantly less water than I expected (though I didn't shower in the camper, I just did some basic washing). I still had 2/3 reading on the gauge when I got home, even after losing some to the water heater.
Here are some lessons learned:
- I didn't bring enough stuff to drink. The water I got from the Ben Reifel Visitor Center was questionable, though I used it for cooking without issue. I didn't bring enough bottled tea and stuff to make the trip without drinking the water though.
- I bought a Brita filter for the camper specifically anticipating the reason noted above, but I never took it out of the packaging, and didn't want to use the water to soak the filter and run enough through it to get the carbon dust out. This should have all been done before I left.
- Anything that requires major unwrapping and generates a lot of trash should be done beforehand.
- When I was filling the fresh water tank, I should have turned on the water heater. Instead I turned it on afterwards and it used 5 gallons right off the top.
- Water heater needs investigation. It smelled like it pulled the oxygen out of the camper and I had to open the windows when I turned it on. I didn't end up using it as a result. It isn't clear whether this is a result of it being the first time it has been turned on in years, or if there is an actual problem.
- My laundry was a disaster. The hangers kept falling down on the road. Either go with a double hamper (one clean, one dirty) or use metal hangers and tighten the loop that goes over the bar so they don't fall off.
- When you turn on the water pump for the first time, don't run anything else. It draws enough current to make the voltage droop on battery, which is exacerbated if other things are running.
- Likewise, when checking the battery level, make sure the camper has been at steady state for a few minutes or you will get a false lower reading.
- Even though the camper isn't heavy, it might be worth getting a weight distributing hitch for it anyways. You can clearly see in the pictures of the camper on the truck that the back of the truck is squatting. More on this below.
- The way I bought groceries for the camper was I went on a shopping trip and grabbed whatever tickled my fancy. This meant I didn't buy any veggies, and my digestive system noticed the lack of balance in my diet while I was there. I also had several things I brought that I didn't even open.
- Just in general, better meal planning would have been very beneficial.
- I bought a lot of Walmart food and cheap Kroger food. Buying better/healthier stuff is worth it, even if it is more expensive.
- If I am going to use the grill as an oven, it might be worth getting a pan for that purpose. I got lucky since I brought my toaster oven which had a pan in it.
- I brought my impact hammer to put the jacks down. That was a mistake. It was inferior to a regular drill for the purpose. I only ended up using it when I broke the speedwrench.
- All my evening entertainment was tied to 110V power. When the power center isn't hooked up, that isn't available. Frequently I would just run my laptop dead and then go to bed.
- Nothing in the camper was microwave safe outside of a couple of cups. No plates.
- I didn't do it for this trip, but in previous trips I have considered buying something like a go-pro to take time-lapse video of the trip. That would have been amazing for this trip.
- One 5gal gas can is probably more than adequate as a "I don't want to walk" supply. I brought 3. I probably didn't need to bring home the full water jug either. Reducing weight in the back would have helped considerably. Or move some of the weight forward into the cab.
- I got 10-12mpg foot driving around 65mph. It got 9-11mpg on cruise at 65mph. I got 7-8mpg when on cruise at 70-72mph. I got Harvey Birdman at 85mph. Less when it was windy. As a result, I was driving slow and stopping often. Google's sub-19 hour estimate took over 24 hours of driving time.
- The power center was reading about 60% after one day (~16-18h) of use. That is less than I expected since the AC wasn't running. I might need to revisit some of the math I did on that and see if I can find the discrepancy.
When it comes to looking at a new truck, a couple of things became clear:
- A half ton is adequate for this camper, as long as it has enough power and a big enough gas tank. I had no trouble with the trailer wagging the truck or anything like that.
- The larger gas tank is now a requirement. On the tanks where it was windy, I wasn't even making two hours between stops for gas. That said, the only time I was in danger of running out was on the trip home when I was all "I can make it to the far side of St. Louis" and while I did make it, the first gas station there wasn't operational, and I decided to use the gas I had in the back. I may not have had enough to get to the next station.
- The bigger engine is worth it. The 4.6L V8 in my truck was at best just barely adequate, but there was no excess. The 5.7L would have been better. My truck couldn't hold more than ~62mph in top gear on flat ground. Less when windy.
- While I actually got better mileage than my Aunt Lisa's truck making the same trip, I was also driving a lot slower. It couldn't really accelerate at highway speed without downshifting all the way to third gear, and even then there wasn't lots of power available despite being in the power band of the engine and slurping down the gas.
- Read reviews. Toyota's ratings for my truck are a bad joke. The truck wouldn't even do half that. Not for more than a few miles anyways. Just as a reminder (it is also in one of the albums above) here is what Toyota claims/fantasizes my truck can do. I was actually doing ~3200lbs towing, ~750lbs hauling, and had only ~300lbs of tongue weight, and the back was riding low, and I had no power left with the camper behind it.
The trip was a good length, but time to get back to work. It is below freezing at night now regularly, and dark when I get out of work, and I still have things to be done before winter.
Harvey Birdman?
ReplyDeleteThere was an episode of the Harvey Birdman cartoon where he put his car in drive and it went about 20 feet before the car was out of gas from full. At least I think it was Harvey Birdman, I can't immediately find the clip on Youtube.
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