Early this year, I went on a trip where we camped through New Zealand in the back of a converted van. I enjoyed the camping aspect more than I expected and would love to do something similar through the US.
I’ve been researching different camper type options, as the van in NZ was rather small and adding our dog and hypothetical future children means something like that would not work out. I’d say a class B rv would be ideal, but they seem super expensive for something I would likely use a few times a year. Popup campers definitely seem like the most economical option. However, my biggest issue with getting a camper is they seem like a pain to store. This led me to recently discovering the Camp-let, which can be stored on its side. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be a thing here in the US so I would have to order it new. The cost is certainly making me hesitate.
I guess my question is does anyone know of any other campers that can be stored on their side like the camp-let, that may be easier to get a hold of in the US? Anyone have experiences, positive or negative, using a tent trailer in general?
I watched to video for the camp-let and that seemed like a lot of work to setup. My family used to have pop-up trailers and they were pretty easy and quick to just pop-up and pull the beds out. The camp-let doesn’t look like it would be good for North America. It’s basically a big tent with your cooking grill inside which you dont want in bear country. That would make the whole inside smell like food and attract bears. Pop-up trailers are a little sturdier around and can even be hard sided so we didn’t worry about bears when we used it. We were able to store ours for the winter on a friend’s farm though. Also the bottom of the tent is open so ticks and mosquitoes coming from the grass seem like an issue unlike a full tent.
I think you would be better off just getting a pop up trailer if you can find somewhere to store it, or a fancy 2 room tent with cots and a separate BBQ that you can use outside away from the tent.