Update New-to-us 550

Over last weekend we travelled from Portland up to Vancouver BC, to pick up a 2012 550 Ultra!

At last... it took a while for us to find a 3-day weekend for the trip.

All is good! Though it took an extra hour at the border crossing (in addition to the 45-minute lineup), the re-importation went smoothly at no cost.

We have some outfitting to do for it, though we’ve lots of camping gear in the garage. Other than buying a few things specific to this style of camper, we’re considering an electrical upgrade for extended boondocking.

We figured out this is camper #4 for us, over 30 years or so:
VW Westfalia
Coleman tent trailer
Four Wheel Camper “Eagle” popup in-bed pickup camper
Camp-Inn 550 Ultra!

Our 2012 550 Ultra

 

Congrats

 

Congratulations-exciting to be experiencing a new type of travel trailer. When you say you are considering more power to boondock- are you referring to solar panels?

 

Solar - maybe not. Our typical camping (at this time!) has us in the shade, and we’re staying in one spot for days.

Generator - maybe. Possibly converted to propane, it would be nice to not have to carry gas. Plug it into the side of the camper...

Bigger battery - almost certainly. There’s a 225AH Trojan battery, but it won’t fit in the existing space.

I’ll be posting more on this in the appropriate section when we start on the project.

 

We have a generator we house on our houseboat during boating season that we could bring but I’m not crazy about the noise. Where might you house a bigger battery? I’m not certain ide want to give up any galley space hence my thought on looking into solar.

 

Everybody’s needs are going to be a bit different, and every approach has some pros and cons I think.

In speaking with Cary at CI, he’s recommended solar, generator, or a 2nd batt in the tow vehicle, and, *not* modifying the camper! Because, you’re right, to get a bigger battery in the camper means modification and sacrificing at least some of the storage space. And, there are other potential complications (weight distribution/tongue weight, venting a conventional deep cycle wet-cell battery, capacity of the stock charger, etc.)

Solar or a gennie are the least-effort approaches. If solar works for your typical style and locations of camping, and if you go big enough to cover *really* important energy needs (cpap, fridge), why not? A generator is a potentially messy but certainly effective problem solver.

There are really quiet generators too, the best of them running around $900 IIRC. (Honda EU2000i, or maybe 1000i. Or, Yamaha equivalents.) But, gasoline - ugh.

I’ve really been giving this some thought on our previous camper, as well as the months we’ve been waiting for our 550, and haven’t really come to the best approach for us. I think I will post some of the considerations for CPAP users, and shady campers... but it’s a project that has to wait a couple weeks! I do want to only do this once, though, so will be taking my time at it.

 

Welcome to the forum.