First 100 for #531

[Les Izmore]

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• Admin
• May 28, 2016

A stop along the Oregon Coast during one 12 night trip.

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• Admin
• May 28, 2016

On the Needles Highway in the Black Hills of South Dakota on our maiden five night voyage from...

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• Admin
• May 28, 2016

Our Popsicled Camp Inn on our 49 night 9,000 mile trip.

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• Admin
• May 28, 2016

Taken from Mackenzies Pass, Oregon during a 15 day trip in 2012.

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• Admin
• May 28, 2016

Picking up our Camp Inn at the factory in Necedah.

Alea, Lana (our dog) and I (Steve) have quit trying to keep track of how many nights we've spent in our 2012 Camp-Inn 550 Ulta (#531), as we've spent dozens of nights in Seattle visiting friends and dozens of nights in Salt Lake City doing genealogy research. But our list of longer trips include:

Our 5 night, 1,800 mile return trip from Necedah, WI in 2012, towed by our 2001 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab.
Our 12 night, 2,000 trip out to the Oregon Coast in 2012, towed by our 2001 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab.
Our 49 night, 9,000 mile trip in 2013, towed by our 2013 Mazda CX-5.
Our 10 night, 1,500 mile trip to Central Oregon in 2013, towed by our 2013 Mazda CX-5.
Our 22 night, 3,000 mile trip out to the Black Hills in 2014, towed by our 2013 Mazda CX-5.

Those trips alone total 98 nights. Add in short camping trips close to home, plus all our trips to Seattle and Salt Lake City, and we've easily racked up north of 150 nights so far. A trip planned for August 1st will tack on another 100 straight nights later this year (see http://tagteambike.blogspot.com/ for more info).

As for number of miles traveled, the smaller trips add close to another 10,000 miles (1,000 miles for each round trip to Seattle and 750 miles for each round trip to Salt Lake City).

 

[Les Izmore]

Hi!

Those are Yakima Highrollers. That style is just about the only good rooftop option for a carbon framed bike, as they clamp down the front wheel, as opposed to other styles that clamp on the downtube of the frame. Carbon is strong, but fairly easy to crush.

That style also can adjust to just about any wheel size (though some new fat tires may be too wide). So they work for mountain bikes, kids bikes, just about anything.

-Steve

 

[Les Izmore]

The crossbars were an option installed at the factory. I seem to remember that they said it couldn't be installed after the fact, but when we arrived at the factory they hadn't been installed as requested. They removed the rubber strips in the aluminum channel that runs along the seam between the walls and top, installed two Yakima towers at specific locations, then re-installed the rubber strips. So that is a question for Cary, as it was one of his craftsmen that did the install.

If you have a roof vent it can limit what you can put on the rack without it overhanging the side and possibly creating a hazard when getting out on that side of the trailer. And I can say from personal experience that having two bikes strapped to the top had a pretty good negative impact of fuel economy (the same is likely true regardless of what you put on the rack). That was something we didn't notice as much with our 6 cylinder Frontier.

 

[Les Izmore]

Hmmm... I guess I don't know how the side tent is attached. But the towers fit into the piece (the mount) that is installed in the aluminum channel. They are perhaps an inch and half tall. The towers add another 3 or 4 inches.

We hope to be at CICO as well, so you'll be able to see this up close. Or send me a PM and I can reply with some close up pictures of the mounts - the crossbar and towers are in a storage unit, as we aren't currently using them.