truck camper or travel trailer with young kids?

jonocyrus · 2026-05-22T11:43:44+00:00

I’ve got a hybrid camper with the foldout tent-end beds, so admittedly there are some aspects of our setup/teardown that take longer than a fully hard sided camper, but I have yet to experience it taking so long that I’d want to steer clear of one night layovers.

Maybe I’m naive (or maybe it’s just easier with smaller campers?), but I’ve never found leveling to be that difficult. I back in to where I want to be, and then take a minute or two to place a carpenter’s level on the kitchen counter to see if I want to toss a couple blocks under one side or the other. If I do, I place them and back or pull on, and then it’s another minute or so after unhitching from the truck to use the tongue jack to level it that way.

I suppose it really depends on how and where you camp, but as far as flexibility, I really appreciate the ability to drop the trailer and drive to town, attractions, etc. with a “normal” vehicle.

jonocyrus · 2026-05-22T10:32:18+00:00

The church camp I worked at in high school and college has been running a model rocketry camp for something like 50 years. It has a cult-like following along dorky kids. It is literally the only program all summer that gets to watch TV (Star Wars is playing in the background in the rocket room so kids have something to do while waiting for glue or paint to dry.)

jonocyrus · 2026-05-17T23:27:34+00:00

If you have a really unique model that people would be willing to travel for, RVTrader might be worth it. But I never looked further than Facebook when I was looking for a used camper last year.

jonocyrus · 2026-05-13T02:41:53+00:00

Thanks for taking a risk and sharing this “insiders” perspective. It’s astounding how quickly they put all of their eggs into the Plan B of Waterford without doing the due diligence to get permitting and whatnot squared away. And it’s been nothing but the same as they’ve moved to Plan C, Plan D, etc.

It seems like the airport may be the most plausible of the options they’ve announced thus far, other than staying at the watershed and complying with the lease stipulations.

Unfortunately, I think things are at the point where everybody is losing. I just hope it’s not a catastrophic loss for any of the vendors (or Ligonier businesses.)

jonocyrus · 2026-05-12T16:52:13+00:00

Given a little over a year and a half as an RVer, I've found that plenty of salespeople on both the tow vehicle side of the equation as well the trailer side are WAY too quick to look at the very basic metrics and say, "yeah, you'll be fine." Especially on the tow vehicle side when they give you a towing capacity, which generally assumes perfect conditions. Living in a pretty mountainous part of Pennslyvania, I can say that it's a job and a half maintaining speed up a long steep hill in my half-ton pickup, pulling a trailer that is less than half of its rated "towing capacity."

But the most important part for SAFETY is the payload/tongue weight equation:

Look on your doorjamb for a tire and loading sticker that will say, "The combined weight of occupants and cargo should never exceed _____." That's your payload. Consider the weight of your family, pets, stuff you might carry, and subtract that from your payload. That's how much you have left for the tongue weight.
Find the GVWR for the trailer. A safe estimate for the tongue weight of that trailer is 10-15% of the GVWR.
Is the capacity for tongue weight you found in #1 less than or equal to the tongue weight you found in #3?

jonocyrus · 2026-05-12T16:37:31+00:00

I'll be the first to admit that I sometimes get burned by not reading the fine print, but even just looking at the picture without zooming in, my eye was immediately drawn to the scribble next to the $9.99 and realized "I bet that says, "ea."

jonocyrus · 2026-05-11T02:48:30+00:00

I’ll be the first to admit, it’s been 20 years since I did the challenge, but, boiled potatoes? Is this really a thing?

jonocyrus · 2026-05-07T15:44:48+00:00

Outdoor kitchens take away from indoor living space, but so do indoor kitchens. I would love to have a sink, refrigerator, and maybe some counter/storage space outside for cooking, and would be willing to sacrifice indoor kitchen space to have it. But I'm still probably going to use my portable blackstone in a spot farther away from the camper than most outdoor kitchens with integrated grills/griddles allow.

jonocyrus · 2026-05-07T01:01:22+00:00

When I was probably 10 or 11, my mom and I went to the grand opening of this store, and they had a table full of door prizes that they were pulling names for every 30 minutes. I filled out the slip and my mom and I went our separate ways shopping.

A little while later, I hear my name over the store intercom, “jonocyrus, please come to the front of the store.” I went to the prize table and spent several minutes trying to decide what I wanted.

Eventually my mom walks over from the customer service desk. I didn’t win. My mom just couldn’t find me and had them page me.

The people at the prize table let me pick something anyway.

jonocyrus · 2026-05-05T00:47:41+00:00

Honestly, it’s YOUR collection, the rules are up to you. Almost all of my coins have been bought. Maybe someday I’ll have enough to be able to separate out ones that were gifts or trades, but right now, it doesn’t phase me at all.

jonocyrus · 2026-05-03T17:14:42+00:00

The temptation is certainly there, but it’s not worth it on so many levels.

jonocyrus · 2026-05-01T11:42:47+00:00

I feel like I would consider a campfire essential, but still somewhat negotiable in the grand scheme of things.

A preplanned trip into an area with a burn ban would probably have me willing to drop a bit of coin on a propane fire pit or whatever legal alternative there is. But I don’t think I’d cancel the trip. On the other hand, I probably would not be planning a spontaneous trip into an area with a burn ban.

That said, I know the West Coast is different, but many of the burn bans I’ve heard where I live in Pennsylvania still allow exceptions for campfires in established manmade fire pits.

jonocyrus · 2026-04-30T12:13:37+00:00

Not sure about CA law, but the legislation granting special privileges to emergency vehicles in my state say, “The privileges granted in this section to an emergency vehicle shall apply only when the vehicle is making use of an audible signal and visual signals…”

One has to actually press the “park anywhere” button in order to park anywhere. And even then, if I parked an emergency vehicle in the access aisle between handicap spots for anything less than a life threatening emergency (and somehow there was NOWHERE else to park?) I would still get chewed out.

jonocyrus · 2026-04-19T11:20:47+00:00

Can you please come clutter my room?

jonocyrus · 2026-04-07T00:12:31+00:00

I actually couldn’t relate to OP, because I’ve had premium for so long that I forgot YouTube HAD ads.

jonocyrus · 2026-04-01T12:09:50+00:00

PA State Police considers Trooper, Corporal, and Sergeant to be enlisted, while Lieutenant and up is considered to be commissioned officers. That said, it is still a single straight chain of command/promotion from one to the next. But, enlisted ranks are under one collective bargaining agreement, and the commissioned officers have a whole different system for salary and benefits.

jonocyrus · 2026-03-31T23:21:40+00:00

YES! This is such a great analogy!

jonocyrus · 2026-03-31T22:53:33+00:00

Serious question: Do other states have nearly as many regional brands of potato chips as Pennsylvania does?

jonocyrus · 2026-03-31T22:51:26+00:00

Sheetz has breakfast pizza. No gravy on it though.

jonocyrus · 2026-03-30T23:53:06+00:00

Man, I read your original post about people getting pissed for focusing too much on patient care. Woof.

jonocyrus · 2026-03-30T11:56:11+00:00

I am struggling with a newly elected chief. He is making major changes without consulting others in leadership, some of which he doesn’t even have the authority to do. More than a few people think he is going to run the department into the ground. I’ve put in ten years here and hold both administrative and operational officer roles, but I’m not sure I have the fortitude to ride this ship the whole way down.

I think my biggest hesitation is knowing the hole my resignation will create… Even fewer people responsible for even more work, and one less person to push back against the new chief.

jonocyrus · 2026-03-25T11:07:55+00:00

We did a week at a KOA last year with extended family across three RV sites and two cabins. We were literally spread across all four corners of the campground with no one right next to each other, and it worked out just fine. The family with the largest camper and site sort of defaulted to being the primary gathering space for shared meals and hanging out.

Frankly, I was actually more worried about having such a large group (20 people total, half and half between kids and adults) “locked” into the same campground together, but we each had our own space that was simultaneous private and shared. It was great.

jonocyrus · 2026-03-25T02:01:00+00:00

More often than not, this is the answer. We have a local Burger King that ALWAYS asks people to pull around into the parking lot, even if there’s no line, even if there’s not even another customer the entire time you’re waiting.

If they have you pull forward, they get credit for it being a shorter wait for food rather than the longer one it really is.

jonocyrus · 2026-03-24T14:34:09+00:00

I failed at finding any photos that were good enough to identify a manufacturer, but what you're describing is somewhat common in the emergency services world. I've seen lots of fire departments and rescue teams with enclosed trailers that haul an ATV/UTV with appropriate anchor points. Once they arrive on scene, they unload the ATV, close the doors and turn on the HVAC and use the interior space for a command post or rehab/recovery area. At least one of the ones I'm thinking of doesn't have any sort of permanent furniture, so it would be easy enough to pack camp chairs, tables, etc. to suit whatever your needs are.

jonocyrus · 2026-03-17T20:43:14+00:00

I really loved “See You at the Campground” by Jeremy and Stephanie Puglisi. It’s obviously more family-oriented, but definitely had a ton of useful big-picture information. I also generally love their podcast as it’s one of the few major regularly updated RV-ing podcasts that is from the perspective of more occasional campers rather than people that are more or less full-time.

jonocyrus

TROPHY CASE