March 2016 Pre Trip and Trip reports

[tltay2005]

Here is the 7 day forecast for those arriving this week. Looks perfect!

 

[awmiii]

We too have been getting everything ready for the trip! I have taken all the sheets, towels, rugs and blankets from the RV and washed and now they are ready to go back in. I always do this prior to big trips.
And then...You know with RV's, there is always something to buy Today, it's new batteries and next week it is two new tires! Then we will have all new tires and new batteries! So we will be ready for the fort at the end of the month and then we have several RV trips planned this summer. Memorial Day will spent in Dandridge, TN at the Anchor's Down RV Resort for a week, then on to Virginia for about a week. Then July 4th, I hope I get to spend it back at the fort. In late July, me and my hubby are going to TopSail Reserve State Park near Destin, FL for our anniversary with out the kiddos! Then in the fall we tailgate at every home football game in the RV at the LSU Tiger Stadium...aka Death Valley!

I know...most of you are Bama fans...and that's alright bc we are all Disney fans!

Headed out the 18th. Some of us are not Bama fans. Lets go State!

I think LSU is headed here in 2020.

I can't wait to get on the road. We haven't been to the Fort since 2010!

 

[tltay2005]

Just read on the "unmentionable" social media site that a family of 30 is arriving at the Fort in two weeks......which lucky loop will get them?

 

[CruisingCamper]

Headed out the 18th. Some of us are not Bama fans. Lets go State!

I think LSU is headed here in 2020.

I can't wait to get on the road. We haven't been to the Fort since 2010!

Great! We love to tailgate! It's a blast. Last year was our first year to go to most of the games. Some of them, we tailgated and didn't have tickets...but it was ok, we watched on the big screen relaxing at the RV

Now, you will want to go back to the Fort every year! or every holiday. My hubby doesn't even know that I have July 4th week booked yet I will tell him about it when he says after this trip is over "I hate to leave the fort, I wish we could come back in the summer"...then I will say "Well, we are headed back for July 4th!" and he will say..."No, you won't ever get a ressie this close to the date." and I'll say " Well, I have actually had it booked since we left last year on July 14th."...LOL I always surprise him!

 

[amcc]

Just read on the "unmentionable" social media site that a family of 30 is arriving at the Fort in two weeks......which lucky loop will get them?

I bet Loop 2000 - which is probably where we will be I just hope they are nice!

 

[bama_ed]

Just read on the "unmentionable" social media site that a family of 30 is arriving at the Fort in two weeks......which lucky loop will get them?

It really doesn't matter, does it, as long as they don't all stay on just two sites, follow quiet hours, and park all vehicles on the pavement, off the road or in the overflow lot?

Bama Ed

 

[bama_ed]

Bama, How do you haul your bikes down to the Fort? Do you have a rack system? We pull our popup with a Jeep Commander so we do not have a way to bring our bikes. We too were out this weekend getting everything ready! 12 days and counting!

I have done it two different ways, 4PF.

On our old Jayco popup (a traditional popup with slide out canvas bunk ends), I bought a ProRac bike rack and bolted it to the front frame of the popup just like in this picture:

http://www.prorac.com/tenttrailerpro.php

Still have it if anyone wants to buy it. We had three kids so there were five bikes total and most traditional carriers only supported four bikes. (this Prorac will handle up to 6 bikes with extra brackets [comes with 4, purchased the other 2]). Just like in the picture in the link, the back wheels rested on the front popup storage compartment. Note the front wheels had to be taken off to bolt them into the front bracket (wheels went inside the door of the travelling popup) which was a pain to take them off at home, load the bikes on the frame, get to the campground, put them on back on so we could ride them. Then do it all in reverse when going home. But then again, I had two sons and that was their job. They wanted their bikes so it worked pretty well.

Then I sold my Jayco in 2014 and got my Aliner and got the hitch welded onto the back portion of its frame. For years up until 2014 Aliners had the hitch receiver on the rear bumper but the model year I bought was the first year they removed the receiver. But I had one welded on and have used it once with my normal 4-bike rack that fits a 2" receiver (kids have gone to college so we no longer number five people. So the bike rack is right behind the spare tire of the Aliner (sorry don't have a picture).

But there are tradeoffs with all solutions. With the Aliner rear rack, that puts a lot of weight to the rear of the trailer (and tilts around the axle/tires which means there is not as much weight on the hitch. So I have to make sure I put enough weight inside the front part of the Aliner to counteract the tip (Moment Arm for you gear heads) from the rear bike rack. It works but as I said I am learning the balancing act required while keeping the cargo weight of the Aliner within the axle limits.

In your situation with four people and towing a popup, I would examine the following as a possible solution:

http://www.swagman.net/product/original4-towing/ . It goes between your tow vehicle and your popup.

A Swagman towing hitch. Basically this goes into your tow vehicle receiver and it has a regular 2" ball that you would hook your popup to. But like I said, there are tradeoffs. Note in the documentation for this product that the tow bar part of the rack is only rated for 3500 pounds (because it sticks out further from your tow vehicle that lowers the amount of weight you can tow). But the good news is if you have a popup, you are likely at or under 3500 pounds for it and it also lists the standard 10% (350 pounds) tongue weight it would support.

Your tow vehicle in the owners manual or online documentation has a separate, maximum tongue weight. You should not exceed the tow vehicle maximum rear tongue weight that is loaded on the ball. So assume the bikes weigh 35 pounds each (times 4), the rack weights 20 pounds (guess), that's 160 pounds. Add your popup tongue weight (assume the maximum 350 pounds allowed on the tow bar) and that's 510 pounds on the rear end of your vehicle. You would have to check to make sure your tow vehicle could handle that.

It's a good thing you are towing a popup because this might be under the tow vehicle max limit. If you were pulling heavier trailer, the 10% max tongue weight might put you over the limit.

If I were you, I would check into this option to see if it would work. If I were starting today, this is how I would go (but I already have a heavy 4-bike rack that fits a 2" receiver. For fewer than 4 bikes, this pass through towing bike rack (with the pass through) works. http://www.swagman.net/product/original3-towing/ . Of course, the same checklist for trade-offs applies.

As a final resort, my Suburban (which is now 11 years old) can support a hitch receiver on the FRONT of the truck so I could look at my bikes over the hood all the way to the Fort. That would help put some weight up front and help the tipping motion on the tow vehicle but it would just look weird. I've seen it but it's weird. So I'm not ready to go there yet.

I hope the Swagman or ProRac solution might work for you.

Bama Ed

 

[CruisingCamper]

Bama Ed, thanks for posting about the bike rack. We actually need one, so this one will work great for what we were looking for

 

[4ParkFamily]

Thanks for the help! Its great that you go out of your way to help us out. We managed to get a golf cart for the week, but we will need to haul those bikes to the local state parks. I know we can not pick up the cart till 1:00 but where do we get it from? I called the bike barn will we pick it up there? 11 days to go! Hope to see yall there!

 

[bjschil]

4ParkFamily, welcome to the Fort. I hope you enjoy this resort as much as we do/did. You will need to go inside the Outpost to fill out the necessary paperwork, review rules and regulations. They will direct you right outside, where a small kiosk is attended by a CM. they will again go over the rules, safety, and operation of the Golf Cart, and bring your cart to you. At busy times, there are usually lots of golf carts waiting to be picked up by guests. Most likely, you will quickly notice this cart pick up site after your drive through checkin. It will be on the right side of vehicle. Have a wonderful time. We arrive in December for our visit.

 

[tltay2005]

It really doesn't matter, does it, as long as they don't all stay on just two sites, follow quiet hours, and park all vehicles on the pavement, off the road or in the overflow lot?

Bama Ed

Sorry, you are correct, should not judge. Just had a really bad experience with a large family group last year. Partied till 4am; campfires on the ground (yes, straight on the ground!!) kids running through our site, etc.

 

[amcc]

I have done it two different ways, 4PF.

On our old Jayco popup (a traditional popup with slide out canvas bunk ends), I bought a ProRac bike rack and bolted it to the front frame of the popup just like in this picture:

http://www.prorac.com/tenttrailerpro.php

...snip...

I hope the Swagman or ProRac solution might work for you.

Bama Ed

Thank you for taking the time to put all this great information into a post. For the past year, we have been going camping in two cars, a Ford Explorer towing the popup and my minivan with the rest of the gear and a kid or two. We just got an 8 year old Suburban so we are excited that for the first time, we can drive together to our camping trip! One of the downsides has been trying to figure out how to get 5 bikes where we are going (toddler still in baby seat). We used to transport using a bike rack that was hooked to the back of my van with straps for 3 bikes and then we bungeed 3 bikes to the front part of the popup (is that the tongue?).

[GALLERY=][/GALLERY] [GALLERY=][/GALLERY]

The strap rack won't work on the Suburban because the piece that it would be hooked to at the top of the rear hatch is plastic. I think the one that extends the length of the hitch is perfect and there is a local distributor (and amazon). We would still have to bungee 2 bikes to the front of the popup but that's worked just fine.

So, the "new" car is our big step forward in the 2016 camping preparations. After we get through this week with the wedding, we will do test fits of all our stuff into the suburban. The countertops and table are all getting cut and we hope to have those back and stained within a week. The weekend of March 19-20 will be our big push to get things ready to go in - I hate to leave too much in there while it's closed up because I don't want the linens to get moldy - it's been so hot lately. Yesterday I had a really boring meeting at work and I was able to write up a menu outline

 

[bama_ed]

amcc,

I looked at getting one of those strap on racks for the rear of my Suburban and had to pass on it for the same reason you said. I think the 4-bike Swagman towing hitch will work with 2 bikes strapped onto the front of the popup frame (yes, that is the tongue).

The picture of the popup is a little grainy and I can't tell what's up front there (just a black fuzz) but 2 bikes back there will certainly add to the tongue weight. So you might want to put the two lightest bikes back there and the 4 heaviest on the bike rack. So strap the 2 bikes on it and then weigh the front wheel downward force. That 350# limiter on the towing rack is what you have to be under.

Congrats on the NTY Suburban. Mine has a label that says the max "people+cargo" weight it can carry is 1,464# but that would include tongue weight. Yours should have one too (open the drivers door, and on side post below where seat belt strap comes into the wall, down low, is the sticker. It has tire and passenger info too.) Like I said above, using my number of 1,464 the people, cargo, bike rack, 4 bikes, and the popup tongue weight (max 350#) must weigh less than 1,464#.

The Suburban owners manual has 2 good sections on this. In Section 4 (using my 2005 book as reference - all are available online), "Driving Your Vehicle", are two relevant sub-sections, "Loading Your Vehicle" which goes through max passenger+cargo+tongue calculations and the section "Towing a Trailer" which discusses tongue weight. Interesting to note that max tongue weight in my book is 600# for a weight carry hitch (plain tow) or 1,000# when using a weight distribution hitch. So you can see that using the towing rack would lower it below 600# to 350#.

Sounds like it might work. Just watch the tongue weight of the popup.

Bama Ed

PS - didn't want us to go too far because we have a Towing & Truck thread with lots of well informed posters (surprised they haven't weighed in on this topic - popups and bike racks might be below them ). I'm looking forward (a little nervously) to our March trip.

 

[snowmedic]

Didn't do much yesterday. Just drove around Cocoa area and went to the beach stores. Today though, Tuesday , we went and visited a place we have not been to since Oct., the Fort. Yes, we could not wait until next Tuesday so we took a drive over. Caught a bus from the outpost and went to the Meadows trading post got a rapid refill cup from the pool snack bar and then went a walked around 1500 loop, still have our fingers crossed. From there we went up to Settlement to see if there was a hand bag DW wanted since last trip, no luck. After we caught a bus to outpost then went to Disney Springs for some Ghirardelli ice cream.
I wanted to get the Earthquake to share but DW said no, she always gets her way. So we each got a banana split and DD got a waffle bowl with mint chocolate chip. Should have gone with the Earthquake because it was the same price.

Tomorrow has us taking the things we will not be needing at the Fort over to the storage unit, and everything else will be coming with us to Destin.

 

[tiggerdad]

Good on you Vince for taking an early day to visit. Maybe the 1500 loop will come through for you.

Ed, bike racks are not below me but I was thinking it would have been off topic to take off with it here.

 

[bama_ed]

Ed, bike racks are not below me but I was thinking it would have been off topic to take off with it here.

That's why I put in the OT emoji and tried to get us back on topic about a March trip. There aren't a lot of us popup folks out there, tiggerdad, so we have to take our moments where we find them.

So before it took off very far I tried to guide it back in for a landing, so to speak.

Only 11 days before departure, brother, and then I am free at last [FREE AT LAST] from the school calendar.

Your day is coming - you will understand then.

Bama Ed

 

[Teamubr]

then I am free at last [FREE AT LAST] from the school calendar.

Your day is coming - you will understand then.

Oh, I understand. DS graduates in May 2017. I'm already planning the non-peak trips we can start taking.

I was originally planning a Sept 17 "graduation" trip, but we will likely take my niece in 2017. She will be 6 then and getting ready to start 1st grade, so probably shouldn't plan on taking her out of school the first month she is in, so we'll likely move the trip up to late May/early June.

j

 

[tiggerdad]

Looking forward to reading along for all of March. Been off the boards a few days while camping myself so I got a lot of catching up to do.

P.S.

I really wanted a popup myself when my wife and I started talking about it. It wasn't just shot down, it was obliterated in a massive sea of anti-aircraft fire and then run over by the battleship and the escorting destroyers for good measure. Then, months later, it was raised from the deep, poked at, and sold for scrap. 3 women in the house, two of them in elementary...my day is too far off to even think about...

 

[tltay2005]

As DH and I were going over the packing list and menu for our trip, he brought to my attention that this will be our last camping trip till after the long hot summer.....that makes me a little sad, ok, maybe a lot sad.

 

[CruisingCamper]

Good Morning All,

I am trying to get that preferred spot from Mar 29-31 switched to a premium so I don't have to pick up and move during the trip, but I am having no such luck Maybe when we gets closer to the dates, I'll have better chances.

Still thinking about our trip down. We hope to leave on Easter night from my parent's house in south LA, even if we only get a few hours in that night before stopping, that's a few hours closer to the Fort. Then, we will have a big travel day on March 28th and I hope we can make it down to the WDW area, but may have to stop earlier if hubby gets tired of driving. I want to be there really early on check-in day so we can head over to MK. We may have to go out and get the golf cart this day, I can't remember what dates I have it booked for. Too bad, we can't just grab one from someone checking out that day and returning their cart, so we didn't have to go out and get ours.

What does everyone here do for carts?