Where To Put Everyone's Personal Belongings?

We have a Trailmanor 3023.  We use Camper Caddies left over from our former Coleman Tent Trailer.  These are basically hanging fabric storage panels with lots of pockets, both snap and zippered.  We could have installed snap on fasteners to use them like in the Coleman, but we elected to just leave them rolled up.  They can sit at the end of the beds, or sit on the couches at night, and the end of the beds during the days.  To find stuff, just unroll on the bed, then re-roll.  

[G-V_Driver]

Teresa--How often do you do the wash at home?  Why do you think it will be different when you are camping
besides that, it's his sabbatical, not yours.  Just kidding, just kidding.

We have stayed out for as long as six weeks.  Not a record by any stretch, but long enough to form some conclusions. From Kansas City to Vancouver BC, all over the northwest US, part of Canada.  

What I learned was that we needed at least one full day (we typically used two half-days) every week or so for laundry, grocery shopping, Walmart runs (what did we do before they sprang up everywhere?) camper upkeep, re-sorting and arranging the "stuff" and other such chores.  Rather than fight it we just acknowledged it and tried to do it on our terms.  Campground laundry facilities are usually empty during the day.  Another pot of coffee, a folding chair and a crossword puzzle made it almost fun.  A good time to just hang out and relax.  Over time, we found out which stuff we really needed, and the load got smaller.  We have since laughed about all our deliberations about which camper to buy.  Once we figured out we were going through all the mental gymnastics trying to make a house out of a box that was only slightly bigger than our master bedroom closet, it made it a lot more sense.

There were four of us, sometimes six.  Everybody got two softside cases.  One for clothes, one for stuff.  If it didn't fit it didn't go.  Complaints at first, but everybody adapted.  The less we took, the better we liked it.

One other place to look for storage stuff is the boat stores.  They have some neat little mesh bags with suction cups that work well for bathroom stuff.

Good luck.  If you've been tent camping for a while, I'm sure you already feel like you won the lottery when you got the TM.

Wayne

Wayne,

I avoid laundry at all costs   (Just kidding) -- my point about the laundry was that if I only pack the kids a few outfits each I'll be doing laundry every 2-3 days, so I'd like to avoid that.  Not that I feel the kids need to look superclean, but they do tend to get very dirty, muddy, and sometimes wet depending on where we're staying so they often go through a set of clothes each day.

I am trying out my own version of an end-of-bed shelf and will let you all know how it goes -- bought some pine boards and had them cut - then will put in L-brackets to affix the sides to the top -- here's what it looks like upside down:

       l___________l

That's the best I can do using what I have on the computer keyboard!  Anyway, picture that made out of pine, then flip it over and set it on the end of the bed so that it straddles the mattress -- your feet can slide nicely under it and on top rests your little suitcase, bookbag, whatever.   That's my theory anyway - we'll see how it turns out. If I can ever figure out how to set up a website and post pictures, I will!

I broke down and bought one of those hanging bathroom travel bags at Organized Living -- it works pretty well but you do need to use smaller shampoo bottles, etc. if you want to be able to fold it back down and zip it up.  Also bought a folding towel rack that we'll stand up underneath one of the ends of the TM.

We've decided to not take the bikes -- took them on our week-long trip in April and found it very time consuming to keep taking them off and putting them back on the rack.  Decided we will be moving too often and it's not worth the hassle.

We will be leaving next week for our month-long journey to Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, and Crater Lake w/various other stops.   Occasionally, when we are just making a quick stop to break up a long drive, we will stay in a motel (is that cheating???!!)

Tomorrow my hubby goes to get our TM -- we took it to the Northern Calif dealer (Dinuba RV in Rio Vista) to have some problems fixed -- had a heck of a time getting the Anaheim dealer to send them the parts in a timely fashion.  (It's been there several weeks!)  They actually replaced our leaky toilet, put new latching catches on (the black ones) and we bought an over-sink cabinet to hang.  I'm not too worried about the extra weight since we're pulling it with our Sequoia.

Thanks again for all your ideas!  

~Teresa

[G-V_Driver]

Bob Wilson's comments about the interior design being more for looks than for use should not be taken lightly.  Anybody ever seen a camper in a real campground with all the accessories that they show in the brochure?  Not mine, for sure.  

The wardrobe, for example is about as useless an accessory as one could imagine.  Big square box for hang-up clothes?  That has to be schlepped to the floor every time you move?  

Put it in a plastic sack in the corner of the attic.  Take it out when you are ready to sell the trailer.  With it out of the way, it's amazing what all can be neatly and logically stored on that shelf space, in whatever kind of container you prefer.  And you can take along one of the little fold-out racks for hang up stuff if you really want it, and it will double as a rack for drying the damp items that are frequently mentioned.  I can't remember the last time I used a hanger for storage in a camper.  

A fellow TM owner showed us a nifty trick with a curtain rod. When needed it is put up inside the bathroom. Use it to hang wet items or items on hangers. Extend the rod so the curved ends go over the bathroom walls.  It stows under the mattress when not in use. It is most helpful for us when the weather is too damp to dry things outdoors.

A handy clothes line is the rope my husband uses to tie down the awning. He runs the rope from a stake or other secure item up to one of the extension bars - under the awning to the other extension bar - down to another stake. I can hang several towels etc under the awning and dry things without trouble from a passing shower.

WE haven't picked up our 2619 yet, I'm reading all I can on the site to educate myself in advance. I have an idea that I think will work for bulky but light weight stuff, unless there is something I'm not aware of. I plan on mounting a class 1 receiver on the rear bumper, then I will build a hitch that will support one of those plastic tool boxes that is designed for the back of a pickup truck, they are weather tight and can be locked and they don't weigh very much.  Any reason this can't be done?

Jack & Gayle Hall

The issues will be weight and bounce.  We had a hitch fabricated for the rear frame of our unit in order to install a hitch mounted bike carrier.  We did this because mounting a hitch to the frame is more secure than just mounting it to the bumper (though other folks are carrying their bikes on bumpers)  Also, there is a lot of bouncing on the rear of the trailer, enough that our bike carrier manufacturer specifically says not to install it there, so just consider if the bouncing that always occurs at the rear of a travel trailer might damage the tool carrier.

[RockyMtnRay]

I personally wouldn't put any storage containers on the back of the TM. Any weight back there does two things: (1) it unweights the hitch and (2) adds to the behind-the-wheels moment arm. Both of these effects can easily lead to hard to control sway. There have been posts on this forum of people encountering sway even with a couple of relatively lightweight bikes mounted fairly closely to the TM's bumper.

One of the main reasons that TMs are inherently sway-resistant is their wheels are mounted much further aft of the trailer's center of gravity than are the wheels on other travel trailers. Even light weights at a long enough distance behind the TM's axle can exert a substantial leverage and drastically reduce that inherent stability.

I would suggest that instead you put a roof mounted carrier on your tow vehicle...and mount it as far forward as possible so that as much of the added weight as possible is over the front wheels of the tow vehicle.