We have been living full time in our RV now for about six months. In that time, we have dealt with changes to our food, clothes, how we live and most recently, dealing with sickness. It is a big change over what we lived in before. We own an almost 2000 sq ft house that sits on almost 14 acres. Our house sits on top of a hill so we can see about 40 miles in almost every direction. It sits about ten feet lower than the highest point in the county which is just to the west of our house.
Our HouseOur House on Wheels
The Food We Buy
We went from a 2000 sq ft house to a RV that was about 350 sq ft! This presented us with several challenges. We have managed to make it through them all so far. We have had to change a lot of what we do and how we do it. Things like grocery shopping and how much food we kept on hand. We have a good sized pantry in our camper, which was one of the reasons that we bought the RV we have.
In our house, we had a 7 x 13 pantry. We had so much room for food that we would buy for two weeks at a time. Some things that we would get would even be for a month at a time. Honestly though, feeding a family of five, three meals a day, it takes a lot of room when you buy for two weeks at a time.
When we bought our RV, we were still under that mind set, so one of the things that we looked for in a camper was a floor plan with a pantry. After months of searching, we found the Kodiak Ultra-lite 332BHSL. It had a very large pantry, so we could buy food for a week at a time at the very least.
Doing Laundry
Laundry! Now that was a totally different beast. It doesn’t matter what life changes you make, you still have a ton of clothes when you have five people making dirty clothes.
When we first started camping on the weekends, it wasn’t really an issue. We would take like three pairs of clothes, do our camping and then wash while we were at home…no big deal.
Once we changed to camping for several weeks at time, the no big deal, became a big deal. First off, we only had clothes storage room for maybe a week and that was pushing it. While we were at home, my wife would typically do a load of laundry every day. Once we were living in our RV for longer, we no longer had that option. Our options were either pay $5 a load every day to do laundry, or go to our house once or twice a week and do several loads of laundry.
Going the first route would amount to about $30 a week in laundry. That route really wasn’t feasible. With the second route, my wife would end up spending all day at our house doing laundry and would be away from the family. While that option was a lot cheaper, it wouldn’t work in the long run. It also didn’t really work with our family dynamic.
We knew that our RV had washer/dryer hookups, but they were located in the pantry that we needed for food storage. So we had to ask ourselves, if buying a washer/dryer combo for our RV was worth the trade off of not having the pantry for food storage anymore. After days of talking about it and exploring other options, we finally came up with a plan.
Was it a perfect plan, not really, but it worked at the time. We bought a washer/dryer combo, and took out our couch to put shelves for our food in its place. At the time, we really didn’t use the couch and honestly, it really wasn’t that comfortable anyway.
Little did we know that we would change our mind again a few months later and have to come up with another plan, but that’s for another blog post.
Dealing with Sickness
These are just two of the challenges that we has faced. They were relatively easy compared to what we have faced the last week, dealing with sickness in a confined space. On New Years Day, one of our friend’s daughter called my wife and said that something was wrong with her mom and asked her to take her to the ER. Being the good friends that we are, my wife jumped into action and took her to the ER without hesitation.
She ended up having the Flu type A. After taking her to the hospital and back home, my wife was exposed. It didn’t matter how many times she washed her hands or the mask she was wearing, she still started to get sick the next morning. Two of our kids followed her down the rabbit hole later that day. Our middle child and myself fought it off until the following day.
For the next four days, we huddled in our camper, rarely seeing the outside world and not being able to hang out with any of our friends. It was one thing when we lived in our old house because we had a lot more room to do things inside and we honestly didn’t have any friends. In the last six months we have made several really good friends and cut our living space down to about a fifth of what it was.
We have only had this happen one of time in since we had our kids where everyone was sick and that was in 2019 when Covid hit and we all got it over Christmas break. However, even that was no where near what this was. None of us really got sick then. This time, however, it hit everyone like a ton of bricks! We went through four bottles of over the counter medicine between the five of us before we could get our kids into see their doctor.
We also picked up a Vicks Sinus Inhaler that worked pretty good on clearing up our sinuses. I highly recommend getting one of these if you suffer from allergies or for when you get a cold. Another thing that we got to try was a bottle of Boost Oxygen.
It was not a very fun week!
When we did finally get them in to see their doctor, she prescribed them Tamiflu. Okay, great! Unfortunately, I think all the Tamiflu did was restart their flu because they were getting better but a couple days after they started taking it, they started to get worse again.
Oh the joys of being a parent with sick kids! Am I right?
What kind of the things do you do to help protect your family from getting sick, and when they do get sick, what do you do to combat it?
For the past eighteen years I have been a 911 emergency dispatcher. Last year, shortly before we started this blog we bought a bumper pull RV and started to go camping a couple nights a month. It only took a couple times for us to realize that we loved it! We had to ask ourselves then, “Is it time for a change?”
Buying our new camper
Four months later, we purchased a membership to a private RV Resort in the town that I worked. It worked out great! We could stay for three weeks at a time for about $250 a month. That is about the same as two weekends at most RV parks. On top of that, it was only a five minute drive to my work.
It worked out great for me and my job and my family because there was always something to do at the park. It was a gated RV park so there was that sense of security to allow our kids to roam freely in the park.
Riding on a hay ride with the kids
A couple months after we started camping there, I started working there part time as a maintenance person and my wife decided that she wanted to work full time as a security/escort person. This allowed us to live there full time. Again, it was time for a change. Unfortunately, part of that change didn’t stick.
My wife worked there for a couple months until we decided that we didn’t like our kids being back in public school. As good as the school was, we still didn’t like the way our kids were being taught and the way they acted while they were at home, so we decided to take them back out of school and home school them again. That meant that my wife had to quit her job.
One of my many projects as a Maintenance person at Tres Rios RV Resort
Fast forward a couple months to September. For the past year or so I had been taking three high blood pressure medications and my blood pressure was still constantly running high. I was dispatching almost every night in my sleep and I didn’t like the way that I was acting towards my wife and kids. If this doesn’t scream to you that is was time for change, I don’t know what would.
So, it was time to call it quits and retire from being a dispatcher. From then on, I would work my 28 hours as a maintenance person at the RV park and do another 26 hours or so as a Doordash driver. I quickly found out that I made more money as a Doordash driver than I did as a maintenance person and it was a whole lot easier work. That didn’t deter me though. I enjoyed working with my hands and in the fresh air all day.
My father owned a construction business pretty much all my life. From about 14 years old, I would help him during the summer and after I graduated college on my off days until he retired in 2017. At the time I really didn’t want to do that type of work. I didn’t want to do manual labor my entire life.
Instead I went to school for computers which was a big waste of money looking back now and then had a long career as a 911 dispatcher. Now here I am some 25 years later back doing what I told myself at the time that I didn’t want to do. Honestly though, I am really enjoying it.
Me as 315 pounds in 2022Me at about 260 pounds in Oct 2023
One of the main drawbacks of working in an office setting is that you don’t get the expercise or drink enough water unless you do it intentionally. I found myself getting up to about 315 pounds in 2022. It was the biggest that I had ever been and I hated myself for it.
I slowly made my way back down below 300 pounds, but I could get below about 285 still working as a dispatcher. Once I started working as a maintenance person, the weight just started to drop. I am now down to about 255 pounds and I am still loosing weight.
I quickly came to realize that working 50+ hours a week between two jobs doesn’t leave much time for family. That was one of the reasons that I retired from dispatching. So, it was time for another change. Between loving the campground life, and enjoying working outside and with my hands, I decided to pursue a full time position in the RV park community. It has been a challenge. I have put in probably 50 applications and, so far, had about four interviews.
My first one sounded pretty good on the surface. It was a new park, only about a year and a half old. It had a nice pool and a lazy river and a lounge area with a coffee and regular bar. The only thing that my kids would have to do outside of summer was a very small playground. The money was pretty good and the park looked nice, but we decided at the time that it probably wasn’t a very good place for us to move to then.
My next interview, I upped my game a little bit and applied to be an assistant park manager at a new Jellystone RV park in Georgia. It would have been a very long way to move, but it would’ve been a great opportunity. I went through the first interview and the person seemed to like me. At the end of the interview, she said that she would be in contact with me the following week for a follow up interview with her boss. That call never came. Another week went by and I got an email saying basically Thanks but No Thanks.
My third interview, I applied for a park manager position. This interview probably went the best out of the three. I spoke with the initial HR person and the interview went well. A few days later I had a phone interview with the VP of Personnel. We spoke for about 45 minutes. At the end of the interview, he said something along the lines of, “I have really enjoyed our conversation and I think you would be a great fit. Unfortunately, we have already offered the job to someone else and are waiting to hear back from him. If he doesn’t take it I will give you a call. We are also in the process of buying three more parks hopefully by the end of the year so once those close I will definitely keep your information on file and give you a call.”
After the interview, we looked at the park online and on the satellite view on google that I interviewed for and I am honestly glad that I didn’t get the job. It had absolutely nothing in the way of amenities other than a building that had showers and a laundromat. It didn’t have a playground or pool or anything that my family could do while I was working.
The last interview is ongoing. It is for a Maintenance Supervisor position in Amarillo, TX. I did the initial interview the week before Christmas, after three hiccups with scheduling issues. She said that she thought I would be perfect for the job and she would contact the manager there and set up an interview with them. Being that it was a few days before Christmas, it took about a week to hear back from her, but I finally did and now I have an in-person interview scheduled for the 8th of January.
So….
We have looked at this park online and the area. Looked at the reviews of both the park and the company. Everything points to it being a nice park with lots of things to do. I think the only thing that is going to be somewhat of a shell shock to us is the temperature difference. My kids have never really seen snow before, and we really don’t get temperatures below about 25 very often where we live now. If I get this job, we are going to be moving at the beginning of winter so it is going to be a massive change for us.
We will survive though and hopefully we will all love the park and the company. They have several parks throughout the US, so if we ever want to go somewhere else, it should be relatively easy to just move to a different park if a position opens up there.
We will see…
I will post again after our trip there for the interview about how it went so make sure that you check back in a couple weeks. Also, check out our TikTok and YouTube pages for some videos about our trip while we are there. Just search for Hitching Time on both platforms.
Have you ever had the no camper blues? Let me tell you, it stinks! We have been without a camper now for two weeks. In March, we spent almost three weeks in it and our whole family absolutely loved it. Our ultimate goal is to move into it full time and sell our home. We thought that we would be living in it already and have our house sold, but those plans took an unforeseen turn.
As you may have read in an earlier post, we purchased a membership to a local private RV park near where I work, called Tres Rios RV Resort. That membership allows us to stay there at no cost for up to three weeks! This is going to come in very handy over the summer at the very least.
We plan on staying there for the max that we can according to my work schedule and then spend a week at home. This will allow us to enjoy our time in our camper doing what we want to do and it will allow our kids to enjoy all the things that Tres Rios has to offer.
The icing on the cake of this is that we have about 40 solar panels on our home and can produce and send back to our electric company 50+ kilowatts per day on days that we are home. Since we won’t be home and won’t be using any power to speak of, we are going to be sending back even more. All the power that we produce gets banked for later usage until the first of the year, when the power company will send us a check for it!
We Have The Blues
Over the past five months or so that we have had our camper, we have gone camping several times. Most of those times were just for a few days, with the last time being several weeks. Every time that it is time to pack up and leave our kids get super cranky and depressed. They constantly say that they don’t want to leave. We no more than pull into the driveway most of the time and they start acting totally opposite of how they acted during the camping trip.
I’m sure that it has something to do with the fact that there is less stuff to do at home. They can’t ride their bikes any more than in our driveway. There aren’t any activities to do. All this takes its toll on them.
Honestly, it takes a toll on us as well. We have pretty well stripped our house to bare minimum when we had our house up for sale and basically live in about a third of the entire house while we are there. This makes it where the stuff that is required of us in the house, like cleaning, is at a bare minimum. While we are home, my wife and I have this sense that we should be doing something while we are there and oftentimes at the end of the day we feel like we didn’t get anything done. Even though there really isn’t anything to get done.
What’s Wrong With Our Camper
The second camping trip that we took, we noticed that we had water leaking behind the toilet. I checked it out, because I am somewhat of a handy guy. If it was something easy, I could probably fix that. I looked at the connection and thought that maybe the leak was where the water line connected to the back of the toilet. So I tried to take the hose off and put some teflon tape on the connection and see if that fixed it.
Unfortunately, it did not fix it and upon further examination, I realized that it was coming from the top of the connection, not the thread side. Being that we had wanted to spend as much time as possible in our camper now, we decided to install a shut off valve inline with the supply hose and just keep it off until we needed to flush the toilet.
When we were packing up to go home after our next camping trip, I noticed that the black tank valve would not shut. After messing with it for a while, I accidentally bent the shut off cable which made it worse. Later while using a plumbing snake to make sure the tank was empty, we located a rather large piece of flooring styrofoam logged in the pipe where the gate shuts.
A couple days after we got home, we had a pretty significant rain storm and noticed that there was water all over our kitchen counter and down on the floor. Guess what, there was a leak in the window seal!
For this being a brand new trailer, that was literally only built four months prior to us purchasing it, it sure has more than its share of problems. The last problem reared its ugly head on our last camping trip. The last one was the first time that it had been warm enough that we had to fire up the second air conditioner in the trailer. When we came inside for the evening and were getting ready for bed, we found out that our bed was wet and it was coming from the A/C unit above it!
That did it for us, it was time to take it in for fixing and hope that the repairs wouldn’t take too long. We were in for a surprise…
Time To Take It In
While we were still on our last camping trip, we called and made an appointment to bring our camper in to get fixed. When we made the appointment, we learned that the appointment was only for a repair needed diagnosis. Once a technician looked at our camper, they would then have to turn it into the warrant department and wait on a response from them. While they were waiting our camper would be taken out of the shop and stored outside.
We were told that if they had to order parts for whatever was wrong it could take four to six weeks to get the parts in. They did say if they had to order parts that we could come and get our camper if it was in safe working order, then we could bring it back after parts arrived and they would put the camper in the queue to be fixed.
They couldn’t tell us how long that would take though. So there was a potential that we could be without our camper for two or more months! That was not what we wanted to hear. This is prime camping time!
Status of Our Camper
We dropped our camper off on April 4, 2023 and were told at drop off that it would be three to six days before it would be looked at. That was more than what I wanted to hear, but the dealership we bought it from is the #1 selling towable dealership in the nation, so they are pretty busy. Nothing could be done about the time frame so it was something we just had to accept.
The following Tuesday, we still had not received a call saying that they checked it out yet, so we gave them a call. We were told then that they were running behind and they were closed on Friday and Saturday for Easter and that it would hopefully be looked at by the end of the week or the beginning of the next.
By the two week mark, we still had not heard anything on the status of it and honestly I was getting a little upset. I tried to call in and talk with the person that was our contact, but she did not answer so I had to leave a message. A couple hours later, I still had not heard back from her so I called again. This time they told me that she was not there that day and sent me to someone else to try and answer my questions.
When someone finally came on the line, she said that they did get it in and was able to determine what was wrong with it. This is what we were told:
The handle on the black tank was bent. Nothing was said about the chunk of styrofoam that we saw inside.
The flush system on the back of the toilet was leaking and would have to be replaced
The seal around the kitchen window has some holes in it and would have to be patched
Some of the hoses in the a/c unit were not sealed where the connections were and was causing the cooled air to be mixed with the outside air causing the condensation
Basically all the stuff that I figured that it was, but unfortunately unable to repair myself. I guess I am going to have to start learning so this doesn’t happen again.
That was yesterday. Today I got a call from our actual rep which basically said the same thing. However he did add that our camper had a recall on it. One that had to do with electronic stabilizer jacks. She said that the back of the switches are not water tight and there is a possibility that while we are driving down the road the jacks could start extending on their own.
WOW!
Just that part of it could be three to four weeks to get replaced. Hopefully they can fix the other stuff now and can take it back when the new switches come in, if it is going to take that long.
So now we wait…
We wait on them to hear back from the warrant department. We wait for any parts to come in that they have to order. Then we wait for them to get back to our camper to get it fixed. Then more than likely, when they call to come and pick it up we wait until my day off to go and get it.
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Until it’s time to hitch up the camper again,
Happy Camping!
NOTE: This is an old post from when earlier this year(2023) when we first starting our blog. I am posting old blog post first to get caught up the present then I will start posting new ones.
For the last couple weeks, we have been camping at Tres Rios RV Resort in Glen Rose, TX. A review of it will be out later this week, so make sure you follow us on social media and here on our blog to see when that comes out! Anyway, We had an absolute blast while we were there, and none of us wanted to go home. Unfortunately, we did have a choice because we had to get our camper worked on and when we got home I found out I have a problems with my airbags as well!
After we got home, I noticed that my airbags would go off about every 30 seconds or so. That told me that I probably had a leak. So I aired up my airbags to about 40 PSI and went to both sides of my truck to see if I could hear anything.
I watched my app for it when I was airing it up and saw that it showed the current PSI as it was airing the bags up. So I sat and watched it for a minute. It would air that airbags up to 40 PSI and turn off. When it turned back on it showed that it was at 30 PSI! That told me that I definitely had a leak! I was loosing 10 PSI every thirty seconds or so.
I was sitting on the passenger side of my truck while I was doing this so I checked it first. I got down as close to them as possible and listened. I didn’t hear anything. So I went around to the other side. I waited for the compressor to air them back up and shut off and listened again. This time I hear a hissing sound!
Down on my hands and knees I went. I looked at the airbags hoping to see something but I didn’t I figured I’d probably have to get some soap solution to find it so I started to get up. That’s when I noticed this…
Well, I didn’t have a leak. I had a full break! Well more of a melting of the air line. The air line was melted against the exhaust! Why the air line wasn’t tied to something to keep it away, I don’t know.
Camper Problems
The reason that we had to come home in the first place was because we were having some issues with our camper and had to take it in for service. Our black tank valve would not close, our toilet wouldn’t stop leaking and one of the A/C units would freeze up on us.
We made the appointment with the dealer that we bought it from and they advised us that once we brought it in for the initial appointment, it would take about a week for our RV to be looked at. After that they would have to send the diagnosis into the warranty place and see what was covered and order parts if needed. That could take up to 4-6 weeks to get the parts in and then the time it took to install them! We really didnt want to be without a camper for two months, so we tried to call a Mobile RV repair person that worked with out warranty.
We called about six different people and most of them all told us that they don’t work on black tank issues! We finally found one that said he did, but he charged $150 an hour for it! Hoping that it would be just replacing the black tank gate and it should take more than an hour to do, we decided to have him come and look at it before we took it to the dealership.
While waiting on him to get there, we looked at the issues and tried to see if we could fix it ourselves.
First off the Toilet
On the back of the toilet, there is a supply hose that goes from that water intake line to the back of the toilet. I disconnected it from the back of the toilet and put some teflon tape on the treads and put it back on. I ran our water hose to the RV and gave it a shot. I flushed it several times and didn’t see a leak. Awesome, maybe I fixed it. I let it sit for a few minutes and then came back to see that there was water on the floor behind the toilet!
I got down and watched it for a while.
Drip…Drip…Drip…
Yep it was still leaking. I felt around and tried to see where it was coming from. Unfortunately it was coming from the connection where the hose screwed into, but on the top side. That meant that the entire back assembly would have to be replaced. Something that I had no idea on how to do
Black Tank Issue
The valve handle for the black tank was stuck in the out position and it would not go in.
Our RV is equipped with a black tank flush out, so we ran it for a while to make sure there wasn’t anything inside. Then we ran a water hose up the outlet pipe and got a bunch of stuff out of it. Thankfully we had something to catch all the stuff coming out. We tried that valve again. I got it move out some but it wouldn’t go in any more. So we tried the hose again.
We worked on it for about an hour and never could get it to close. So we tried sending our camera snake up the outlet and see if we could see anything. What we found surprised us, but also to our surprise, both the mobile RV tech and the intake person at the dealership said it didnt surprise them.
Yep, that is a chunk of insulation from the floor sitting at the gate of our black tank. No wonder it wouldn’t close!
Camper Dropped off
The next morning, I took the RV to the dealership and got it dropped off and went to the place that I got the airbags installed to talk to them. I was all ready to cause a big stink about how they should’ve secured the lines. I didn’t get to cause that stink though because when I showed the service guy the picture, he said, “Oh my goodness, those lines should’ve been secure so that wouldn’t happen, do you have about 15 minutes to wait and we can get that fixed for you?”
So here I sit, writing this blog post while I wait for them to get done with my truck. Sure enough, 15 minutes later, they pulled up with my truck all fixed. Actually it is better than it was before. When they first installed them, I had to keep them at 10 PSI for the compressor not to run every 10-20 minutes, instead of the 5 PSI that is the minimum. So far, I have driven to another store about 20 minutes away to get some other things, and I have not heard the compressor kick on once.
Now We Wait!
Now that my truck is fixed, and the RV is dropped off, now we wait to hear back from the service department on how long it will take to get our RV fixed before we can go camping again. I hope it doesn’t take to long and we can make it to our next scheduled trip.
I will post again when we know more, so until then…
Happy Camping!
NOTE: This post was originally posted the first part of this year(2023) when we first started our blog. I am posting old blog posts to get us caught up with the present and then I will start posting new ones.
By now, we have gone camping a couple of times. Spreading several nights in our camper has given us an idea of what we like and don’t like. After spending months trying to find the right floorplan, you would think that it would be exactly what we wanted. If you think about it though, even though you find the best option available, something can always be changed to fit your life.
Why Are We Remodeling
So why are we remodeling? While most of our RV is good, the one thing that we didn’t like is that the bunk room doesn’t have a lot of room in it. There is basically just enough room for one person to walk between the beds. The other concern that we had was our kids falling off the top bunks. We have already had one of our kids fall off a top bunk in our house, thankfully he landed on the bed below.
This is what it looked like when we bought the RV. On the left was an offset bunk bed and on the right was a top bunk that folded up and a Jackknife couch underneath. My wife can think very fast on her feet and often makes things work the best with the littlest amount of time required. So she suggests that we remove the bottom bunk on the left, take out the couch, and build a new double bunk on the right. Then build a cubby shelf on the left for clothes, shoes, and toys.
This would give more floor room for our kids to play on rainy days and more storage for their clothes. The only storage in the bunk room before was two drawers under the bottom bunk and one very deep cabinet.
That is not enough room for three kids, their clothes, toys, and shoes!
When we rebuild the beds, they would need ladders so we decided to incorporate a bed rail on the side as well. This solved the concern of our kids falling off the top bunk. Now it was time to sketch out our plans so I could do the figuring out how to build it and the materials that we would need.
While my wife is the idea/designer person, I am the one that figures out how to do it. Then we both work together to make it happen! We make a great team if you ask me.
Demo
With our new design figured out and material bought, it was time to get rid of the old and make room for the new. That old was only a couple of months old but that’s not the point. We took out the lower bunk, couch, and upper bunk on the right. Here is the clean slate that we had to work with
When we took out the lower bunk on the left, we noticed that we had the power wire and the rear water connection that we had to deal with. So we had to change our plans slightly to make a cover for the wires but also be functional in the space. My wife jumped into action and said, let’s make a step to cover the wires and function as a seat to get dressed or put on shoes too.
It took all of about thirty minutes for my wife to completely demo the bunk room while I was making lunch for the kids. She is a beast when she sets her mind to something! One thing is for sure though, it really opened up the room!
Building New Bunk Beds
Now that the bunk room was empty, it was time to start rebuilding. The plan was that my wife would start working on the bottom bunk on the right, while I started working on the cubby shelf. She started measuring and I was off to my workshop. It wasn’t long before I was called back into the camper to get my opinion on something and we just started focusing on the bunk beds together.
That is normally the way that it works out when we do projects, together is better!
Trying to figure out where the support boards would go for the top bunk was probably the most challenging of the entire build. We wanted it high enough for our kid on the lower bunk to have enough room to sit up on her bed. In the same thought, we wanted our son on the top bunk to have enough room too. We also needed to consider how big the top bed structure would be. I figured that I could cut a 2×4 lengthwise at an inch and a half and it would be strong enough; after all that is what the top bunk was made of from the factory.
Off to my workshop for me it was, while my wife finished putting the bottom bunk together. I ripped a few 2×4’s lengthwise at one and a half inches and drilled some pocket holes in them to connect them together. I cut the back board to length and went inside to attach it to the wall pretty much where the original board was screwed to the wall. The the side boards went on the ends. I decided to over-craft it some by using three center cross pieces instead of just two that would’ve worked. After the center pieces were in place, the front board was screwed into place.
With the framework done, we put a ½” piece of plywood on top and screwed it into the framework. It made it pretty solid. We probably could’ve stopped there and been just fine. However, we still didn’t fix one of the problems that we had about the bunk beds; our kids falling off the top bunk and how to get up on the top bunk too.
Now it’s time for the ladder
We had talked about putting a rail fence along the side with slats about every six inches or so. We liked the idea so I ran with it. First though, we needed a way to get up to the bed. For that, we needed to build a ladder.
Again I went back to a 1 ½ x 1 ½ board. This was the perfect size for strength and for slimness. I also took my router with a 1” roundover bit and rounded off the top of each rung to make it easier on our kids feet. I put it together with glue and a pocket hole screw. Then I rounded over the side rails as well to make them easier to hold onto.
After it was all put together, I took it out and installed it onto the bunch. Not only did this give our kids a way to climb up to the top bunk, but it also gave a close to center support for the bed, making it VERY sturdy.
Next up was the side railing
I hade planned on using my table saw to cut a groove into bottom and top boards. However, after the second cut, the motor on my table saw all but seized up. I was forced to use my router to cut the groove. While it worked, it wasn’t as neat as it would’ve been on the table saw.
With cutting a 2×4 down to an inch and a half, it left a piece about a half inch thick that was perfect for the slates in the side railing. So I took those pieces and cut them down to about 11 inches long and put them in the grooves and glued them in place and tacked them with a brace nail to hold them while the glue dried. Next I took my router and rounded off the top board and sanded everything really well.
The next day I took that piece out and attached it to the side handle of the ladder and the other end to the wall. It didn’t match up perfectly to the ladder rail, but it was pretty close.
THAT’S IT, BUNK BED IS DONE!
Building A Cubby Shelf
With the bunk beds done, it was time to move onto the cubby shelf. We decided to build a four foot by four foot 12 cubby shelf. This allowed for a four by four grid of approximately 11”x11’x12” deep each. We decided to go with 1×12 yellow pine boards rather than plywood. That way, later, when we stained them they would look better.
I started out by cutting six boards to four feet. These boards would be for the outside borders and the three horizontal shelves. On the border boards, I routed out grooves approximately ⅜” deep at 12” on center. This is where I goofed a little.
On the ends of each board I routed half the thickness of the boards on each connecting piece then put them together to make a solid matched corner. I should have measured from the edge of the joint instead of the edge of the board beforehand.
I discovered after everything that built that the two outer cubbies were about ⅜” smaller than the middle two were. However, this defect is minor and the totes that we bought for this shelf still fit.
I got lucky!
Once all the grooves were cut, I started putting it together. I glued all the solid pieces together and then put a few brad nails in to hold them while the glue dried. Once the full length pieces were in place, I cut the upright pieces and slid them into the grooves that I cut. I made another oopsy in this process as well, because a couple of the grooves that I cut were a little too small for the board to seat well in them. However, it was too late to try and fix it because it was all glued together.
I had to make due with what I had and did manage to get most of them to seat most of the way. I glued each of these pieces as well and the clamped all of them together and let it sit overnight to dry.
The next day, I moved it inside and passed it off to my wife who did an amazing job at staining it all.
Building the Ladder and Bed Rail for the Last Bed
The ladder for the last bed was basically a redo of the first one, but I learned from my mistakes and made this one better. I made it all in one piece before I rounded the edges so it all flowed together very nicely. This one turned out better because when I made the channels for the rail slates, my table saw went out so I had to do it with a router. Let’s just say, it didn’t turn out the best.
I also had to make a step for the bottom that would hide the power and water connection that came in under when the bottom bunk was. For the step, I used a piece of ¾” plywood. I cut it into a trapezoidal shape and rounded over the front of it to make it look nice. I then made some 1 ½” x 1 ½” risers to hold the step in place and attached it in place to the wall and cubby shelf.
I took a piece of the ¼” plywood that we took out from the bottom bunk and cut it to fit on the sides of the step to hide power and water connections. I then took the ladder and side rail piece and put it on top of the self and over the cubby shelf and screwed it to the shelf and the step.
Finished Remodel
After everything got stained, we were done!
I will say that I really like the way that it turned out. As far as space goes, our kids have so much more. They also have more storage for clothes and toys. The only real thing that was lost was the jack knife couch but honestly, I really don’t see them sitting on it anyway. I think this is the way it should’ve been from the factory, but hey, I’m kind of partial too.
There are two things that I did that I wish we wouldn’t have.
The first one is that I wish I would’ve made the first ladder and railing the same as I did the second one. The second one ended up looking a lot better than the first because I did it as one piece. However, just like with anything in life, the second time you do something is always better than the first.
The second thing is when we installed the bunk beds, I misjudged how thick the slide wall was and ended up using screws that were a little long and they ended up going through the side of the camper and the bottom of the slide. I changed all the screws out when my wife noticed it for shorter ones and used clear silicone to seal the holes up, but you can still see them. The ones that went out the bottom, however, I would’ve had to tear apart the entire bed to change them out so I just cut them off and sealed them.
All things considered though, we think that it turned out very well and our kids love the room. Honestly, I think this is the way that the manufacturer should’ve done it to begin with. On the flip side though, I understand why they put the jackknife couch in and made it the way that it was. With the couch, there is a place to side when the couch and the top bunk are folded up. There is also another place for someone to sleep when they are folded down.
What do yall think about the changes that we made? Leave a comment below and let us know. Also, please follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages for some behind the scenes looks and to get notifications on new posts.
Until it is Hitching Time again,
Happy Camping!
NOTE: This post was originally posted the first part of this year(2023) when we originally started our blog. I am posting old posts to get caught up with the present then I will start posting new ones.
After months of looking at several different floor plans, brands, layouts, types, and everything else, we finally decided on a trailer. We decided to go with the Dutchman Kodiak 332BHSL. It is a bunkhouse model bumper pull trailer.
This one worked out best for us because it has a separate room for our kids and each has their own bed. It has a large living area and a hidden pantry that doubles as a washer/dryer area if you would rather have that instead. Being a family of 5, having the storage area that a pantry would provide
Once we chose the floor plan, the rest of the process went relatively smoothly. We decided on which camper we wanted and went down to the dealership and started the paperwork. We filled out the credit application and then it was time to wait for the banks to come back with an answer.
While we were waiting for them, we looked at some of the options that they were including with the camper. We bought a weight distribution hitch that had built-in sway and leveling bars and a brake controller. They ended up giving us the brake controller and lowering the price of the hitch down to almost half.
They also included what they called a Premium Startup Package which had 12 different items in it.
It Included:
Fresh Water Hose
Septic Drain Hose
Two wheel chocks
RV plug to 110V adaptor
Surge protector
Fresh Water Filter
Water Pressure Regulator
Four Pack of RV toilet paper
10-piece Leveling Blocks
Black Water Tank Chemicals
Hose Saver Angled Fitting
Bug Screens for Furnace and Hot Water Heater
By this time, it was well after lunchtime so we decided to run to town and grab some food and goto Walmart for a couple of items that we needed. We made it back to the dealership at about 4 pm and they told us that they had heard back from the banks and that we were approved with no money down. Which from what the sales manager said, is a rare thing even with people that have over 850 credit scores.
Back to the finance office, we went to sign our life away…I mean sign the loan paperwork. After what seemed like signing our names on 50 different pieces of paper, we were done! Now we just had to wait on the dealership to get the trailer ready so we could take delivery. Unfortunately, that was not something that could be done that same day, so we scheduled it for the following Monday.
The weekend couldn’t go by fast enough and every time that we talked to each other, whether it was in person or on the phone, we would start the conversation with “Hey guess what? We bought a camper!” and do a little happy dance.
Monday finally came and we were so eager to get our camper that we showed up thirty minutes early for our appointment and had to wait in the parking lot because the dealership wasn’t even open yet. Once the doors were unlocked, our truck doors flew open, and inside we went.
We checked in with the walk-through check-in desk and they took our truck to get the hitch and brake controller put in. They were actually done doing that before we even got to start our walk-through. Honestly, though, that was a good thing, because we had our three kids with us and they could sit in the truck right outside the camper and play on their tablets so we could listen to the walk-through.
The walk-through took about an hour to do and we recorded the entire thing so we could refer back to it at a later date if we needed to. Starting on the outside she showed us how to operate the propane, turn on the battery, and hook up the water and sewer lines. We looked at the low point drain and the outside gas hookup; The outside kitchen and TV mount and the under belly side-to-side storage bay.
Then we went inside and it was how to fold down the bed in the back, about all the features in the kitchen, bathroom, and master bedroom. How to operate the fireplace, the tankless water heater, the stove, and the oven, setting the refrigerator, and the hidden plug and phone charger on the countertop. We looked at all the storage, which is a lot for this size trailer really. We were shown to unfold and refold the couches, change the dinette configurations to each of the three setups that it has and how operate the A/C units.
Lastly, it was time to hook it up and go through the process of tearing it down. So I backed my truck up right to the ball thanks to the two-view backup camera on my truck. She walked us through how to attach the trailer to the hitch, attaching the leveling/sway bars, safety chains, and the emergency brake cord. We got the stabilizer jacks up before attaching them to the truck then put the awning and slides in, disconnected the water hose and power cord, and got everything put away into the storage compartment and everything locked up and ready to go.
All we had left to do was pick up our premium starter package kit from their camping store, sign the document saying that we got it and we did the walk-through, the temporary tag was attached to the trailer and we were ready to load up and head for home.
Shortly after leaving was when the “What in the world” moment happened, but that is for the next blog post. So make sure you follow our blog and our Instagram channel for some behind the scenes stuff as well as blog post notifications.
Until next time yall,
Happy Camping!
NOTE: This post is from earlier this year when we first started our blog. I am posting old blog posts to get caught up to the present then I will start posting new ones.
