Texan245
Member
While I'm a newbie to the full sized bumper pull world of RVing, I'm not a newbie to RVing in general. I've owned a pop-up for the last fifteen years and it was just about used up. I bought it when my son crossed over into the Boy Scouts from being a Cub Scout, at which time his mother (to which we'll be celebrating 30 years in a few weeks) handed the reins over to me from being a Den Mother of his Cub Pack. It didn't take me long to figure out that this fat boy didn't like sleeping in a tent, on the ground. Finding my niche as an Assistant Scout Master, I utilized my cooking skills to become the Troop cook for the Old Goat Patrol - the adult leaders of the Troop. We were a motley crew of Dad's that had careers that stretched from being in sales, professionals in the business world, engineers and a veterinarian. Being the cook, I decided I needed something to cook in - or at least prepare the stuff to be cooked in Dutch ovens outdoors. That's when I bough the pop-up. All our sons attained the rank of Eagle and then my poor pop-up spent its time parked. Oh, it got used from time to time, just not monthly as it had while we were Scouting. Then time took its toll on my hips, so I had to have both replaced. That process took about 18 months, and after healing up and hairing over, we decided to break out the pop-up a few months ago only to find that it had been used as a home for a colony of mice. That didn't take too well for my wife, so I got rid of the mice, bedding, cleaned it up and sold it. That's when the new journey began.
I had just bought myself a new 1/2 ton pickup when all this took place. In hind sight, I should've bought a 3/4 ton instead. Pulling a 30'er with a 1/2 ton proved to be a challenge. Not wanting to trade so soon, I installed air bags under the back complete with an on-board compressor, gauge and switch mounted in my tool box effectively making my 1/2 ton a 3/4 ton on demand. We had already looked at tons of campers from used to very used, but the last one we looked at was the one that caught my eye and we did the deed. It's a 30' FR Salem Hemisphere that's basically set up for two. It can sleep four, but the other two are a bit cramped on the lone fold out couch.
My son is a welder going through his growing pains in his new career. I ultimately see him taking the camper out to west Texas in the not too distant future to work on pipelines. That'll be a while because he needs to get the money together to buy his own one ton welding rig. His gas pusher Z-71 won't hold a welder AND pull and camper. He needs to step up to a diesel one ton so he can mount the welding rig with all its attachments and accessories, then hit the road. At that time, I'll step up both with a new fifth wheel and a 3/4 or 1 ton diesel to pull it with. Meanwhile, my bride and I are enjoying the rig we have when we make time to use it.
There is a slight learning curve going from a small pop-up to a full sized bumper pull. I equate it to buying a new house and getting all the accessories to make it comfortable for us. I've done quite a bit to it and bought a ton of stuff to go into it and outside of it. It's plush and plenty for us. So I'm a little ahead of the learning curve than most. I was in sales for my career and still go on the road in my semi-retirement, but I'm not accumulating Hilton Honors points like I did when I was in it full time. So free rooms at Hilton properties are but a thing of the past. I am Lifetime Diamond so I still use Hilton properties when traveling on business. But for pleasure, it'll be pulling my camper from this point forward.
That's about it. I've already posted a question here and have gotten the responses necessary to fix one lingering issue with the camper, but I'm sure there will be more. I'll not bug you all on trivial things like how to hook up the sewer or water in a campground, but when something pops up I will be quick to ask for advice. Meanwhile, y'all are quite the find and I'm looking forward to interacting with y'all in the coming months.
My best regards,
Bill aka Texan245
I had just bought myself a new 1/2 ton pickup when all this took place. In hind sight, I should've bought a 3/4 ton instead. Pulling a 30'er with a 1/2 ton proved to be a challenge. Not wanting to trade so soon, I installed air bags under the back complete with an on-board compressor, gauge and switch mounted in my tool box effectively making my 1/2 ton a 3/4 ton on demand. We had already looked at tons of campers from used to very used, but the last one we looked at was the one that caught my eye and we did the deed. It's a 30' FR Salem Hemisphere that's basically set up for two. It can sleep four, but the other two are a bit cramped on the lone fold out couch.
My son is a welder going through his growing pains in his new career. I ultimately see him taking the camper out to west Texas in the not too distant future to work on pipelines. That'll be a while because he needs to get the money together to buy his own one ton welding rig. His gas pusher Z-71 won't hold a welder AND pull and camper. He needs to step up to a diesel one ton so he can mount the welding rig with all its attachments and accessories, then hit the road. At that time, I'll step up both with a new fifth wheel and a 3/4 or 1 ton diesel to pull it with. Meanwhile, my bride and I are enjoying the rig we have when we make time to use it.
There is a slight learning curve going from a small pop-up to a full sized bumper pull. I equate it to buying a new house and getting all the accessories to make it comfortable for us. I've done quite a bit to it and bought a ton of stuff to go into it and outside of it. It's plush and plenty for us. So I'm a little ahead of the learning curve than most. I was in sales for my career and still go on the road in my semi-retirement, but I'm not accumulating Hilton Honors points like I did when I was in it full time. So free rooms at Hilton properties are but a thing of the past. I am Lifetime Diamond so I still use Hilton properties when traveling on business. But for pleasure, it'll be pulling my camper from this point forward.
That's about it. I've already posted a question here and have gotten the responses necessary to fix one lingering issue with the camper, but I'm sure there will be more. I'll not bug you all on trivial things like how to hook up the sewer or water in a campground, but when something pops up I will be quick to ask for advice. Meanwhile, y'all are quite the find and I'm looking forward to interacting with y'all in the coming months.
My best regards,
Bill aka Texan245
