Dry Camping KTM style, (first time Dry camping with the Skylark)

[Skylerker]

What a pleasure it was, after a long day of riding to come back and take a shower!!! I can never go back now. Call me a princess or whatever but man is it nice doing it in a trailer!

The trailer was just awesome going down and up switch backs, on a very famously known washboard forestry road! So quiet didn't even hear a thing going down the road with the trailer.

Had to watch my water level, fresh water very small tank, would have liked a bigger tank but can always poor more in it, when needed. Also this trailer is so low, have to be very careful in the back woods with it, as it is no too far of the trailer wanderer. Will have to see what my options are, maybe 15 inch or bigger tires if it will fit, a lift not sure but I am very concerned about the lowness of the trailer.

ohh would rather had a manual awning over the electric, I can see if left out, the wind could do some damage. Anyone know how sturdy these are?

A couple pics, loved the trailer.[ATTACH][/ATTACH][ATTACH][/ATTACH]

[exjay1]

Very nice looking setup! Im kinda in the same boat as you with sitting low, the only real option (if you have the torsion axel) is to have it cut from the frame and an a steel block welded inbetween the axel/frame to act as a lift block. you might need to do this anyways if you want to run 15" wheels depending on your current wheelwell clearance.

[RoyBraddy]

I decided on the Starcraft 14RT OFF-ROAD trailer when I was looking for camping off the power grid.


When we need to operate something on the picnic table we just run an extension out to it...

This is high off the ground and will go anywhere my 4X4 truck will go. Actually will cross a rock bottom stream... The front deck gives us plenty of room for bringing alone some serious camping supplies.

We have all the nice things inside including cassette pottie and shower unit.


With some upgrading of the battery system we can stay out for days on end and camp very successful off the batteries. What we did was figure out what we wanted to have for camping off the power grid, beefed up the battery system to include a smart-mode controller/charger, more batteries, bigger charging cables and battery components, changed over to LED lights, installed two PSW Inverters (One 600W PSW Inverter to operate all of the home entertainment items - a bigger 1500W PSW Inverter to operate bigger 120Ac items but it is really more of a back-up since it draws so much current loaded down).

With all of this we do almost what we usually do at camp sites with electric power with the only thing we do without being the air conditioning. What makes all of this work is the next morning during breakfast we have to re-charge the batteries using our 2KW Honda Generator by connecting the 30A Shore Power cable directly into the generatorr 120VAC receptacle using a RV30A-15A 18-inch long "dogbone" Adapter (Walmart). We can re-charge our battery bank in as little as 2-3 hours of generator run time. This satisfies the generator run time restrictions we usually find at most of the camp sites on the east side of the US. We will run the generator again around 4:30PM to 7:30PM to seal in a good 90% charge state so we can do all of this all over for the next day/night battery run. With what we do our battery consumption is around 250-275AHs. usually in the morning the battery banks reads from 12.1VDC to 11.9VDC which is close to 50% battery charge status.

Works good for us camping off the power grid. It is more fun doing it off the power grid.... Of course at my age we usually do a lot of sitting around the firepit poking the fire, feeding the squirrels, and drinking fresh made ground up coffee beans coffee.

[2008jeep]

I purchased a 2012 Skylark and the when I left the dealership the back end was only about 3" off the road. My tow vehicle is a 2012 Jeep Grand cherokee and the difference in height was so great that after many suggestions and comments, I took the traile to an RV repair shop. The took off the axel and added a 4" lift to the frame and remounted the axel. I had to extend the vertical length of my hitch by 2" and now the trailer and Jeep are setting level. The dealer did make a comment about the back end of the trailer but no suggestion about fixing the problem. Anyway, I now have about 7K miles on the trailer and my set up makes the handling really easy and the back end is now about 12" + off the ground. I still am careful how I enter whoop De Dos (really slow and sometimes at an angle). Now I'm satisfied, but at first I believed I'd made a huge mistake in my purchase.

[rog4kneer]

Congratulations, the trailer and pickup look nice and level. They sell tie downs for the awning which is a nylon strap that goes over the entire awning and attaches to a "dog leash" type tie down screwed into ground on each side. I understand the electric awnings are not as strong as manual awnings. I just keep mine rolled up when not at trailer.

[Seann45]

Be the envy of the boondockers around you. Get a 45 gallon water bladder (camping world carries them) and use a cheap old water pump to transfer it into the RV... I have been doing this for 4 years now and it works GREAT

[Denise]

We've learned that we can keep the awning out about 1/3-1/2 of the way on breezy days and not have a problem. On windy days, we can keep it extended 1/3 or less without issue (mainly to help block out direct sun into the window while sitting at dinette). We usually keep it a 1/4 of the way out on rainy days. When leaving the site, we will bring it in at least to 1/4 retracted just in case a sudden breeze blows through. Hope this helps some

[Skylerker]

I like the water bladder idea and pump, thanks for the info also on the awning!