Trip report: Fun Finder in very cold weather in South Utah

[profdant139]

We just got back from a trip to Southern Utah -- very beautiful and very cold -- many of the nights got down to nine or ten degrees! But we had very little trouble with the cold weather -- the pipe to the cold water faucet froze one night and then soon thawed. We are very pleased with the way our Fun Finder handled the cold -- we are now planning some snow camping trips!

Anyway, here is a link to our blog post -- it is really long, so feel free to just skim the photos if you feel like it:

http://danschechter.blogspot.com/201...mber-2014.html

[chily3]

All I can say is WOW

[Travels with Yoly]

Hey Dan,

Once again you have entertained and enlightened. I love reading your blog and scrutinizing your amazing photography. I didn't think it was "really long" and was sorry to come to it's termination. I find your accounts inspiring, as in "I want to get out and do that also" as well as educational. I have an old friend who along with his wife have degrees in geology and have been living in Equador. I'm going to forward the blog link to them as I'm sure they'd enjoy it immensly. Keep up the great work. I can't wait for your next installment. Glad you were able to get your Fun Finder to hold still long enough for the portrait shots. Maybe a few shots of the two of you doin what you do inside the little guy. Yoly asked me if you guys had a bathroom in there ?

[profdant139]

Neil --

Yes, we do have a full bathroom, shower and all. But this is what they call a "wet bath" -- you sit on the closed toilet seat to take a shower, using a hand held shower head on a hose. Then, when we are both done showering, I take a squeegee and wipe down the walls. After that, I use a towel for any stray moisture. It is a bit laborious to do this every night -- a dry bath would be nice, with a separate toilet area -- but that is the price of having such a tiny unit. The upside, of course, is that we can go anywhere with it -- it fits into very tight campgrounds, it fits between trees when we are boondocking in a national forest, and I can even make u-turns in an ordinary street, which is handy when we are in town shopping or whatever.

As far as what we do in the trailer, the answer is "a lot of eating and reading." We do not have a TV, and we don't use the radio. We like silence! So after dinner, we rearrange the pillows, and the dinette becomes a mini living room. If it is not too cold (and even when it is), we sit outside for a while and watch the stars. Not exactly a wild party scene -- those days are long gone. (Actually, we were never party people -- "unexciting" is the adjective that comes to mind when describing our so-called lifestyle.)

And yes, geologists love Utah -- all of the rocks are in plain sight, and the geology is happening in real time -- flash floods, erosion, wind, you name it. Everything except the frequent earthquakes we have in California!

Dan

[Travels with Yoly]

Hey Dan.

Our first travel trailer was a very small T@B teardrop so I can relate to the benefits of minimizing. It was just too small however (with no bathroom facilities at all) and I grew weary of one of us always having "to get out of the way" when the other attempted to do anything inside. We had traveled around the country for years shooting video and sitting up in the back of our truck at night downloading video and charging cameras so the T@B was a big step up for us. It's all relative to what you're used to and there is always the yin and yang of everything. The FF 214 is large by both our standards but just small enough to be manageable I think. The whole concept is fairly new to us and we've had quite an accelerated learning curve .... 3 trailers in 14 months.

I had pictured you set up with your lap top going over photos and writing your blog inside at night, but possibly you wait until you get home to do that. Yoly and I are not "party people" either (I quit drinking on my 18th birthday) but Yoly is very attractive to insects (regardless of precautions) so she can't sit outside for very long. I'm kind of a techno geek and travel with a PS3 and video games and Blu-ray collection and just added a 42 in flatscreen so our Fun Finder is a bit like an Imax now. We love the relatively huge shower and freezer large enough for a week's provisions. We're usually gone at least 6 weeks at a time so comfort is paramount for us.

This is the ultimate minimalist camper .....

[profdant139]

That is a cramped setup -- the Fun Finder must feel like a palace in comparison! Our little trailer is too tight for much electronic stuff -- once in a while I will bring my laptop in from the truck when we need to load a topo map onto the GPS. Usually, I wait till I get home to fiddle with the pictures and write the blog.

[Travels with Yoly]

I made a slight upgrade to the Fun Finder today





I would definitely say that we have contrasting styles

[guybmoto]

What's the plan for storage during travel?

[Travels with Yoly]

Originally Posted by guybmoto

What's the plan for storage during travel?

I have two options .....

1) I installed the TV using a mount that is rated for 120 lbs (TV is 18 lbs). It is way over-kill for the application. I also reinforced the standard OEM mounting board with a 1/2 inch thick piece of solid birch and thru bolted the mount with four 5/16 inch bolts secured with large washers and nylock nuts. I can tighten the friction mounts enough that you can't move the TV if you tried.



2) My second option is to remove the screen and transport it in it's original shipping carton. The sceen and attached mount can be removed from the tilting bracket in about a minute by removing two allen head bolts, and loosening two phillips screws.

[guybmoto]

Hmm...I think I'd experiment with some Bungee cords from the door above the TV, to the ones below it. Also add some padding to the back of the TV.

[Travels with Yoly]

Originally Posted by guybmoto

Hmm...I think I'd experiment with some Bungee cords from the door above the TV, to the ones below it. Also add some padding to the back of the TV.

The back of the TV doesn't contact anything when the mount is tightened down as such. I thought about covering the TV with a fleece blanket and securing it with bungee cords but in order for the bungee cords to act as a restraint, they would have to be quite tight and as such might put too much pressure on the frame edges of the screen causing it to flex. There's no place to conveniently hook the bungee hook to. I need to keep all those cabinet doors closed. I do have some small rings I can attach to hook bungees to but I'm not crazy about their appearance once we're set up at a campsite. As usual, a little trial and error testing may have to take place but I don't have a problem removing it and transporting it in the truck either. Just takes a minute