T@B U for 7 nights in Vermont

Trailpixie

This trip was our first extended experience with a T@B. We rented from Beckley's RV near Frederick, MD. We learned a lot.

We left Wash DC area on Friday midday and arrived at Abol Bridge Campground in Maine a little bit after 5 pm on Saturday.  The last ten miles was along the rugged Golden Rd just south of Baxter State Park. The campground is along the west branch of the Penobscot River.  It was a beautiful spot. there were no hookups (we prefer that). (I will post pics soon). This week the campground had dozens of Appalachian Trail through hikers passing by on the last 2 days of their 2,200 mile trek. It was really awesome to talk to them (from a reasonable distance).

What did we learn:

• Subie was adequate. The brakes were fine (will be better when we get our camper with electric brakes). Our turbo engine had enough power for anything we threw at it. At 55mph the engine temps were okay. Above 60mph everything got worse. Engine temps ramped up and fuel economy tanked (that all made sense because of the ramp of air drag that occurs above 55mph). Generally the oil, water, and CVT temps were 20 degrees above normal.  I deliberately tried to get the temps really high by going 65 mph, but despite oil temps over 2040 degrees we never saw any warning lights and the gauge never left the green zone. We will see how it does in the heat of the summer. Sometimes it was bouncy and rough on the highway, but it was more , annoying than out of control.
• Clothes in the camper get seriously out of control. 
• It isn't easy to figure out how to easily store bedding during the day and set it back up at night. I see all the advice here, and I need to take it to heart.
• We lasted all week on a single battery including the propane heat fan. We were judicious about using the lights and the water pump. We brought a second battery in case our battery ran out of steam. Of course we also didn't use our 12 volt refrigerator
• Leveling is fun
• Backing up isn't as hard as it looks, but a spotter is very useful and reduces the need to constantly get out of the car and walk back to see how you are doing.
• We need a doormat, small dust broom, and a dustpan.
• A porta potti sitting next to the camper is a life-saver in the middle of the night (the campground had bathrooms, but they were 200 yards from the campsite, over rocky ground)
• LL Bean screen tent was also a life-saver. We did have mosquitoes, and it made a nice place to hang out
• The little reading lamps are perfect for an evening of reading.
• The LCD on the radio is annoyingly bright. Despite its brightness, the clock was practically unreadable, so if you wake up in the middle of the night, you are bathed in blue light, but you still can't read the clock. When we get our camper we will need to install the cutoff switch for the radio.

Our delightful camping experience and 1,400 miles of driving is enough for us to decide that we have our very own T@B Boondock edition in our future.  The only decision is whether to get a U or an S, but that is the subject of a different post.

4ncar

Btw...you can turn the radio back light off, I did the morning after the first night in our tab.  There will, however still be parasitic draw, a cut off switch will deal with both conditions...

Trailpixie

We also had a fun little crisis. We lost the keys to the camper.  Argh!!

Fortunately the bolt was not locked, though the normal handle was.

It was harder to break in than I thought it would be, but it only took me five minutes to 'jimmy' it open. If anyone wants to know how to break into their T@B, here you go.

Gently jam a screwdriver into the keyhole.  Turn the screwdriver with a pair of vice grips attached to the screwdriver.  The first 1/4 inch of the lock will break off and you can easily pull it out with needle-nose pliers. Repeat this process two or three more times until you have the entire cylinder removed.  Then you can open the lock with a screwdriver.

I did almost no damage to the handle, and it could be repaired with a new cylinder.

Another approach is to not lose the keys.