Pics from the Gathering

I realized today that I'd posted about the gathering without actually showing the gathering. I didn't take a lot of pics. Back in 2010 I spent a bunch of time taking pics but I realized later that I can be taking pics or making memories. These days I like to work on the later. Anyway, here's what I've got.

Tim kindly let us use his dome tent for the weekend. He was trying to sell it and we thought it might sell better if it had that lived in look. I'm a bit surprised Angie didn't buy it, Tim offered her a very good price.

Somebody else got a better picture of Keith lighting this stove where the flame is much higher and looks like its wrapping around his head.

There was loads more stuff going on, I didn't get any pictures of the bands playing or the 5am drum line. In fact I didn't even go see the 5am drum line although I did hear it when I got up to use the bathroom. Fortunately we've camped in loud places before and had ear plugs. I guess our host was less than pleased about that part...

Peoples is CRAZY

The 2014 Coleman Collectors Convention is due to be in Michigan, 2015 in Ohio. Both of those are quite drivable for us but the idea of driving that far and sleeping on the cold hard ground doesn't really suit so I thought maybe it'd be nice to have a little camper. I LOVE teardrop campers, especially the wood, stainless or aluminum ones. As soon as you make one white or god forbid beige and plastic or fiberglass you've taken all the fun out of it... That said I can't afford what they go for, or rather I don't want to pay $5,000 or more for something I have plans to use twice.

An admission here, doing somewhere in a camper, even a teardrop is not "camping". Camping involves a tent and ideally, hiking. If you've got a roof and can watch TV thats bringing your house with you. Now as I said at the outset I'm not opposed to bringing the house with me and sometimes it has a lot of advantages, not sleeping in wet bedding is a big one. The thing is I can't see myself using a camper all that much, I've got stuff to putter around the house and do so I don't think I'd be running to some campground on the weekends. In high school I dated a girl who's parents had a camper and I went with them on a couple trips but really that kind of "camping" is best done at home, we did an awful lot of sitting around watching TV.

So anyway I don't want to spend a ton of money on a teardrop and really I'd like to have somewhere we could sit up so my research brought me to Little Vintage Trailer, a blog about, well look at the name. There I learned about "Canned Hams" which are small, aluminum trailers of yesteryear. Go on there and take a look at the '65 Trotwood Lark. Thats what I'm talking about, just over ten feet long with just enough space for 2 and no more. The problem is that a nice one costs as much as a brand new (but ugly fiberglass) teardrop.

Take a look at campers or Craigslist, you'll find a TON of 20-30 foot monsters, mostly in a tragic state of disrepair. The smallest you're likely to find easily is nineteen feet although there is the occasional fifteen footer. What happens is the roof leaks and it ruins the interior. Travel trailers are built on a wing and a prayer, the walls are generally 2x2 with an aluminum or fiberglass skin, a little (dammed little) insulation and an interior panel. If the wall gets wet its ruined. Some people will (strangely) continue to overlook the leak and let it ruin the floor too. You can buy big trailers in the $1000 range all day, of course they're total crap but they're out there. A small trailer, if you can find one, will command twice that price, even when its a total wreck. Strangely almost all new trailers are either teardrop, pop up, or HUGE. Seriously, theres almost nothing being made today under 15 feet.

So lets review, used big trailers are worth almost nothing, little used trailers hold their value but almost nobody makes new little trailers, which of course explains why the old ones hold their value so well. I'd bet that Trotwood sold for more than its original purchase price. After all in 1965 $6800 was two to three times the price of a new car...

People are crazy.

Okay, I take it back, there are several companies making new small trailers, but I'll go back to my hatred of plastic and fiberglass. Scamp is a good example, sure they're small but they're UGLY. Also they have a terrible website and that seems to be a common factor among camper websites. If I get a main page that doesn't prominently feature a trailer I'm immediately put off, after all what are they trying to sell? I never have gotten Scamp's website to show me pictures of the 13' trailer, its perpetually loading or "connecting to server".

What really makes me laugh is how the new trailer manufacturers seem to go out of their way to make the inside look like the inside of my house with no real thought for style. I refer you again to Little Vintage Trailer but this time to The 1951 Cozy Cruiser which is my absolute favorite. Its a bright color, the inside has everything you need and nothing else. Sadly its sold, but I think what it all boils down to is I need to work hard, continue my economy measures and just buy something like the Cozy Cruiser. Then keep it nice and consider it an investment we can travel around in...

Firewood rack Mark 2

I like firewood. In fact I probably like producing firewood as much as I like producing wood fires. I'm not much of a carpenter or carver or sculptor but I'm a good cutter and splitter. As a good firewood producer theres nothing worse than watching your hard work go for naught as it rots or gets wet or is buried under snow. Over the years I've toyed with a few different techniques for keeping the wood off the ground and dry. Heres the mark 1 wood rack:

It doesn't look like much now but 9 years ago this was the top notch of my wood storage empire. The design is very simple, 2x 8' 2x4s laid parallel, 2x 4' 2x4s as uprights at each end and some spacers. The parallels are separated by one foot. I've since tried wider spacing but one foot is about as close to perfect as you can get. Not shown in this picture are 2 angle braces holding the backs of the uprights. I'm not sure these really add all that much but they don't cost much and are probably worth doing. Theres a rope across the top which helps to keep the tops from bowing out and helps to hold a tarp as seen in this shot of the second mark 1 rack which sits in my backyard:

This is the same basic design as mark 1 but displayed here with a tarp over the wood. This does a pretty good job keeping the wood dry but has a few problems. The first is that tarps don't really last all that well. I use leftover tarps once they're not good enough to cover other things so while they're "mostly waterproof" some water gets through. This is not a big problem, dry firewood sheds water naturally anyway. Another issue is snow which builds up on the tarp and has to be removed. This is a drag because its hard on the tarp. High winds will tug the tarp around, at best this means the wood gets uncovered at worst it means the tarp gets shredded or lost. Oh sure you could strap the tarp down tight so it doesn't move but then getting the wood out is a hassle. Any method for holding the tarp is going to end up being a compromise between weather proofing and convenience. I use hardwood blocks cut from old pallets tied to the corners. I've also used bricks with holes in them which work well but are somewhat fragile when tossed around by a tarp in the wind.

Finally a tarp covered woodpile is at a distinct disadvantage when in comes to drying. This is a drag because the basic design of this pile is great for drying. The wood is supported only by 4 inches of 2x4 and gets airflow all around. but then we trap that moist air with a plastic tarp, bad plan.

As you can see from the original rack using untreated wood for this is a bad plan, that rack has rotted badly and isn't held together by much...

Enter wood rack Mark II:

Shown here partially complete on the deck at camp. This features pressure treated 2x4s for the lower end which is actually in contact with the wood, with standard 2x4s forming a 2'x8' roof on a 6 in 12 pitch which is probably too much, before I finish it I'll probably lower that to 4 in 12 which will give better coverage over the wood. I chose 2'x8' because I can cover 2 with a single sheet of OSB or plywood but in reality 2.5'x8' would be better as again it would better cover the firewood. Before final construction is complete the upper wood will all be painted or polyurethaned for greater protection. It will be covered with a piece of 3/8" OSB which will also be painted or polyurethaned, a metal drip edge installed and then asphalt shingles for roofing.
Its hard to see but there are a pair of 2x4s halfway down to give more structure to the roof. I didn't trust an 8 foot span with snow load.

Unfortunately I got caught by rain and wasn't able to finish this wood rack on my recent trip to camp but I'm confident I can easily get it done on my next trip. This is an important addition to our camp because with recent improvement inside the camp we have the ability to go there in the winter. Assuming we can make it to camp on snowmobile we will need good, dry wood to heat the place...

Whoops!

Didn't mean to neglect posting for so long, things have been busy.
Since my last posting Angie and I camped at Burlingame State campground in RI, that was the same weekend as the annual "ChowdaQ" Mercedes enthusiasts gathering. I took the 202 and the AGM 2572 with us and they worked out great.

We had more light than anybody...
We stayed in a yurt which was okay but nothing I'd write home about

When they say "rustic" they mean it, theres the yurt, the platform its on, the door and nothing else... The quarter operated showers nearby were warm and relatively clean... Apparently the cabins in the park have actual bunks and are more comfortable.

The ChowdaQ was great, as usual the weather was lousy but we had a good group: 6 cars

6 cars and about 10 people, about the same as last year. I did burgers, dogs and sausages on the grill with peppers, onions, mushrooms and bacon fried up on my Coleman 413E which worked out really well.
We took the 190D down because the throttle was sticky on the 240D, that turned out to be the throttle shock. I wish we'd been able to take the 240D its got more space, we were pretty well crammed into the 190D...

Anyway, first snow of the winter was today!

*2025 Update* the Photobucket implosion made the pictures here not show up, I've moved them over to Google and added a bunch more to the post.

CAMPING!

Eric's bachelor party was last weekend. We went whitewater rafting on the Deerfield river. We did the Monroe dam section which includes class 2, 3 and 4 rapids. It was AWESOME. For the second half of the ride I was the "bow bitch" which means I kneeled in the very bow of the raft and got slammed around by the water. Amazing...

Anyway we camped Friday and Saturday nights at the Barton Cove campground. I brought the Coleman 425E stove that Angie's grandfather gave me, the AGM 2572 lantern that was my grandfather's and my $5 Coleman 202 lantern.
Everything worked great. I burned both lanterns quite a bit and found that we would have done just as well by having only one lantern, the second was excessive. The AGM is slightly brighter but in some cases is TOO bright... I need to buy one of the quart bottles of white gas, the full gallon cans are decidedly unhandy for pouring, I end up spilling a lot...

I did have one time where I tried to start the AGM too quickly and got fuel dripping from the mantles, that caused BIG fire. Fortunately nobody (especially me) got real excited...
One guy brought a 2 burner propane stove but after seeing the heat my 425E could put out nobody was all that interested...

Here's my AGM 2572 in action at home on one of my proving runs before taking it on the trip with us:

What to do?

So I've got this bachelor party camping/whitewater rafting trip to go on in August and while I own plenty of camping equipment I don't have a tent...
I was at Kmart the other day and they have a 3 person tent for $30. That seems like a screaming deal but ever the conscientious shopper I searched online today. The $30 tent has reasonably good reviews for what it is but nothing outstanding as you'd expect. Then I stumbled upon this:
The Eureka Timberline 4 which they've made since forever. Ed Ostrander and I spent many a night in his Timberline back when I was in Boy Scouts and its a heckuva tent. If I buy one I can be assured it'll take us on camping trips way into the future.
I say us because I don't really need to buy a tent at all, Matt seems to have the whole tent situation worked out but theres something nice about staying in your own tent, shifting around the way you want to shift around, not getting bumped, etc... I'm also thinking that with a tent Angie and I could take Buster camping a couple times a year. Yeah I've got a camp in Maine but its an 8 hour drive to get up there and theres lots of camping opportunities closer to home that I'm interested in trying out.

So the question is, buy the cheap tentand hope its adequate or buy the really good tent and hope its good enough to justify the expense of 4 of the cheap tents...