Dead Pig Saves the Day

So now, back to the drawing board.  Kijiji for trucks.  We had viewed several trucks and definitely this time around, found that used truck dealers or private dealers were not always up front about the details.  We saw one we liked and took it to the car service department to have checked out.  Our experience in buying used vehicles, we know that this is a must before dishing out the cash.  This particular truck passed with flying colours, however, it was done at the local service department and they seemed to know the owners quite well.  We decided to think it over as we didn't feel right about the owners.  We also decided to do the Carfax on this vehicle just to be sure.  Turns out, it was originally written off and the owner rebuilt it.  You can guess what we decided on this vehicle.

Then, we received an unexpected email from the 5th Wheeler owner we just bought from.  He mentioned that on the evening he used 'our' camper for one final camping weekend, he was at a pig-roast.  He was chatting with a guy and told him that he sold his camper.  The other guy chuckled and said, 'do they need a truck'.......the rest is history.  The owner of the truck is a safety inspection officer with some big companies out West, so he was maticulous with this vehicle and we felt very 'safe' about his keeping this truck safe.  It was also a full cab which we required with a child and he pulls a 5th Wheel far bigger than ours with it, so we were very happy to purchase from another honest individual.  So, we'd like to thank the pig for sacrificing his life for our betterment ;-)  Since both the trailer and truck were purchased from the same town, we've decided not to visit that town anytime soon, as it became a very expensive place to visit ;-)

My Dream 5th Wheel Found

After a summer long addiction to Kijiji, I found our dream (for used that is) trailer and it was a 5th WHEEL!!!  It had the separate bedroom I needed, a larger, deeper sink and BUNK BEDS!!!!  And a slide out to boot!!! I was so excited, AND it was a 2003, so we upgraded by over 20 yrs in our 2nd camper.  The were no interior pictures posted, so I emailed if he could post some.  He had them uploaded within hours.  We had to travel 1.5 hrs to view, but based on the pics we were quite confident that we were going to purchase this trailer, TODAY!!  We met with the family.  Young family with 2 kids.  They were very nice and honest (we could feel it).  I remember the wife being embarrased when we showed up because she found out after the fact that her husband had posted pictures before she was able to clean it.  We laughed.  I was able to see beyond the mess of kids who obviously had fun in the camper.  I have a child, I understand.  It was not a dirty camper by any means, just evidence of children.  We made an offer on the spot, they accepted!!  It was not something we needed to think over based on our viewings all summer.  We knew this was the one, we could feel it.  But, it was on the condition that he deliver the trailer.....remember, we still didn't have a truck!  When he, in casual conversation, mentioned about selling a boat to someone who lived 3 hrs away and offered to deliver (with no down payment), and then arrived, there was no one to be found.  Feeling bad for him, we gave him a cash deposit so he would be assured that we did not plan on backing out.  We even let them use the camper the following weekend as they had plans and didn't expect to sell it so quickly.  He delivered after that and gave us a lesson on everything.  I of course videotaped it for future reference.

Addicted to Kijiji

So, my homework began.  I was researching new and used, between online and RV Centres.  For the summer of 2010, I was addicted to Kijiji!!!  I became so educated with trailers, pop-ups, hybrids, 5th Wheels and Motorhomes it was sickening.  I could drive on the highway, have a trailer pass by and could tell you what make, age and layout of the camper, just by driving by.  I would dream as I saw the new ones and at one point, we considered buying new.  On a weekly basis, we changed our minds on what type to get.  We realized again that our current truck was not big enough to tow, so we had to switch gears to motorhomes.  New ones were way too costly, so we looked at used.  We had seen so many used motorhomes with the same interior colour scheme.  Either pastel pinks or blues.  Even my daughter who is obsessed with pink was getting sick of it.  We became fairly educated on what to look for and we were not feeling secure about getting a motorhome with all the problems they have (considering most we looked at were from the '80's).  We then switched gears once again and said maybe we'd consider purchasing a truck if we found the right camper.  My favorite of all campers was the 5th Wheel, however, in my research on used trailers was, 95% of them were aimed for retirees.  They only had one bedroom.  That was not an option, so looked at tow trailers again.

Time to Upgrade

Yay!  We decided after a couple of summers of camping in the back yard, that it's time to camp off our property.  Now I knew what kind of camper I wanted.  It had to have a separate bedroom as I was not a fan of converting the living room every night to a bed and redoing again the next morning.  I also found I was doing dishes 3 times a day.  What's up with that?  That's not relaxing and with the size of the sink being the size of a cup, it was not fun.  We thought we would go with the styrofoam plates for a summer.  Not environmentally friendly, so a bigger sink would be better.  Plus we didn't have running water hooked up in the backyard, so we were boiling a kettle full of water to do the dishes.  Sheesh, camping was turning out to be work.

1st Ever Camper

Guess I should start at the beginning.  We had the opportunity to buy a camper at an affordable, okay fine, really cheap price.  It was almost 30 years old, but we thought, it's a start and we can work our way up from here.  Keeping in mind that we have never officially camped before other than sleeping on the floor of our friends 50 year old cabin that didn't, at the time, have indoor plumbing.  What we didn't really think of ahead of time, was our current truck was not big enough to tow, so the first summer we had a neighbour tow it to our friends cabin.  The following 2 summers, it was parked in our back yard.  However we did camp in it almost every weekend.  Not sure if that's considered real camping or not.