17,250 mile late winter car-camp

[coolflippers]

I left in early February and got back in early April. General route was STL to the UP passed the Soo thru Ontario to New England, then back to STL for a pit stop before going up passed the ID panhandle over thru the Elkhorns and John Day to Willamette Valley down passed Eugene back up to Willamette Pass back up through John Day back into the Elkhorns then down thru ID into UT over to Rangely down into the i70 corridor, bounced around that area for a week, then thru some mountains into NM then thru the SW to Tahoe/Sac then back. Saw friends and fam, wrapped up visiting every resort Vail owns or leases in NA, and skied/snowboarded at some non-gaper ski hills.

The cut in the Snow Masters had been there for 40,000 miles. I'd put those tires on in December '22, never took them off. They went on 10,000 miles of hot summer road trips, including the SW in July, from the dirt switch-backs of Grand Mesa to the radiator-station highways of AZ. Props to them for holding up.

I doubt I would have been able to do all this with an automatic. I've put over 100k on this puppy in under 3 years (plus 80k on another car in under 4 years), been through blizzards and down forest roads, usually with traction control off and in whatever gear I needed given any moment of traction. Maybe it's the engine braking, but I'll be doing my first pad swap next week, with plenty of pad left. I pushed them to their max going down mount washington when I had to pull over to let them cool so they'd stop knocking.

Lastly, CalTrans requires chains for non-AWD vehicles on Donner Pass when it's above freezing and there's wet asphalt shoulder-to-shoulder. You'll never find me in Tahoe between August and June again, what a headache. At least I only had to fill up on $6.50 gas once, and only about 8 gallons of it.

[Johnny Mullet]

Sounds like an awesome adventure! Thanks for sharing.

[7milesout]

coolflippers - I'm glad you got to do all that! Those Snow *******s sound like some very useful tires. You sure wore 'em down.

I'm wondering about your in-car-camping set-up. It looks like you removed the rear seat backs, kept the rear seat cushions (the part that is sat on). Is that right?

And if there was something you could change or improve with your camping set-up, I'd love to hear it.

[coolflippers]

rear seat cushions

I took those out, too. I put the bolts back in, in order to prevent moisture from rusting out the bolt holes. One of the bolts would have been uncomfortable were I to have put it back in, so I bought one from Ace's to patch that hole for the ride.

change or improve

I'd get a roof rack. For trips where I don't need to parallel park, I'd add a light trailer. I need to figure out hooks for window shades. I'm not sure how to handle ventilation were I to car-camp in humid hot areas. I am going to try a double bed for a two-person trip, then use boards when sleeping placed across the front door window sills with baggage moved on top of the boards for the night. I used a cheap RV mattress cut to fit and doubled up, but I threw it away after the trip and am looking to get a firm foam mattress between 8 and 12 inches. The bedding on the front seats needs to be figured out, ideally cutting some more foam mattress to level it out, though it is also a good use of space to stack up some bulkier items, such as soft luggage or bigger clothing items folded up, which is what I did on this trip (winter trip, plenty of clothing items to stack up the front seat to the level of the mattress). I need to make washable mattress covers, and then get a vac bag to store them. I think it might be possible to compress them on the road using vacuums at car washes for longer multi-modal trips when I only need the mattresses so often.

[7milesout]

Good info. I used to have a canopy. It was something like 8' x 20'. Metal poles, canvas top, stretchy tethers to hold the canvas top in place. A bit bulky packaging those metal poles. But assembly was easy and fairly quick. Now, imagine this.

I tow around my 5'x10' utility trailer, easily carrying the canopy in all its pieces. And carry some bedding wherever. When I get ready to sleep / camp, I set up the canopy, back the trailer up under the canopy, put my Glock under my pillow, then sleep like a baby on an inflating foam mattress and comfy bedding stuff on the floor of the trailer, under the canopy. Strap the canopy to the trailer so wind / rain won't launch it. I used to do this, parking a 1988 Chevy Suburban Scottsdale with a standard mattress in the bed area of that truck. Left the windows down, rear doors open, pulled the bulbs out of the overhead lights. Had a breeze from heaven through the truck all night, it was awesome rain or dry.

It would be quite perfect on the bed of a utility trailer. The only downside is to have to be towing the trailer around all the time. But other than that, 35 mpg pulling the trailer and a really quite nice place to sleep, cheap. Could even stealth camp in many places. Fun! I'd rather not have to tow the trailer. But I would imagine it getting stuffy in the car when warm and humid. And then there's the compromising of the interior of the car (like removing the rear seat backs, or cushions, or both) to make a sleeping area.

[Basic]

If I thought I wouldn't break my fat neck I would look into something like this...

https://rooftentutopia.com/product/d...ptent-140s-lw/

[7milesout]

Basic - There's a lot I don't like about that. I could be wrong in all cases.

• It doesn't look like it would store well in the car.
• I don't think I would want to add a roof rack or whatever may be needed to not damage the roof.
• It looks like moving in the tent would cause a lot of sway up in the tent because of the vehicle suspension, moved out by the distance up to the tent, and levered further out from the suspension.
• The tent is directly exposed to wind, rain, bright sunlight (but most tents would be anyway).
• I too, might break my ass, falling out, climbing up, climbing out.
• I might break the roof.

[coolflippers]

If I thought I wouldn't break my fat neck

There is certainly appeal to those rooftop tents.

There's a lot I don't like about that.

They do seem to have their drawbacks. I wouldn't know, I've never tried one.

[coolflippers]

canopy [over mirage]

I've considered it. Would require staking, which would make cities difficult. Easy option might be to keep the engine running and run the A/C on low. Good thing about that is, if it fails, I get to upgrade something.

When I get ready to sleep / camp, I set up the canopy, back the trailer up under the canopy, put my Glock under my pillow, then sleep like a baby

Whole new level.

[7milesout]

Well ... this weekend I got to do some experimenting. This doesn't involve the Mirage. But it was in alignment with this thread.

I spent the weekend with my sons in the middle of no-man's land alongside a river. A relative of mine bought a tiny little cabin on stilts there about 12 years ago. The river overflows the banks frequently. And has slowly been adding and changing stuff there.

His place and all his changes has made the place awesome. A 2WD truck can make it, but only if it is dry. It has deep sections of silty sand. A 2WD can get stuck there if you don't keep the momentum up. Anyway, back to the experiment.

I towed my ATV there on my 5'x10' utlity trailer. Not with my Mirage (another son was using it) but with my blue Cummins truck. I also carried a bunch of supplies. The blue truck made mince-meat out of the work.

After unloadeding the ATV, I put my utility trailer in a cute little level spot, under some trees, and then put my canopy up, and moved the canopy over the trailer. I then used the tie straps that were used to hold the ATV on the trailer, to gently tie-down the canopy to the trailer (so no winds could blow it off). I had a small narrow pad, laid that down then put a large moving blanket over that. Then I used regular home bedding on top of that. The comfort was ok, but the pad was too narrow. The temp outside dropped to the low 60's I guess. My temp under the bedding was PERFECT.

The biggest problem, bugs kept landing on my face, hair and buzzing me in the ears. I slept not so great.

2nd night, I added a bigger thicker wider pad to the deal. I also lowered the canopy down. The outsides of the canopy were somewhere in the vicinity of the floor of the trailer. The center of the canopy was somewhat like a teepee, so plenty of space between the trailer floor and the canopy. The bigger thicker padding was much better. But mainly, the canopy being lower like that, I guess the bugs were too stupid to find their way to my face. No bugs bothered me with it set up like this and I slept like a friggin baby.

This is an excellent setup if towing a utility trailer. Not something many Mirage owners are going to do. At some point I still want to make an inside the Mirage sleeping setup like this thread is intended. Sleeping inside such a small cabin though could wind up with stifling conditions. Either too hot in the summer, or too cold and damp in the winter. I wonder if it would hurt the engine at all to idle it for 6 to 8 hours to keep the inside comfortable...