First Trip in Camplite 21RBS

We just returned from our maiden voyage in our new Camplite 21RBS. We stayed locally just in case, but no problems. We spent 3 days each at two Florida Panhandle beach state parks.

The major issue I dealt with before leaving was the cold aluminum floor. Even with the optional spray-on insulation the floor is painful to bare feet if it’s cold outside. The thin coating only seals against air infiltration. The solution I found was to cover all exposed interior aluminum flooring with 7/8” rubber Tatami mats from RubberFlooringInc.com.

http://www.rubberflooringinc.com/interlocking-tile/foam/78-tatami-tile.html

The fitting work takes time, but the result is dramatic. Bare feet friendly and very comfortable to walk on. I did have to remove the small caps on the bottom of the slide to clear the foam, but they were only decorative.

The optional skylight in the shower was great. Lots of light and added headroom. Although we had hookups available we dry camped the first three nights just to check everything out. The temp got low enough to give the heater and batteries a good workout. The 7 cu.ft. fridge was great. Lots of room for ice cream.

I don’t think the pump intake is low enough in the tank to fully utilize the fresh water tank, but more investigation is required. We did fill up the gray water tank and had to drive to the dump station, but it was easy since I didn’t decouple the TV, connect hoses and cords, or deploy the stabilizers.

Although we didn’t go far the Tacoma with E2 WDH towed fine. More testing to follow.

Overall the Camplite was great for the trip. We had a lot of rain so spent lots of time inside. The new thicker factory mattress provided good sleeping. The dry bath/shower/commode sure beat the alternatives and the foam floor was absolutely worth the effort. All systems worked as expected. The design, engineering, quality, and workmanship are outstanding.

More on other mods I ordered from the factory or installed before the trip in a later post.

Stay tuned and camp on,

Charlie

Excellent!  I envy your dry bath, but hope to hear more, too.

Charlie- How's the ground clearance of the Camplite compared to your old RPod? Did you get the "off road" package? We're upgrading from a 171 (which had risers) to the Camplite 21BHS, but I'm not sure if the off road package is worth it for the extra 3 inches. Our primary concern is backing up our driveway and getting on ferries, we won't actually be off-roading with it.

Thanks for the info. Sounds like it starts pretty high to begin with. I did like the LT tires on the rpod though (we had the HRE), they seemed pretty sturdy compared to standard trailer tires. With the off-road package is it hard to reach the step? I don't mind carrying around an extra step, I'm just curious.

From our place it's actually 5 hours less to go to the factory. I would prefer to go that way, but it would be too long on the road since my kids are too young to do more than 300 miles or so per day. It looks like either delivery or buying from a dealer nearby. The shipping is around $4k, which makes the great price from Little Campers not quite as great anymore.