Cool! You can attach it to the comment, too.

Hi, thanks! I will take some pictures and fwd. them to you at first chance.

ps. Do you have any photos? I’m always looking for more ideas to steal..er get inspired, from. 🙂

Sounds good. There are two of us and we also carry skis and packrafts so did not want to lose bed space too much. All different choices that work for sure.

Please do! I’d love to answer any questions I can.

ps. I turn 47 this year. I am now closer to 50 than 40. Makes me pause!

The lease on my Ford Escape ends in March and I’ve been looking around. I’m kind of sold on Ford because it’s never let me down and it’s the only dealership in my town. I’ve been considering a truck, along with another Escape.

I’ve owned two Sonomas and one F-150 in the ’90s and early ’00s. As I’ve aged (turning 70 in June–how did THAT happen?), I still backpack and dayhike but everything has slowed down along with my body. Fewer miles per day, easier trails.

Recently I’ve discovered all of the “dispersed camping” opportunities in national forests. I know these are more numerous in the west along with BLM opportunities, but I’m focused on the east and that’s mostly national forests and a few state forests. Your truck camping setup would let me make a basecamp at a “dispersed” site and dayhike from there — or stay out for a night or two in some cases. My first “finds” have been in West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest within 2-4 hours of Luray VA (my home).

I’ve printed out your feature and PDF’d it. If I decide to go the truck route I may want to ask a few more questions. OK?

–Skyline

THanks! It all depends on where and what you are doing for your setup. Honestly, if you are not going up any gnarly roads, a minivan works well. Relatively decent on gas, good storage, easy parts to acquire, not a land yacht so easy to park, and you can pull out the seats for more space. Jucy sells used minivan conversions. My friends bought one for them and their two boys (4 people) and then drove it back from Las Vegas to Denver (pre-COVID) and it worked really well for them. https://www.jucyusa.com/rvs-for-sale/ They have different configurations to choose from. (And they are plain white if you buy them used. Looks more like a commercial contractor’s van. Stealthy!)

Such a simple item but so well designed and made. Many other awning setups get sold, some similar pricing even. If not more. But less versatile and more futzy to set up. With two of us we get it set up in ~20 minutes. So many different configurations to use as well. I need to set it up with the shell and get some better photos.