Living out of your car

they sit in the rig idling all day long to run AC or heat and keep the computer charged while they look at porn. ask me how I know this sordid bit of gossip.........  can't imagin how much it would suck getting in and out of  places like Wild Iris , acadia etc with a trailer. 

 A few years ago were at Acadia staying at Smugglers den campground but being in the van we had nothing at our campsite.  we tried to climb at South Bubble but the traffic was nutty and we could not find a parking spot. we made a spur of the moment decision and bailed on the park. called the campground and got a credit for the next several nights we had reserved. we drove to baxter, crashed on a logging road 

and climbed  katahtadin

came  back at the log landing and then meandered back to Acadia and used our credits at the camp ground and got some post weekend climbing in.

If we had to fight traffic back to the campground to hitch up the trailer we probobly never would have bothered to pull off that spur of the moment side trip.  Trailers are a PINTA. 

Dr Logic wrote:

I did a whole comparison for trailer vs van vs car. And if you're going to do a trailer, might as well just do a van if you can swing the cost. You get all the benefits of a trailer with none of the drawbacks and all the benefits of a car with only gas mileage as a drawback. The choice, for me, came down to car vs van. Van vs trailer was a no brainer in my situation. Your circumstances probably vary. 

• No "thing" you get to worry about parking somewhere, finding a camp spot, etc. 
• Don't have to set anything up really.
• Easier to access remote spots (unless you get a off-road trailer)
• can kinda stealth camp (but everyone knows you're in it)
• can refrigerate my eggs

The one downside to vans, roof top tents, et al is that anytime you want/need to drive somewhere, you need to stow everything for travel.

BTW, I'm not advocating a trailer - just mentioned it as a possible consideration for the OP.

If I was a warm weather outdoor cat, I'd do a car all day. But I like climbing icicles, so van was the logical choice. 

Of course.

Arnav Vwrote:

Oh, and if it's super cold or super hot it's no big deal to let your engine run overnight so you have climate control. In terms of wear and tear, it's minimal. When idling your engine is under virtually no load -- it's just running the accessory belt. Now if you idle as often as a police car you'll have more frequent oil change intervals, but it doesn't harm the car one bit -- just a marginal amount of wear and tear.

Just don't do this if there's any chance of the car getting snowed in. Carbon monoxide poisoning is a scary thing.

Lot of eggcelent ideas and advice in this thread.

Trailers are annoying. It might be worth it if you’re one of those camper RV lot living type of guys. I have to drive them around at work often and I despise it. Parking can get real hard/sparse and I just don’t like the extra effort it takes to ride around. I would never consider them to be a life improvement unless you need them for your job.

even getting gas or going to the store you have to plan it out perfectly every time. 

Again, I’m not advocating for a trailer, but you guys are really mixing use cases, thus clouding the question.

Yes, always having the trailer attached would be a royal pita. Staying in a campground for a few weeks at a climbing area is a completely different deal. 

We used to have a van, now we love our trailer. Small popup is a dream to tow and easy to backup. I can get it places the van couldn’t dream of. Don’t have to pack up the whole family (or leave them at camp without shelter) to run an errand, or if someone wants a rest day they can stay comfortably in camp while the vehicle takes off. Tow it with an economic 4x4 that we use to go everywhere we want year round. Van sucked trying to get off on any kind of rough road. Best of all we got the trailer for only $4k while built out vans start at $85k. Our low mileage truck purchased from local fire dept was only $6k.

Obviously others have a different experience 

Woah woah woah. I said that it would be legit if he’s one of those RV camper lot type of guys lol.

Basically I meant what you said; if you stay at places a month or more at a time; it becomes the ideal setup 

I definitely didn’t give off the right vibe in my original commentary of the matter for that tidbit of info