Our first son was born in 2015 and my husband and I, both avid tent campers, were faced with the question, “How do we realistically see ourselves making camping a part of our family life going forward?” We had taken little G on his first “Glamping” trip to a KOA in Cotopaxi, CO to stay in a one room Kabin. The experiment went well but we discovered it was a LOT more work with a little guy! He was constantly crawling all over and getting into dangerous things. Not to mention the dirt! I have no problem with getting dirty but when the day is done, it would be great to have a place to get cleaned up and be able to stay that way for more than 5 minutes. My husband had grown up in a large family with an RV and he had many fond memories of not only camping in the RV but using to travel all over the country! I had no such experience with camper life and honestly thought that we would be selling out a bit on our tent camping experience if we upped our game and got a camper. Once we started looking at campers, I saw that there really was no going back. I had been given a glimpse into a whole new world that could make it much more realistic for us to make camping and traveling a LOT easier for our family.
Full disclosure…I am writing this post from the comfort of my much older and wiser 2023 life. We now have two sons and a yellow Labrador and we easily spend at least 30 nights a year in our camper. We have learned a lot over the years of camper life and it all started with our 2016 Ameri-Lite Super-Lite 198BH.
We bought this camper used from a couple who lived in our neighborhood in Castle Rock, CO. They had taken one 2 week trip and decided that camper life was just not for them. This was the PERFECT situation because they truly had barely used the camper but we were also not having to pay full sticker price for an essentially new camper. Its amazing what you can find on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace!
This really was a great first camper. My goal was to buy a camper that we could use for a few years as our small family grew and decide if we were going to be a camper family. This camper was nothing fancy but was enough practical that it really did make sense for us.
The kitchen and dining area was tight but considering I was used to a pop up camp grill and a picnic table, this was amazing! I had a 2 burner propane stove which I made a wooden cover for to expand my countertop space. There was a small sink and an under the counter mini fridge with freezer hatch inside. This fridge did prove to be a bit small for the heavy milk drinkers in our family since it wouldn’t even accommodate a half gallon of milk so we ended up buying a heavy duty cooler that traveled in our bathtub (something I would NOT recommend!) It ended up breaking the drain pipe from the weight and pressure during travel and we had a small flood one evening during bath time). On the far side of the kitchen was a skinny cupboard that we used for all of our dishes and pantry space. The dinette was perfect for our small family and above that we had more storage for clothes along with our AC unit. We never actually used the dinette as a bed although that was an option. We instead used it as a platform (without cushions of course) for a Pack-n-Play during our baby years.
We had two skinny bunks in the back worthy of a Navy ship but they were perfect for two little boys growing up. Once G was big enough for the top bunk, I debated building a skinny ladder to make it easier for him to climb up but honestly our little spider monkey figured it out in no time and having a ladder would have just gotten in the way.
The bathroom was snug but functional for the most part. Unfortunately, in order to save space, they did not include a sink in the bathroom but honestly, the camper itself was so small it wasn’t too far from the kitchen sink! My favorite part of the bathroom was the fact that it not only had a shower but a tub! My husband thought I was crazy thinking that this would change our lives. He thought for sure we would never use it. In his experience growing up, one would just use the shower at the campground if you ever needed to bathe. To him, even the shower and toilet were an extravagance! But I guess when you have six kids in a camper, as he did when he was growing up, it makes sense to make them do their business in the campground bathroom and not use the delicate camper plumbing! Well, the very first time we took our camper out, little G thought it would be fun to dump sand and gravel all over his head for a half an hour. Ugh. There was even sand in his diaper! That tub was used on our very first night out! And the camper tub has gotten a lot of love ever since then too.
We towed this mini beast typically with our Toyota Tacoma but could also tow with our Toyota FJ Cruiser. This trailer had a Gross Weight Capacity of 3850 lbs. so we were safe to tow with either vehicle. It did only have one axle so my hubs felt much more comfortable with an added sway bar on the tongue hitch attachment to help with control.
All in all this really was a great camper for our first. We had it for about four and a half years before we started thinking we might be ready for something just a little bigger for our growing family. But another day, another blog post…