Camping set ups… Whatcha got? Share Yours

[Ford Motor Company]

Here's a couple from a recent trip up to Tennessee and North Carolina for some Summits on the Air. I don't normally incorporate my Bronco Sport directly into my camp set-up, but on this trip I knew it would be raining a lot the first night. I brought along a 10x10 shelter we got for sports/beach/etc . Shelter up first, pull the back of the Bronco Sport under it, then pitch the tent. Pretty convenient!

This looks awesome! Thanks for sharing these photos with the community!

 

[AndyMac204]

Here are our 3 setups, depending on where we go and who's coming.

 

[NEFKANO]

Need me some more outdoor backroads and rails in my life... and soon : )

 

[kshaw]

One of the first arrivals at Airventure, Oshkosh, WI.

 

[BLUEOVALRACER]

Ignore me. lol. But for scale I’m 6’ and fit comfortably inside. No standing room, but all the comforts of home.

Thanks pretty cool how they have the Sink and Fridge in the back looks nice inside.

 

[Twerks]

First camping trip with Jessica, the Bronco Sport. Mt. Charleston NV. July 2024.

 

[Wandering Pinto]

Camping along side the Arctic Ocean with our 2022 Badlands and 2001 Taylor Coach Bobbie!

 

[SapphireCat]

My setup... first two are from my trip to Illinois for the eclipse back in April. Last is from the trip to Eleven Mile State Park this weekend in Colorado. Tent is a Naturnest Rooftop Tent, awning is a Timber Ridge (both from Amazon). Set up has worked well this summer so far, three trips in, but the tent has definitely impacted gas mileage and is heavy enough I don't want to take it on and off every other weekend for the rest of the summer and into the fall for the trips I have planned. The tent comes with crossbars (not pictured here) that we used to haul the kayaks on top this weekend as well. Car handled it fine, but it was very tall to get the boats on top so I'm going to be contemplating a different route for kayaking. Long term the plan is to do a teardrop.

 

[Mark S.]

Epic.

 

[NMhunter]

If it is really cold, I use the trailer and the wall tent with the wood stove, as shown in my avatar. Summer trips, I take my Spingbar tent. It is the best tent I've ever owned. I can get it set up in less than 10 minutes by myself. It has withstood 50 mph winds, although it was noisy. Rain, hail, sleet, snow, and never a drop of water insise. Canvas tents breathe, so no condensation. It also has lots of ventilation for the hot nights. Camped near Lake Powell a couple of weeks ago when it was 107°. I made a shower from a $20 pump off Amazon and some tubing and an RV shower head. I just stick the tube in a water jug and hook it to a small lithium battery. Best thing ever for hot weather. I run tent lights with the lithium battey and charge it with a small solar panel.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

My setup... first two are from my trip to Illinois for the eclipse back in April. Last is from the trip to Eleven Mile State Park this weekend in Colorado. Tent is a Naturnest Rooftop Tent, awning is a Timber Ridge (both from Amazon). Set up has worked well this summer so far, three trips in, but the tent has definitely impacted gas mileage and is heavy enough I don't want to take it on and off every other weekend for the rest of the summer and into the fall for the trips I have planned. The tent comes with crossbars (not pictured here) that we used to haul the kayaks on top this weekend as well. Car handled it fine, but it was very tall to get the boats on top so I'm going to be contemplating a different route for kayaking. Long term the plan is to do a teardrop.

Sweet set up! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Ksnau]

My easy set up camping plan. My BB pulls the trailer no problem.

Is that the Coleman 1200rk? I was looking at that but I ended up with the clipper 9000 ROK cuz it had like 2 more feet and water heater. How do you like it and how did you get a 7 pin hookup on the sport? I'm working on getting my adapter on so any tips would be appreciated. Anything I should know for towing?

 

[Pickard64]

Is that the Coleman 1200rk? I was looking at that but I ended up with the clipper 9000 ROK cuz it had like 2 more feet and water heater. How do you like it and how did you get a 7 pin hookup on the sport? I'm working on getting my adapter on so any tips would be appreciated. Anything I should know for towing?

Yes, it is the 1200RK. I really like it because it’s light and fits anywhere. We’ve had it at several festivals and KOAs. We purchased a heating nozzle to provide hot water.

The BB tows the trailer fine. MPG does suffer in hill areas. The only draw-back I’ve found is its backing is very tight. I had to buy a tow extender to make maneuvering easier.

Camping World in Little Rock, AR installed the 7 pin and braking system for me after I had the Ford dealer install the tow package with a standard four pin.

 

[Ksnau]

Darn! I was really hoping you did it yourself so I could know how they did it but that's all right. I mean I know where the wires go. I just got to run them. Thanks. I'm glad that it's easy enough to tow. I got to go up to draper Utah to pick mine up in 2 weeks

 

[Ksnau]

So since I'm picking up my camper in 8 days I've been working on the seven pin harness. The first problem was just figuring out how to get a bracket on there which I just finished. I'll post the pictures.

1. The first thing you have to do if you do it like me is I actually had to cut off the plastic clips holding the four pin trailer harness connector assuming you have the stock for towing package. There's a little metal l bracket that's attached to the subframe and then the four pin harness has these plastic connectors two on the side that are straight and two on the top that are like l-shaped that normally when Ford does something like this you can depress them somehow. I could not figure out a way for that to happen on this one so I had to cut them off. So using a rotary tool and a hand saws at one point cuz I couldn't get my rotary tool in the last one. I cut off the plastic tabs so that the four pin would hang down.

2. I went to my local metal shop and got a remnant. I didn't even buy it. They gave it to me for free A lot of metal shots will do this. If you just need a little tiny part. They'll usually have like a remnant bin or a remnant area and a lot of times. If you're not getting a lot of stuff, they'll just give it to you for free for this place does. By the way, it's industrial metal supply in Phoenix, Arizona. They moved there near 40th Street and baseline and they are wonderful. I love them. I've been going there since 2012 and they're the. Best. Anyways I got a section of aluminum 4 in square tubing which I also will have in the pictures and I traced the bracket from the harness I got from Amazon to make the other L bracket. Because at least with the adapter I got from Amazon, you have to stand off the seven pin harness because of the wiring a couple inches and actually had to shorten the corrugated plastic shielding. Otherwise you needed a lot more space than 4 in for it to extend if that makes sense.

3. So then I got some 1/4x20 bolts that were half an inch long and use that to secure the aluminum L bracket I made to the Ford L bracket. The four pin used to be on and that also attaches the Amazon trailer harness bracket to it and the hole I drilled I believe was using a 5/16 drill bit. I have this really good old drill bit that cuts through metal like nothing but it's not marked what size it is but in my little DeWalt drill bit case it fits right where the 5/16 would go.

So now that I can mount the seven pin and I do want to let y'all know I'm not going to have this on here permanent so that's kind of the way I'm doing things the way I am. When I'm not towing I'm going to leave the aluminum L bracket but I'm going to take off the seven pin adapter. So all my wires that go to like power, ground brakes and stuff are going to have connectors that can be connected and undone regularly. That way I don't have that big, seven pin hanging off the rear my bumper since I off-road sometimes, but you could easily make this a permanent fitting if you're okay with how it sits on the bumper.

So the next step is I have to run wiring to power the seven pin which I'll put an update about and I'm going to do a separate post on this.

Also, and I also am going to have to do a brake controller and most of you if you're buying a new trailer even for the little ones under 3,000 lb that don't usually require a brake controller or a 7 pin. They're just putting them on all of them now so you're pretty much going to have to. So hopefully this will help y'all out because there's not a lot out there on how to do this. Although I did see a kit online being sold to do this for the Ford Maverick but I'm cheap. This is all. This is going to cost me about 20 bucks plus my time and I think the ones online are a couple hundred dollars and the brake controller that I'm getting.

I was going to get the Hopkins one that has a separate screen for I forgot what it's called but the level of braking and then it has a separate controller for if you want to manually turn on the brakes for a second and then it has another separate piece for the knob for setting the brake level and I really wanted it but it's like 150 bucks and I'm trying to not spend a lot of money right now cuz I'm buying the trailer and you know for the most part I'm not going to be looking at it or using it for like 99% of the time. So I will be getting the Hopkins break even for like 80 bucks on Amazon I believe it is.