South West Travel Guy @westerntravelguy - Tumblr Blog

Casita Trailer Orientation 1 -- "The Hitch"

This is the first in a series of videos I made when Tim at Casita was giving me my orientation at the factory. Video date: October 7, 2013.

#video #orientation #hitch

California

#state

Arizona

#state

New Mexico

#state

At the Casita Factory

I drove to Texas to pick up my Casita. They could have delivered it to me here in San Diego, but it was pretty expensive. I've been asked a lot about why I drove to pick it up. My answer: "I bought the thing to see the country, didn't I?!"

I left the dog at the sitter's this time around. My reasoning was that it's a three-day drive to Texas and I would be living on BLM land in my single-man backpackers tent during that time.

I was surprised by how easy the drive was, even though it was long. It was always at least a two lane highway and, for the most part, very little traffic going both directions. I also have Sirius/XM and spent a good deal of the trip listening to NPR and POTUS talking about the various aspects of the government shutdown.

On Friday, October 4, I took Interstate 8 east of San Diego and camped outside of Tuscon. My plane to use BLM lands was stymied by the shutdown (Thanks Congress!), so I ended up staying at a campground near I10. From Tuscon, I drove to Odessa, Texas.

Why Odessa? Because it's only three or so hours between Tuscon and El Paso and I wanted to put in a longer day behind the wheel. And, frankly, because there's nothing between El Paso and Odessa besides tumbleweeds. Speaking of El Paso, that was the most interesting part of my trip -- as you're driving east on the 10, you look to your right and see the houses of Ciudad Juarez only 300 or so feet from the freeway. Living in San Diego, I'm no stranger to Mexico, but it's very different to have the look of a foreign country staring at you while you're on the freeway.

Back to Odessa: for the record, not my favorite part of the state. In most places, it smelled terrible and the landscape was bleak. It did remind me of my childhood though, as Huntington Beach was a big oiler drilling location in the 70s. I stayed at a motel, got up early to get to the Dallas area.

I found a campground about an hour away from the Casita factory and pitched my tent there. Then, in the morning, I made my way to the factory. I got there around 9:30, expecting my stay there to only last a couple of hours. This was important because I was going to travel another couple of hours north to have some mods done (detailed in a future post!) and I wanted to leave the factory by about 1.

As it happened, I ended up leaving at around 2:30p. They hadn't welded aspects of my weight distributed hitch yet, I had to do paperwork and get my orientation, and then I asked Jonathan for a tour of the factory.

Next up: A video tour of my orientation.

#original purchase

Texas. The place of my Casita's birth, and, therefore, the first state listed.

#state

My Casita Trailer Specs

My Casita is actually pretty well loaded and came in just shy of $20,000 before California sales tax. The 17' Casitas come with many options, such as air conditioning and 4 cubic foot refrigerators, standard. I added to that:

Gas furnace. I boondock a lot in the Anza Borrego area of San Diego and I wanted to be able to heat up the trailer in the mornings.

Awning.

Refrigerator vent fan. Because I often go to Burning Man, I wanted the fan as a means to keep the refrigerator colder in higher outdoor temperatures. I had an ambient refrigerator in my last trailer and a day of 108 degree temperature spoiled all my food.

Outside shower. Explained in other post.

Vinyl flooring. By default, the Casitas come with carpeted floors. My dog, Anza Borrego and Burning Man all made me decide that life with an easy-to-clean vinyl floor would be much more appropriate.

Interior LED lights. Again with the boondocking, I wanted to ensure I had low power lights.

Microwave. I debated on this one for a while. Casita just started putting the nukes back into the trailers -- for several years, they didn't have them available as an option. I really wanted a convection combo, but was unable to find one at the size of the open spot. I finally decided on just have them put in the microwave.

TV antenna and amp, cable access. I didn't get the TV because it got terrible ratings on Amazon and I'd rather use my laptop/tablets. In another post, I'll explain about some of my tech choices.

Interior convenience package. The shelf above the bed was a must have, for water, ear plugs and the TV tech.

An extra 12V underneath the little table between the captains chairs. The Casita provides 12V only in the very back above the bed and I wanted a place to charge my phone and my laptop when boondocking.

High life suspension package. Again, for boondocking and off-road trekking.

Friction sway-bar and weight distributed hitch. Necessary for my Edge to pull 3000 lbs and to avoid big sways when big rigs pass me.

Coming next: Picking up my Casita at the factory.

#original purchase

I Chose Freedom

Casitas come in three flavors: The Spirit, the Freedom and the Liberty.

Just a quick note regarding cultural aspects of buying a Casita: as the names of their trailers might imply, the Casita company prides itself as being very patriotic but also evangelically religious. While I'm all right with patriotism (I'm an American after all!), I tend to be uncomfortable with overt religion. From my understanding, a bit of proselytizing comes with each Casita purchase in the form of included bibles and the like. At the very start, I expressed my discomfort with evangelism to Jonathan, my sales person, and I never ended up feeling weird nor was I offfered any unwanted artifacts. There is no mistaking, however, their religious views when you visit their factory.

I immediately dismissed the Liberty as it didn't really meet one of my most important conditions: The Liberty's main sale component is its ability to have a king sized bed -- a nice, but unimportant feature to me. Instead, what was important to me was to have a permanent bed with a separate table available for me to work and eat. The Liberty could be set up to make that happen, but only in ways I considered to be awkward.

That left either the Spirit or the Freedom. They were set up pretty much the same except for the small table area. In the Spirit, the seats to the small table were traditional and unmovable -- with storage underneath and the ability to make into a separate bed.

The Freedom, on the other hand, had comfortable captains chairs on either side of the table. The big downside: the inability to have an outside shower and the loss of storage that would be under the seats.

My biggest decision point was the on the outside shower. I really wanted the captains chairs, but Jonathan was adamant that they wouldn't give it to me with the outside shower because the pipes are then visible from inside the trailer. In the Spirit, they're hidden behind the seating.

I really wanted the outside shower for several reasons:

Because the inside toilet and shower share the same eight or so cubic feet, everything gets and stays wet when you use the inside shower. Plus, because of my height and the trailers curves, I knew that I probably wouldn't be able to stand up straight in the Casita bathroom. Frankly, I'm not a shy man. When I'm boondocking, I have no problem being nekkid outside unless I think I might offend people.

It's often much easier to wash large pots and pains outside.

I have a dog and she rolls in things. Enough said.

Poor Jonathan had to deal with me switching back and forth between models for a couple of weeks as I re-prioritized my need for an outside shower against the perceived comfort of captains chairs. Finally, perhaps in a state of exasperation, Jonathan told me that the assembly line manager had agreed to put the outside shower in a Freedom.

After talking to many Casita owners, I've since discovered that this type of factory customization is unheard of. While Casitas can be tricked out fairly easily, the factory typically plays no part in any of the modifications. Beware that should you ask for the same modification, you might not be able to finagle it.

Next up: My Casita trailer specs

#original purchase

Why I Decided on Casita

I had several conditions that I set with myself for a new RV:

I wanted something that had a high effectiveness to cost value ratio. While I might have preferred a class B RV, they tend to be very expensive and I heard nightmares about breakdowns. After talking to several RV enthusiasts, they encouraged me to look at travel trailers instead of single units.

I preferred to have something new but didn't want to spend more than about $20,000 because I didn't want to carry financing.

I wanted something small, but I still wanted to have a separate permanent bed and another area with a table where I could work and eat.

I wanted to be able to pull it with my Ford Edge. The Edge is much smaller than an Explorer -- with a body style similar to a Lexus SUV. (Basically, it's the poor man's Lexus.)

Casita owners are highly enthusiastic about their trailers and because of the Casita company's distribution policies, the units maintain their value at resale.

I had read about Casitas online and was interested, but it wasn't until I saw one at a camp site that I decided it was the one for me. It was a brand new unit and the owner kindly let me take a look.

In the end, after looking at a mass of trailers and fifth wheels with a variety of pop-outs and weights, my final choice was between an Airstream Sport or the Casita Freedom. The Airstream was available at my location but cost $44,000 (before CA sales tax). The Casita had similar bells and whistles for less than half that amount.

I called Casita and put my order in with Jonathan, their sales person. That was in July. Based upon the manufacturing cycle, we agreed that I would pick it up the first week of October.

Next post: Why I chose my Casita Freedom.

#original purchase

Welcome!

I'm an extremely lucky man who has a job where I can work anywhere where I have access to cell phone and internet access. In July 2013, I decided that I should be exploiting that capability to travel around the United States during the summers. Because my job includes doing sales visits in various locations around the country, my boss was not only completely on board but actively encouraged me to try it out.

My first task: finding the right RV for the job. At the time, I had an Aliner Sport -- which I liked quite a bit. However, it lacked a bathroom, a decent air conditioner and was quite small. The bathroom was a requirement for any trips longer than a few days and I needed an air conditioner if I wanted to bring my dog.

Choosing a new RV was a tough job because there are so many out there. I ended up deciding on a Casita 17' Freedom travel trailer.

Next post: Why I decided on a Casita trailer.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

South West Travel Guy