The Quicksilver at 18 Months

June 25, 2016   quicksilver

For a number of years, before Ben came along, when Al & I wanted to go camping we'd just toss the sleeping bags and tent in the car and go. We started camping with Ben when he was a baby, and dealt with the logistical challenges he posed by getting a big Coleman tent and tossing his Pack-n-Play in the car along with everything else.

One practice we developed over the years was to keep a big, wheeled Rubbermaid box packed with most of the stuff we needed: Fire starters, campfire forks, camp dishes and the tent itself. We'd roll it out of the garage, put it in the back of the Forester, and go.

The Quicksilver has allowed us to keep that practice, only better. At 18 months, now that we're very familiar with how to put it up and take it down, I'm happier than ever that we have it.

For our last trip, which was just a quick overnight visit to a county park, all we had to do was load the ice chest and sleeping bags into the car, hitch up, and go:

All we had to do was stop by the grocery store to pick up a few consumables we were low on (propane for the stove, fire starters for the campfire), grab a few groceries, and get to the site.

We've got deploying the trailer down to a pretty quick process now. We can have it unhitched and fully stood up (tent popped up, galley in place, water/power hookups connected, stabilizers set up) in ten or 15 minutes, even in the dark. Tear down, including packing everything back up, is another 15 minutes. Because it's easy to partially deploy it when we get home and want to air it out, it only takes another 10 minutes or so to pop it up and fold it back down.

Things That Are Great

Things That Could Be Better

So, at 18 months I'm still very happy with it. It's great to be able to pack up and go without taking a long look at the forecast, practically year-'round. It's comfortable. It's so easy to stand up, tear down, and partially stand up for airing and cleanup at home that even overnight trips are pretty fun and don't feel like a big undertaking.

Still recommended!






Things is © 2015 Mike Hall.