Colorado road trip storage question for my 100

[patrickfinley]

I'm starting to plan out a potential 2 week paved road trip all throughout Colorado this June with my stock LC. The crew is going to be 4 adults and 2 babies. One unlucky adult will have to take turns in the 3rd row. I'm going to remove 1 of the 3rd row seats to open up room.

Storage is going to be an issue with gear for 6 people. The babies have a ton of stuff, pack n plays, double stroller, formula, diapers, jar food, etc. I'd like the truck not to be so stuffed that everyone is miserable for 2 weeks, people and gear would probably be close to or exceed 1500 lbs. Do you think it would be better if I.....

A- Use a roof rack and rear cargo hitch.

B- Rented a small uhaul cargo trailer.

A, would seem more contained but does not seem as safe.
B, would seem safer but it's a pain to tow anything. Plus will someone steal it if I leave it for the day to go off and explore?

What do you think?

 

[WoodyCreature]

Plan B. Easy cheap and if you put a lock on the wheel and or hitch and park it in a discrete location then no worries. Good luck and by the way whats the high points for your tour of CO?

 

[patrickfinley]

I feel B as well. Just seems if I have to break and hard turn for any reason I'd be safer with a lighter non top heavy LC.

Still putting it together. I'm coming up from Albuquerque. It's actually going to be 1 week with my Mother and another week with my Father. I think I'll take Mom all through SW Co, Mesa Verde, Durango, Telluride, Ouray. Then with my Father I think it'll be Denver, Boulder, Rocky Mountain National park, Aspen and in between.

With the 2 babies I find it's best to pick a central location and go out on day trips. It's tough setting up and breaking down all the baby gear on a daily basis. Two days in one spot seems to be a good minimum for maintaining peace of mind.

 

[tdrillin]

It makes me cringe thinking about it. A couple years ago, I drove (rode) in the backseat of my buddies Subaru Legacy from Eugene, OR to SF, CA. There were five of us total, road tripping it south because tickets out of SFO to Cabo were much cheaper. The ride home was the worst 12 hours of my life.

If there's anything constructive to come from my post, I guess it'd be a gut check to make sure you're OK with the challenges that your plan poses. That's a lot of people in a small space for a long time. Good luck!

 

[farinvail]

What about renting/borrowing/buying a used a pop up camper? And/Or leave a bunch of stuff at home. People raised kids for thousands of years before the pack-n-play and strollers were invented. We went from stuffed to the gills to looking out the rearview when we got a pop-up.


Or install CB radio's and bring the highlander along too.

 

[Adam R]

Plan B

Or use a utility trailer. If covered with a tarp, I wouldn't be to worried about stuff disappearing, there isn't much market for strollers and pack and plays in pawn shops. Colorado is a pretty low threat state.

Or build a plywood box for the utility trailer with locking latches. I've done that several times during moves and have never had a problem, knock on wood.

Adam

 

[Nottajeep]

Plan B
U-Haul trailor wieghs less than [STRIKE]100lbs[/STRIKE]1,000lbs. U-Haul: Equipment specs
You will not know it's even back there.

Take two pad locks and lock the door latch and front tongue.
No one can easily steal that.

We took one from TX to TN last year and it was not a problem.

 

[bkgee]

you might look on craigslist, i've seen a lot of utility and other trailers for reasonable prices.

i am holding out for a decent toy mini truck bed trailer conversion. i've used a friends such trailer many times, its pretty stout, can be lifted easily and hauls a decent amount of gear or trash to the dump. with the ability to take sidewalls for garbage loads, camper shell, cross bars, lumber rack, etc etc, it seems like a good way to go...

 

[patrickfinley]

What about renting/borrowing/buying a used a pop up camper? And/Or leave a bunch of stuff at home. People raised kids for thousands of years before the pack-n-play and strollers were invented. We went from stuffed to the gills to looking out the rearview when we got a pop-up.

Or install CB radio's and bring the highlander along too.

I was giving some serious thought to renting a pop up in Denver. There are a few places there that rent them. I thought setting up for a few days in Rocky Mountain National Park would be great.

Then I began to wonder if 4 adults and 2 babies would be too much in a pop up for 4 or so nights. Especially when my Fathers girlfriend is a high maintenance primadonna. She'd be complaining the whole time. Ideally it would be best to leave her home but that's not an option.

I think I'll hold off on the pop up until it's just 4 of us. That seems like a happier situation. However it's great to know they can be rented in Colorado.

 

[farinvail]

My wife thinks you are out of your mind to do a road trip with 4 adults and 2 kids in a 100 for two weeks. What were you planning on sleeping in?

 

[NMuzj100]

+1 for the pop-up. If you buy early enough in the season you can use it for a few weeks and sell it again to someone with late summer plans. I took one to Canada and in the end I got all my money out of it except a new battery and brake pads.

 

[patrickfinley]

My wife thinks you are out of your mind to do a road trip with 4 adults and 2 kids in a 100 for two weeks. What were you planning on sleeping in?

Haha, your wife might be right . No, the 100 will just be the transport not a camping vehicle. I'll be staying in cabins or apartment style lodging with kitchens. Telluride 3 days, Aspen 2 days, Estes Park 4 days, Denver/Boulder 2 days and some days with random lodging here and there. We won't be on the move every day, and the travel days will only be 4-5 hour stints. It shouldn't be that bad.

We might even hit up Vail for a night. What are the good affordable lodging deals in Vail?

 

[jonharis]

Just get a Yakima skybox. The largest one will hold 5-6 carryons and small items. I recently used the second largest one for a trip to Vegas for 6 adults and all of us we comfortable. We left the drivers side third row at home and had plenty of room for everyone and their Vegas stuff.

There are no good deals in vail. It's not worth visiting in the summer. You can go to many more unique places that are a fraction of the price with none of the snobbery. Spend an extra day on Ouray. You could always schmooze with Far and get some cheap lodging.

 

[mobi-arc]

I pulled one of these for a couple weeks....pulls like it's not even there.

 

[Topmounter]

Rent them a car and tell them to follow you.

 

[SUMMIT CRUISERS]

I vote for a trailer, preferably an off-road trailer. We tow a military M416 trailer with a canvas cover on about all the trails around Ouray. Only problem we had last year is that all of our fishing poles broke and all the glass bottles in the cooler broke, just don't put anything breakable in the trailer when going off-road.

 

[Crux]

I bought one of these to throw on the roof when I did a 4wheel camping trip with 4 adults and 2 kids last summer:

Sherpak Go! Roof Bag
Sherpak Go! 15 Roof Bag at REI.com

Only a $110, and it holds a lot of stuff. We were tent camping tho - so had tents, sleeping bags, therma rests, pack n play, tables, chairs, coolers, stoves, etc. All the light stuff went up top. Left one seat out, but we were full to the gills.

I hate towing, especially backing up. I have yet to master that skill.

 

[patrickfinley]

I pulled one of these for a couple weeks....pulls like it's not even there.

I was looking at this too, it's 45 cu ft and would be the perfect size.

Because of the heavy load and 6 people my plan was to stay off too many of the trails like Imogene or Black Bear. However do you think this trailer could hold up to the Ophir trail from Telluride to Ouray? I've heard that trail is mild.

 

[1loudLX]

Pretty sure any non-offroad designed trailer will start to have failures if taken offroad for any notable distance. Throw in the build quality and reliability and maintenance schedule of Uhauls....good luck.

 

[jttexam]

My wife thinks you are out of your mind to do a road trip with 4 adults and 2 kids in a 100 for two weeks. What were you planning on sleeping in?

Have to agree. I know this will start the machine gun fire on this forum, but go down to Hertz and rent a Suburban. Last time we were in that area, flew into DIA, picked up Suburban, leather, dvd players, 4wd, second row buckets, etc. It wasn't as nice as our LC, but it was a hell of a lot nicer than our LC would have been with that amount of people and gear...