As the fall camping season quickly approaches, the Pin Drop Team wants to remind PinDroppers of the 5 easy tips to prepare your Pin Drop Travel Trailer for upcoming off grid, off road, and remote fall camping adventures.
While we pride ourselves on offering a low maintenance travel trailer, we also encourage safe and responsible recreation. These are five simple ways everyone can prepare for a camping trip, ensuring you are well prepared and traveling safely, whether offgrid and remote or to your favorite campground.
1. Clean
It is important to thoroughly clean the hinges and drawer slides of your PinDrop each year. Using compressed air, attach an air nozzle with a long stem on the end of an air hose to blow out any dust and debris that may be lodged in the drawer slides, then wipe the slides down with a damp cloth. The convenient on-board air compressor upgrade makes this an easy lift for those that opted in to this feature. The hinges on the doors and galley can be cleaned this same way, as well as the push button latches on the cabinet doors.
Give a good scrub to your Renogy brand solar panel(s) as well. A simple soft-bristled scrub brush with soap and warm water works well to remove dust, dirt, and grime, returing the panels to their original capacity and ready to take a full charge.
2. Lubricate
Once your drawer slides and hinges are cleaned, use a spray lubricant like WD40 with lithium grease to spray your drawer slides. Open and shut the drawers a few times while spraying in between to get a good coat of lubricant on them. The same process works with the hinges. The push button latches can be sprayed gently, a rag helps to catch drips and make sure the lubricant stays in place.
It's a good idea to repack your bearings every year, or every 10,000 miles. This task is made simple with our stabilizer jacks, which can help support your Pin Drop while you remove the wheel. If repacking your bearings is not something you want to tackle, any mechanic shop can do this.
Greasing the hurricane hinge helps prevent water from working its way in while the hatch is open. Use silicone grease to run a bead along the bottom edge of the hinge from the underside. A latex glove helps keep this grease off your hands, and allows you to work the grease into the hinge with your forefinger. Open and shut the hatch a few times to work the grease into the hinge.
Take some time to also lubricate your trailer jack and stabilizer jacks with a grease gun. There is a zerk fitting on the body of the trailer jack, give this a few pumps and raise and lower the jack a few times to work the grease in. Using the same grease gun, you can apply some grease to the stabilizer jacks' worm gear as well, and raise and lower these to work the grease in.
3. Top off the Charge
If you store your Pin Drop in the garage or under a cover, it's a good idea to make sure your battery is topped off before your next trip. We recommend using a trickle charger to maintain your battery between trips, this is especially important with lead acid batteries. The battery tender port on the side of the Pin Drop is designed to work directly with the Battery Minder charger, so it's plug n' play ready. If you are set up with the lithium battery, we recommend the NoCo Genius charger line, which may require an adapter to plug into the battery tender port, which we can provide as needed. Learn more about storing your PinDrop™ in a garage.
4. Drain and Flush Fresh Water Tank
Even though the 12-gallon freshwater tanks are sanitized and resistant to algae growth, sometimes it's nice to start fresh, especially if the water in your tank has been sitting for a long period of time. To flush the tank, pull the clear plastic hose from the hand pump faucet fitting from underneath the sink. There should be enough length to this hose to route it outside the galley kitchen and let it gravity drain. You can slowly add water through the fill spout once it's drained and flush your tank this way.
The 10-gallon solar shower option and Reliance water jugs can also be emptied and restocked with fresh water as needed.
5. Gear and Supply Check
It's a good idea to double check your gear before heading out on the road. There's nothing worse than getting to your favorite campsite only to realize something is missing, broken, or out of batteries. Most importantly, check any safety and first aid equipment and kits to restock and replace any items used in your previous camp.
Additional items that may need service or replacement:
Fire extinguisher
Bear spray
Flashlights and lanterns
Tire pressure and tire treads
Spare tire
Matches or lighters
Fire starters
Toilet paper
Gear repair kits for mountain bikes or kayaks
Extra trash bags and gloves for campsite cleaning
No Cost Service for Fall Camping Adventures
As valuable customers, we do offer PinDroppers no cost annual inspections to review your Pin Drop for any service needs. Our skilled team can take care of general maintenance tasks, including repacking your bearings, if you bring your Pin Drop to the factory in Miami, Arizona.
This may also be a time to consider any upgrades of interest to your Pin Drop micro camper. As you know, each Pin Drop is plug and play ready for changes to your camping style, whether you are seeking additional gear storage or need seasonal features. Pin Drop is also a dealer for the ARB brand of overland, camping, and outdoor gear, as well as a dealer for Canyon Coolers to address all of your cold storage needs.
Be sure to check out the upcoming fall show schedule to view and tour features of a Pin Drop Travel Trailer.
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