kimberly kamper pack up

[Jordan38]

hey guys, we have just brought a new kimberly kamper but we are haveing trouble packing it up. can someone help wether i shouldnt have any bedding on the bed, doors/windows open/closed? they infoirmed me we could leave the awning and kids room on the trailer when packing it up but we struggle with none of this on the canvas. love the set up of this trailer but hate packing it up. Any information tips would be great.
jordan

jordan_g38@hotmail.com

[Teabag]

I had a 2005 and I packed with all windows zipped shut, door zipped fully open and joined and had bed fully made with camp table ontop of bedding. Can't imagine it has changed too much.....

hey guys, we have just brought a new kimberly kamper but we are haveing trouble packing it up. can someone help wether i shouldnt have any bedding on the bed, doors/windows open/closed? they infoirmed me we could leave the awning and kids room on the trailer when packing it up but we struggle with none of this on the canvas. love the set up of this trailer but hate packing it up. Any information tips would be great.
jordan

jordan_g38@hotmail.com

[Jason B]

Mine is a 2005 also, but I think the tent is the same. I pack mine up with the windows zipped shut, but on mine the doors are lft open. If its new it will be tight. Try moving your pillows to the foot of the bed. Its OK to stand on the lid if you really need to. As the canvas ages and becomes more plyable it will get easier.

Regards


Jas

[Manjimike]

hey guys, we have just brought a new kimberly kamper but we are haveing trouble packing it up. can someone help wether i shouldnt have any bedding on the bed, doors/windows open/closed? they infoirmed me we could leave the awning and kids room on the trailer when packing it up but we struggle with none of this on the canvas. love the set up of this trailer but hate packing it up. Any information tips would be great.
jordan

jordan_g38@hotmail.com

I'll take it off your hands for say $15k 

 

[Jason B]

I'll take it off your hands for say $15k 

 

I'll raise you one $16k 

[LC]

I'll raise you one $16k 

Just to up the ante a bit I'll give you 20k and even pack it up!!!!

On the serious side, do you have the extended tent or normal tent. We have the extended tent and only ever pack it up with the quick awning attached. All other canvass comes off. We leave the bed made up but put the pillows at the foot of the bed so that poles / frame fold around the pillows. Also make sure your bedding on the sides is paked down nice and flat or tucked down the side of the mattress as that is where the vertical poles will end up lying. Our windows are zipped closed and the doors are loosely rolled up and held in place with the velcroe tabs.

The other thing you can do with the pillows is just leave them out completely while closing the camper then stuff them in on top of the bed through the tailgate once the camper is close.

We also slack off the internal poles except for the centre / highest one. Although it is debatable whether or not this is needed.

When folding the kamper make sure the canvass is packed in as neatly as possible. This is much easier to achieve with two people.

As the others have said the more times you pack it up the easier it will be as the canvas will get softer. I would avoid standing on it if possible to get it closed. Ask Gronk about the stress fractures in his first KK from forcing it closed!! Having said that we have stood on ours from time to time but it is certainly not the norm for us.

[gronk]

We have had our 2 KK's out on over 100 trips and have at times have had " tight " times in closing it...but nothing that couldn't be done...

With all KK's....if you have anything on the bed...doonas etc....pillows....especially awnings ( only kwik awnings )..  it will be harder..

But having said that....we always left the kwik awning on .....but usually took the pillows and doona off and shoved them at the end of the bed....and it folded up fairly easily...

[Jordan38]

thanks for the info. we will persist.The ofers though guys, if you have purchased one of these new before you know your a long way of the mark.

[Silvo]

thanks for the info. we will persist.The ofers though guys, if you have purchased one of these new before you know your a long way of the mark.

where are you, maybe an existing KK owner could come watch you pack it up and offer some advice?

[Jason B]

One thing that I forgot to mention and was only briefly touched on, is that on mine the tent bow at the far end (Floor end) must be loosend and allowed to colapse back to its un-extended height/length before attempting to fold it over.


Regards


Jas

[gurules]

mate when they are new stand on top of it makes it easier ,i had the kids room etc always packed it away seperate

[rossbarb]

Hi,
okay I hope what I have to say will help, each time you pull down one of the metal poles give the canvas a good hit from the front and hit in towards the back of the camper, then pull down on the next pole and re hit the canvas and make everything neat repeat, when ready to pull the floor over make sure there is no canvas caught in between the frames as it will pinch and cut your canvas. ( most loved son borrowed the kamper and did not listen as he knew more than us result 2 cuts in the canvas)
do the clips up at the back first as this makes it easier as it pushes the air out, hope this helps
Barb

[Rumpig]

ours is tight to pack up as we leave the kids 2 single size self inflating matresses and sleeping bags laying on top of our bed, aswell as our sleeping bag and our 2 pillows (pillows at tail end of end of the bed) , all 3 sleeping bags are rather thick. the one time i closed it up without any of that on the bed it was a breeze. i have the doors unzipped and rolled up and back, the windows unzipped on one side only. the only thing to watch with rolling the drivers side door up, is that it can get caught on the steel frame as you open the camper up, it has happened to me previously, but the fact i open the camper over slowly means it's easy to see when it has happened.

[Manjimike]

thanks for the info. we will persist.The ofers though guys, if you have purchased one of these new before you know your a long way of the mark.

I know, I saw one at the show on Friday    Always start low - you can come up

 

Mike

[Manjimike]

ours is tight to pack up as we leave the kids laying on top of our bed

    Sorry - had to do it   

[WilSurf]

It will become easier over time.
We leave the kwik awning off, but have the inflatables forthe kids with open valves and all sleepingbags on the mattrass.
When closing we open the "back door" to let the air out. At the end, I climb up the roof while my wife closes the latches.

[Blinky Bill]

As others have said the more you leave attached or on the bed the harder it will be to close. 

You should have absolutely no difficulty with the quick awning attached. We sometimes leave the large awning attached and even that packs away okay.

From memory our biggest issue was getting the air out. But the system we were shown by a KK employee was to close it with the doors open (attched on outside rear of CT). All air escapes easily then.

You're not trying to close it with the poles still attached are you?  Only kidding! 

My advice would be to find someone in your area with a KK or something similar & see if they mind watching how you go about it.

Cheers - Wayne

[cm4x4nut]

thanks for the info. we will persist.The ofers though guys, if you have purchased one of these new before you know your a long way of the mark.

Jordan,

We also had trouble with ours. It is only a couple of weeks old. What I found was that I lowered the pole that is above the bed head by ~10mm from where they had it set factory and it folds up easy as now.

For those that are packing up with the Qwik awning, how do you get the awning over the top of the camper before folding up?

Good luck mate 

[Jason B]

For those that are packing up with the Qwik awning, how do you get the awning over the top of the camper before folding up?

Good luck mate 

We have a couple of bits of string/light rope attached to ours that we throw over and then pull form the other side. I use either a broom or pole in one of the eye's to push the middle part over. I do this while the two poles are still holding the awning over the kitchen up so that can all fold flat and then pack up neatly. I then fold the camper as usual feeding the front awning in as it folds up.

Regards

jas

[Traveller]

G'day Jason.

We have a 2003 model. I agree that as the canvas 'wears' it will soften and become easier to pack. We always comment on hot and cold packs. If the canvas is warm it is much more pliable and folds away easy. As we are Victorians it gets its fair share of cold packs and it can be a beast.

We always put the pillows on the bottom of the bed, windows zipped shut, the doors open (so you can see if the canvas has wrapped around the support pole as Barb stated), and the back bow loosened.

When we picked up the camper we were told to stand at the draw bar end and to pull the canvas to you to close the camper. When our friends picked their KK up (about 2 months before us from the same dealer) they were told to stand at the very back of the camper and to lift up the floor and to push it over the top of the camper. After about 12 months I decided to swap to the friends method and find it much easier, particularly if the wind is coming from the front. I push the floor up until it is about vertical and then I walk forward and catch hold of the last bow to stop the floor falling down again. I then lift up the other bows while keeping hold of the back bow and fold up the canvas between each bow so it sits flatter. Of course, the better half is doing more or less the same on the other side to fold the canvas in. The last move is to stick our boof heads in the open doors to ensure the canvas has cleared the support pole and then lower the floor/lid into place. Do up the clips and it is done.

I apologise for the long winded explanation.

All the best,
Bob.

[Mexico]

The way Traveller, aka Bob has explained it, is how we do ours. Ours is a 2005 model.

If we leave the annex on we do the same as what was explained a few threads earlier. Have string on each end and use one of the poles to push it over the top.

[gronk]

If you stand ( or jump ) on the lid...you run the risk of stress fractures at the weakest point ( where the painted steel thins out to nothing as it joins the hard lid  ).... I know....my 1 st  KK did this ..

If you can't close it by pulling down hard at the front end and getting the 1st part of the latch on...then you have too much crap on top of the bed..

Folding the canvas neatly makes a bit of difference as well..

We only had the 2 side doors 1/2 unzipped, and never had any " air " problems..

We always let the rear most bow ( not the one straight above the bed, but the next one back ) down and we never used the stays from the floor up to the back bow.........always from the back bow to the rear most bow...keeps the tent tighter and less sag ( especially when it rains )

When closing, we stood beside the kitchen area and grabbed the canvas by the scruff of the neck and folded and closed it all from there  !!....( we must have closed the 2 KK's we owned  200 or 300  times  )

[Blinky Bill]

Jordan,

We also had trouble with ours. It is only a couple of weeks old. What I found was that I lowered the pole that is above the bed head by ~10mm from where they had it set factory and it folds up easy as now.

For those that are packing up with the Qwik awning, how do you get the awning over the top of the camper before folding up?

Good luck mate 

I learned a trick or two by looking at the Aussie Swag Camper videos on their website.

It's good to see a pro doing it. Makes it look oh so easy.

Now the Missus thinks I'm a genious. 

[Jordan38]

we live in mount gambier.

[tjwrexy]

I learned a trick or two by looking at the Aussie Swag Camper videos on their website.

It's good to see a pro doing it. Makes it look oh so easy.

Now the Missus thinks I'm a genious. 

We don't have a KK but an AS, which is similar in principle (except for 2 extra poles ??).  As Blinky Bill said, check the AS video to get an idea.  We took nearly 2 hours to close our Aussie Swag the first time with both awnings and 2 extra blankets on the bed.

Same as what others have said, pillows to the end and try to be neat when tucking in canvas.  When the floor is flipped over, we both stand at the front (one on either side) and pull the floor down by hand to push more air out.  Honestly it does get easier as the canvas softens, we take less than 10 minutes to close now (no exaggeration).

Tammy