[tawagoner]

First time to try out the new Outwell tent for the Metris. Great tent.

Also filled the van with a 4 inch foam mattress, a full size fits snug but worked perfectly.


Anyone else camping out of their Metris, please share your tips.

 

[arl]

Looks really neat - is yours a passenger van?

 

[mt walker]

Nice! Where are you?

 

[tawagoner]

Nice! Where are you?

Florida

 

[lx93]

awesome! which outwell model is that you have?

 

[surfeast]

Yes what Outwell Model was this? Looks Great

 

[tawagoner]

Its the Outwell Santa Monica Highway Awning 2015 Touring Collection, purchased it from www.campingworld.co.uk

 

[vloskota]

We had an AstroVan for 16 years. I put a queen size bed frame ($50) from Ikea in it, cut the legs down a couple of inches and stored all our gear underneath. We had to shave off 3 inches of the width of the bed frame for the Metris. I'm guessing that I should have just bought a double bed frame and saved all that work. Love the way it drives BUT it rattles so loudly that I can't stand the noise. That's the Metris rattling, not the bed.
This is a horribly noisy car. We bought the passenger van and took out the seats.

 

[Greenmanedlion]

Isolate the rattles (figure out touching what causes the rattling to stop) and then bring it back to your dealer with the areas pin pointed. The worst offender, I find, is not the van rattling, but things being stored in places in the hard plastic storage pockets. Line them with cut pads of foam rubber.

 

[vloskota]

Thanks. The van is new. Only storage is the jack and tools which we've wrapped in towels. Could something be lose in the tailgate? Only the dealer can take that off. I wouldn't want to mess with it. They say
all vans rattle but this is crazy, not just a little noise. We had the tailgate up for a whole day while we were fitting a rug. Then, drove it back to the dealer and it didn't rattle! Then, lifted the gate to put something in and the rattles started again. It was non-stop over neighborhood streets. Sort of indicates that's somethings loose.

 

[Greenmanedlion]

Tailgates a potential source, yeah, as are the seat latches. I mean vans do tend to rattle, and the openness of the interior do tend to exacerbate them.

But if you are coming from a GM van and think your can rattles too much, you are probably right.

 

[Reese]

Do you need the roof rails for that tent to attach to?

 

[vloskota]

We fixed the rattles. All due to the back black paneling rattling against the tailgate. We slipped rubber window insulation along the lower width of the tailgate and the paneling.

 

[Covert]

Covert

Where did you get your outwell tent ? I have a Metris and want to do the same thing

 

[MERLEANDSARAH]

"Its the Outwell Santa Monica Highway Awning 2015 Touring Collection, purchased it from www.campingworld.co.uk"
Post#7

 

[Altair1]

I posted this somewhere else, but it is very applicable here:
On a passenger model I recently bought, there was a kind of loud creak coming from the lower corner of the tailgate.
Turned out it was a rubber bumper that was making that sound when it slid a little against the body.
A dab of grease solved the problem. So all rubber bumpers for all the doors got the same (preventative) treatment.

 

[MetrisNC]

Great setup! We hope to be camping in our soon too!

 

[MOWO]

Wife and I overnight 'camp' sleep in our cargo metris with foam mattress on aluminum work platforms. Really like this tent option. Any reason you went with the 2015 edition over a newer edition?

 

[Vanz]

We had a rooftop tent on our Cargo Metris but decided it limited how quickly we could setup and teardown our camping setup...so we built a bed platform inside the Metris. Now we have a bed that is made and ready for a Nap at anytime. We have 13.5" of space underneath the bed which can store plastic containers, travel bags, and skis. We also enough space for us to sit up in bed without hitting our heads on the ceiling. We built this as a temporary setup to see how well a simple cargo van would perform without insulation. Without insulation we have comfortable slept in the van down to 25 degrees f. We also slept one night in 10 degrees f. and I can't say it was comfortable but we survived. It seems having the smaller van allows body heat to warn the van space 10 degrees f. on colder days in the 20's or 30's. We still haven't camped in hot weather and I think this is where a roof fan and some insulation might help. We just finished a 2500 mile trip and averaged 25.9 mpg (per computer) which is incredible for a mobile camping vehicle!

 

[Tree95]

> averaged 25.9 mpg (per computer)

Don't believe it. Mine lies by 2-3 mpg when I do the math myself