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New Member & Camper

6.6K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  UNICAMP  
#1 ·
Hi everyone ... I've been lurking here since late April. The posts on this forum helped us in making our decision ... thank you!

We purchased a brand spankin new Kia Carnival LX+ in early May ...

We purchased the Carnival as an adventure lifestyle sort of vehicle ... our family is all grown up ... we very rarely have a need for passenger space lol

While I would have loved to get the EX ... well, at some point you have to put a line in the sand on cost --plus there weren't any available. The LX+ has all the features that I want --car Play, heated steering wheel, roof rack ...The only feature that I miss is XM Radio. But, eh, I can stream from my phone (altough I find US cell coverage to be rather horrible). I swapped out the stock rims for blacked out rims ... it made a world of difference in terms of look. I'll use the stock rims for Winter tires.

We took out the seats and built a temporary platform that doubles as storage, a bed and a very tiny sitting area. We even put in a fridge and a toilet --all temporary of course.

3 months and 9 000 kms later ... we can say that we are avery happy with our purchase. It has taken us from Québec to South Carolina and many places in between ...with many more to come.

The Carnival is a replacement to my beloved (but unreliable) GMC Canyon ... which, also served as a means of getting to far off places ... Winter time will be a new challenge for us, as I drove it to Adirondack & Laurentian trailheads and relied on my 4x4 system ... but eh, I see guys at these trailheads with Civics so I'm sure I'll adapt lol
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#6 ·
I took a few pics ...

Essentially, the frame is made up of 3 2 foot long sections ... the first, is made of three compartments that we use for storage
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The other two sections are 2 2 foot long sections that fold up or down depending on what we need to do. They rest on a lip from the storage section. They were initially made to fully fold over the storage section to leave more room in the van but we found it more of a hassle and instead just fold up the first section which we attach to the mouldings using bungee cords
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When the bed is unfolded, it rests on two milk crates which double as storage and can be used as seating. We also have a very small table that can fit in there if we're really in a pinch. We have a trifold mattress that we bought off of Amazon that lays on top.

My wife also made some screens that fit into the window gaskets to keep the bugs out and some coverings for the other windows. We ran a string across the two handles on the roof to run a curtain.

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There is plenty of storage underneath the middle section.
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