Greg Gaskill: Travel Lite With Llamas |
| Angela White | Thursday, 16 July, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||
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When Greg Gaskill told us, "We tow an eighteen-foot aluminum custom livestock trailer for our llamas and alpacas", we just knew we had a story for Truck Camper Magazine.  Some people tow boats with their truck campers. Others tow utility trailers, ATVs, Jeeps, snowmobiles, jet skis, and even horses. Not Greg Gaskill, oh no. Greg Gaskill is probably the only guy on the planet who tows not just llamas, but also alpacas with a truck camper. So how does one find themselves hauling llamas and alpacas down the road? How does this happen? Our crack team of journalists had to find out. Here's Greg Gaskill on how he discovered truck camping, llamas, and alpacas.
TCM: How did you get into truck camping? Greg: My wife talked me into it. Shortly after we got married in 1983 we started camping. I retired from the Air Force in 1999 and started looking for new opportunities. That’s when I got into alpacas and llamas. It’s very common for people to camp at alpaca and llama shows. We started with just a trailer and then my wife said, “Why don’t we just have a camper and trailer at the same time?” I had seen another guy with a truck camper and thought we had a big enough truck to make a truck camper and trailer work. TCM: What truck did you have? Greg: Before our current truck, I had a half-ton. It wasn’t a good truck. The gas mileage was poor and the truck didn’t have enough power to pull the trailer. One day, the half-ton just up and died. That was a sign. I called around and looked for a three-quarter ton. At the time, diesel was cheaper. I bought a diesel three-quarter ton truck and I will never go back. I am very happy with it. TCM: What do you think of your Travel Lite? Greg: The Travel Lite struck us as a good overall package. A big concern we have is weight with the trailer and the animals. The Travel Lite is just over 2,000 pounds and that includes a queen size bed. The cabinetry is also nice and the camper was a really nice deal. You actually did a Video View in Truck Camper Magazine on our model, the 890 RX. The 890 RX ends where the normal tailgate bumper ends. This makes it easy to get out of the camper while having the trailer hooked up. We always have full access to the camper. TCM: What brought you to llamas and alpacas? Greg: I retired from the Air Force in 1999 and I was looking into something else to do. We live in Ohio, so I was looking for agricultural opportunities. I was involved in 4-H before and came across alpacas at Ohio State’s farm career day. There are actually more llamas and alpacas in the state of Ohio than any other state. Alpacas are actually cousins to llamas and they are relatively new to the United States, as compared with other livestock. So, I thought there might be something there. TCM: Are they difficult to care for? Greg: They don’t need much and they’re not expensive to raise. Technically speaking, they could live off grass, but we buy feed for them as a supplement. We have to shear them once a year and trim their toe nails once a month. We also have to stay in contact with them and take care of their general well being by looking in on them. They always have water on hand and fans to keep cool in the summer. Alpacas are high strung and nervous and they stand away from you when they look at you. Llamas are more approachable and calm. Llamas act as social workers for the alpacas they guard. They are buddies and they calm the whole herd down. Llamas are easy to handle and are gentle. They are more pet-like and live almost twenty years. Alpacas, on the other hand, are not going to be your best friend. TCM: Do the llamas and alpacas like traveling with the truck camper? Greg: The alpacas and llamas do really well with the highway. They generally lay down in the trailers. Our trailer is custom made for alpacas and llamas. There are fans built in for ventilation. There are also rubber mats for comfort. We stop at rest stops to walk them around, give them water, and let them nibble at the grass. A lot of people like to talk about them. Some of the llamas and alpacas actually enjoy being in the trailer. On our long trip to Nebraska, they did really well. TCM: What’s the story behind the photo of the llama at the outside shower? Greg: That was funny. Before you present alpacas and llamas at a show, you need to clean them. We didn’t want to shock Wildfire Pulitzer (her nickname is Pooh) with cold water, so we used the warm water from the outside shower of our truck camper. Well, before we did that, there was tiny spray coming out from the faucet that was hitting her in the nose. She was trying to drink it like it was a little water fountain. That outside shower is handy feature of the truck camper when you own llamas. TCM: Where have you taken your llamas and alpacas? Greg: We go to llama and alpaca shows. We’re going to the Michigan State campus in September, a show in Indiana, an auction in Pennsylvania, and the Nebraska show. The shows that we go to are like a dog or livestock show. We bring our animals in and show them to a judge. With the llamas, they have performance classes or an obstacle course. We also show the alpacas. It is kind of a gathering of the owners, so there’s a social side of it. If you are interested in marketing or selling, the shows help. TCM: How does having a truck camper help you at shows? Greg: We are right there with our animals at the fairgrounds. We find a power pole and plug in. There’s just a certain level of comfort when you are close to your animals, plus some of them are very valuable. They’ve sold for as high as $15,000 before. Most of the places we go to are horse and livestock type arenas, so they have stalls where the animals can go. We will stay parked with our trailer on the truck, close to the barn where we can plug in. A lot of the arenas have campgrounds. The people without campers have to drop their trailer and go to a hotel. That’s what we did when we first started. TCM: Tell us about the trailer that you tow. Greg: It’s an eighteen-foot custom aluminum livestock trailer. The aluminum trailer saves on weight. It’s just over 3,000 pounds. Then we have to add the llamas at 250 pounds each and the alpacas at 150 pounds each. TCM: Where have you been in your truck camper without your llamas and alpacas? Greg: On our most recent trip we went to Kentucky where they were celebrating the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, doing the truck camper thing. The Checkered Flag Fibers sign on our camper, which is the name of our farm, is because we’re also race fans. For example, we’ve been to races where we went to a nearby campground and then went to the races in Indianapolis. In February we were down at the Daytona 500 with one of the Camping World Tours. Camping World offers tours to various places. So, for our 25th wedding anniversary, we talked about going to the Daytona 500. The Camping World tickets included transportation from the campground to the racetrack and back. We spent a week in Florida with our truck camper. While we were gone, some friends at home watched our alpacas and llamas for us. Plus, our daughter lives really close in Cincinnati. TCM: You’ll have to send in some photos of your truck camping at race events. Is there anything else that you’d like to add to your interview? Greg: We have a website at http://alpacanation.com/checkeredflagfibers. It’s a website for alpaca owners. Information about our farm and our animals can be seen there. We’re also on llamanation.com. TCM: Thanks for the interview Greg. You are now our official Truck Camper Magazine llama and alpaca expert. Please keep in touch. Greg: You got it.
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