Advice on Truck Campers

skipro3 wrote:

Suzmax wrote:
in the market for our first truck camper. we're downgrading to something more fitting for us.

You might want to reconsider referring to your downSIZING to a camper as downGRADING. I'm offended.

Just kidding of course. Us camper owners are at the bottom of the RV social ladder and it's impossible to be offended.

As far as one brand out performing another, it's a wide open relm and depends on lots of variables. Even between years, one brand might be better than another. Certainly between models within brands. Some manufacturers make better large campers than smaller campers for example. Then there's features. While you might consider certain bathroom features needing a higher level of finish, someone else might not, but would consider fridge capacity, or sink size.

I would suggest you start with making a list of everything you want in a camper and a list of everything you NEED in a camper. From there, prioritize by assigning a rank number to each item. For example, you might have a slide out as one requirement and over-all size as another. Which is more important? Are you willing to give up the space of a slide if the over-all weight was within realm of off roading? Or maybe a smaller slide and just a little more weight. Lance has a slide/ non-slide version of a camper that adds 200 pounds to the package. That might sound reasonable to one person and unnecessary to another.
Now with a prioritized list of must-haves and wants, start looking into brands and years. Narrowed down, start researching on brand/model quality issues. If there's ever been a problem on a camper, I will assure you, someone has posted up their complaint about it here. Ha!

This is going to take research on your part. Not because anyone person here is too snooty to just give you the magic brand and model of the ideal camper, but because we all have different ideas of what is important and different applications for using our campers.

I fish a lot. My camper needs several features to accommodate that because that is what is important to me. Your interests will determine what camper and model is going to be right for you.

Keep asking questions as this is a very friendly group in the downgraded camper forum.

Cheers!

Oh my that's funny! Yes, downSIZING for sure. We're so excited to get a truck camper and actually GO camping! We didn't make it out once last summer. We started a business about a year and a half ago so we need camping to be much easier than before. We know all about being at the bottom of the social ladder. We had American Pit Bull Terriers for years. We always said we had the "white trash" dogs. :) Of course they were awesome.

You make very good points. We'll make a list. All we really know is that we want a hardside (since we'll be doing some winter camping) and a slide (we have Boston Terriers and a Rottweiler...see, we are still at the bottom of the social ladder!). The Bostons don't take up much room but that Rottie...he's small for a Rottie and can curl up to the size of a Boston, but still.

Wet bath/dry bath. I'm not in love with the wet bath idea, but I'd do it for more space elsewhere. I'm sure I'd get used to it. Blech! I really like the Alaskan campers, but a girl needs her privacy in the bathroom.

I didn't think to search on here for problems with different models/years. Good tip!

I watched a video on some camper and you could tell the salesman was a fisherman. For every storage space he talked about putting extra fishing poles. Ha!

Thanks!

Susan