Overwhelmed with camper choices; insight appreciated
I am hoping those of you with more experience can help us make up our mind on a new truck camper.
We have a 3500 Ram SRW diesel truck and would like to sometimes tow a trailer with the camper. This will be used for long weekends or other week long trips, not a full time rig. We will rarely be at a serviced campground and often will be driving it off pavement. We plan to use it a lot in the winter, (real winter in Canada so -20 type temperatures).
We currently have a 1978 8' camper that works great, but is a pain to load due to the manual jacks. We do not have a generator and are not sure we want to get one. Our current gravity furnace will heat with no power and we like that, but the camper is too cold to use below -10 or so and we worry about the integrity of our super old furnace. We do not have any power in our current camper, no AC, run fridge of propane and all solar lights. It does get wicked hot in there, so a fan would be nice.
We want to upgrade to something more comfortable. Our needs are power jacks and good windows and furnace for winter. We would like a bathroom this time, but are fine with a cassette toilet, a shower and water heater would be nice for summer, but we are fine not using water in winter. We do not need a microwave or TV or AC. We do not want a slide due to maintenance and weight.
We initially had a very small budget but now it seems to grow constantly.... We've looked at new Adventurer and Northern Lites as well as 2007 Lance 845 and 2005 Adventurer 810WS. The Lance was interesting as it had the built in generator and power jacks. It was very well used though. It was cheaper than the used adventurers. The new northern lites or bigfoots are too expensive for us, even if we expand our budget. I have found a few 2014-2016 northern lites used from the RV rental place... we could afford it but worry about the wear and tear.
I am also very interested in a new Cirrus 720 or 820 primarily because of the Alde heating system. The problem we are seeing with all of the other campers is the intense propane and battery usage a forced air furnace will take. We know we can change to a diesel or catalytic heater, but that does not seem as good as the alde heat in the cirrus. Also, it's been hard to find models with double pane windows which we think is probably necessary. I would have to buy the Cirrus from a dealer far away though and would not be able to see it in person, this is daunting.
We are extremely busy so do not have a lot of time to modify or tinker with the new camper, so minimal mods would be prefered.
I just want to get camping but the more I look the further away I am from choosing...
I appreciate any insight, I know this is a broad question but hope to gain a bit of clarity from other users.
We have a 3500 Ram SRW diesel truck and would like to sometimes tow a trailer with the camper. This will be used for long weekends or other week long trips, not a full time rig. We will rarely be at a serviced campground and often will be driving it off pavement. We plan to use it a lot in the winter, (real winter in Canada so -20 type temperatures).
We currently have a 1978 8' camper that works great, but is a pain to load due to the manual jacks. We do not have a generator and are not sure we want to get one. Our current gravity furnace will heat with no power and we like that, but the camper is too cold to use below -10 or so and we worry about the integrity of our super old furnace. We do not have any power in our current camper, no AC, run fridge of propane and all solar lights. It does get wicked hot in there, so a fan would be nice.
We want to upgrade to something more comfortable. Our needs are power jacks and good windows and furnace for winter. We would like a bathroom this time, but are fine with a cassette toilet, a shower and water heater would be nice for summer, but we are fine not using water in winter. We do not need a microwave or TV or AC. We do not want a slide due to maintenance and weight.
We initially had a very small budget but now it seems to grow constantly.... We've looked at new Adventurer and Northern Lites as well as 2007 Lance 845 and 2005 Adventurer 810WS. The Lance was interesting as it had the built in generator and power jacks. It was very well used though. It was cheaper than the used adventurers. The new northern lites or bigfoots are too expensive for us, even if we expand our budget. I have found a few 2014-2016 northern lites used from the RV rental place... we could afford it but worry about the wear and tear.
I am also very interested in a new Cirrus 720 or 820 primarily because of the Alde heating system. The problem we are seeing with all of the other campers is the intense propane and battery usage a forced air furnace will take. We know we can change to a diesel or catalytic heater, but that does not seem as good as the alde heat in the cirrus. Also, it's been hard to find models with double pane windows which we think is probably necessary. I would have to buy the Cirrus from a dealer far away though and would not be able to see it in person, this is daunting.
We are extremely busy so do not have a lot of time to modify or tinker with the new camper, so minimal mods would be prefered.
I just want to get camping but the more I look the further away I am from choosing...
I appreciate any insight, I know this is a broad question but hope to gain a bit of clarity from other users.
