Thinking of upgrading to a bigfoot. Too big?
I have a 1989 Lance squire 8.6ft camper that I carry on my 2001 ram 3500 DRW. I take this camper on quite a few forest service roads and lots of blm land. So far I have not had any problems getting st...
Forum Discussion
The Bigfoot 10.6e TC are nice and in demand, especially if it has the solar reflective thermopane windows. Buy it and see. The taller height can be dealt with using the same skills you currently use to avoid big branches. If you find the height is truly limiting then you can sell it for what you bought it for.
Our 10.8' full basement camper is ~12.6' high at the AC on our Dodge 3500 DRW 4x4. We have hit only one big branch in the 6 years we explored USFS and BLM primative roads in the Sierra and Cascades. Big branches can be avoided by just looking for them and if big enough to do damage, trimmed back. We carry a chain saw to deal with wind fallen beetle or fire killed trees that block our way out after boondocking for a week. Most small branches leave racing stripes on the side of the camper as it is 100" wide. Width was more of an issue on little used roads vs height.
Rocking can be dealt with by a roadmaster sway bar and driving the bad sections of the road slower in 4 LO. If really an issue a popup might be a better choice for you.
We ran full utilities in the Sierra during the winter due to having a four season camper with a heated basement (that had ducted return air). No need to mess with bottled water, RV antifreeze, and winterize even when below zero at nights. All the non-basement / exposed tank RV's in the ski area at 8,000 feet were winterized. They basically were tent camping inside an RV, despite burning lots of propane. Remote thermometers are useful to determine how low a temperature you can operated in without winterizing. Set a temperature alarm and simply drive back down into the valley if you reach the limits. Then start adding more insulation / window and vent treatments that you can find listed under TC winter camping threads.
The dry bath in the 10.6 is a very nice place to hang wet clothing / equipment as you camp late fall, winter, and early spring. Either the Suction cup hooks or the spring loaded curtain rods give you lots of hanging capacity. Do you really want to be dripped on in the smaller wet bath TC layouts?
Our 10.8' full basement camper is ~12.6' high at the AC on our Dodge 3500 DRW 4x4. We have hit only one big branch in the 6 years we explored USFS and BLM primative roads in the Sierra and Cascades. Big branches can be avoided by just looking for them and if big enough to do damage, trimmed back. We carry a chain saw to deal with wind fallen beetle or fire killed trees that block our way out after boondocking for a week. Most small branches leave racing stripes on the side of the camper as it is 100" wide. Width was more of an issue on little used roads vs height.
Rocking can be dealt with by a roadmaster sway bar and driving the bad sections of the road slower in 4 LO. If really an issue a popup might be a better choice for you.
We ran full utilities in the Sierra during the winter due to having a four season camper with a heated basement (that had ducted return air). No need to mess with bottled water, RV antifreeze, and winterize even when below zero at nights. All the non-basement / exposed tank RV's in the ski area at 8,000 feet were winterized. They basically were tent camping inside an RV, despite burning lots of propane. Remote thermometers are useful to determine how low a temperature you can operated in without winterizing. Set a temperature alarm and simply drive back down into the valley if you reach the limits. Then start adding more insulation / window and vent treatments that you can find listed under TC winter camping threads.
The dry bath in the 10.6 is a very nice place to hang wet clothing / equipment as you camp late fall, winter, and early spring. Either the Suction cup hooks or the spring loaded curtain rods give you lots of hanging capacity. Do you really want to be dripped on in the smaller wet bath TC layouts?
