What to buy?

Good luck with your "Want to buy" ad. There should be several available at this time of year. I am doing a search by brand name to find out what I can about what's out there. My preference is for a 2,500-2,800 pound model to fit a long bed three quarter ton pickup.

Texas Two Steppers wrote:
We will be dry camping or boondocking for sure. We want to buy it before we leave home. Will put solar panel on top. Thanks for replys.

Eagle Cap and Arctic Fox both very nice campers with larger tank capacity than most.
Good luck, you will love the freedom of traveling by TC!

B

We will be dry camping or boondocking for sure. We want to buy it before we leave home. Will put solar panel on top. Thanks for replys.

Took our Arctic Fox to Alaska a few year ago. We could stay out for about a week before dumping and taking on water. In Alaska that was huge. Ive owned 4 RVs, and by far this AF is the best built one. Some dont concern themselves with tank size...I do. I would not trade off on the large tanks. If you take a TC to Alaska next time, you will really enjoy the trip. You've got alot of options since you have a great truck.

While tank size is important, 35-40 gallons of fresh is a normal size and is sufficient for boondocking. I wouldn't worry to much about grey tank size for boondocking (we are talking boondocking not dry camping). If you are dry camping then grey water tank size becomes much more important. If you don't boondock more than a couple days at a time, don't want to be conservative and mostly stay in campgrounds, then 30 gallons is plenty of fresh water.

Lance, Artic Fox, Adventurer, Host, would be on my list of TC's to look at if you need a slide. If you decide you don't need a slide then add Wolf Creek, Northern Lite & Northstar to your list.

Not too sure there is a nickels worth of difference in most of the TCs on the market today. My last two TCs have been Lance's products and they have served me well, but are a long ways from being what I would call a high quality product. To me, finding a floor plan you like is most important, then find one that has been properly maintained, if buying use, which I always do.

As you know from your trip last summer, once a person gets out of the south or SE, it seems about every 3rd or 4th RV you see is a truck camper, of all sorts of brands. As you get close to the US-Canadian border you will see more and more units built there and they are very popular in Canada.

Most TCs are built with the same basic parts, such as appliances, heaters, converters, etc. So even buying a used orphan rig normally isn't a problem with getting many parts for them on the after market. Sort of depends on which company is cranking out the units in the Pacific Northwest as to what you see up that direction also. Big Foot, North star, Adventurer, Okanagan, etc are still running around the highways along with many other brands.

I still think Arctic Fox builds some of the best looking rigs on the market, but they don't seem to have any dealers here in the SE. But since I buy used, the floor plan determines what we look for. My wife is talking about how we need to look at going larger and get one with a rear slide with a sofa recliner. So that would narrow the field greatly. We are currently planning to take our Lance 845 back to Alaska this summer on the Chevy DRW truck we now own. TCs are hard to beat on that trip, but anything a person is comfortable driving seem sto work well for most travelers to the north country.

You certainly have the truck to haul most campers so that should not be an issue. One thing a lot of people overlook is tank size. It's important if you like to boondock for more than a couple of days. There are some campers that have huge tanks (up to 60 gal. of fresh) and others that have puny tanks, especially holding tanks. If boondocking is in your plans, watch those tank sizes.

Lance or Arctic Fox are probably the top two