Wolf Creek Maiden Voyage

Tim ,
If you don't already have it, Helwig "BigWig" anti roll bar. It will let your knuckles remain normal during those high wind encounters.

So here's some first impressions and some fast facts and figures as I see them. Never had one of these things before and enquiring minds want to know right?

Weight Police Alert! Here I will discuss the actual weights and ratings for my rig, as best I could determine from the data mined from Ford's sites and my vehicle stickers.

Weight empty rear (these are all CAT scale weights) with tailgate and full tank - 3140
Weight loaded rear (includes 30 gal water, all our initial gear, full tank, etc. - 5960

This puts me 1000 under the max rear rating of the actual 18 inch King Ranch wheels for my truck (7050), which are actually rated less than the tires (7300). Rear axle limit is rated at 10,000 and truck rear is listed at 7000 by Ford. The paper in the glove box stated 2815 as my slide-in camper limit, so I busted that by 5 lbs! We made lots of choices in favor of light weight stuff, primarily cooking eqt., so that had a significant impact in keeping weight to a minimum. The fresh water tank still has another ten gallons of capacity so we will go another 100-300 pounds over easily, but will still be under our rear wheel limit easily.

Gross weight empty with no humans, full tank - 7860
Gross weight loaded with Admiral, full tank - 11,120

This is the more telling number because my GVWR is 11,500. Some of the camper weight transferred to the front wheels and the camper Center Of Gravity is about 12 inches in front of the rear wheels. I don't have any room to grow if I want to stay under my GVW. Driving habits and equipment maintenance will be key to staying safe.

Hopefully this may help some folks out there that are seeking to take the same sort of plunge that we did. Weight ratings can be difficult to work out, especially as the desire for a new camper snowballs into an obsession. I really tried to stave off truck camper fever for as long as I could, but pretty much failed in the end. I am fortunate that the truck handles as well as it did today, speaking of which...

Wind speeds were pretty scary today and I was traveling some pretty rough spots for wind. When you see dozens of windmill power stations spinning at high speed you know you are in for some buffeting. I have very good things to say about Torklift's hold downs; They are awesome! The stableloads also kept the springs engaged and doing their thing so that the ride had virtually no sway or porpoise. I have had boats that did not tow nearly as well as this camper package performed, so I am confident of travel in normal conditions. I do not believe that air bags would add any benefit to my situation since my truck is already fairly level. Semi's and other large trucks passing had marginal effect on us.

Fuel appeared to take a big hit. My MPG's dropped from around 19 down to 12-13, but I feel that is acceptable. Not happy about it, but not upset either. Engine performed well and the 6.0 diesel really ran great in the tow/haul mode, even with the occasional hill climb. Cruise control was easily held and there was no sense of lacking power. Engine oil temps and coolant temps stayed within 5-10 degrees of each other so no problems there either.

The Admiral took a turn at the wheel and said she felt comfortable driving, so I think we have a successful marriage of truck and camper. She also could tow our last boat (7000 lbs.) so I think we're off to a good start.

Well, it's getting late and I'm tired, so I will keep some things for later. It is my intent to post a very thorough review of this camper and continue to make posts, so if you made it through this one you can expect a few more before the bloom is off the rose.

Thanks for your time and attention, I owe many here a great debt.

There's only so much prep work and research one can do before actually taking the plunge. I knew we needed some things, mandatory safety items before we should try to make a trial run, but at some point the fun takes over and you just want to be sitting in your own digs, checking out the scene!

I had found the following at wally world: RV water hose, water pressure regulator, jack pads, cleanout adapter for the waste hose, and a few other minor things. I hooked up the power cord -- VERY glad that Northwood gives you a decent electrical cord with plenty of length. We had a devil of a time figuring out the hot water (or lack of) until we finally found the hot water tank bypass valve was set wrong. Thank goodness the tank already had water in it.

The Fox Landing is a thing of beauty. We probably would not have gotten it but it came on this one anyway so we lucked into it I guess. Love it! It is perfect for lots of different reasons and is fodder for its own thread.

One more pic before I begin to be more critical and start running numbers and stuff.

So how did the upper and lower stableloads affect the load and ride? Did they work as advertised?

When the camper was loaded the truck settled 1-3/4 inches. It was barely noticeable! Carl made the comment that he wished everyone would come as prepared as us. I was still wondering how she would drive and was anxious to get going. So with a full tank of fresh water we left for the nearest state park where we could find water and electric. I wanted to test everything before we got too far away.

We got about two blocks when it dawned on me -- I need to insure this thing! I immediately pulled over and called USAA. Ten minutes later we were headed out to Bruneau Dunes State Park with a short stop at Walmart for food supplies. Carl had already chilled the fridge for us and we needed dinner and breakfast. When we were parking at Walmart we witnessed RVer's committing a heinous act, loading up groceries, then piling their expired milk, creamer and other trash into a cart and taking off. People like that just make me want to throttle 'em. Can't they see that they ruin it for everyone else with that behavior?

Driving down the interstate posed little problem but I kept it around 60 mph until I get more confidence. Besides, 62.5 is my best speed for MPG. We arrived at the campground about an hour later and found this spot:

Congratulations! Nice looking setup, enjoy!

Looks great, have fun with it!