Testing the waters here on the home front. Just finished up our first year of owning a truck camper. We have enjoyed ourselves and purchased preowned as we thought it might be a wiser way to go in the event we didn't like this as much as we do, we could sell out and not get hit with the depreciation. So now we have a non slide model. My questions are there seem to be a few touting true four season insulation...Lance, Arctic Fox, and Eagle Cap as they are what we would most likey consider.For thouse of you that have had slides, camped in eithe hot or cold weather, what are your thoughts?Thanks.

Depends on how hot and how cold. I've made it fine in the weather I camp. Of course there are things you can do to any camper to handle weather better.

I bought my Fleetwood for the slide, but it come with basement and attic. On my way from Minnesota to California I slept in it at about 8F and was comfortable. But I put the slide in and sleeping on the dinette sofa, put a curtain at the upper bed. Doing some dryrot repairs I discover lot of holes in the camper that would allow heat, or cool to escape and I sealed lot of factory holes, so I am pretty confident the camper will withstand extreme weather. Either 0 or 120 F

I can let you know in a few weeks. We are taking our Lance 986 out on November 8th. It will most likely be in the mid 30'sF for a high here in MN. I do not plan on having water in it though. I probably could as the basement and under cabinet areas are heated. I really want to take it out in January to go snowshoeing and have a cold weather camp fire.Ben

Camped in ours during some cold days this spring in North Dakota.:S found out the hard way that on my camper, slide out does NOT seal fully unless all the way in or all the way out. So half way out one cold night, and gee, cold air coming in! Duh me, noted the seal gaps the next morning. But furnace keeps us toasty warm, and tanks heated too. Coldest was 22 F one morning.

Camped in -20f in Banff and +95 in Virginia Beach in the TC in our sig. Achieved comfortable in both conditions.

Four Season Truck Campers with a Slide- really four season?

hedgehopper
Explorer
Oct 30, 2015
realter wrote:
hedgehopper wrote:
Seems to me that most "Four Season Truck Campers" are not really "Four Season." If a camper has to be winterized, how can it be considered four season?

The Phoenix popup we used to own did not have to be winterized. It had no waste tanks. And we emptied the fresh water tank whenever we returned from a trip. We never had a problem with freezing.

What did you do with the water that was in the water pump. Wouldn't that freeze and ruin the pump?
Good question. I wondered about that a time or two. We did replace the pump. But I don't think it was damaged by freezing. After replacing the pump, we had no problem with the new pump. And it survived several winters.
Junket
Explorer
Oct 29, 2015
I have camped in our 981 Lance in 5-10* with no problem the only problem was feeding enough amps to the heater(have to let the heater provide enough heat to keep the pump ect from freezing ) solve that with a buddy heater next problem was running down the road in 5-10*froze the out side shower and broke fix that with a disconnect all is good now. HAVE FUN
Ken
realter
Explorer
Oct 29, 2015
hedgehopper wrote:
Seems to me that most "Four Season Truck Campers" are not really "Four Season." If a camper has to be winterized, how can it be considered four season?

The Phoenix popup we used to own did not have to be winterized. It had no waste tanks. And we emptied the fresh water tank whenever we returned from a trip. We never had a problem with freezing.

What did you do with the water that was in the water pump. Wouldn't that freeze and ruin the pump?
Mattyd
Explorer
Oct 27, 2015
Thanks everyone. I appreciate the feedback.
FreebirdFlies
Explorer
Oct 27, 2015
We camped in our Alaskan camper at Yellowstone when it was in the low 20s at night, with no wind.
No problems. It is pretty well insulated....as long as the wind doesn't blow too hard. The seals between the base and top is pretty good, but strong cold wind made a difference on a different trip.
It was/is probably time to replace the seals again. Easy, but time consuming. The seals need to be replaced about every 7 or so years for max performance.
usmcshepherd
Explorer II
Oct 27, 2015
We camped in Northern AZ in late November down to 10 degrees in our Lance utilizing all utilities without any issues.
jmcgsd
Explorer
Oct 26, 2015
Used my Lance 981 in weather from 7f to 115f. On extremely hot days the A/C would not provide much relief unless it had been running before the hottest part of the day. Our use of that camper frequently landed us in Mesquite NV at about 4 in the afternoon. The digital thermometer would be pegged at 100+. No way the A/C was going to bring it down quickly. The solution was to go to the pool and leave the A/C running. Return after dusk.

On the other hand, during the winter camping in New Mexico and Colorado it would get darned cold. We never drained tanks or added RV anti-freeze. The 4 season features worked as advertised.

Of course we are home based in So Cal so we never need to winterize because of the local conditions.
2BLAZERS
Explorer
Oct 26, 2015
Our Arctic Fox 1150 has done just fine in cold temps to the single digits. The furnace does work a lot but we were comfortable. Most of the time for Western Oregon cold is getting to about 30 degrees.....we also travel every summer to Utah and CO and end up in 100 degree stuff for days, the A/C does well.

If we were in the midwest or where it got to the negatives I would add some insulation to our camper.....
arto_wa
Explorer
Oct 26, 2015
hedgehopper wrote:
Seems to me that most "Four Season Truck Campers" are not really "Four Season." If a camper has to be winterized, how can it be considered four season?

Maybe because water will freeze below 32F temperature?

There is always leftover water in the pipes so you would need heating 24/7 otherwise.
blueglide
Explorer
Oct 26, 2015
hedgehopper wrote:
Seems to me that most "Four Season Truck Campers" are not really "Four Season." If a camper has to be winterized, how can it be considered four season?

The Phoenix popup we used to own did not have to be winterized. It had no waste tanks. And we emptied the fresh water tank whenever we returned from a trip. We never had a problem with freezing.

You are confusing 'winterizing' where the camper will sit unused through freezing temperatures with 'four season' capability where the camper has sufficient insulation and heating capability to use in freezing temps and not have all your water lines freeze. :)