Our First TC!

[suzmax]

We brought our 2000 Arctic Fox 1150 home yesterday! In high winds! The good news is that the damage might not be as bad as originally thought (although it will still be a huge job). The other good news is that we've already learned so much from all of you! Going from a class A motorhome to a 35 ft. fifth wheel and now to a TC, we have a lot to learn. But we LOVE our TC and can't wait to use it. Even though our 5th wheel was brand new and had a porch, I think we are more in love with the TC already. We stopped on the way home to eat and parked in a regular parking spot! I will definitely start a thread on the repairs once we get underway. We hope to be finished by fall.

Susan

[DWeikert]

Welcome to the community. I hope the repairs don't turn up any unexpected and expensive surprises.

We'd show you the secret handshake but since so many of us prefer to boondock you'd probably never get a chance to use it. 🙂

[suzmax]

pjay9 wrote:
Thx for the story...interesting! BUT why wasn't that type of damage covered by insurance...maybe he thought he'd sell for a bit of a loss and not report it and not have rates go up (just thinking) ANYWAY...make sure you do some posting on the fix. Happy camping 4 dogs...WOW!! Makes me smile.

Not sure. His wife had wanted a 5th wheel for a long time and they'd had the camper since it was new so 15 years ago this August. Maybe it was just the right timing for them and like you said, why report it and have your rates go up if you decided to sell it?

Yeah, 4 dogs. Never thought we'd have more than 2...then 3. They are all rescues. Someday we'll have 2 again. Someday... 🙂 But they're all awesome.

[suzmax]

zb39 wrote:
Enjoy it, Looks great. I haul mine on a 2011 Dodge. I added airbags and stabile loads. No issues at all.

Awesome! Thanks!

[pjay9]

Thx for the story...interesting! BUT why wasn't that type of damage covered by insurance...maybe he thought he'd sell for a bit of a loss and not report it and not have rates go up (just thinking) ANYWAY...make sure you do some posting on the fix. Happy camping 4 dogs...WOW!! Makes me smile.

[zb39]

Enjoy it, Looks great. I haul mine on a 2011 Dodge. I added airbags and stabile loads. No issues at all.

[suzmax]

~DJ~ wrote:
Wow that is a huge camper!!! Yes, I would like to hear the "rest of the story". Should occupy your spare time for a while. Fixing and using it!! 🙂

Yes, it is definitely larger than we were originally looking for, but we love the size! With 3 Boston Terriers and a Rottweiler (who is luckily on the small side and thinks he's a Boston) I'm not sure we'd want to go much smaller! Spare time...hahaha! We'll have to find some of that now for sure.

[suzmax]

Fastbrit wrote:
Welcome to the wonderful world of tc ownership!! Very nice combo:C

Thank you!

[suzmax]

bka0721 wrote:
Hi and congrats!

I'm like Pjay and feel I missed out on the beginning of the movie here. Wind? Damage? Was it damaged by the previous owner? It appearears as if it was loaded and the truck backed too fast underneath of the camper and don't stop in time before bending the support legs with I duces damgage to the shell and frame.

Hope to hear the beggining of the story, too.

b

Thank you! I just posted the rest of the story. 🙂

[suzmax]

pjay9 wrote:
OK>>>What's the damage from? The HIGH winds! Did you buy it that way? Or did they pay you to haul it away! Regardless that looks like a great TC, you have your work cut out for you. Your RAM appears to handle it well. Have you done anything to the suspension? I added upper Stableloads. ENJOY and CONGRATS!!!

Thanks! We're excited! We will definitely be adding upper stableloads before we go anywhere with it! Previous owner has the same exact pickup as ours, same year too, and didn't do anything. But we will.

The back story: We bought it that way. Previous owner (super nice guy) backed the back passenger side jack into something and bent it. He couldn't get the jack to go up and was in a downpour. So he figured he'd carefully drive a bit to get out of the rain and then put the jack up. Well, it ended up catching on something and the rest is history. He bent the jack back so it is functional although we'll probably replace it. He sent pics and called Northwood Manufacturing and we called as well before taking it on. For them to fix it, the cost would be about $3-4,000. After that quote and after we'd already agreed to buy it, he did fix part of it so it may not be as bad as originally thought and they wish they would have kept it, but they had already purchased a small 5th wheel. We're going to do the work ourselves (fingers crossed!) so we'll see what the actual cost is in the end.

[suzmax]

GoinThisAway wrote:
Congratulations! That's a huge camper but it appears your truck carries it well. It also looks like the rear tie down comes quite close to the truck fender?

I think that's just the way it looks in the picture but we'll be sure to double check next time we have it on the pickup!

[_DJ_1]

Wow that is a huge camper!!! Yes, I would like to hear the "rest of the story". Should occupy your spare time for a while. Fixing and using it!! 🙂

[Fastbrit]

Welcome to the wonderful world of tc ownership!! Very nice combo:C

[bka0721]

Hi and congrats!

I'm like Pjay and feel I missed out on the beginning of the movie here. Wind? Damage? Was it damaged by the previous owner? It appearears as if it was loaded and the truck backed too fast underneath of the camper and don't stop in time before bending the support legs with I duces damgage to the shell and frame.

Hope to hear the beggining of the story, too.

b

[pjay9]

OK>>>What's the damage from? The HIGH winds! Did you buy it that way? Or did they pay you to haul it away! Regardless that looks like a great TC, you have your work cut out for you. Your RAM appears to handle it well. Have you done anything to the suspension? I added upper Stableloads. ENJOY and CONGRATS!!!

[GoinThisAway]

Congratulations! That's a huge camper but it appears your truck carries it well. It also looks like the rear tie down comes quite close to the truck fender?