What would You Order?

[70GTO]

In the next year or so, my wife & I are planning to order a new truck camper. Since I live in Illinois, I will probably be ordering it, then making the trek west to pick it up "probably to the dealer that I can get the best deal from". It has been tough to decide, but I think the Eagle Cap 995 has won over an Arctic Fox "I do have a 2013 crew cab dually".

The questions that seem to give me grief are,
1- Do I go microwave delete to gain the extra cabinet space?
2- Do I go generator delete for the same reason? One can always get a small Honda generator that will do the same. Looks like for some of my longer excursions I may have to pull a very small enclosed trailer behind to have room for other things like a fold up dining fly, lawn chairs, fishing poles & coolers to name a few & finding a home for a portable generator in there wont be a problem.

What do you folk's think? I'd like to hear what you have to say.

Thanks, Bruce

[cdbinns]

If you will usually be camping where you have electrical hookups and you use your microwave often at home, then it might make sense to get one. In our case, we often dry camp and don't have power to run a microwave. We ordered our AF without the microwave. We had them put a cabinet in place of the microwave. It gives us enough space to store a full set of pots and pans.

We did not get the built in generator, but we did have a solar panel installed. We spent 3.5 months traveling and never felt like we needed to use a generator, although we do have a Honda eu2000 we can take along if we ever needed to. Note that we do not have an air conditioner either so the only things we need electricity for are the lights, charging our electronics, and the furnace fan (if it is running). Our solar and the charging we get when traveling is typically enough to handle our needs.

[deltabravo]

If an inverter is in your future, Skip the generator and go with a Honda EU2000i

I would get annoyed by the noise and vibration of an onboard generator due to the amount of time i sometimes run a generator. Last summer I camped at the NW Overland Rally, and I was running my two Eu2k gens about 10 hours per day, when the outside temp was 95+

If you plan on an enclosed trailer, then a EU2000i (or 2) is a no brainer.

Microwave is a toss up. I use mine all the time. Oven? I've used it maybe 3 times. I had origianlly planned on ordering an AF811, since not many long bed models are made. My order would have been no oven, upgrade to micro/convection, and also no skylight. I hate that thing.

[FreebirdFlies]

Obviously I think a little gentle peer pressure on here might encourage some improvement......
Admittedly some times on the posts we come off more aggressively than we think we do.
Reminders are (hopefully) a good thing.

[Bedlam]

I'm not sure when civility went out the door. I used to think it was exclusive to the generation after mine but also see it here with the generation before mine (as well as mine).

I have no problem arguing a point backed by facts, but you will not see me throwing emotion into discussions about inanimate objects or making personal attacks.

[FreebirdFlies]

So, if somebody makes an unkind comment....
Is it written somewhere that someone else is required to follow suite?

What if someone threw out an invitation to an argument, and nobody came?

[HVicars]

We currently have the EC995 with micro and LP onan gen.
The micro is great for bread, chip, pan storage and I would keep it as you may be tired from an outing and just want a quick hot meal. I would however omit the oven if I had a choice. That extra storage would be welcome and we rarely use the oven.
I like the LP generator so we dont have to carry gasoline. Its nice to just hit a button and have electricity. When camping with my dad and his gas generator I also found it nice to not have to continually add gas or worry about running out. (he actually ran out and was with out a gen the last part of the trip)

The one thing we really dont like is the size of the dinette and it defiantly wont fit more than a child for a bed.

[Buzzcut1]

kerry4951 wrote:

2BLAZERS wrote:


When dry camping I run it for making coffee in the morning without needed to pull out the Honda 2000.

When traveling when HOT, we stop anywhere and can run the A/C while eating lunch. This summer we did a 24 day trip, I think it was over 95 degrees over half the time.

When traveling when HOT, we can also stop, run the genny and leave the dog in the A/C.

Exactly X2 all the way!!
I guess a lot of TCers (1) dont stop and eat lunch in their TCs when its hot and (2) dont travel with any pets.

I think you would be mistaken. I always have my dogs with me. They ride in the crew cab with us. We eat 90% of our meals in the TC and my Honda 2000 runs just fine in the Torklift Sidekick rack on my front receiver should I need AC "on the side of the road". It is not very difficult to pull the power cord out of the storage box and plug it into the generator, then pull the starter cord once....

[mbloof]

We do two distinct types of camping - full hookups and dry camping. Usually the full hookups in State parks in the winter and dry camping in the summer. I bought a Microwave for the camper 10yrs ago - its still sitting in the garage unused - we like the extra storage space but in winter months (plugged in) the little 800W unit might come in handy.
(factory/dealer installed likely comes with a HEAVY markup!)

My last camper I opted for AC on the roof. Since we're dry camping during the summer months it rarely (if ever) got used. I can count on one hand the number of times we used it. I did not bother having one installed on the new camper.

As far as gensets go, I'm a big fan of solar and inverter generators. Propane in my area almost always costs way more than gas and I'd rather save it for the furnace/Fridge/Water heater. I carry a little Yamaha 1000i in case the solar can't keep up. The other half has shown interest in having the microwave to use so I suppose the Yamaha could power that if need be.

Moral of story: think of how you do your camping and if you'd save money or even use the factory options - we use our oven all the time.

[kerry4951]

mkirsch wrote:

kerry4951 wrote:
I guess a lot of TCers (1) dont stop and eat lunch in their TCs when its hot and (2) dont travel with any pets.

A lot of TCers sample the local cuisine when traveling, and don't treat their pets better than their own children.

Your remark was uncalled for. But Ive read some of your other remarks in the past so Im not surprised.

[Mattyd]

I researched and looked at campers for three years prior to pulling the trigger. Was ready to give in and buy new truck and camper when I found a lightly preowned combination that worked for us. Looking to move to a slide model for next year. I would order w/o A/C if possibile and have dealer install the Mach 8 so could run on Honda 2000. I would also order with built in gene. Delete oven. Delete Heiki skylight. Install Fantastic Fans in cab over, main area and bath. I don't see ordering awnings. I would order convection microwave. I would also delete outside shower. This is our thoughts after a year of how we use ours.

[mkirsch]

kerry4951 wrote:
I guess a lot of TCers (1) dont stop and eat lunch in their TCs when its hot and (2) dont travel with any pets.

A lot of TCers sample the local cuisine when traveling, and don't treat their pets better than their own children.

[Steve_in_29]

Old school percolator on the stove takes care of morning coffee for my wife. Though I could use the inverter to run a Mr Coffee if we wanted to (2K inverter/440Ah batteries/270W solar).

Unless there is no breeze or humidity is high, simply opening up the windows keeps camper cool enough for us on a quick lunch stop. Sometimes we do need to kick on the roof fans. The inverter will also handle nuking a snack.

While I haven't actually tested it, the AC is able to be powered by the inverter as well and it only draws about 8A in high (100ish DCA) so theoretically I could have the AC cool us down a bit for the lunch break as well.

Not everything needs $4Kish of LOUD generator power as part of the answer. I know the 4K Microlight on my 28' Bounder could be heard easily inside the coach, so I hate to think how much more annoying it would be in a TC.

[Reddog1]

My Honda 2000 is mounted in a way I can run it while on the road. There have only been a couple of times I needed the A/C while on the road. I pulled over, started the Honda and turned the A/C on. About 30 minutes later, I stopped for lunch under the A/C.

[kerry4951]

2BLAZERS wrote:


When dry camping I run it for making coffee in the morning without needed to pull out the Honda 2000.

When traveling when HOT, we stop anywhere and can run the A/C while eating lunch. This summer we did a 24 day trip, I think it was over 95 degrees over half the time.

When traveling when HOT, we can also stop, run the genny and leave the dog in the A/C.

Exactly X2 all the way!!
I guess a lot of TCers (1) dont stop and eat lunch in their TCs when its hot and (2) dont travel with any pets.

[Wardster]

My NL came with a microwave, but we removed it the day we brought it home because we don't use one. The extra cabinet space is great and I like that there is an electrical outlet installed, which we use for our oil heater.