Best Pop Up Truck Camper for Winter Use

Trikebubble

Adventurer
Can you tell me if you did anything special to your FWC to prepare it for winter conditions?

No, we were excited and rushing to get out quickly. The main issue we ran into was the foot of fresh snow on top of the camper roof. Having no experience, I just went and lowered it, and almost was crushed by the weight forcing the roof down very quickly. Once we got home I got my telescoping car wash brush out and cleared all the snow. In the future, in winter conditions, I'll clear the snow before I try to lower the roof.
We also did not open any windows during the night, so without any decent air flow we did get quite a bit of condensation. We wiped down the inside vinyl material, but next time we'll leave a window or two cracked open at night.
That's about it. The furnace kept us toasty warm all night. We brought a few jugs of water, as I have the water system in the camper winterized right now.
 

NVLOC

Observer
The Eagle I had was very challenging to manage in BC Late Fall conditions. Lots off humidity, And cold here. With two people in the camper, furnace set to cycle a few times through out the night, and ensuring as best as possible venting without letting water in from rain (so only venting from tie down access port cubbies and window to the cab) the camper would sweat from everywhere: every single aluminium piece, every roof rung through the liner, all the trim, window. Canvas was soaked on the inside from condensation. Can’t really dry it off behind the supports so that just stays wet. It took constant attention and was overall difficult to manage. I wouldn’t own one again for our weather and the time of year I like to camp. I would not consider one of these an option for winter camping in our climate. California, Nevada, Southern Oregon would likely be just fine.

Edit: yes had the thermal kit.
 
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scott7022

Nobody
Thanks for the educated replies, Especially from BC. I am bouncing ideas off an HVAC engineer I happen to have at my disposal right now. It does seem the soft fabric causes more of an issue then. Probably due to temperature variations inside the space. I will read the link posted! Thanks to everyone for the opinions and advice.
Cheers
 

sg1

Adventurer
After my bad experience with the Hawk in wet and cold conditions ( http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/163254-A-Hawk-in-the-Arctic ) I sold my Hawk and ordered the first production unit of the Overlandex insulated pop up camper. It is being build right now ( https://overlandex.com/pop-up-truck-campers ). Being the first I could make sure that all the design flaws of the Hawk which made my life so miserable were avoided. The cabin is made of composite panels without any thermal bridges and the soft sides are 1 inch insulated canvas developed for tents used in the arctic. The heater is a Truma which is a lot quieter than other forced gas heaters I know and is designed to provide more constant heat thereby reducing on/off cycling. This actually works. I have the same type Truma in my other camper which I am using in Patagonia right now. Pretty cold here and I can test the heater extensively. The Overlandex pop up should in theory the best cold weather pop up available.
Stefan
 

locrwln

Expedition Leader
After my bad experience with the Hawk in wet and cold conditions ( http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/163254-A-Hawk-in-the-Arctic ) I sold my Hawk and ordered the first production unit of the Overlandex insulated pop up camper. It is being build right now ( https://overlandex.com/pop-up-truck-campers ). Being the first I could make sure that all the design flaws of the Hawk which made my life so miserable were avoided. The cabin is made of composite panels without any thermal bridges and the soft sides are 1 inch insulated canvas developed for tents used in the arctic. The heater is a Truma which is a lot quieter than other forced gas heaters I know and is designed to provide more constant heat thereby reducing on/off cycling. This actually works. I have the same type Truma in my other camper which I am using in Patagonia right now. Pretty cold here and I can test the heater extensively. The Overlandex pop up should in theory the best cold weather pop up available.
Stefan

Are you using the propane powered Truma?

Jack
 

sg1

Adventurer
Yes. It is more reliable and works at high elevation. So far in 8 years in Africa and Latin America we had no problem getting our fixed tank filled. You have to do your homework and get the right adapters and use IOverlander to find filling stations. All the travelers with diesel heaters we met had to clean the combustion chamber of their heater at least once and many had problems or couldn't use the heater at high elevation.
 

ProfessorChaos

New member
SG1, I read your thread on the FWC Hawk and it was an eye opener. As I do more research on pop up truck campers I'm liking the Hallmark more and more.
 

Littlehouse

Adventurer
After my bad experience with the Hawk in wet and cold conditions ( http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/163254-A-Hawk-in-the-Arctic ) I sold my Hawk and ordered the first production unit of the Overlandex insulated pop up camper. It is being build right now ( https://overlandex.com/pop-up-truck-campers ). Being the first I could make sure that all the design flaws of the Hawk which made my life so miserable were avoided. The cabin is made of composite panels without any thermal bridges and the soft sides are 1 inch insulated canvas developed for tents used in the arctic. The heater is a Truma which is a lot quieter than other forced gas heaters I know and is designed to provide more constant heat thereby reducing on/off cycling. This actually works. I have the same type Truma in my other camper which I am using in Patagonia right now. Pretty cold here and I can test the heater extensively. The Overlandex pop up should in theory the best cold weather pop up available.
Stefan
Excited to see how this comes out. Keep us posted.
 

locrwln

Expedition Leader
Yes. It is more reliable and works at high elevation. So far in 8 years in Africa and Latin America we had no problem getting our fixed tank filled. You have to do your homework and get the right adapters and use IOverlander to find filling stations. All the travelers with diesel heaters we met had to clean the combustion chamber of their heater at least once and many had problems or couldn't use the heater at high elevation.

That is awesome to hear. We are currently having Bundutec build us a pop-up with the Truma. I found a site with adapters for Europe but haven't found anything for SA. Do you have to have adapters for SA? I do have the iOverlander app and know that it has become the standard for finding propane.

Thank you for your help.

Jack
 

sg1

Adventurer
Do you have a mobile US tank or a fixed tank? In a lot of S.A. countries LPG is used by cars, especially taxis and there are LPG gas stations which you can use like a regular gas station. They use the same ACME connector as the US and most other countries. This is how we filled our tank so far in Europe and the Americas. If you hve a standard bbq type mobile tank they may or may not fill it at the regular LPG gas stations for vehicles. Sorry but I have no experience with filling these tanks.
 

scott7022

Nobody
SG1 thanks for your vote of confidence. I had been looking at OverlandEx and debating an X10 or like build. I've spent nights in both Hallmark and FWC in the rain. To be honest, the FWC did go through an eight-hour raining sideways in BC Canada storm. The forest road was trashed and while we managed to winch out and get to a better camping spot. It took us three days, and we never did get dry. It didn't matter how warm we got the unit we could not air it out. There is a Surfing term used for what happens to damp cloths against human skin I have either forgotten it or blocked it from my memory. The horror!

In Moab, I've spent many a beautiful night in both manufacturers rigs. No issues.

My fear is the computers that I need for editing footage. They pull air in to cool the processors, hot processors, and they draw a great deal of air. If I can't control the moisture, then I can't use the computers. Downtime defeats the purpose of having a mobile editing rig. Shoot, load to the cloud, or to solid state drives, and then return and edit and hope you have enough B-roll footage as you aren't there anymore when the cool creative transition or montage idea strikes you back in brick house ville.

I just sent a letter, and even though Mark is super busy, doing 70 hour work weeks, he is making the time to read the crazy Canuck request. I fear this may turn out to be the most expensive pop up yet even if you toss in the R&D time for the Eatrhroamer Jeep into the mix. I was reminded by some fellow travellers how tight we had it with the pop up on a few occasions, so a full size is out.

The Truma units are easily the best hands down. I used them in Europe/Siberia and the Republic of Georgia and met a guy in the California desert this year that had one in his camper. Silent is the word. Drinks at the dinette and you just notice it come on, sound wise. Thanks for the post. Now I am looking forward to reading Mark's email.
 

locrwln

Expedition Leader
Do you have a mobile US tank or a fixed tank? In a lot of S.A. countries LPG is used by cars, especially taxis and there are LPG gas stations which you can use like a regular gas station. They use the same ACME connector as the US and most other countries. This is how we filled our tank so far in Europe and the Americas. If you hve a standard bbq type mobile tank they may or may not fill it at the regular LPG gas stations for vehicles. Sorry but I have no experience with filling these tanks.

Thank you for the information. The tanks are standard upright 20lb bbq tanks.

Jack
 

ersatzknarf

lost, but making time
The new Overland Explorer looks pretty good.

https://overlandex.com/pop-up-truck-campers

cr=w:800,h:500,a:cc


cr=w:800,h:500,a:cc

That turned out really well !

Missed seeing the completion . . .

There was a thread that started out for a hard-side, then moved to this pop-up, and I thought the OP was named, Jeep (?), but now changed to Overland Explorer... searches do not show me that thread.

Does anyone recall, please ?

Thanks.
 

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