Had a great 5 week trip. Including some pics of a few campsites the Liberty experienced. Did lots of biking and hiking, traversed climates from overnight lows in the teens to daytime temps in the upper 80's, and ice/sleet/snow and torrential rains and lots of rough washboard roads and some pretty good 4x4 off-road conditions. Also, on the 2 long days of driving to get back home I went thru blizzard conditions going over the Rockies and torrential rains all thru the rest of Colorado and thru Nebraska. Hours of down pouring rain with high winds and driving 75-80mph... Each night I inspected the internals of the rig for water leaks and didn't find any. Thankfully. It performed well thru all those conditions.
Except for the furnace. At the Capitol Reef area at ~7000 ft the sail switch was not able to "switch" which kept the furnace from working. I was able to access and pull the switch and modify the flap/sail portion to more of a curved profile somewhat like an airplane propeller to “grab” more air. That fixed the sail switch problem and it also continued to work at the Bryce Canyon area at elevations of ~8000 ft.
Some other observations/comments:
-Did not have any issues with the fridge door bouncing open. Thankfully.
-Did have 2 drawers and 1 cabinet that would open on rough roads due to insufficient overlap of the latch/catch mechanisms. This was easily fixed by removing the catch and adding washers between the catch and wood frame where the screws secure the catch. This added a little more overlap and fixed the issue.
-The cabinet above the table/seating area has a very sharp edge that I kept bumping my head into … I installed a silicone edge protector strip there. It no longer causes obscene words to come out of my mouth when I bump my head on that edge.
-The mirror in the bathroom isn't very usable. I may try to add a mirror on the fridge door. In the meantime I bought a handheld mirror I can position on the kitchen sink cover for shaving.
-The shower isn't large. I ended up having a routine where I sit down to do the top half and then end up standing with 1 leg at a time on the toilet seat for the bottom half. It turns out that works pretty well and I barely touch the walls or shower curtain. However I think I am going to try to rig up something to push the shower curtain into the walk way a bit and give a little more shoulder/elbow room when showering.
-With the DC to DC fast charging and solar panels and >300 Ahr battery I have lots of excess energy. I bought a little cheap 150 watt 12V heater from a truck stop and used this as supplemental heat. I can position it on the floor/feet area and it helped keep my feet warm on those many below freezing temp mornings. However, this unit is loud... I will probably look for something else that sounds less like a hair dryer.
-Like the dual burner stove top with the spark ignition. Its a good compromise on function and space and works well.
-Like the door strut … its simple and functional and effective.
-Like the mattress.
-Like the DC fridge. Good compromise on size for the Liberty and is working well.
-Like the windows.
-Like the ceiling fan and the temperature control feature and its ability to be used in rain and gusting wind conditions. I was also able to adjust it so the set temp is down into the upper 30's (I like sleeping in cold temps) and would run it all night. Several mornings it was in the mid 30's in the camper and cold enough that the fan finally shut itself off when I got out of bed.
-I keep at least one window in the bed area cracked when sleeping even in temps where it gets into the teens. I didn't experience any condensation issues except for a little on the metal door frame. I then also made sure to have the fan opening cracked a little and that seemed to “almost” eliminate the frame condensation on mornings in the teens. And then in the morning I'd run the furnace to warm things up if needed. I actually thought the furnace was sized about right for the unit. I'm glad its not any bigger. I'd rather have it run longer at lower btu's so the structure can warm up as opposed to just the air in the structure.
-The first ~2.5 weeks was in some pretty continuous cold environments where I ran the furnace every morning and some evenings. And I'd cook on the stovetop multiple times a day. Did a refill of one of the propane tanks in Hurricane UT and it showed I went thru ~3 gallons of propane in that timeframe, which I find to be very reasonable considering the conditions.
-Like the storage space vs size of the camper.
-Really like the being able to keep the tailgate on, and also like the tailgate ladder and porch. However when it rains water will find its way into the tailgate. But it drains out. I do end up moving the license plate depending on if the camper is on or off the truck which adds a little fussing around... Oh, and I used something called the “Tailgate Mirror” which allows you to still use the oem reverse camera with the tailgate down. It works ok but needs to be cleaned frequently in dusty environments.
-No observable evidence of rock damage on the tailgate despite hundreds of miles of gravel driving in the down position.
-Using the local CAT scales I was able to get a weight of the camper by measuring the truck/rig and all gear and then unloading the camper at home and going back and re-weighing with the only difference being the camper. With full water/food/2 propane tanks/battery&charger/food/clothes/supplies/etc. It comes in at 2540 lbs.
-The combination of the camper plus all the other stuff I was hauling in the cab (my big heavy fat ebike, 10 gallons of water, paddle board, tools and lots of misc crap), front cargo carrier (with 14 gallons of water and 2x40 lb kettelbells and some other gear), tie down brackets and fast guns and myself, came in at 10,620 lbs with 4800 lbs on the front axle and 5820 lbs on the rear axle. My trucks GVWR is 10,550 and payload rating is 3550 lbs. So I'm just slightly over the GVWR but well under the axle ratings. Oh, and I have some Timbren SES on the rear axle. That weight adds up quickly...
