2020 Overland Explorer Vehicles (OEV) CAMP-X pop-up slide-in pickup camper (renamed "Back Country" as of 2023)

[anthonym]

@Crux thanks for the response. Good to know and to see those pictures.

-Is the dometic window sealed and closed all the way?

Yes it was closed and the cushions underneath were not wet. Likewise roof vent was closed and locked.

-Have you had a chance to camp in it yet?

Only one night so far after picking it up from BVO. We drove a bit of the Switzerland Trail up above Boulder and did some hiking and then camped in a friend's driveway off of one of the dirt roads a little lower down in the canyon. Coming from 2 adults + a dog sleeping in a tent or the trunk of an Outback this is a palace! Stayed warm the whole night (it was around 30˚) and barely noticed the furnace running. We're very happy with the camper other than the leaking. Luckily we discovered that at home where it's easy to dry things out rather than on the road somewhere.

 

[victorc]

Oh that sucks @anthonym - I never had a single drop coming from outside after using our camper in all sort of weather. Something is definitely wrong somewhere and I am sure BVO and/or OEV will take care of it.

Maybe we will see u around, I am in SLC ✌️

 

[anthonym]

@victorc thanks, great to know! That would be fun!

 

[crystalclear]

those seams are the culprit - almost positive the top composite panel is adhered to the top aluminum framing solely by that layer of sika

sad to see

water will come in exactly as you describe if that perimeter seal is poor as pictured

but i think seeing that has benefitted the owner community quite a bit - next step for me = eternabonding that entire perimeter seal, or brushing on white raptor liner

 

[anthonym]

@crystalclear thanks. I did a test last night (pictures below) and confirmed that the seal is the issue so definitely something to keep an eye on. BVO immediately contacted OEV on my behalf (continuing the excellent service) and said they would both help me get it resolved. I'll keep this thread updated with the solution in case anyone starts to notice some separation over time and wants to fix it themselves.

The test:


The leak:


The result:

 

[Herbie]

Glad that you've got a conclusive test on what needs fixing, and I'm glad your vendor is going to bat on your behalf, but this is a serious bummer to see issues like this on a new camper.

 

[crystalclear]

please oh please either get a new camper - or get the entire soft wall replaced

 

[anthonym]

We have the shared control panel, no "comfort" mode iirc, which is the higher model hot water on demand, ours takes a few seconds to get the hot water through to start with. Water system is still winterized for another month probably before I can check it.

Your early version may have something other than the Basic. Easiest way to tell is if you have a way to set it to "Eco" or "Comfort". The basic has no controller and you turn it off and on only by flipping the switch on the unit itself and it turns on "on demand". The Comfort and Comfort Plus have a control panel inside the camper (either a stand alone or shared with the Truma heater control panel). Ours does not.

Dug a little and found they are upgradable. Per someone that did it last year:
"The actual part is just over $200 but the labor added an additional $200-300.
Basically they remove the unit. Cut the inlet and outlet lines and install a recirculation pump. This pump provides enough flow to keep the unit hot go when you turn on the hot water tap the unit is already hot and the hot water reaches your tap in about 1/2 the time required to start up and get balanced out. "

I was messing with this last night. For what it's worth, our late 2020 model has at least the comfort version. If I turn on power to the heater (via the outside power switch) and then reset the combination control panel on the inside so it recognizes that the heater is on, I can set it to off, eco, comfort, or antifreeze (we installed the extra heater component). We had 3 manuals provided with the camper: one for the vario furnace, one for the aquago, and one for the combination control panel.

 

[anthonym]

Roof update: Arnold at OEV walked us through the likely cause, what in the camper could be affected by water intrusion, and how they'll work with us and BVO to solve it. I'm super impressed with how they're standing behind their product.

The cause is a bad batch of Sikaflex, but rather than just resealing the roof they're going to fab a completely new roof and ship it to BVO to replace the one on our camper, including sending a technician down to assist with the replacement and do a full systems check on everything in the camper and repair or replace anything that is affected (although the campers are built to be tolerant of moisture so it's unlikely that there will be downstream issues). They'll also ship our failed roof back to OEV for analysis and testing. I appreciate that this is definitely not the easy or cheap solution for them.

We talked through some other details around replacing certain items, costs, timing, etc. and across the board all I can say is that I couldn't be more happy with the commitment to quality and customer service.

 

[crystalclear]

awesome - good to hear - in their defense, most likely left the factory looking perfect and then rapidly degraded as it cured

 

[Chadx]

Great solution. Happy to hear they were so responsive. Exactly what I would expect from OEV. Excellent.

 

[anthonym]

@crystalclear yup, they confirmed that the roof passed all their testing at the time of manufacture and they didn’t discover the problem with this batch of adhesive until later.

@chadx agreed. Totally in keeping with everything else I’ve seen from them.

 

[pk22]

zerodeclination enclosure - adjustable height, im lifted on 37s and goes low as needed

were you able to attach it to the existing Camp X brackets or did you have to drill?
Thanks

 

[crystalclear]

my campx did not have the enclosure brackets on it so i:
(1) sikaflex-ed on some 1/4 aluminum plate to where i was going to attach it
then
(2) drilled/tapped the enclosure right onto the plate (the forward mount is also on the campers aluminum framing - cabover area)

 

[wurningdirt]

really nice