4WC - Overrated and overpriced

[s.e.charles]

That's pretty easy. They all are pretty crappy. Review complete.

.......I say this as an RV owner....

yeah. i don't get the surprise people are experiencing. the RV industry has been a vinyl siding company on wheels for decades. it's not going to change for Good Samm-mers whether they call themselves Tin Can Tourists or, ready?, Expeditionists.

 

[Todd780]

yeah. i don't get the surprise people are experiencing. the RV industry has been a vinyl siding company on wheels for decades. it's not going to change for Good Samm-mers whether they call themselves Tin Can Tourists or, ready?, Expeditionists.

Yep. They are what they are. Ours does what we need it to. Just gotta look for screws rolling on the floor after a trip and figure out where they came from.

Do I wish build quality was better? Sure. But, I ain't holding my breath and I don't want to spend 100K on a 20' trailer.

 

[JaSAn]

In a micro sense each of us have our own valuation system. I personally think everything in the 'recreation' category is overpriced.

In the macro sense it is the market that determines value and rating:
- if there are more 4WC for sale than buyers they are overpriced.
- i there are more buyers than 4WC for sale they are underpriced.

Rating is somewhat more ambiguous: what standard are you rating against?
Buyers will pick the highest rated (their rating system) camper at their price point.

 

[roving1]

One of the Mexican truck "camper" (more their word for a truck cap then a slide in camper as we think of it) or truck body manufacturers needs to jump on the overlanding band wagon and rake in cash from gringos.

They use mini trucks for hauling so much there are all these great truck camper and truck box manufacturers down there used to making stuff for mini and full size US trucks. I had a nice stainless steel outer truck cap with a huge attic over the cab priced out at something ludicrously cheap for like less than 2G new once but I didn't have the truck in Mexico at the time. But for 6-700 bucks used some of these are a steal.

I would love to see a build with a Mexican truck camper or truck body. But strangely even in Mexico I never saw it. The overlanding thing was taking off when I was there but it was all RTT's and conventional stuff. Very little local homebrew.

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[Stan@FourWheel]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
But if you have worked around FWC and RV's and Truck Campers for as long as I have, you have seen some stuff.
No RV is perfect.
And 1/2 of the customers I have encountered over the years don't take care of their camper or RV like it should be cared for.
Most general RV's made near Indiana are stick built and pretty crappy.
Every RV will need work and maintenance over time, if it is a $5000 truck camper, or a $350,000 EarthCruiser.
If you are looking for the quality of a space shuttle to take you to the moon, FWC should not be your choice.
But if you are looking for looking for a good quality truck camper, that will last for such a long time (if you take care of it), have great resale value, and not have to spend $160,000 for a Sportsmoible, FWC can be a good choice for some people.
For the last 18 years I have been here, finding used four wheel campers has been hard because so many people are looking for them.
We have a great following.
Are we are perfect camper for everyone out there looking? Nope.
But that is the beauty of having options.
What you like, it not always what your neighbor likes.
Variety is the spice of like.
If you don't think FWC is a good value, it's all good.
They are expensive when purchased new.
But look at any good product these days and it is expensive.
It is expensive to do business in California.
Workers expect to be paid a fair wage and have good health insurance.
If you want cheap, we could outsource to China.
But I'd rather keep our jobs here in the USA and continue doing the best we can to make a quality product.
If an new FWC is too expensive, get on CL and find a good use camper.
Whatever you like, whatever you own, it is best to just get out there and go camping and have fun.
Happy Camping.

 

[czukie]

Bought one used 2006 for $7K a few years back. Significantly better value than the treehouse I bought last year for the same price. If you buy brand new then yeah I would agree, but there is a reason that there are FWC from the late 80's that still fetch $3-5K....

 

[Wavester]

I just put an order in for a new FWC it's a 9 month wait time incidentally, I looked very closely at the competition for instance the Overland Camp X is 15k more than the similar outfitted FWC Hawk, sure the Camp X has all the gee wiz construction like composite exterior and probably the best components available but 15k more? And way less storage and functionality than a FWC IMHO.
I have owned a FWC Hawk for the last 13 years and I'm what you would call a power user at LEAST 90 plus days camping in the Hawk, all over the western US, fire roads, off road and 4 trips to the tip of Baja Mexico. I don't have a Youtube channel and I'm not an "influencer" on social media but I know a lot about camping in a light weight truck camper and if I found something better for my purposes than a FWC I would have bought it. Is it overrated? Well the OP gave zero details about why it is overrated or more importantly what he replaced it with, IMO it is not overrated after getting literally hundreds of days of use, I think I got my moneys worth. Everything has functioned well for 13 years, I've had to replace some minor components like the faucet and the shower head etc. and do maintenance and there is minor wear on the cabinets but some lucky person is going to get a well loved and taken care of used FWC about 9 months from now.
As far as 'overpriced' probably but guess what there is currently a 9 month wait time for a new one and the competition came in at 15k more and from what I could see wasn't laid out as efficiently as the FWC but they have had 45 years or so to get it right.

 

[craig333]

I still don't get the moisture issue. Never had an issue in my camper. Quality? Sure there were a few things, mostly screws loose and such and not one that I thought was worthy of involving the factory over. It still blows my mind that I could sell it for nearly what I paid for it. I love that there are many more options now than there were when I bought my camper. Seventeen years so far and I plan on keeping it until I'm too old and decrepit to climb into the bed. I sure don't see any big campers where I go I suspect build quality will go up when the demand finally goes down. I spent most of my life in manufacturing (not campers) and its an odd disconnect how upper management doesn't see how working 12 hours a day seven days a week effects production. Hard to keep quality up when you're exhausted. A primary reason why I retired early. I think its time to go camping (right after memorial day, never again will I go out on a holiday weekend).

 

[Deleted member 12023]

As someone who just sold a 2019 flatbed Hawk I'll chime in here. Their ordering/purchasing process is streamlined and easy. The convenience of buying a brand new camper with a warranty has its appeal to a lot of people. And for some owners, financing and insurance is important. Good luck doing that with anything homemade or custom.

FWC is owned by a private equity company now. It's not a mom & pop shop anymore. What you are getting is a mass produced camper off an assembly line made by a business concerned with the bottom line. We knew there would be some janky fit and finish issues when ours arrived. It seems most mass produced things are like that these days.

Overrated? Maybe. It's an aluminum framed camper with a light gauge skin and crappy laminate cabinets. The technology is the same as it was 30 years ago and they chose to use Dometic appliances. Dometic makes the absolute worst crap appliances! The condensation issues people complain about must be mouth breathers. You have to vent while you sleep especially in cool wet weather. It's not so much a FWC issue as it is a user error.

Over priced? Probably not. Has anyone actually tried to build a camper or run a business? The amount of overhead FWC has is insane, material prices are astronomical and good labor isn't cheap. I'm building a composite camper right now. Sure, I'll be into it for less than the FWC but not if I include my labor.

Where Four Wheel Campers needs improvement is their quality control/customer service. We had a leaking roof, leaking plumbing fittings and a broken furnace from day 1. Their first instinct is to blame the customer instead of fix their issues. It took almost 6 months to finally have all of our problems resolved...minus the furnace. That junk was a lost cause. This is a conversation for another day but they need to do some serious training on their customer service team.

Bottom line, their campers are designed to be a light weight, basic truck camper and that's what you get. They are designed for weekend warriors, not full timing. If you're looking at high end luxury I would look elsewhere or rent an Airbnb. People complain about prices of campers but take a look at the crap being peddled on the front page of this forum. Everything is "overpriced" in this market.

 

[Mickey Bitsko]

Fwc's are cool like tacomas ?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Dunno much about a FWC but an old wood truck camper ain't a whole lot of fun to fix...

 

[s.e.charles]

but they're wild!

 

[Mickey Bitsko]

Better quality than most US manufacturers for 50x the price.
Good job.

 

[Nailhead]

That's pretty easy. They all are pretty crappy. Review complete.

.......I say this as an RV owner....

Yup, because if they were built to aerospace standards (read: quality), none of us could afford one.

 

[beef tits]

I just bought another Grandby. This time a newer, loaded one because I’m dumb and because everyone else will also be dumb when I’m eventually sick of it (resale $$$)

Still of the same opinion.. they are marginally better than most other normal campers. Still... overpriced for what they are.

I only speak from direct experience having owned several.