Greetings. New on this forum. Based in Northern Utah. Hoping to buy/build a rig that I can use for winter camping and accessing backcountry and crosscountry trailheads. And, of course, the other three seasons. With family in Arizona I'll want to stay cool as well as warm and insulation accomplishes both. I'm new to 'RV'ing' but I have as much desire to stay in an RV park as I do to be hospitalized. I see now that I'm more interested in overlanding, something I already do on motorcycles.
My current vehicle is a 2004 Ford F350 Super Duty Crew Cab 4x4 ShortBox with the 6.0 liter diesel. My hope is (was) to 'get' a '4-season' camper and put it in the bed. However, I tend to research stuff before making a move (maybe I could have researched that 6.0 better 😁) and am finding 4-Season might not mean 4-season.
At the moment I'm looking at a 2018 Lance 825 and a 2018 Northern Lite 8-11. Both are in great shape. Both claim 4-season. They have overlapping and different features. My 'research' says the Northern Lite is a much better unit than the Lance. It's also overweight for my F350. Seems to be overweight for everyone else's, too. The Lance, btw, is right there in the payload sweet spot. NL has a cassette toilet. 825 doesn't have a stove. Etc.
Then, I find this forum and it seems the general consensus is that the pre-built 4-season units have a long way to go to be true 4-season. What's worse, most of the arguments make sense and come with numbers that also make sense. Maybe it's like I discovered with motorcycles: you have to buy one (sometimes two, three, or more) to know which one you actually want. I ride a GS now and do BDRs as well as a Husky 501 for trails and such. And BDRs. Also thinking a good camper will extend my riding while simultaneously destroying my marriage
.
Does it make sense to buy a pretty nice camper to learn about all this, then sell and build one? I'd go with an old beater like
@IdaSHO did but I really want my wife to enjoy it and she's not going to enjoy a smelly old beater. The smell alone would be the end of that project. But not being familiar with RVs, I really don't know how to choose or if I'd be better off just waiting. The NL is a better design and larger. The Lance would be more nimble. The NL is overweight on my truck. The Lance doesn't have a basement. The gedankenexperiment goes on. I don't plan on epic journeys (yet) but it is cold in the mountains in the winter and I would like to have heat and water. Not getting any younger. Just kind of spinning my wheels right now.
