Do you have any pics of the termal pack? There's nothing on the site. Trying to figure out if it's worth $800 vs a DIY option.
This is the best shot I have on hand. The liner comes in four pieces, front, back and both sides. The material is a single layer brushed/felty material with little embossed pockets in it. It’s pretty effective. We mostly used it when we were working on the interior of the camper and had to have the top popped up in the Phoenix sun. Even in March last year the temperature would heat up quite a lot with direct sun on the tent walls. We have used it maybe 10 of the 20 nights we’ve used the camper in temperatures down to the high 30s, and it’s been helpful. The construction of it is very well-made. The Velcro is well attached, and there are nicely done cut outs that still allow you to open the windows if desired. The main downside to me is that you can’t leave it attached. However, it takes my wife and I about five minutes to put it up at night and take it down in the morning, after getting used to it.
How's the anodized exterior holding up?
The anodized has held up really well over 10 months parked outside in the Phoenix sun. The only exterior issue has been a some slight sun deterioration of the rubber gaskets around the widow latches — my fault as I over looked them in my initial 303 treatments.
I heard the new design is welded vs bolted? I'd rather go with the old design vs welded aluminum.
As far as I know, Jay has never done a bolt-on design. I’ve been in his shop three or four times and seen how he makes these. My camper, which is the old design, is impeccably welded. The thing is a tank. It doesn’t shift or move; there is nothing flimsy about it. You’d have to ask Jay about it, but it’s possible that the new design with the extruded Cabover beam utilizes some bolting as opposed to welding the entire long edges. You also may be thinking about the fact that the sheet aluminum on the outside is riveted to the frame (as well as VHB taped). I don’t know if he still doing that in the new ones or not.
I also exhaustively checked out Four Wheel Campers, and traveled to their factory as well. Jays design and construction is not quite as immediately pretty, but it seems more stout and better constructed to me. No wood, no particleboard no flimsy screws pulling out of particleboard (I actually had a dinette seat support pull out of the wall under me in a $50k flatbed FWC at the show room, and I only weigh 180 pounds).
Nearly 14.5k incl taxes. I'm starting to think this is crazy for a half shell camper.
Yeah, it can seem like a lot for a shell without a lot of glitz to it. I think it depends what you want out of your camper. I wanted something indestructible that didn’t have most of the interior room taken up with a bunch of built-in crap I didn’t want. You are also paying to have something very light weight that is not flimsy. I got mine for hard off road use. Everybody’s use case differs. YMMV, but for me it’s been worth every penny and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
