Off Road Hard Side Camper
- Thread starter WAuch
- Start date
texasnielsen
Outdoorsman
All-season use? Is weight a consideration for you (what size truck do you have / considering?) Northern Lite builds a great product. Many are wanting the slide-out options now. So are you looking for RV-like considerations or bare-bones?
Many great options out there. IMO you need to narrow down what your requirements are in order to get any useful input.
Good luck!
I'm looking at an F350 8 foot bed. A four season non slide camper. I just don't know how that would hold up on a dirt road.
Victorian
Approved Vendor : Total Composites
If you want something that will withstand off road driving you may want to look into a true expedition camper body. Regular campers may look great on the outside but the cabinet construction and other components will not last long. There are several companies that can build you a fully outfitted one. XP -campers and Overland explorer are well known. If you are more of the handy type of person and like to build your own, you are more than welcome to contact us for a quote.
Good luck!
Good luck!
When I had my Lance 855 I took it on a ton of dirt FS roads. The key was the exact same thing that makes your truck ride well on those roads. Air down and go slow. Going slow allows you to air down more than you'd think even with the load. It's the vibrations from the corrugations that shake the camper apart and soft tires will do most of the job of softening those blows.
The other thing that I found was that a lot of the water appliances (water heater, etc.) were connected with hard tubing. I swapped that out for flexible corrugated stainless steel tubing from the plumbing section of Lowes. You could also back every screw holding the hinges and cabinet door latches on and reinstall with good wood glue or epoxy. Those are the things that fail most. Cabinets and plumbing.
The other thing that I found was that a lot of the water appliances (water heater, etc.) were connected with hard tubing. I swapped that out for flexible corrugated stainless steel tubing from the plumbing section of Lowes. You could also back every screw holding the hinges and cabinet door latches on and reinstall with good wood glue or epoxy. Those are the things that fail most. Cabinets and plumbing.
calicamper
Expedition Leader
Baja camper? Might be an option but they are hard to find. How much furniture are you wanting? The full house on wheels or a bunk and folding chairs?
The full house on wheels. But I can't afford a Global Expedition Vehicle
windtraveler
Observer
Bundutec builds a really nice solid off-road / dirt road camper. Not for rock crawling. They are reasonably priced as well.
Take a look at Pastime Campers. We've had ours on a Chevy 2500HD (6 foot bed) since 2005 and have logged 150K+miles on the rig; many on dirt tracks and some places where we probably should not have been. Pastime has wood framing and is solidly built. Ours is bare bones right down to a manual water pump. The company was great to work with as they are not locked in to certain features or production line building.
CreeksideKP
New member
Did you custom order yours? I've looked at a couple but can't find capacities and other details. For the same price I could find a year or two old Wolf Creek.
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java
Expedition Leader
Bigfoot is about as good as it gets IMO. Two piece fiberglass shell, they hold up pretty well from what I have seen.
I think it comes down to manage your expectations, plan to take it slow and easy, and you wont beat things too bad. In a rush and it gets jarring. We took out mini winnie down lots of FS roads.
I think it comes down to manage your expectations, plan to take it slow and easy, and you wont beat things too bad. In a rush and it gets jarring. We took out mini winnie down lots of FS roads.
'round n' back again
Explorer
pasttime is a semi custom shop. easily the best constructed camper on the market. The newmar of truck campers.
many of the campers are spec.-ed to customer. They are a small shop and big advertising budgets are not their thing.thus details are hard to come by.
they have a big dealer up near seattle.
many of the campers are spec.-ed to customer. They are a small shop and big advertising budgets are not their thing.thus details are hard to come by.
they have a big dealer up near seattle.
Creeksidekp
We ordered our Pastime in '04 and picked it up at dealership in Washington. It sits on a Chevy 2500 short be extended cab 4WD with 5 speed manual.
I was looking for a rig that had no bath, and an extended cab-over so we could put two beds in line with the truck so we didn't have to crawl over each other in the middle of the night. Our rig is pretty basic even down to the manual water pump. We have a Fantastic top vent with fan and no AC but do have the furnace with fan (couldn't live without it). At my wife's insistence, we got the jalousied window option and they are way better than the sliders as the can remain open in the rain.
The Pastime folks were great to work with and were very flexible in getting us the type of rig we wanted.
We have over 150K miles on the outfit and have never had a problem of any sort. The rig is light weight yet solidly built, simple and reliable. I highly recommend Pastime.
We ordered our Pastime in '04 and picked it up at dealership in Washington. It sits on a Chevy 2500 short be extended cab 4WD with 5 speed manual.
I was looking for a rig that had no bath, and an extended cab-over so we could put two beds in line with the truck so we didn't have to crawl over each other in the middle of the night. Our rig is pretty basic even down to the manual water pump. We have a Fantastic top vent with fan and no AC but do have the furnace with fan (couldn't live without it). At my wife's insistence, we got the jalousied window option and they are way better than the sliders as the can remain open in the rain.
The Pastime folks were great to work with and were very flexible in getting us the type of rig we wanted.
We have over 150K miles on the outfit and have never had a problem of any sort. The rig is light weight yet solidly built, simple and reliable. I highly recommend Pastime.