I'm hoping some of you can provide some advice to a newbie. So more details on the Kenai sound pretty dang interesting. Difficult choice for us coming up and trying to figure out what'll work best between the Olympic and Kenai. I've got a F250 crewcab with a 6.75ft bed 3/4 ton (sticker payload is 2400lbs so actual is prob closer to 3000k when not towing) and two young boys and a wife. 8ft Kenai would hangover the truck bed by 12", is that a concern if the COG is still in front of the rear axle?? Is it going to drive all that differently or be a pain? We aren't Baja'ing it but there is light offloading and winter ski trips. Not going to look as nice/compact but the bigger size might important for 4 of us. We need something for PNW mountain bike trips, camping, idaho/montana fishing trips (towing a light driftboat) and overnight ski trips where we stay in the parking lot the night before.
Kenai - 8ft about 1400lbs standard - about 2000lbs fully optioned
Olympic - 6ft 2in - 1133lbs standard - 1676 fully optioned
Aside from weight the Kenai will have a wet bath built into the bench on the right hand side. I think a wood bench-top top folds up and there is a rotating cassette toilet and a shower pan (optional portable shower kit with electric heater, not a built in one). A shower/privacy curtain is there and the grey water vents outside similar to the sink. There is a little wardrobe/storage on the left right as you walk in. The layout configuration is more similar to a stretched Yoho apparently (but width of Olympic) with the side-dinette rather than the Olympics dinette. The side dinette looks like it might actually be more comfortable to sit in with 4 people but I haven't been in one. With 4 of us, that might be a big deal or not...tho it does like it might better for sitting and gearing up inside on a wet/cold/snowing day. Olympic doesn't seem to have a spot where you could sit and put your boots on. That being said on ski days we also need to likely sleep 4 inside without the pop top (roost is working on insulated liner I'm told). The side dinette may be a smaller sleeping area when folded down.
Indoor showering that isn't in the dirt might be nice too, hooked up to a Zodi/Jaalco shower. I'm not sure how much I need the toilet, wife is pretty adventurous and the portable toilet in the Olympic would work for ski parking when we need to pee in middle of the night. Powerpack stuff will be a step up in sizing to 1500 as well.
Part of it comes down to we only have a 6.75 ft bed. The 8ft Kenai is going to hangover by about 12" in my measurements. I have no idea if that's an issue or not. Scout says its not with the light weight and that Kenai was designed for 3/4 ton and seem to like it for my purposes. I do need to drive the truck around a bit in our small town when wife has the 4runner etc. My thought is I may keep it on the truck most of the time if it drives fine but again, I'm not sure what to expect and its not like I can go try them out.
Thanks for any advice
www.motor1.com
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