SMB, Alaskan, or Tiger; Can Tiger Withstand Rough Roading

[TomH]

Tom, look at the XPCamper, I think you will be impressed and price point is close to the Tiger. The builder frequents another site and has his own forumn

marc@xpcamper.com
wander the west.com

Thanks, I am familiar with it. Truthfully though, I am very unimpressed with it. For that price, the interior is very simple. I also would not pay that much for a camper that was not walk through. I assume the email address you left is yours, and therefore you work for that company. I do not think it is appropriate for you to solicit in this thread. I am looking for feedback from users, not sellers. You should have sent me a P.M.

 

[Marc1]

Thanks, I am familiar with it. Truthfully though, I am very unimpressed with it. For that price, the interior is very simple. I also would not pay that much for a camper that was not walk through. I assume the email address you left is yours, and therefore you work for that company. I do not think it is appropriate for you to solicit in this thread. I am looking for feedback from users, not sellers. You should have sent me a P.M.

Tom you are incorrect and shouldn't jump to conclusions. I am not the owner and the link I left is to the owner/builder of the company. I am not soliiciting but was trying to show you another option. I have owned both Alasksns and untill recently an ATC camper, both off road capable in which I have covered tens of thousands of miles all over the western US. With this said, I know what the capabilities are of these types of rigs and the XPCamper exceeds them in all aspects. I was so impressed that I am actually having one built and will be on the road with it soon. With the knowledge you have of these types of campers you would probably be better served by buying a Lance and save yourself some $$$. Don't be so quick to react when you don't have your facts straight, and by the way, the owner of XP and I both have the same name !!!! MARC

 

[TomH]

Tom you are incorrect and shouldn't jump to conclusions. I am not the owner and the link I left is to the owner/builder of the company. I am not soliiciting but was trying to show you another option. I have owned both Alasksns and untill recently an ATC camper, both off road capable in which I have covered tens of thousands of miles all over the western US. With this said, I know what the capabilities are of these types of rigs and the XPCamper exceeds them in all aspects. I was so impressed that I am actually having one built and will be on the road with it soon. With the knowledge you have of these types of campers you would probably be better served by buying a Lance and save yourself some $$$. Don't be so quick to react when you don't have your facts straight, and by the way, the owner of XP and I both have the same name !!!! MARC

My apologies, thanks for your input. The name at the top of the post was Marc and you seemed to be personally signing off with an email address containing the name Marc and also matching the name of the company. I understood that you were not the owner, but it seemed that you were a salesperson for the company. It seemed a reasonable conclusion to draw. Again, my apologies.

In terms of the Lance, if I do go the slide in route, I prefer the pop-up so that I will have a lower profile when rough roading-going under tree limbs, and and might possibly be low enough to fit in some high rise downtown parking garages for those occasions when we go into a city and want to visit a museum or something. I prefer the hard side panels of the Alaskan to the tent canvas on other pop-ups. What were your experiences with the Alaskans? Thanks, and again my apologies.

 

[shortbusadventure]

Haven't broke mine yet!

If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up.
I like testing the limits of my tiger.

-Kevin

 

[Marc1]

My apologies, thanks for your input. The name at the top of the post was Marc and you seemed to be personally signing off with an email address containing the name Marc and also matching the name of the company. I understood that you were not the owner, but it seemed that you were a salesperson for the company. It seemed a reasonable conclusion to draw. Again, my apologies.

In terms of the Lance, if I do go the slide in route, I prefer the pop-up so that I will have a lower profile when rough roading-going under tree limbs, and and might possibly be low enough to fit in some high rise downtown parking garages for those occasions when we go into a city and want to visit a museum or something. I prefer the hard side panels of the Alaskan to the tent canvas on other pop-ups. What were your experiences with the Alaskans? Thanks, and again my apologies.

Tom, no worries. What is neat about the XP is that the interior finish will be a little different from camper to camper, since they are all semi custom builds. Mine is going to be finished off in a Traditional Herreshoff Style Yacht look which is clean and simple, yet elegant at the same time. The XP has alot going for it, double insulated acrylic windows with built in sun shades and screens, Webasto diesle powered heat and hot water, insulated tankage, remote controlled hydraulic system that raises the top in ten seconds, Blue Seas Marine control panel for power management etc, etc. There is also an option for hard sided panels for the forward cab over. I am working on a full build write-up with pics to be presented in the future.

marc :ylsmoke:

 

[TomH]

If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up.
I like testing the limits of my tiger.

-Kevin

Kevin,

Thanks very much for your reply. I have read your entire thread. What a great adventure, but am so sad things ended the way they did. I really would like to know more about the limits to which you have pushed the Tiger. I see the pics of the mountain roads, but no big holes, boulders to go over, etc. What's the roughest stuff you've done in it? Are all the upgrades you've done listed in your thread?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[shortbusadventure]

Kevin,

Thanks very much for your reply. I have read your entire thread. What a great adventure, but am so sad things ended the way they did. I really would like to know more about the limits to which you have pushed the Tiger. I see the pics of the mountain roads, but no big holes, boulders to go over, etc. What's the roughest stuff you've done in it? Are all the upgrades you've done listed in your thread?

Thanks,
Tom

Hey Tom,

I did have many adventures off road that were not well documented. Many included rocks of all sizes, holes, dips, water crossings, and more. I've had many times I got into tight dead ends that I had to turn around. I have tested the articulation of the suspension pretty extensively. I climbed the back of a butte that had large off-set whoops in deep cinders with no problems at all.

I will say, that I do wish it was a single rear wheel set-up for off road instead of the dually. The suspension options and tire sizes for SRW are much better. Driving the tiger off-road is limited by the tire size and most importantly, the driver.

-Kevin

 

[TomH]

Thanks Kevin,

I know you've said that you may change out the duallys for super singles in the future. I showed my wife all the pictures of the Alaskan pop-up; she said that she started feeling claustrophobic just looking at them. We both prefer the Tiger layout to the Sportsmobile and your reports are greatly alleviate my concerns about the torsion and cracks.

Have you made any other changes or mods that aren't in your thread?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[shortbusadventure]

Hey Tom,

I will probably go with regular singles in the future for off-roading, unless I find the right super single set-up.

In regards to suspension. The front end has a Cognito 2-3" leveling kit:
http://cognitomotorsports.com/store/page36.html
Bilstein 5100 shocks all around, fronts are longer than stock to obtain full travel. HD steering components. HD front swaybar and endlinks that help the sway of the camper. HD tie rod ends. I had the rear leaf pack rebuilt, which puts the rear in the right place to keep full travel and handle additional loads.
I am looking at having a set of King Racing shocks (remote resevoirs/piggyback) custom valved for the truck. After 20-30 mins of rough roads, the Bilsteins heat up and the damping is less effective. The new shocks are going to run $1500. The bodies of the shocks are much larger, have more fluid/cooling, and can be tuned infinitely. I think that they will have the most affect on the off-road worthiness of the Tiger.

If I go to singles, I will most likely go up a little in tire size. To fit up to 35" tires, I will probably need additional lift. Because of this, I will remove the storage pod and spare tire from the roof to compensate for the height increase, and get weight lower. I have always wanted the spare mounted on the back, but it will take some decent fabrication to achieve a mount to my liking that does not interfere with storage access or my motorcycle carrier.

If I am correct, you are looking at a Ford for your platform, it and the Dodge will be easier to clear larger tires due to the solid front axles.

Hope this helps and I did not drag on to much.
-Kevin

 

[TomH]

Kevin, I've read in several places of Aluminess fabbing up custom jobs for people. I'd bet they could do a rear bumper with winch attachment, tire carrier, utility box, bike carrier, fuel rack, etc.

I've sent you a P.M. re another topic.

 

[Accrete]

Greetings TomH...from tHom on the Oregon Coast : )

I'll chime in as something you stated caught my eye:

...I showed my wife all the pictures of the Alaskan pop-up; she said that she started feeling claustrophobic just looking at them.

My wife and i visited the Alaskan shop about 4 years ago when we were in the Truck/Camper research mode. IMO, you would be pleasantly suprised and how open the AK pop-up camper is once inside. By design, most pop ups will have low cabinetry and nice window treatment all around for a very airy-open look and feel. My wife and i really enjoyed the quality also.

Also, as Marc1 stated, the XPCamper is really a nice, master-craftsman built rig and my wife and i were highly considering going down that road before we purchased our van.

...My evveeel plan worked. Bwahahahaha! Sorry but you married guys know what I mean.

Yes those evveeel plans do work! I did just about the same with a twist. We had a TACO as a daily driver for my wife, so we looked for an off-road capable trailer and purchased an Aliner EASE with the off-road package and were very pleased with the setup. THEN (setting my ePlan into action), i began asking her questions on how she would do things differently if she was the designer (she is an amazing McGirlver). In the three seasons we had the rig, she had taken it from utilizing all the built in plumbing, microwave, heater, stove, etc... to designing and utilizing such tweaks as using 3 gallon reliance water jugs so we would not have to _winterize_ the plumbing, pulling out the micro and replacing the area with shelves, not even using the heater, cooking outside, and using a 1 gallon garden sprayer for our showers heating the water on the outside stove. I could not be more pleased with all the simplicity for us and our way of camping. NOW she is all over helping incorporate simplicity and light overland style into the build of our new van.

: ) happy trails,
Thom

 

[squeezer]

My Tiger is on a 1996 Chevrolet K2500 chassis. 133 inch wheelbase standard cab. Turbo diesel 5 speed which has got to be pretty rare. The cabin is virtually identical to the current Tiger. There has been a few upgrades to finishes and such over the years but that's about it.

Chassis wise it has held up fine over the miles and some rough roads. It has been to Northern Saskatchewan and back and trust me when I tell you those roads can get rough. Not big bumps go slow Mexico type of rough but going down the road at 80MPH and hit a pot hole patch that would swallow a minivan sort of rough. And washboard gravel that makes you need your fillings fixed... No extreme twisting stuff at least not on purpose. I imagine we have seen 30 plus degrees of twist between the planes of the front and rear axles going through the odd ditch or washout.

We have stock springs, air bags, RS9000 shocks, a custom rear sway bar, and 285/75-16 tires. The bigger tires really changed the look and feel of the Tiger. Helps it float a bit better in the washboard sections. I am always adjusting tire and bag pressure to optimize the ride.

Overall I think the Tiger is well suited for any travel that originates in the US and doesn't include a shipping container.

An aside, my wife and I have had a truck mounted camper (4 Wheel Pop-up) and would never ever consider going back to a camper without a walk through. (That is not a comment of the quality of a 4WPU, it was great...)

Cheers

Chris

This is good to hear. Some follow up questions, if you don't mind. In that your Tiger is 16 years old, Provan is under different ownership, etc., what truck is your Tiger built on? (Is yours a truck or a converted Astro van?) Is the cabin fiberglass, aluminum, something else? How much driving do you do on uneven roads that cause torsion? How much on washboard roads, and how has the cabinetry, etc. taken the washboard vibration, other stresses? Is your rig reg., extended, crew cab and what's overall length? (The longer the frame, the easier for torsion to torque some twist into the frame.) I'd appreciate all the details you can give about kinds of roads you've been on, how many miles, etc. Thanks for your feedback.

 

[TomH]

Thanks for the feedback Chris.

 

[864x4rv]

Hey Kevin,

Were you driving through Oakland, Ca this morning at around 7 am? I saw this awesome white Tiger driving on HW580 towards san francisco/Sacramento. Very nice rig.

 

[billy bee]

An aside, my wife and I have had a truck mounted camper (4 Wheel Pop-up) and would never ever consider going back to a camper without a walk through.

I think this is a critical factor. I have had several different campers: A Gen 1 Dodge CTD with an Alaskan, a VW Eurovan, SMB RB30, and now a Dodge CTD with a FlipPac. I want to comment on the SMB vs. P/U truck camper debate as it relates to squeezer's comment above...but also to real off-roading.

I liked the SMB a lot and probably would not have sold it if I weren't trying to thin the herd and cut insurance and registration costs. It was loaded with furnace, hot water heater, 3-way fridge, stove, potti... Good or bad, I never had to get out of the rig to set up camp. On several occasions where I was just setting up for dinner and some sleep, I never left the van. Only in retrospect do I see the failing of that practice. I owned the van so I could get off the beaten path and camp comfortably there. In that respect, my current 2nd Gen Dodge CTD 4x4 w/FP is a much better option. More on that in a sec...

IMHO, a pick-up is a better off-roader than a van. Vans have such a high CG before lifting it to accommodate 4x4 running gear and some susp travel. The additional weight of the 4x4 running gear may actually lower the CG of a lifted van vs. a stock one. Never ran the numbers. But then you add in all the cabinetry and you get a very top-heavy rig. Unsettling in off-road situations.

The p/u-camper option, that I initially thought was a dreadful compromise to the SMB, has turned out to be a much better rig for my off-roading/camping purposes for a few reasons:

• chassis flex is a good thing--I still have very stiff rear springs on the truck. Until I can afford some Deavers that is about the only thing that gives me any rear articulation. Better springs will help immeasurably, but I will still have an additional inch of articulation out of the chassis.
• lower CG--I will actually be lowering my truck in the rear and the weight of the FP (or an Alaskan) stays (relatively) low while driving.
• no walk-through--this may sound stupid, but I have to get out in the elements to do anything, and I prefer that. Rather than having everything already set up for me in the SMB, I have to pull a few ammo cans out of the back of the Dodge to set up camp. I spend less time fiddling around in the van and more time sitting at a picnic table or on a rock. That's the real reason I want to get to remote places to camp...to be outside.

There are some other minor factors that make the p/u option much better for me. The greatest one is the flexibility I have with a p/u. I reduced my fleet from two trucks to one. Had a T100 and the SMB; now I have one vehicle that does everything I need it to do. The dogs ride in back and love it. (I don't like having the dogs in the cab with me; too distracting.) I can easily remove the FP and still have a truck for hauling. I can always sell the FP and truck separately.

Sorry for the long post. Just got carried away. And as always, YMMV.

bb