mog
Kodiak Buckaroo
Unofficial Fuso Host Outback Camper Review (both the original & new triple slide-out)
Lets get the disclaimer out of the way.
This is an UNOFFICAL review. I’m not a professional like Scott or any of the other Expo members who do these review routinely This was a last minute “hey can we stop by” visit, so nothing was prepared (aka: no dog & pony show). And while Randall say it was fine to give specs, prices, etc, I WAS NOT taking notes, so I’m sure some of my numbers will be OFF. So please don’t quote me, this is just a man-on-the-street review.-
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I when up to Bend Oregon last week to help John Rhetts with his Uber-Fuso (one of two 4x4 Fuso FMs), see his awesome rig and learn many outstanding build and system ideas from him.
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We took a trip over to EarthCruiser and Host Campers who are based in Bend Oregon. No EarthCruisers were to be found, but Randall Pozzi the General Manager with Host Campers gave us a great tour of Host’s build facility. Also access to his top secret files on his computer and the in camper experiences with both the Outback 1 and ‘you can order it now’ Outback 2 campers. Also I was able to have a ‘in-town’ test drive of a Outback 1 mounted on a ready to go Fuso FG (owned by EarthCruiser) in Bend.
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First a huge thanks to Randall. He dropped everything and spent over 3 hours with John and I. He knew neither of us were in the market to buy a Host camper at this time (we drove over in John’s Uber-Fuso), but none the less treated us as if we were signing a contract for 10 units. An indication of what I expect is great before and after customer service from Host Campers.
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If you have followed posts on the Expo Portal here about the Host's Outback camper you will know the Outback 1 is a single partial side-out, rear door, fixed roof camper, mount to the Mitsubishi Fuso (they will mount to a 2x4 FE, or 4x4 FG) truck. This is the camper I drove.
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But I want to get right to the new Outback 2 (this is the one I want). The Outback 2 has 3 slide-outs! Two full length (yes both sides slide-out the full length of the camper) and a rear slide-out. One word WOW ! I joked with Randall and John that if you had blindfolded me and brought me into the Outback 2 without seeing the outside, I would be describing to the FBI that my kidnappers held me in a Class A motorhome. One side slides out 20 inches, and the other side slides out 22 inches. Add that to the 84” the camper is closed and you have a whopping 126” width when in camping mode (don’t forget that disclaimer about,). Very very impressive. I’ll let Randall post the floor plan as all I have is a printed version of that. BTW, it has a side entrance door. Now I know you wondering, will those slide-outs hold up off-road. Hey, for some reason Randall would not let me have EarthCruiser’s truck and camper for 3 weeks for me to test this out, but both John and I were very impressed with the slide-out tracks. They were super beefy to say the least, with a great design. The rollers are completely captured in the tracks, so there is 100% no way the tracks, roller etc can part ways, or become misaligned. An outstanding design. The gear drive is all metal, no plastic and is huge. Again, I’m no engineer, but my man-on-the-street impression is you would have to do something stupid to mess this system up. All the slide-outs have triple seals. A rubber ‘flapper’ seal on the outside, another rubber ‘flapper’ seal on the inside and a rubber bulb seal on the outside. In addition standard fabric ‘awnings’ protect the slide-out tops from rain, leaves, snow etc.
-
Build of the Outback 1 and 2 campers. These are built in-house at Host along with campers for standard pick-up trucks. The walls are aluminum square tubing 100% welded. They are hand welded on jigs (no robots) and the welds are beautiful, with great penetration and pattern. Another impressive thing is that all the opening in the walls (windows) are 100% framed with the same wall tubing. Top, bottom, sides and even to the extent that they weld curved aluminum flat stock to follow the curves of the corners were the widows will be installed. A great attend to detail and I’m sure makes for a strong frame. I believe the side wall tubing is ¾” by 1” or 1”.5 inch square tubing. Randall pointed out that the Host campers for the Fuso get huge and thick floor tubing (I think 1.5” x 3.0” with 1/8” or 1/4” wall thickness, on 12” centers).
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Once the frame is constructed, the outer layer of FRP (Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic) that comes already laminated to 1/8” ply is glued to the frame. Styrofoam insulation is inserted into all the opening, glues is applied, the inner wall is attached and the whole wall going into a vacuum press to bond everything together, under vacuum. Randall pointed out that all their material come in to the facilty ‘full size’, so nothing is pieced together, were seams might show or effect strength. It was impressive to see a 20 foot long by 8 foot wide sheet of plywood (I’m betting they don’t pick those up at Home Depot).
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The layout is nice. When closed (both the Outback 1 and Outback 2) the bed up front is 100% useable and is accessible from the cab via a nice sized crawl through. The camper can be opened and closed from either a switch at the rear door OR from the bed area. So say it is pouring rain outside or the zombie apocalypse happen while you were asleep, you can simple crawl out of bed into the cab, hit the ‘close switch’ and drive off, not needing to go outside to operate any switches or flip any latches. When closed the area other then the bed is all together, aka: maximum use of space or "you are not getting in there". It has been mentioned in prior posts, wondering if the back would be useable closed for a quick lunch stop, use the toilet, etc, the answer is no. But I would guess it takes less then 10-20 seconds (the Outback 1 and 2 seem to deploy in the same amount of time) to deploy the side(s), so I don’t see a downside to that. I would much rather have the space used fully then worry about an extra 10 seconds before I could start making my sandwich.
-
Price. Now since I’m not related to any company, not a salesman, etc, etc (remember just a man-on-the-street) I don’t have to be political correct and I can say… If you don’t like the price, don’t buy one. BUT do not bit*h here and say “wah-wah it costs too much, I could build it cheaper, how come they charge so much”, etc. I’m sure Host has figured out what it costs them, factoring in materials, labor, development, advertising and something every business needs, a profit margin. Randall indicated that the Outback 1 and 2 would be about $145,000 to $185,000 depending on model and options. And that of course includes the new Fuso FG that are about $43-45,000 from Mitsubishi. Host will work with the buyer as far as changes such as equipment, but some things like layout have to stay the same. Also Host will install an Outback camper on a Fuso you provide. But they must do the installation to make sure it is done correctly (so no shipping a camper to you, for you to install yourself).
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Feel free to ask questions in the thread and I’m sure Randall can give you more accurate answers then my poor memory has provided.
-
You can contact Randall Pozzi at Host Campers at rpozzi@hostcampers.com or 541-330-2328 ext#6
-
A review of the new Fuso FG truck will follow.
Lets get the disclaimer out of the way.
This is an UNOFFICAL review. I’m not a professional like Scott or any of the other Expo members who do these review routinely This was a last minute “hey can we stop by” visit, so nothing was prepared (aka: no dog & pony show). And while Randall say it was fine to give specs, prices, etc, I WAS NOT taking notes, so I’m sure some of my numbers will be OFF. So please don’t quote me, this is just a man-on-the-street review.-
-
I when up to Bend Oregon last week to help John Rhetts with his Uber-Fuso (one of two 4x4 Fuso FMs), see his awesome rig and learn many outstanding build and system ideas from him.
-
We took a trip over to EarthCruiser and Host Campers who are based in Bend Oregon. No EarthCruisers were to be found, but Randall Pozzi the General Manager with Host Campers gave us a great tour of Host’s build facility. Also access to his top secret files on his computer and the in camper experiences with both the Outback 1 and ‘you can order it now’ Outback 2 campers. Also I was able to have a ‘in-town’ test drive of a Outback 1 mounted on a ready to go Fuso FG (owned by EarthCruiser) in Bend.
-
First a huge thanks to Randall. He dropped everything and spent over 3 hours with John and I. He knew neither of us were in the market to buy a Host camper at this time (we drove over in John’s Uber-Fuso), but none the less treated us as if we were signing a contract for 10 units. An indication of what I expect is great before and after customer service from Host Campers.
-
If you have followed posts on the Expo Portal here about the Host's Outback camper you will know the Outback 1 is a single partial side-out, rear door, fixed roof camper, mount to the Mitsubishi Fuso (they will mount to a 2x4 FE, or 4x4 FG) truck. This is the camper I drove.
-
But I want to get right to the new Outback 2 (this is the one I want). The Outback 2 has 3 slide-outs! Two full length (yes both sides slide-out the full length of the camper) and a rear slide-out. One word WOW ! I joked with Randall and John that if you had blindfolded me and brought me into the Outback 2 without seeing the outside, I would be describing to the FBI that my kidnappers held me in a Class A motorhome. One side slides out 20 inches, and the other side slides out 22 inches. Add that to the 84” the camper is closed and you have a whopping 126” width when in camping mode (don’t forget that disclaimer about,). Very very impressive. I’ll let Randall post the floor plan as all I have is a printed version of that. BTW, it has a side entrance door. Now I know you wondering, will those slide-outs hold up off-road. Hey, for some reason Randall would not let me have EarthCruiser’s truck and camper for 3 weeks for me to test this out, but both John and I were very impressed with the slide-out tracks. They were super beefy to say the least, with a great design. The rollers are completely captured in the tracks, so there is 100% no way the tracks, roller etc can part ways, or become misaligned. An outstanding design. The gear drive is all metal, no plastic and is huge. Again, I’m no engineer, but my man-on-the-street impression is you would have to do something stupid to mess this system up. All the slide-outs have triple seals. A rubber ‘flapper’ seal on the outside, another rubber ‘flapper’ seal on the inside and a rubber bulb seal on the outside. In addition standard fabric ‘awnings’ protect the slide-out tops from rain, leaves, snow etc.
-
Build of the Outback 1 and 2 campers. These are built in-house at Host along with campers for standard pick-up trucks. The walls are aluminum square tubing 100% welded. They are hand welded on jigs (no robots) and the welds are beautiful, with great penetration and pattern. Another impressive thing is that all the opening in the walls (windows) are 100% framed with the same wall tubing. Top, bottom, sides and even to the extent that they weld curved aluminum flat stock to follow the curves of the corners were the widows will be installed. A great attend to detail and I’m sure makes for a strong frame. I believe the side wall tubing is ¾” by 1” or 1”.5 inch square tubing. Randall pointed out that the Host campers for the Fuso get huge and thick floor tubing (I think 1.5” x 3.0” with 1/8” or 1/4” wall thickness, on 12” centers).
-
Once the frame is constructed, the outer layer of FRP (Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic) that comes already laminated to 1/8” ply is glued to the frame. Styrofoam insulation is inserted into all the opening, glues is applied, the inner wall is attached and the whole wall going into a vacuum press to bond everything together, under vacuum. Randall pointed out that all their material come in to the facilty ‘full size’, so nothing is pieced together, were seams might show or effect strength. It was impressive to see a 20 foot long by 8 foot wide sheet of plywood (I’m betting they don’t pick those up at Home Depot).
-
The layout is nice. When closed (both the Outback 1 and Outback 2) the bed up front is 100% useable and is accessible from the cab via a nice sized crawl through. The camper can be opened and closed from either a switch at the rear door OR from the bed area. So say it is pouring rain outside or the zombie apocalypse happen while you were asleep, you can simple crawl out of bed into the cab, hit the ‘close switch’ and drive off, not needing to go outside to operate any switches or flip any latches. When closed the area other then the bed is all together, aka: maximum use of space or "you are not getting in there". It has been mentioned in prior posts, wondering if the back would be useable closed for a quick lunch stop, use the toilet, etc, the answer is no. But I would guess it takes less then 10-20 seconds (the Outback 1 and 2 seem to deploy in the same amount of time) to deploy the side(s), so I don’t see a downside to that. I would much rather have the space used fully then worry about an extra 10 seconds before I could start making my sandwich.
-
Price. Now since I’m not related to any company, not a salesman, etc, etc (remember just a man-on-the-street) I don’t have to be political correct and I can say… If you don’t like the price, don’t buy one. BUT do not bit*h here and say “wah-wah it costs too much, I could build it cheaper, how come they charge so much”, etc. I’m sure Host has figured out what it costs them, factoring in materials, labor, development, advertising and something every business needs, a profit margin. Randall indicated that the Outback 1 and 2 would be about $145,000 to $185,000 depending on model and options. And that of course includes the new Fuso FG that are about $43-45,000 from Mitsubishi. Host will work with the buyer as far as changes such as equipment, but some things like layout have to stay the same. Also Host will install an Outback camper on a Fuso you provide. But they must do the installation to make sure it is done correctly (so no shipping a camper to you, for you to install yourself).
-
Feel free to ask questions in the thread and I’m sure Randall can give you more accurate answers then my poor memory has provided.
-
You can contact Randall Pozzi at Host Campers at rpozzi@hostcampers.com or 541-330-2328 ext#6
-
A review of the new Fuso FG truck will follow.
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