Well, kinda going a differnt route this time.

[deminimis]

This

plus this

makes me one happy hombre.

All I needed was an outside shower and ended up with a dry bath

This damn camper has more goodies than our house.

 

[ujoint]

Nice! Rollin in style!

 

[deminimis]

Thanks. As you know, the coolness factor is way down from the van. Couldn't go anywhere without folks going apesh*t over the van. Loved my van. However, with four of us, after a couple of weeks in Baja, it was just too crowded. And, as our house sitter explained when we returned from our last Baja adventure, we pretty much had our stink on. A real shower (outside or in), will be a welcome feature for us and those we encounter.

 

[ujoint]

You can make that dually stand out, maybe not as much as the SMB, but it's possible!

At least you don't have to answer crazy questions anymore!

 

[bronconut]

I run close to the same type of rig, our slide in has slide outs on both side and we get lots of questions. I've taken it on some county type roads but would never even think about taking it off road. You'll love the dry bath it's nice to be clean after playing in the dirt.

 

[deminimis]

Well, drove 2200 miles over the past 2.5 days, braved -33(f) degrees crossing the Conti Divide during record lows (missed the -33 shot) and froze my butt off sleeping in my pickup in a RV dealer parking lot at 2:30AM with -16 temps. Final result is I now have the Bigfoot in my grubby little mits (and home). This thing is freak'n huge. I really didn't think it was going to be this big. I mean, damn its big. The dually proved itself on this trip. There were some nuke'n winds, but the truck handle this giant fiberglass sail just fine.

 

[stimpy13]

Wow that thing is huge. More pics when it warms up some. Looks like they cut a 5th wheeler in half.

 

[Jeep]

We had the exact camper, you will love the dry bath! Very high quality unit.

 

[deminimis]

Stimpy, you are right. It does look like half of a 5th wheeler. Although its huge, it not that noticeable on the back of the dually. We'll give it a go and see how it works out. Wife and kids love it. It probably makes more sense than out Sportsmobile did. We do our off-roading on a buggy or dirt bikes. Really didn't use the Sporty for off-roading. I mean, we got into some hard to access areas using the Sporty, but we weren't out rock crawling or racing the Baja with it. This will make a better base camp from which we'll do the off-roading/exploring on the appropriate tool. The test will be in March when we see how it holds up after several hundreds of miles of Baja washboard.

Thanks Jeep, but not sold on the dry bath just yet. If I had ordered it from the factory, I would have opted for more storage and a wet bath. Heck, I'm happy if I get an outdoor shower, so this is pretty high brow for me. Guessing I can get used to it without too much difficulty.

 

[Rhode Trip]

My Northern Lite is very similar to the layout of the Bigfoot 2500 series, except it has a slide out pantry and wet bath.

 

[deminimis]

Has anyone come up with a slide or other idea to get the rear jacks up and out of the way? Since the rear of the camper is so far out there, looks like the slightest incline and I'd rip the rear jacks clean off (Happy Jacks won't be so happy). Its only three bolts and I have room to store them (would have the fashion a quick connect for the wires), but if there was something easier, that would be a bonus.

 

[ntsqd]

Can likely use Weatherpack connectors for the wiring. If the current is huge, then I'd suggest going with the smallest version of the Anderson connectors.

Drill a hole above each existing hole in the jack mounts big enough for the bolt heads to slip through. Mind your spacing, needs to be the same distance exactly or use rather large holes. Then slot the original holes up to the newly drilled holes.

To be ideal you'd put a heavy flat washer under the bolt heads followed by a thin tube spacer that is *slightly* longer than the jack's mount plate thickness and another heavy flat washer. Torque those tight onto the camper, and make sure that the slots & original holes in the jacks clear the spacer tubes by a tiny bit.

 

[deminimis]

Thanks ntsqd. I need to come up with something. I think my upper bolts are near the top of the mount already. I suppose since it wouldnt' be carrying a load, two bolts would be all that's needed when up and out of the way. In fact, now that I think about it, I suspect all bolt holes are equally spaced. Thus, perhaps I can just unbolt, just raise it up and secure the lower two bolts through the upper two mount holes. I'll have to check that out when I get home. Might be enough to get it out of the way.

Rhode, me likes your light setup. Please tell me more (bracket, wiring).

Time to get the checkbook out. I definitely need a larger fuel tank (Transfer Flow) and need to get my front end up (Cognito). Not only that, its time for an Extreme Air compressor. I'd better get cracking as Baja is only two months away!

 

[brianjwilson]

Nice camper!
Definitely look into upgraded tie rod ends for that truck. I have seen so many broken tie-rod ends on late model chevy trucks, and I understand there are a few companies out there offering more heavy duty parts.

 

[deminimis]

Thanks BJ. Going to order the Cognito kit with new, meaty rods, pitman arm support, Bilsteins and so forth. Should hold help well. Not as well as my Sporty did with the Pro Rock front axle and Bilstein 7100 rezies all 'round, but more than adequate, I hope.