What's new at Coyote RV/Phoenix Pop up?
- Thread starter offroadcamperguy
- Start date
offroadcamperguy
Supporting Sponsor
Shell vs PULSE
Ok, here's my opinion about the shell vs fully equipped.
Vehicle performance: The trucks usually drive better with a FULLY EQUIPPED camper. That is as long as we are talking about a fully equipped that as about the length of the truck bed, not much longer, and the camper has a basic furnace, stove, sink, water tank, jacks, etc.... When you start hanging the camper a couple of feel out the back of the bed and making them a lot taller than the truck, or adding way huge refrigerators or 50 gallons of water, etc... then you're starting to get just too big.
On the other hand, we are finding that cab over pop ups with nothing in them, for some reason, do not highway very well. They tend to buck or porpoise in wind MORE THAN THE FULLY EQUIPPED UNITS!
Camper performance: Of course, we all think to ourselves "wouldn't it be great to have all the comforts of home when I get to my destination." The truth is though, what your camper gives you mostly is a nice dry space, out of the weather to store your gear, change your clothes, sleep, and eat. If you are staying for a longer period of time then a way to clean up (shower) would be nice. It doesn't take too much built in equipment to take care of these basic needs, and a shell unit, plus some portable hiking/backpacking camping gear (which most outdoors people already have) can do a good job of keeping us comfortable.
After building campers for over 25 years, I have found that people do tend to over build their rigs. But, then again, it does kinda stink when you get to your camp site and think to youself "gee, I wish I woulda brought....."
This is exactly why we build custom. I am not here to try and SELL you my idea of what I THINK you need.
You know what YOU need to be comfortable and happy.
Ok, here's my opinion about the shell vs fully equipped.
Vehicle performance: The trucks usually drive better with a FULLY EQUIPPED camper. That is as long as we are talking about a fully equipped that as about the length of the truck bed, not much longer, and the camper has a basic furnace, stove, sink, water tank, jacks, etc.... When you start hanging the camper a couple of feel out the back of the bed and making them a lot taller than the truck, or adding way huge refrigerators or 50 gallons of water, etc... then you're starting to get just too big.
On the other hand, we are finding that cab over pop ups with nothing in them, for some reason, do not highway very well. They tend to buck or porpoise in wind MORE THAN THE FULLY EQUIPPED UNITS!
Camper performance: Of course, we all think to ourselves "wouldn't it be great to have all the comforts of home when I get to my destination." The truth is though, what your camper gives you mostly is a nice dry space, out of the weather to store your gear, change your clothes, sleep, and eat. If you are staying for a longer period of time then a way to clean up (shower) would be nice. It doesn't take too much built in equipment to take care of these basic needs, and a shell unit, plus some portable hiking/backpacking camping gear (which most outdoors people already have) can do a good job of keeping us comfortable.
After building campers for over 25 years, I have found that people do tend to over build their rigs. But, then again, it does kinda stink when you get to your camp site and think to youself "gee, I wish I woulda brought....."
This is exactly why we build custom. I am not here to try and SELL you my idea of what I THINK you need.
You know what YOU need to be comfortable and happy.
NothingClever
Explorer
Well done. I congratulate you on a winning strategy!
Stinger202
New member
Here's my 2 cents on this subject:
- I choose to get a camper that is what I call a "Shell Plus". This is my 4th truck camper and is based on experience with the previous 3 campers.
- The more you include the heavier the camper is which tends to require a 3/4 ton and the extra costs associated therein.
- Phoenix built me a custom 8 foot camper that has only a few items; reefer, dinette, cassette toilet, fore to aft bed over the cab. I purposely do not have any water in the camper based on leaks with the previoius 3. Remaining space in camper is used for storage of cloths and personal items.
- I also did not have any cooking capability inside because we have found that we do all of this activity outside. I pull a small trailer behind our rig and on that I have storage capability for portable kitchen, cooking stove, propane, hot water shower, water jugs, Gheenoe, bikes, Kayaks.
- We use portable heater to warm the camper.
Hope that this info gives you an idea of what you can do with a "Shell Plus" type of camper.
Stinger202
- I choose to get a camper that is what I call a "Shell Plus". This is my 4th truck camper and is based on experience with the previous 3 campers.
- The more you include the heavier the camper is which tends to require a 3/4 ton and the extra costs associated therein.
- Phoenix built me a custom 8 foot camper that has only a few items; reefer, dinette, cassette toilet, fore to aft bed over the cab. I purposely do not have any water in the camper based on leaks with the previoius 3. Remaining space in camper is used for storage of cloths and personal items.
- I also did not have any cooking capability inside because we have found that we do all of this activity outside. I pull a small trailer behind our rig and on that I have storage capability for portable kitchen, cooking stove, propane, hot water shower, water jugs, Gheenoe, bikes, Kayaks.
- We use portable heater to warm the camper.
Hope that this info gives you an idea of what you can do with a "Shell Plus" type of camper.
Stinger202
offroadcamperguy
Supporting Sponsor
mileage change on camper installation
Hi whybother,
It's still a little bit of a mystery why the empty units tend to buck in heavy wind, more than fully equipped ones, but I suspect that the sheer size of the newly increased face of the rig does not "match" the mass of the overall rig, and therefore is more easily tossed around by the currents. Analogy: Try to skip a big fat rock accross the top of water and it easily dives in instead. I think this is how a heavier truck/camper rig bashes through wind without "feeling" like it is hitting the resistance of the gusts. The resistance is sure there, but is disguesed by the sheer force of the heavy object more easily breaking through it. Just a guess.
My customers report an average of 2 - 4 mpg decrease when adding their pop up campers. It doesn't seam to make much difference at all whether the unit weighs 500lbs or 1000lbs really. Where the real difference comes in is what the truck performed like, BEFORE adding the camper. Big deisel truck with tons of extra power, hardly any change vs 4 banger gas carberator truck, sometimes up to 5 miles per gallon change. Once you add the cab over, NO MATTER HOW LONG OR TALL, you have a wind dam, and on the highway you will lose some mileage. In fact, I had a customer who had a toyota Yaris as their "little car" and it normally got like 30 mpg, but when they carried their 20 lb bicycles on the roof rack, the mileage dropped to UNDER 20 MPG!!!
This is why we now try to build the majority of our campers with the sculpted fiberglass aerodynamic cab overs. It will still catch some wind, but not nearly as much, plus it sends most of that wind over and around the cab over and camper.
Hi whybother,
It's still a little bit of a mystery why the empty units tend to buck in heavy wind, more than fully equipped ones, but I suspect that the sheer size of the newly increased face of the rig does not "match" the mass of the overall rig, and therefore is more easily tossed around by the currents. Analogy: Try to skip a big fat rock accross the top of water and it easily dives in instead. I think this is how a heavier truck/camper rig bashes through wind without "feeling" like it is hitting the resistance of the gusts. The resistance is sure there, but is disguesed by the sheer force of the heavy object more easily breaking through it. Just a guess.
My customers report an average of 2 - 4 mpg decrease when adding their pop up campers. It doesn't seam to make much difference at all whether the unit weighs 500lbs or 1000lbs really. Where the real difference comes in is what the truck performed like, BEFORE adding the camper. Big deisel truck with tons of extra power, hardly any change vs 4 banger gas carberator truck, sometimes up to 5 miles per gallon change. Once you add the cab over, NO MATTER HOW LONG OR TALL, you have a wind dam, and on the highway you will lose some mileage. In fact, I had a customer who had a toyota Yaris as their "little car" and it normally got like 30 mpg, but when they carried their 20 lb bicycles on the roof rack, the mileage dropped to UNDER 20 MPG!!!
This is why we now try to build the majority of our campers with the sculpted fiberglass aerodynamic cab overs. It will still catch some wind, but not nearly as much, plus it sends most of that wind over and around the cab over and camper.
offroadcamperguy
Supporting Sponsor
Raptor Custom
Next Raptor custom P.U.L.S.E. goes over to the paint shop tomorrow for a full paint job... can't wait to see it done!
Next Raptor custom P.U.L.S.E. goes over to the paint shop tomorrow for a full paint job... can't wait to see it done!
Some pics of my new Phoenix Camper built by Robby at Coyote RV and made for the Canadian winter. I don't know of any other manufactureer that will build a camper with 2" of insulation, 4 layer soft wall pop up, 20k btu furnace with a heat duct to the shower stall for very warm showers and the stall also doubles as a dry room for wet ski gear.
Attachments
Nice rig. How cold has it been inside and outside overnight? What's your interior layout like? How big is your shower stall?
offroadcamperguy
Supporting Sponsor
Raptor Pop Up WOW!
What an ending to a CRAZY month... We've been pushing hard to meet our customer's requested finish/install dates. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED... Today we installed two great campers!
10' F350 Long Bed King Cab custom PULSE. This beauty is low profile enough to fit in the customer's garage, plus it has so many great requested extras, like:
*20"x20" escape hatch out the roof, so he can climb up on top and take photos of off-road racing.
*Ladder to the roof.
*Extra low profile, to fit in his garage, with under bed auto lift storage and automatic push button adjustable queen size air mattress.
*Hot water, shower, and cassette toilet.
*Tail light skirts with exterior sotrage.
*Truckin' Awn... rear door cover awning.
*20" high-def drop screen DVD/TV.
*AM/FM stereo with CD and MP3.
*Custom upholstery.
*Extreme extended cab over with front to back sleeper.
*City water hook up.
*Extra windows in the insulated pop up liner (total 7 windows).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011 F150 Raptor Crew Cab, with some great selections:
*Custom molten orange tri-stage paint job.
*Raptor Ford Graphics
*Extra low profile, with under bed storage, and push button air mattress.
*Special length, so tail gate will shut.
*Full set of PULSE features, like refrigerator, double sinks, stove, jacks, etc..
Phoenix Pop up Raptor interior:
Phoenix Pop up Quality Interior:
Raptor Pop up:
Off Road Pop up Camper:
Phoenix Pop Up F150 Raptor
SVT Raptor Camper
F150 Raptor off road Pop up
Off Road Camper by Pheonix Pop Up
Pop up camper Raptor
Best Raptor fit Pop up Camper
Pop up Camper Phoenix pop up
What an ending to a CRAZY month... We've been pushing hard to meet our customer's requested finish/install dates. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED... Today we installed two great campers!
10' F350 Long Bed King Cab custom PULSE. This beauty is low profile enough to fit in the customer's garage, plus it has so many great requested extras, like:
*20"x20" escape hatch out the roof, so he can climb up on top and take photos of off-road racing.
*Ladder to the roof.
*Extra low profile, to fit in his garage, with under bed auto lift storage and automatic push button adjustable queen size air mattress.
*Hot water, shower, and cassette toilet.
*Tail light skirts with exterior sotrage.
*Truckin' Awn... rear door cover awning.
*20" high-def drop screen DVD/TV.
*AM/FM stereo with CD and MP3.
*Custom upholstery.
*Extreme extended cab over with front to back sleeper.
*City water hook up.
*Extra windows in the insulated pop up liner (total 7 windows).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011 F150 Raptor Crew Cab, with some great selections:
*Custom molten orange tri-stage paint job.
*Raptor Ford Graphics
*Extra low profile, with under bed storage, and push button air mattress.
*Special length, so tail gate will shut.
*Full set of PULSE features, like refrigerator, double sinks, stove, jacks, etc..
Phoenix Pop up Raptor interior:
Phoenix Pop up Quality Interior:
Raptor Pop up:
Off Road Pop up Camper:
Phoenix Pop Up F150 Raptor
SVT Raptor Camper
F150 Raptor off road Pop up
Off Road Camper by Pheonix Pop Up
Pop up camper Raptor
Best Raptor fit Pop up Camper
Pop up Camper Phoenix pop up
Last edited:
Northern Explorer
Explorer
I like the color match.
