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Hi folks, hopefully there's still enough of you reading this thread to give me a bit of guidance. I've got a family of four, two 4.5 year olds, and a regular sized dog and a small dog. My wife (and myself, but more importantly my wife) are interested in getting some form of camper to start spending more weekends away from home and taking advantage of the copious open space near and not so near to home. We've spent a lot of time talking and a fair amount of time researching, and now a bit of time today driving around looking at stuff, and I think we're leaning pretty heavily towards a truck camper, though also considered and looked at smaller travel trailers. We're not going to be living in it, and expect to mostly be taking short (weekend+) trips, and so we don't feel like we need something terribly large. We have a truck already, though it's an F-150 so we'd be looking to upgrade that which is  but there are other things we would like a bigger truck for anyway. We live in the mountains (Sierra), so we are pretty close to a lot of places we can get out there and specifically have a lot of interest in some of the more boondocking side of things, hence interest in the truck camper over the travel trailer, which I'd be a bit more hesitant taking a lot of places.First, the camper. We are eyeing the Lance 855s, which has a slideout dinette with an optional bunk above it, and fits into a short bed, which would be great as my kids are stoked about bunk beds and that would also mean they wouldn't _have_ to share one. We went to a Lance dealer today and liked what we saw (865, 850, though they didn't have an 855 on the lot). Questions regarding that: - are there any other similar truck campers that I should be looking at? (space for 4, ideally three separate sleeping spaces, fits in a short bed) - are there any particular features or options I should be really looking to get and/or avoid, specifically considering intended use (weekend drives out into the woods, maybe an occasional winter ski trip to Mammoth or further away spots)? - what am I not asking that I should be asking? Second, the truck. We like the F-150, we test drove an F-350 and liked that. We poked at some Rams and some Sierra HDs and they seemed okay, but overall probably preferred the Ford though not married to that. What, specific to truck campering, should we look out for there? Gun to my head, if I were ordering one now, I'd get an F-350 crew cab short bed lariat 4x4. 4x4, short bed, and crew cab are hard requirements for us, I think (winter necessitates 4x4, kids and dogs necessitate crew cab, and I just don't think we want to have to deal with driving a crew cab long bed around). Would the FX4 or Tremor package be good or bad ideas, given interest in getting off the beaten path a bit? I haven't had any issues with our F-150 with the base offroad package here and some ~33" KO2s, but not sure how much the bigger truck plus load would change that. Seems like maybe the FX4 is maybe a bit useless, and the Tremor might negatively impact payload rating too much? Or just make center of gravity a bit too high? I'd want to take the camper off and on fairly frequently, rather than just leaving it on. How hard is it with all the electronics these days to deal with this? (Including, like, removing a tailgate that probably has a bunch of cameras in it). I'm guessing that removing the tailgate and slapping a giant camper on the back totally wrecks all the fancy 360 camera stuff? Or maybe just puts a blind-spot in it? Also curious about the engine options; it seems like capability wise any of them would be fine for us; the diesel is expensive and overkill probably but also seems like it maintains value the best and might have the least impact on fuel efficiency when loaded, so might still be a smart buy? Pretty excited about the whole idea, to be honest, and my wife even more so. And it was awesome to take the kids along to see some campers, they were off the wall. Thanks in advance for any help, and excited to be maybe joining you all in your adventures this summer. Steve French fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Mar 13, 2022 |
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Mar 13, 2022 04:29
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Thanks, that's all really helpful. I guess I wasn't clear in my post; definitely not considering keeping the F-150 for a truck camper, if we got a truck camper we'd be getting a 1 ton for sure. I don't love the idea of a dually, but maybe I should reconsider it if it'll remove any question of the truck's ability to do what we want. Why go DRW with the diesel though? Is it heavier than the 7.3? (edit: okay yeah looking at Ford's spec sheets looks like the 6.7 adds about 700 lbs to curb weight over the 7.3... that's a good bit more than I would have expected) Thanks for the pointers on other brands, I'll check them out. Steve French fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Mar 13, 2022 |
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Mar 13, 2022 17:37
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cursedshitbox posted:7.3 weighs in at 540lb. Gotcha, thanks. Interestingly, playing around with the Ford build tool, there's a 10k GVWR package and a 11.4k GVWR package, and for crew-cab short bed, the latter is only available with the 6.7. I of course have no idea why, but seems to me that 11.4k even with the heavier 6.7 would have a higher payload rating than 10k with the lighter 7.3? Not sure if there are other configurations that end up with more with the gas. This doc indicates you can configure a 4x4 crew cab short box to end up with 11.3 GVWR and payload rating of 4460 lbs, but not clear to me how to end up with that combo. At any rate, you've given me something to think about with the DRW, stability seems like a pretty compelling justification. Just hesitant that for non-camping trips it might be a bit much to manage as a family vehicle without a good middle ground between that and our sedan.
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Mar 13, 2022 18:20
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cursedshitbox posted:No f350 should be used as a daily imo. When I say family vehicle, I don't mean daily driver; we don't drive daily as we both work from home. "Family vehicle" means what we would take if going on a trip with all the kids and dogs. I understand that GVWR and payload are different, my understanding was that generally GVWR - curb weight = payload capacity, hence my confusion around the GVWR packages where the higher GVWR of 11.3k with the diesel would result in a higher payload capacity than GVWR of 10k, despite the added curb weight (since the curb weight difference is < 1300 lbs). If that math isn't right, I'd love to know. That said, seeing that it's a downgrade I understand a bit better, so not worries on that particular point. At any rate, looking a bit closer at Lance's options, I think we might go for one of the lighter campers anyway; we were mostly interested in the 855s because of the bunk over the dinette, so that there were 3 different sleeping spaces, not that we really felt like the slideout was needed. Looking further, we had missed that it's an _option_ on the 855s, but standard on the 850 and 865, and we stood in an 850 yesterday and felt pretty good about it. I'm certainly much more comfortable wading into this without pushing the limits of the vehicle, so I'm thinking we will likely go for the lighter campers with a bit less space given our goals.
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Mar 13, 2022 19:41
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Given the availability situation of both campers and trucks, we're leaning towards being patient and just ordering what we want and waiting at this point. Leaning towards custom ordering an F350 Lariat, crew cab, short bed, 4x4, with 7.3L, 4.3 rear, camper prep package, and not too much additional stuff (value package basically). From pinging a bunch of dealers with somewhat similar trucks available and asking for GVWR/payload ratings on them, it seems like that would get us in the ballpark of 4k lbs payload. A Lance 850 with standard equipment is 2700lbs, which seems like a decent amount of headroom for wet weight plus people and gear? This is a pretty interesting thing to dig into, since it seems quite clear (both explicitly and implicitly) that a bunch of truck camper users and manufacturers sort of ignore GVWR? The 855s for example with a dry weight, before any options, of 3064 lbs, seems a bit much for a short bed SRW one ton when they seem to max out a little over 4k lbs payload rating. But yet, it's clearly designed _for_ a short bed SRW. I chatted with two Lance dealers today who basically told me that an F350, in most configurations, would be fine for basically any short bed truck camper, which was reassuring in some ways but also raised other questions (and of course I've got to imagine that they're maybe a little incentivized to sell something bigger / more expensive). On the other end of the spectrum, there's this https://www.truckcampermagazine.com/newbie-articles/match-truck-truck-camper/, where the "Fast Match" system they recommend to be conservative (take their wet weight listing and add 1k lbs buffer for a desired payload rating) would put not only the 855s (4034 + 1k lbs) but even the 850 out of reach (3611 + 1k lbs) for basically any short bed truck, which seems ridiculous since that's what they're supposedly meant for? One of the dealers recommended against the 865 for the F350, since it's narrower and would have tighter clearance between the jacks and the bed sides, making it harder to load/unload the camper. So I'm still leaning towards an F350 short bed plus a Lance 850 or similar, and will hopefully be going to take a (another) look at one this weekend perhaps to gain confidence in it being the right size for us, but the wide disparity in guidelines I'm finding is not making this easier (nor is the fact that vehicle listings and window stickers don't include GVWR or payload ratings). Please tell me if I'm being stupid here! I think my wife will murder me if I analyze this to death and end up doing nothing.
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Mar 16, 2022 01:52
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Super helpful post. I'm a newbie at this, but thought I might be able to share some helpful information and experience from that perspective. It's surprisingly (to me) hard to figure out exactly what weights and weight ratings will be of a truck, or truck camper, before actually having them and being able to see actual rating info or weighing it yourself. If we were in (or return to) a world where you could generally find poo poo easily available without ordering it, I bet it would be easier. For us, we started with looking for an appropriate truck; we wanted something relatively new (for maybe silly reasons, creature comforts etc), but found that finding a newer used 1 ton equipped the way we wanted was really challenging (mostly diesels, often more expensive than MSRP for what we would order for ourselves). Not only that, but of course listings don't usually include payload ratings so that adds extra friction to finding a suitable truck. We ended up just ordering a new truck; 2022 F350 SRW crew cab short bed, and a Lance 855s camper. Truck arrive finally in September, the camper is "any day now". Advertised base dry weight of the camper is 3064 lbs. It is a mystery what the actual dry weight of the camper as ordered will be. GVWR of the truck is 11300 lbs (that much we were able to anticipate when ordering the truck). Payload rating on the door sticker ended up being 4175 lbs. The truck camper certificate says the cargo weight rating is 3325 lbs. (I've seen hints that this discrepancy is simply due to the truck camper weight rating subtracting some number of pounds per passenger seat from the payload rating, but no clue if that's true, and skeptical). I was required to weigh the truck to register it in CA, and when I took it to the scales it weight out to 6940 lb, implying (as I understand it?) an inconsistency with the payload rating and that I can put 4360 lbs on it before exceeding the GVWR (dependent, of course, on how each axle is loaded) All this to say: the whole system is not terribly newbie friendly! Naturally, everyone on the Ford and Lance dealer ends assured me everything will be fine, but still apprehensive about the weight, and constantly second guessing whether I should have just gone for a bigger truck, not like I'm living in a city with tight streets or parking.
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Dec 31, 2022 05:01
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cursedshitbox posted:The difference between posted and actual is ~25 gallons of fuel, a spare + jack combo, you, etc. It's relatively close. On the difference between posted and actual... do you mean the payload capacity sticker on the truck is assuming full fuel tank, driver in truck with some assumed weight? I guess that would track; I don't recall what the fuel level in the tank was when I weighed it and I was not in the truck. I was trying to do math on the TC loading which seemed a bit strange; what would make the most sense is 170 per passenger, with 5 passengers, though with the front bench seat it seats 6. Close enough I have done some small things to the truck to help, hopefully: for one, of course got the camper package with the custom order so it has a sway bar. I also did some additional upgrades to it recommended by the camper dealer when I brought it in to have the tiedowns installed: https://www.torklift.com/rv/stableload and https://timbren.com/p-35852-active-off-road-bumpstops.html I declined the suggested superhitch magnum upgrade because I can't imagine wanting to tow anything that would exceed the capacity of a vanilla hitch extension with the camper on there.
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Dec 31, 2022 18:19
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Well, picked up the camper today. Lance 855s. About 3 months later than initially expected, and with a price increase that wasn't expected, and a 1 week delay when the dealer was doing prep / checks and realized there was a missing part on the water heater and had to get one sent out. The price increase was a bummer, but what he didn't mention at first was that it's because I got one of the first 2023 models instead of the 2022 that I'd ordered, which came with some improvements: https://www.truckcampermagazine.com/news/2023-lance-camper-updates/ And I did pay substantially below MSRP. Got the once over, had it put on the truck, and took it home. Definitely rides differently over bumps than the unloaded truck, and the chain ruts on the freeway driving back up into the mountains were more squirrely than usual, but overall felt pretty comfortable driving it. It'll take me longer to get used to all of the different systems on the thing and how to use everything, but I think I got the basics down.        This might have to go, but for the moment it amuses me:  This situation isn't ideal, but workable: 
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Jan 21, 2023 04:02
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cursedshitbox posted:Hell yes nice get. Full oven too. That's gonna rule. Be careful with the acrylic windows. They're a little fragile to scratches and such. Yeah, thanks for pointing it out! The dealer mentioned it as well and Lance left a nice big warning sheet about it on the dinette. Camper is currently parked in the sun so hopefully all the crusty snow will melt off the roof and I can check the situation up there… didn’t get a chance to really get a feel for the fan and cab over hatch and other stuff on the roof yet since it was iced over yesterday. Kids were very upset that I didn’t let them sleep in it last night
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Jan 21, 2023 18:35
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What's the story with keeping a camper warm while traveling? When I was given the run through of the camper at the dealer, it was mentioned not to run the furnace while driving (at least, I think it was). This made sense, generally, not to have a propane appliance running more or less unattended while in motion. Fridge is 3 way and would stay cold on 12V from the alternator, as I understand it, and I can't think of anything else propane powered I'd want going while driving. But it also occurs to me that in winter, driving somewhere and then wanting to occupy the camper immediately when done driving, would be a pretty big bummer to have to wait for it to warm up from who knows how cold up to a reasonable temp. Especially if the drive was started with a cold camper. It also seems like if you have just unwinterized all the water lines/tanks etc to be usable in winter, if you had a long cold drive without the furnace running you might run the risk of things freezing? Or maybe the insulation is good enough that it'd have to be a real long time in real cold temps. I didn't see anything in the camper manual about it, but the furnace manual itself does generally say not to operate any gas appliances with the vehicle in motion. I'm definitely wanting to avoid doing something stupid and dangerous, so this isn't so much me asking if I can do this anyway, but more wondering about how people go about things in the winter when transitioning from driving to campering?
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Jan 22, 2023 05:25
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Sounds good, thanks. Remember context here above is that it’s a truck camper and I’m totally new to this, so I don’t really have a sense yet of how much it takes to keep it warm (and certainly wasn’t expecting solar or alternator to do it since the furnace is propane only), and often the “setup” when I arrive somewhere is going to be pretty minimal. But I’ll just be patient and wear warm clothes.
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Jan 22, 2023 17:44
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cursedshitbox posted:Yeah for sure. I don't currently utilize alternator charging. I don't have enough solar or battery to use electric heat while underway. The few times I've stayed deep below freezing and traveled that day nothing froze. Though it was barely above freezing inside when I got to camp. All the power infrastructure in my setup is next to the plumbing which keeps everything warm. Especially after a round of morning coffee. Cool, makes sense. One of the ways I was hoping/planning on using it (though not the primary motivation for buying it) as long as I have it was as a sort of home-base for local skiing. On weekdays, wake up and drive it to the hill and alternate between working in the camper and getting some laps in, and on weekends get the kids loaded up early to beat traffic, have a spot to get ready / pack up and have breaks. In either case will be starting from overnight cold. Not worried about de-winterization so much in that case since I won't really need any of the plumbing operable, just a warm place to be out of the weather.
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Jan 22, 2023 19:06
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Snake a flex duct from a rear seat vent in the truck cabin out the rear window into the cabover done
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Jan 23, 2023 03:54
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VideoGameVet posted:Does that have a black and grey water tank? Just curious. Assuming you’re asking me, yes, 25 and 20 gallons respectively
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Jan 23, 2023 15:46
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Test run went pretty well today. Drove from ~9 to 9:30, parked, skied until 11 and then started working. Interior was already warm enough before any heat to be reasonably comfortable working while it heated up. Furnace stopped once while I was grabbing food with an error code not in the manual but started right back up again when I adjusted things and then I had to keep turning the thermostat down because it was too warm. Hoping to do a full overnight test run either boondocking or in an RV park down the hill where it’s less cold this weekend. 
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Jan 24, 2023 03:33
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Minor update: three days driving it to the resort this week. Propane heater does warm it up pretty darn good and haven’t had any issues. Truck mileage on the drives to and from has only gone down a bit, 14-15mpg (lol) to 12-13. We have a campsite reserved down the hill outta the snow for this weekend, just one night, to do a full test run with the dogs and kids and all the plumbing.
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Jan 26, 2023 04:50
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Is there a concensus on ethanol vs propylene glycol based antifreeze? Is it definitely worth seeking out the latter? I haven't tried finding it locally yet but seems like maybe only RV specialty shops carry it and not sure if there's any nearby.
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Jan 27, 2023 17:13
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:I think I've bought it at Walmart. Maybe sold as "plumbing winterizer" or such. Thanks. Local Ace as well as O'Reilly's had it, though both only a hybrid formula with ethanol and propylene glycol  Took it out for the first overnight trip with the family last night, drove a few hours to somewhere down the hill and warmer (but still not that warm, high 30s overnight I think just not freezing). The drive went well for the most part, got a lot of practice driving it on some pretty winding and hilly roads (a lot of SR 49 for those in CA), averaged about 10mpg the whole trip including coming down to ~1000 ft from ~6000 and back. The campground was super empty, and pretty when we arrived shortly before dark. No hookups or anything.    Cooking was a breeze, kids had a blast, and it stayed super warm in there. I think I had the furnace set somewhere in the high 60s and I still woke up sweating in the cabover before it got cooler closer to dawn (and then my wife got up and cracked a window). I think in the future I'll actually set the fan to auto (it has a thermostat to crack open and run if temps get too high); I don't think the furnace was running while we were roasting at night, guessing we were all just generating enough warmth with things relatively buttoned up... My daughter got up in the morning and had to go to the bathroom and couldn't open the door; I couldn't either, and then eventually we figured out that my son had gotten up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and, with his irresistible urges to gently caress with poo poo and touch wires and push buttons and flip switches, pressed the privacy lock button and locked us all out of it. Took a bit to figure that out and find something to poke the unlock hole with. I'm really pleased so far with how long the propane and battery tanks are lasting so far, too. A few days working in the camper at the ski resort with the furnace on, and then yesterday evening through late this morning with the furnace and fridge running along with cooking dinner and breakfast with the range, and I haven't dipped into the second tank yet. Batteries have barely drained and I've paid almost no attention to them; solar and alternator seem to be doing the trick keeping them charged without trying to hard to keep electricity usage down. First battery hasn't gone below 60% charge or so yet. And meanwhile someone else at the campsite was running their generator non-stop all evening and well past quiet hours... The challenges: - Truck started yelling at me intermittently about a trailer lighting module problem, and at least once when I stopped the right taillight wasn't working. It started doing this the first time when I was on a bumpier stretch of road, so hoping / wondering if it's just the connection to the truck coming a bit loose. - The campground supposedly had a dump station. We didn't touch the fresh water system because I didn't want to deal with de/rewinterizing it for a one night trip, but figured the grey and black would be straightforward: dump and throw some antifreeze in there afterwards. I couldn't find the dump station; there was no map, no signs for it, and I suspect it was hidden in the area of the campground that was closed. We only used the toilet for #1, so I decided to just dump it into a bucket at home when I got here. Strangely, basically nothing came out of either tank at first. I figured the truck was at a bit of a weird angle away from the corner with the tanks so I moved it and then got about what I expected out of the black water tank (though surprised that it made as much of a difference as it did, it was a pretty slight angle change). Somewhat paranoid that I didn't get all of the grey water out, but did my best to get out what I could and then topped off with antifreeze to keep the traps full with it. This leaves me wondering: how much of a concern is freeze damage in the black water system in the winter? Is it something that can be reasonably used without keeping the tank above freezing by liberally dumping antifreeze in there or is it still just best to always dump it between using it and any risk of sitting in freezing temps for a while? Also, this is annoying:  Moreso in CA than NV One last question: anyone happen to know whether Caltrans requires chains in R2 chain control if you've got a truck camper on and have "snow" tires on all 4 with 4x4? Their site says "When the road is posted with a sign requiring chains, all heavy-duty vehicles (over 6,500 pounds gross weight) must be equipped with chains mounted on the tires in order to proceed." But my truck without the camper is over 6500 lbs and haven't had to, thinking maybe they look at it and figure it's close enough to under 6500 lbs and let it through but might not with a camper on it.
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Jan 30, 2023 03:40
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Oh, also: very interested in recommendations anyone has in general for camper stuff, like cookware, cooking/eating things especially, or just really any products you find are fantastic versions of what they are for camper use, or that you wouldn't want to go without when using your camper.
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Jan 30, 2023 04:02
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:A medium cast iron saucepan/Dutch oven. They cook a little more evenly on small gas camping/camper stoves than other materials. Also will hold stuff warmer for a little longer when you're going in and out of the camper around mealtimes like back and forth between a picnic table. Interesting, I was figuring on some aluminum poo poo to keep weight down and have better heat conductivity over heat capacity, but I do really like cast iron. cursedshitbox posted:Do get the drop in tablets/liquid for the tanks. It really helps with aromas. I keep a box of rubber gloves in the holding tank hatch for dealing with the tanks. Yeah, I used a drop in tab for the black water; the dealer gave me a kit with the camper containing a stinky slinky, a transparent elbow adapter, fresh water hose for flushing, some of the drop in tabs, a few rolls of TP, and some disposable gloves. Good to know re: winterizing, hopefully it's all good because it was -11F this morning. Did the light check before leaving, but then the warning came on mid-journey and really getting at the connector requires partially removing the camper. I can reach in behind the cab and feel the connector, feels secure, but can't really look at it. Worried if I pulled it out to reseat I'd be able to yank it out but not get it lined up to seat it back again. tinned owl posted:Spare bulbs, not just for the outside too. Watched someone in a 1st-trip-out £70k campervan fumbling around with a headtorch because they didn't have spare interior bulbs once Spare bulbs is more challenging, I think I'll just have to trust modern technology not to fail me.  Thanks for all the tips everyone (more welcome!) I'm sure we'll start to refine our set up nicely ourselves too.
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Jan 30, 2023 21:16
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Spent another night out at a drying lake a couple hours out into Nevada last night. Generally a great little trip and I’ll share photos and some more details later but for now: driving that thing on a 2 lane 70mph highway with oncoming 18 wheelers every minute or two in gusty crosswinds was probably my least favorite driving experience to date
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Feb 6, 2023 04:03
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Okay, last weekend drove out into Nevada a bit for a night. Drove past the area where the Gigafactory is to get there, tons of huge warehouses there with wild (feral, really, I guess) horses are just hanging around loving everywhere. The BLM will pay you to adopt them. It was a pretty drive where my wife learned what I'd tried to tell her but I guess didn't leave enough of an impression: once you get out of the cities in Nevada it's not just a giant flat wasteland, it's just constant mountains and valleys. I had driven through it a number of times but never in the winter, it's a lot nicer with snow on the peaks. We camped on Walker Lake, which has had its source cut off years ago by irrigation diversion and has just been gradually shrinking for decades but is still a good size. Next to the world's largest ammo depot, which is nice. And an 11k foot peak, which isn't super high by the area's standards except that the lake is at 4k feet, so it's a bigger than typical drop. In the summer months apparently there are bighorn sheep in the area, but we didn't see any.     There was a storm back home which was part of the reason we left town, though it still got to us overnight in the form of gusty winds, which was exciting while trying to sleep but even more exciting on the drive back. It felt like the level of intensity and required focus of driving on a track, with none of the enjoyment. This weekend we got out for another night, and decided to go somewhere a little closer and get out earlier in the day. Pyramid Lake, northwest of Reno, the other end of the Truckee River (Lake Tahoe drains to it). Entirely within the Paiute reservation, permits were a bit pricier than BLM land but nicely empty aside from a lot of fishermen in the early evening.    On the way back, stopped at the CAT scales which were right off the freeway for the first time since getting the camper. With our load (including two kids and two dogs), we were right about on the dot in terms of GVWR, with a bit of wiggle room on each axle. Taking a break for a week or two while I go off on a ski trip, then hopefully organizing a trip with another family to make it a bit more social. Feeling good about the camper overall so far, and very interested to see how much of a different experience it is in the summer when we end up using the other half of the crap in it that makes no sense to use in the winter. I need to find a self serve car wash nearby with enough clearance.
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Feb 13, 2023 03:52
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In case anyone is in need or wants to make some bad decisions  
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Mar 7, 2023 02:48
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Oops Hit some unavoidable potholes today (lol roads in the sierras are turbofucked right now) and a warning came on in the truck about the wiring harness. That’d happened once before and the connector to the truck had just come loose. Thought that had happened again but was wrong…
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Mar 30, 2023 22:30
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Figured I'd do a bit of a dump of trip photos/reports and other happenings with our camper since it's been a while and I'm having a lazy afternoon thinking about camping. Our trips have all been pretty short so far, just one or two nights to places within a few hours, but it's real nice to be able to just decide to go camping on Friday or Saturday and peace out without any real plans. In late May we went for a quick trip north a couple hours to Lake Davis in the northern Sierra; booked a campground spot which ended up being the only even moderately busy campground we've stayed in so far. The lake was pretty, especially after a big snow year:  While we were hanging out by the fire that night, a deer came real close and alerted our dogs. The deer then ran _towards_ us, and tripped on some low fencing lining the campground loop, eating poo poo face first about 10 feet away. The next day, we drove north out of the campsite onto some forest roads, and quickly entered a burn scar from 2019 (Walker fire, ~55k acres)   Next trip was a two-nighter a week later, early June, down to Mammoth (where I'd never been despite being an avid skier and living in California for the better part of two decades). Awesome spring skiing spot with a camper, there's plenty of places to just pull off the main road within a few miles of the hill and dispersed camp. Stopped at Walker Burger on 395 on the way down. Good milkshakes, I can't remember the last time I'd had crinkle cut fries at a restaurant.  First night we pulled a few minutes off of 395 to the east (Mammoth is just to the west), got there pretty late after dark so didn't spend a lot of time there. Get to the right parking lot at the right time and you've got a real nice spot to hang out and get out for some skiing  This would not be my preferred spot to relax  Instead, after skiing we went to Benton Hot Springs for the second night. Each camp site has a tub. It was very nice, though a little buggy with biting gnats, and a loose dog wandering around the campsite bothering other dogs.  Had a good view of Boundary Peak, right on the CA/NV border, highest point in Nevada at just over 13k feet  The next morning we stopped by Hot Creek   The eastern sierra is real pretty.  Swung around June Lake on the way home, stopped for lunch at June Lake Brewery and a stop to throw rocks and whatever at Grant Lake on the same loop road 
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Jan 21, 2024 01:22
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A month later we went back to Mammoth for July 4th, again two nights. First, before I left the house and was maneuvering things in the driveway, I totally hosed up and scraped the camper against the corner of my garage eaves. Ripped a long tear in the slideout awning and popped the end off of it, it's basically garbage now, and tore through just a bit of the roofing material on the corner. I've patched that, and just accepted for now not having an awning over the top of the slide out (most of our camping has been in the NV desert and not really under trees or anything at all), but man that felt lovely and I've learned to be a bit more careful. On the way down, ate for lunch the best meal I've ever had from a gas station, at the Lee Vining Mobil. Found a nice spot to camp just off the loop road a 4 mile drive from the resort:  No shortage of snow  We had a late lunch at Distant Brewing in town, where we ran into someone who worked at Lance (based a few hours south in Lancaster), and asked us how we liked the camper. If he'd asked a few months later, I'd have had a very different answer for him! More on this later. Afterwards went for a short hike out to Mammoth Rock, and then Twin Lakes, where we spotted the hole in the wall, a lava tube that folks ski through off the back side of the resort   Camped in more or less the same spot that night, moved to another spot about 100 yards away with a bit of a view through the trees. We went to June Lake Brewing again the next day, this time spending a bit more time at June Lake itself, which was very pretty  Something that we noticed on this trip and the one before it that we hadn't before, is that if we ran the 3-way fridge on 12V, it would drain our battery pretty good while driving. I'm pretty sure this did not happen the first view trips, but perhaps that was only because it was colder weather and it didn't have to work as hard. Either way, it was surprising as I'd perhaps naively assumed that the power from the alternator would be sufficient to power it, but seemingly not. I'm not sure if this is normal or if there's something wrong with our setup, but I have at least found some others who have a similar issue and observed that the 12V mode on the fridge we have draws more power than can reasonably be supplied by the alternator and wiring from the truck; though supposedly Lance's proprietary connector and the wiring they require is supposed to be able to carry more. So I've switched to running it off propane pretty much always. If anyone has more knowledge or experience on this I'd love some input. That was the last trip for a while; while it was in the driveway I noticed some sagging under the back of the camper, behind the truck bed, that seemed concerning.    I had the dealer take a look at it, and they determined that Lance didn't properly attach this piece, and it allowed water to get in, causing the sagging. I dropped it off on 8/21, and they put it in for a warranty replacement. I broke my arm mountain biking the next day, so then when it started taking a really long time to get the part I wasn't that concerned at first, but then a month turned into two, and then three, and then four. Lance was extremely uncommunicative the whole time, sent him the wrong part at least once, and finally got the part in December after he had a conversation with one of the higher ups there. Pretty disappointing and lovely response from them, and it seemed it more or less boiled down to them putting all of their parts towards new campers so none were available for mine. Finally got it back two days before Christmas.
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Jan 21, 2024 01:48
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My wife was pretty eager to get out for a trip after Christmas since we finally had the thing back, so I browsed some maps for a while to find somewhere that would be plenty snow free a few hours away with a good amount of campable space out in Nevada. We settled on heading out into the Middlegate area, on US 50 between Fallon and Austin. Fallon has a large military base, Fallon Naval Air Station, where TOPGUN is based among other things. As a result there's also a lot of land around there that's dedicated to target/training ranges. We adopted a third (large, 90 lbs) dog since our last trip so this was going to be a trial for him as well as traveling with that many animals in the truck. Big boy sat in the back with one of the window seats folded up, with the two kids in their booster seats in the middle and other window seat. Middle sized boy in the passenger footwell in front of my wife, and the little lady in the middle seat. A win for getting the front bench seat that I had not anticipated.   We drove out in the afternoon, through Middlegate (population 17) and headed south, looking for a camp spot in BLM land. The first promising location had a couple stock tanks and as a result a ton of cattle roaming around; given we had three dogs with us that was not an option. The second spot was real promising with an amazing view, but then there was this sitting right kinda in the middle of it...  While we were close to the military ranges, I was pretty confident we were on BLM land (and not far from a state highway for that matter), but it was still weird enough that I didn't want to camp there (and figured it would be an attractive nuisance for my son). So we went on to the next spot, which had some really interesting rock formations, as it was getting dark. I saw some dark things scattered around the sage brush that I assumed was rusting scrap metal at first, then looked closer and saw that they were dead cows. One dead cow? Ok. Like, 15 dead cows? Not okay. Let's keep looking. Started going further down a dirt road that I was fairly confident would connect us eventually back to US 50 anyway and be reasonably drive-able in the truck, so we just started driving down that figuring we'd find somewhere eventually. Spotted another nice open spot, this time with a dry stock tank, so no cows milling around. But what's that dark spot over there? Ah sure enough, another dead cow. Wife veto, keep going. Eventually we found a spot up on a little knoll in the middle of a wide open area that worked. Started to cook dinner and realized we forgot to put some things back in the camper when we got it back, so we ended up cooking some chicken curry in our percolator.  The view the next morning was wonderful, we've both really appreciated just going out in the middle of nowhere with no other humans within miles. Not like we do much of anything out there, just a real lovely place to be.  Someone had been digging a few yards away from our campsite, presumably for expensive rocks of one sort or another.  Right nearby was a very small firepit and what I thought were little pieces of kindling, but when I picked them up it became clear that it wasn't that at all, and maybe actually petrified wood? I'm no rock or wood scientist, so I'm not certain.  Since we had forgotten some poo poo and didn't want to deal with making coffee and cooking breakfast in our percolator which we would have had to clean, we just drove out and went back to Middlegate for breakfast. Awesome place, solid food, very friendly people with a neat atmosphere.   This trailer we spotted on the way out sure is a thing  While getting a bit of gas at their one pump, I noticed an oops by the gas cap; I guess I (probably me anyway) forgot to make sure this was closed, and it failed while we were driving on some of the rougher roads that morning  On the way home, we stopped at Sand Mountain, right off 50 on the way back to Fallon. A huge amount of Nevada used to be one giant lake, Lake Lahontan, until ~10k years ago, when it started to dry up leaving basically only Pyramid Lake and Walker Lake behind, and a ton of dry lake beds. Over the years wind across the lake beds pushed a bunch of sand into one spot, piling it up into some pretty solidly big dunes now infested by side by sides and dirt bikes. 
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Jan 21, 2024 02:15
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We went out for another one nighter this past weekend, somewhere a bit closer, Wilson Canyon. It's on Walker River, which runs along 395 for a bit and past Walker Burger where we'd stopped on the way to Mammoth, and eventually dumps into Walker Lake where we'd stayed last winter. But there's a neat lil canyon on the way between: We camped right by the river at the mouth of the canyon, in an apparently very popular OHV spot, just not when we were there, as it was empty.   We brought a little Solo stove with us to try (Ranger); it was interesting but I'm not sold on it. It definitely seemed to do a great job of making a nice hot fire that lasted, but didn't seem to do a very good job of radiating heat outwards. I'll give it a try a couple more times before deciding whether I want to bother to bring it on future trips. Some more complaints about the camper: First, the cabinet over the sink has a closure that is pretty flimsy and not secure; it flopped open a few times on earlier trips on rougher roads, and now the latch mechanism is just totally mangled and useless and it doesn't close at all, so I'm going to replace it with something else, probably a marine push button latch but if anyone else has suggestions I'd love to hear them.  We also had some issues with the batteries that I didn't fully diagnose yet; I'm not sure how well the onboard indicators of charge really work but it went down to 0 reported charge while just running the heater, the fridge (on propane, not 12v, but still using some electricity of course), and an LED light or three. I ran the generator for a bit and brought it back up to 50% or so (probably should have gone longer in retrospect), and then it went right back down to 0 again. In the morning, as the sun came up and we started getting some solar charge, reported charge went up by 25% or so over an hour, which is definitely bogus since it was reporting ~1.2A coming from the solar and we supposedly had two 100Ah batteries (though I hadn't actually looked at them prior to this and verified). When we got home I took a closer look through various manuals and all of the Lance documentation indicated that we'd have a flooded battery, and suggested topping it off with water once a month in cold weather and once every two weeks in warm weather. Hah, no, we hadn't done that at all, ever, nor did I want to. Why? Because this is the battery situation:  No thanks I'm not loving with that every couple weeks. So I started thinking it might be time to just bite the bullet for a lithium upgrade anyway if I'm gonna replace them, and spent some time looking at Battle Born, a local manufacturer. Today I at least bothered to take a look in there (even more annoying than I thought) and the batteries are _not_ flooded, they're sealed, so at least a failure on my part to put water in them wasn't the problem (Interstate HD27MDC-1, MCA 750 RC 160). So I dunno, I've given them a real full charge and we'll see how they do on the next trip; I'm not terribly itching to drop a few grand on two LiFePO4 batteries but will if I think it'll be a real improvement, as we don't spend any time camping on hookups (at least, not so far). I also removed the microwave for now, since again we're never on hookups and I can't imagine myself firing up the generator just to use the microwave. So a bit more storage space and a few less pounds.  Though it'd be nice to put a door over it; I'll see if I can find a way to find more panel material that matches to fashion one out of.
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Jan 21, 2024 02:35
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Fatal posted:Awesome stuff, I love these photo dumps and dream of the day I can contribute. What model of lance camper do you have? Thanks, glad the  is appreciated.It’s an 855s; the only model with a slide out they offer that’s made to fit in a short bed (6.75’) super duty. We didn’t want a long bed, and the slide out makes it quite spacious inside and has a fold out loft bunk that’ll hold 200lbs so both kids get their own bed.
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Jan 21, 2024 03:49
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Fatal posted:That’s pretty sweet! Are the kids beds the benches of the dinette or is there something else? Very efficient use of space, surprised they squeezed in a bathroom! Did you buy it new or used? Yeah, for summary for anyone else curious the dinette becomes one bed and then there's a bunk that folds down from the ceiling. Takes a minute or so to do, though the bigger effort is just moving stuff around whenever we're going back and forth between bed and daytime configuration. We ordered the camper new from a local Lance dealer; prices have gone up a good bit since we ordered ours, and they had already gone up a good amount before that. But the used ones available were pretty limited at the time and not really much of a better deal either; we placed the order mid 2022 while all things camping seemed in pretty high demand, and ended up getting one of the first 2023 models built when they delivered last January
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Jan 22, 2024 04:16
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I feel pretty good about the repair job I did on the roof, though will be regularly checking on it for signs of deterioration. Would it make you feel better to know it’s more of a bombing range than an artillery range?
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Jan 23, 2024 04:50
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