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Pickups Pickups - Archived Discussions Cabover Campers & Camper Trailers (pickups) 
1377 messages, Last post on Nov 20, 2003 at 1:43 PM
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I got the set with springs in the front and rubber washers in the rear. The instruction say to mount them threaded side up, which was the only way they would fit on the front of my camper. The brackets I used don't have enough space for the body of the turnbuckle to be at the top. Of course, the instructions also say to oil them and wax them 4 times a year to prevent rust. Yes, we will carry bikes with the camper. Possibly on dirt roads also. Probably not everywhere we go, but certainly on long trips. Many times we have wanted to go into town, and it is a couple of miles. Not far enough to break camp, but too far to walk on a hot day. The bikes give us another choice. The rack is supposed to fold down to allow access to the camper without moving the bikes. We haven't tried it yet, but it looks promising. You're buying a company car? Does that mean the comnpany is selling some of the company cars and you are getting one, or that the company is buying you are car and you have to go pick it out? If the latter, might I suggest the new Ferrari 360 roadster? Best in class fuel economy and enough room for a weekend business trip. CFO won't go for that, huh? How about a new Silverado 1500LS 2wd with a 4.8L and an automatic. Maybe even and extended cab to carry more than two people. And you still get the advantage of having a PU. Surely, you wouldn't join the SUV crowd would you? My camper hasn't been off the 2500 since I bought it. Later, Mike L |
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Found an excellent website related to RV stuff. They have very informative reports on RV electrical systems, including all you would want to know about solar setups. Check it out at http://www.phrannie.org/phredex.html Jim |
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I'm buying a car from the company fleet of Ferraris, I mean Tauruses, any day now. They replace the fleet every year so the car will be close to new and have about 7000 miles. Price is just decent, around $14-15k. You can get new ones with $1000 rebate and 0.9% from Ford. Probably only a few k$ more but oh well. The 2000 version is finally de-uglyfied enough that I will own one. I wouldn't mind getting the car I'm driving now, a new Cadillac Devile. GM is paying most of the rental fee because the dealer won't give me my truck back. I'm getting a new radio (again) and since it won't run without a radio they keep it. The Cadillac is pretty amazing. Nice smooth ride with NO brake dive and very little body roll. It must be an active suspension. Anyway it's a fun diversion. |
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Thanks for the link, it looks like a good source of useful information. I started reading about sewage but thought maybe I should leave that treat for another night. |
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Yeah, it’s best to leave discussions about macerators and stuff like that for the dinner table. One of the points made in one of those articles was that furnaces are great wasters of energy and aren’t really useful until temperatures get close to zero. The writer seemed to think catalytic heaters were best for RVs in most circumstances. What is the consensus from those of you who have furnaces? Do they put a large drain on your batteries? And a peripheral question is: how do you keep the batteries charged when you’re camped for more than a day at a time? Running the truck engine would charge the battery, but you would have to run the engine for some time to bring the battery up to a full charge. Is a separate generator the way to go? Man! This could get expensive. |
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I run the heater occassionally when the temps are dropping down into the 40s at night. I only run it at night for eight hours or so. It does put a drain on the battery. I run my generator about 20-30 minutes in the morning and 20-30 minutes in the evening and the battery has plenty of juice to run it the next night. My friend does not have a generator. He runs the truck 20-30 minutes in the morning and evening and accomplishes the same thing when he runs his furnace. It sounds like running the truck may actually charge the battery faster than the generator. For winter camping, when temps are down in the teens and 20s, a standard deep cycle battery wouldn't likely last all night before being drained. Plus, you would probably want to run the furnace all the time, day and night, even if you set it low when you were not in the camper. You would either need to get a generator or run the truck fairly often. My friend bought a 1000 amp one that he carries along for cold weather camping that works good for him. I've got a Onan Microlite 2500. I had planned to do some winter camping this year, but I ended up buying a house. The house will be finished December, so my winter is going to be preoccupied with moving into the new house. I am exploring two options for future winter camping. One is to run two deep cycle batteries and the other is to buy a big full-timer battery. Both options might get me through cold winter nights without needing the generator or truck engine, although I will still need to run the generator periodically during the day to maintain a good charge. I'm going to winterize the camper this week. We've had temps in the low to mid 30s a couple of nights. All the trees and mountains are orange and red. The days are getting shorter. Winter is on the way..... |
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Are regular where I live/camp. My twin 6V golf cart batteries will go a weekend (220amp-hours) running heat and ..... Would not be happy without a 20000 BTU propane furnace.... |
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When out camping, we set our thermostat at 34 at night, so it will prevent freezups and nothing else. The down comforter keeps us comfortable. During waking hours, we keep it 65-70 inside, and turn it down when we leave. Ran the battery down once when I left the refrig on DC and again this week when we have been camped in the driveway for 10 days and only moved the truck once for the fumigators. A couple of lights (3 Amps ea?) for a couple of hours a night finally brought the battery down. The furnace only runs for a few minutes at a time and doesn't seem to pull the battery down much. May be a real advantage to having a very small camper? Mike L |
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I have two 12V deep cycle batteries and do just fine for a few days easy. I run the furnace at at least 70 while awake and set it to 50-55 at night. It comes on quite a bit but the batteries hold out fine. Having new batteries helps. Also it's not below freezing too often. You do not need a generator just for the heater. Running the truck a few minutes is a reasonable alternative. A second battery helps too, I put one under the hood. I measured the actual current used by everything in the camper some time ago. I'll pass on my findings. Single light 1.4A (1146 automotive bulb) Stereo 0.5A Range fan 1.1A Heater fan 2.7A Water pump 3.6A I think my heater is 14000 BTU or so. My last camper had a catalytic heater so I've lived with both. The cat is by far a better heater: warmer, way more efficient, quiet, constant heat, works just fine with the door open, no battery required. Given all that I'd still take the furnace for one reason--it's vented. The cat burns clean but does have a little odor. It also uses oxygen so you must leave something open. I usually left a vent open to let the fumes exit and a window open for fresh intake. The cat is so hot it can burn things. I melted a pair of wet shoes once, and I had to keep an eye on the dog's tail too. If you have kids it is dangerous. It made me a bit nervous to leave it on at night so I usually didn't. Mine didn't have a thermostat, that is a feature of the furnace I like very much. I suspect they make cat heaters with thermostats and electric start though. One of my most favorite things was to be in a beautiful place and have the door wide open no matter how cold it was outside. Sitting in front of that heater we would be toasty warm. I can't do that anymore because the furnace will hardly ever turn off and when it does you get cold in minutes. I've considered adding a cat heater just for this purpose but haven't gone that far yet. So I'd recommend a beefy battery setup with a furnace and live with that awhile before considering a generator. |
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My wife and I camp well into November and here in Idaho, November in the mountains means single digits. We are going this weekend and are expecting mid 20's. Our cat furnace has no problem keeping us warm. In fact, I am usually half out of the covers to cool down. I will admit that the floor of the camper gets pretty chilly in the morning, but that's what shoes are for. I don't plan on changing anything. On battery life, I run two deep cycles batteries in parallel and can get four days of running lights, water pump (no shower), a 6" fan all night, and a TV before a recharge. I borrow a friend's Honda 1100 generator which is super quiet and brings everything back to a full charge in 1-2 hours. If I am going to be gone longer, I don't run the fan at night. |
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