The other half of the new truck purchase.

Last night Marlys and I spent close to three hours at the Denver RV show looking at the few truck campers that were on our short list.

Okanagan - 117
Bigfoot 3000 Slide
Host Everest
Eagle Cap 1180

Other then the Bigfoot, all of the target campers had at least two slides, one being a rear sofa slide. It was pretty clear that we have the right truck to carry the load of any of these homes away from homes. In all cases though the dealer said they would add air springs and frame mounted hold downs.

The Bigfoot still seems to be the fit, finish and purpose built camper winner, but and this is a big one the slide is only for the dinette and wardrobe. It is a big slide, but it still has the feel of a truck camper inside.

The Everest is by far the most spacious but seemed a little cheap (hard to say that about a $50K truck camper) on the inside.

The Eagle Cap dealer said he didn't have one and would never have one....da da da. So we left there area, but not quick enough because we had to hear why Snow Rivers were the best for Elk hunting. He must have mistaken us for someone else, because we never mentioned anything about hunting or going off road, etc.

We spent a great deal of time going over the Okanagan, with both the dealer Rep (Hallmark Campers) and the factory Rep. We looked, poked and questioned most everything. A couple of observations; this camper is made for all season use and there cold weather testing (Truckcampermagazine.com) was impressive. The interior fabrics are not as fashionable as some of the others, but they were OK (pun). The storage is probably the biggest issue, but there is only so much space that can be crammed onto a truck. It had everything we were looking for; full kitchen (stainless steel), genset, thermopane windows, heated basement and tanks, complete awning (slides and side), outside speakers, shower (clean the dog) and BBQ. Electric jacks, satillite dish/antenna, dry bath (bigger then the one in our Jayco Trailer) and a real sofa. this camper also had flat floor slides (no step up into the slide areas).

And the colors will go well with the truck.

So, where are we going to take this behemoth? here are some of the places on the list;

Alaskan via the Alcan
Goose Bay, LAB via the Trans-Labrador Highway
New England in the fall
Daytona for the 500
Indianapolis for F1 (if it comes back) and the Brickyard 400
Bristol, TN
Talledega, baby
Las Vegas (Winter)
Texas (visit Tom and Joy @ the camp ground)
Arizona (visit whoever is down there when we are)
Florida (Camper just seem to fit in, in trailer land)
Munich for Octoberfest (OK we won't take the camper)
Detroit Autoshow (This will need to be a January Trip)
Wherever the spirit moves us to trek.

I also looked into biodeisel cookers this week and it looks like I won't be brewing any of that up anytime soon as they run $3k to $8k. I would need to brew-up a lot of cooking oil to pay that off. Besides I would be spending too much time collecting used oil from resturants.

So we had a question we never asked and wished we had as we walked to the car (trying to see how many times I could use we in one sentence);

Why do truck campers cost so much, when compared to trailers (tow behinds, 5'rs, toyhaulers), class B & C motorhomes, that have more space, stuff (cabinets, counters beds, etc.) and chassis?

The price of the Okanagan would buy a really nice RV in any of these other types. Even a Hallmark popup truch camper is going to run $20k-$30k+.

Pat