Flat beds selling well?

All,
I am wondering how the FWC and ATC flat bed campers are selling. I have a 2 year old Hawk on a Nissan Titan that i was delighted with when i bought it, but now, with a toddler, things get cramped pretty fast. I do envy the floor space and storage of the flatbed - however, i simply havent seen any on the road, though i did check out a demo that FWC put out. Excellent space utilization.
They do seem priced unreasonably high - even before the Aluminum flatbed conversion price is factored in. Are they selling well? Any updates from recent owners?

I thought about it before I found mine, the shell models are not that much more.

We saw 2 awesome rigs at the Expo, one a Grandby FB on a RAM 3500. And a custom Hawk FB on a truck manufacturer I was unfamiliar. Sorry , no pics to upload. Both rigs were well equipped for some very serious camping/overlanding.

Of course, the FBs were far outnumbered by the slide-in FWCs at the OX West15.

I think it simply comes down to how much room you need/or want and how much coin is in your budget.

Just a followup. I called up the FWC dealer and he informed me that a UTE bed + installation is close to $6500.
UTE dealer mentioned $3000 or so for just the flat bed before installation.

Both of these lead me to abandon the idea of getting a flatbed for my truck to install the Hawk on it with aluminium boxes around the bed sides.

I just ordered a Hawk FB for October delivery from Denny two days ago. So why are we going to change from our 2012 slide-in Hawk that we know and love and that we've improved/customized extensively?

1) Better specced out- Over the last 3 years we've realized we should have ordered a furnace instead of depending on a Mr. Buddy. We are also ordering an awning and exterior gas struts. (I know I could add these items to my existing Hawk.) We also ordered the cassette toilet which while not essential think will be better than the porta-toilet. And while our inside shower works great the built-in shower pan of the Hawk will be even better.

2) We really like the under bed built-in clothes storage. It will be nice to not be living out of duffel bags!

3) A much more ergonomic traffic pattern. The back dinette is out-of-the-way of the work area. And it will be nice for the counters to be at normal counter height for my wife.

4) The under-the-flat-bed storage compartments will be nice.

After selling off my 2012 Hawk and buying the new FB (mounting it on my existing 2500 Ram) I calculate my net out of pocket will be around 20K. Are the above advantages worth 20,000.00? Speaking as the business consultant I am my firm answer would be "No way!"

But as a 62 year old semi-retired couple whose major passion (obsession?) is nature-watching and camping in hard to reach places: Why not?

Steve

PS It helped that we have had several emotional flings (and close calls) in the last year with buying a new Tiger Bengal TX (130K+) or a Tiger Malayan (160K+) or an XP (130K+) or an Earth Cruiser (175K+)! After swallowing these numbers 20,000 bucks seems positively cheap!

NOTE: Interestingly what swayed us back to the FWC fold was two things neither one of which had anything to do with money: 1) Most of the above rigs are substantially bigger than the Hawk FB and would affect us getting into the far away places we love and 2) Sioux's comment to me as she walked through the Tigers, "Honey, this isn't really camping!" (Let me stress we both really like the Tiger brand and I have huge respect for their president, Mark Guild. And we're never saying "Never"!)

srileo said:

Just a followup. I called up the FWC dealer and he informed me that a UTE bed + installation is close to $6500.
UTE dealer mentioned $3000 or so for just the flat bed before installation.

Both of these lead me to abandon the idea of getting a flatbed for my truck to install the Hawk on it with aluminium boxes around the bed sides.

Click to expand...

I'm still getting quotes on flat beds. But I did get a written quote from Alumline in Cresco, IA for a VERY nice custom aluminum bed with four storage boxes and a swept up tail for 4535.00 and with shipping to Durango, CO for 645.00. I've seen their work on another Hawk FB and it is impeccable.

I'd prefer to go local but if I can't it is good to have this company as a backup. Anyone else have other aluminum FB maker options?

Steve

As Durango said, it comes down to utilization.

I have a 2015 slide-in Hawk. We absolutely love the Hawk. BUT, only one of us can move around the interior at one time. I don't mind showering outside. I have a Clean-Waste privacy tent for the wife to shower in. I bought the Porta Potti but never used it. Didn't like the notion of trying to find a dump station and moving a toilet with 2.6 gallon of blue water and waste out of an interior cabinet. We bought a Clean Waste toilet with WAG bags. Expensive, yes, but, very convenient as waste/bags are landfill safe and can be tossed in any trash can.

When the wife joins me in retirement, I envision a new F-350 with a Hawk flatbed. Having recently driven Government Mines Road north out of Cherry, AZ and the Point Sublime Trail from the North Rim Visitors Center, IMO, a 156" wheel base with FB Hawk is about perfect for our needs for all the reason Durango mentioned. A long bed (longer wheel base) and a Grandby FB is a LOT of extra weight, especially on tight, twisty, big rock infested trails.