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That seems odd. I wonder if that L-bracket might have been added by an owner. I redid the brackets on my 2001 Hawk and there were no such L-brackets on my camper.

I generally average 13 to 13.5 mpg in my 2013 Tundra DC 5.7 with a Hawk shell. Best I've seen for a tankful has been 18.2 (highway, 65 mph, strong tailwind). Worst I remember was in the 11s.

There's an interesting post on the Four Wheel Campers Owner's Group a few days ago with a roof-rack concept I've not seen before. On April 9th member Jim Weibert posted a drawing of his idea of mounting the four jacks upside down. The jacks wouldn't push up the roof, they'd push up a separate...

For those of us who haven't paid a lot of attention to the Cybertruck campers world, I think it's interesting to look at some of the announced plans and try to imagine them in actual use, i.e., with people and gear and operating in typical camping and travel conditions. Cybertruck Camper by...

Boy, it would indeed be a worthwhile retirement project to either build the entire camper or to retrofit a soft-sided pop-up to hard-sides. As I mentioned, the guy said he built his camper in about seven months. The part I forgot to mention was he said it took him three months to plan before...

In late February my brother and I were wandering around Florida's Big Bend area near St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. As we crossed the St. Marks River at Newport, we saw a truck with a homemade camper pull into the launch ramp there by the US98 bridge. We turned back and talked to the...

On my way home from Florida a few days ago, I noticed the roof vent crank wasn't working and I couldn't raise the lid. The crank would just spin. I figured the screw holding the crank on had loosened or fallen out. But a quick try to tighten the screw didn't help. This is on my 2001 Hawk...

Another Florida sighting today… A 90-ish Grandby on a Ram truck with New Hampshire plates and towing a vintage racing boat. Sighted at the America’s Seaplane City launch ramps in Tavares, Florida. I spoke with the owner, Eben, as he prepped his Chevy V8-powered 1980s-vintage racing boat ‘Half...

Finally! I just saw a Grandby on a blue F150 with Maryland plates pulling into the hardware store in Everglades City, Florida. I turned back and we spoke for 15 minutes or so. He lives near Annapolis and bought his 2015-model camper new from Main Line Overland in PA. Like me, he’s just...

Thanks for the explanation of the setup at the farm. That raises the issue of connecting up first, then turning on the breaker. Best not to plug in to a live circuit, particularly in wet conditions. It would be helpful to talk to your host about that. If the breaker is off at your arrival (as...

Hmm. The phrase 'one end of a 30A power cord is available there' seems odd. Normally, there would be an outlet wired from the building's breaker panel and you'd need to bring a cord to plug in to whatever type of 30-amp receptacle is in that outlet housing. Perhaps the phrase merely means a...

Thanks for the update, Wango... Glad to see it's working out for you. Nice! That appears to be the the 4 kW (Planar) portable model. I think I see an electrical thru-case fitting in the side of the case near the fuel tank. Those fittings are in the end of the case on my 2kW one. And your case...

Yonder, thanks for posting. Looking forward to your assessment once you get your new Hawk (congrats!) on the truck. Do you have details on what models the replacement antennas are? (They may be on your bill from the installers)

You can also find a lot of value in older posts. As you may have seen elsewhere, you can find them more efficiently by using Google Search. If you include the term "site:wanderthewest.com" in a Google search, that will limit the search to the WTW site. Example: "site:wanderthewest.com...

Machinebuilder, I hope you can forgive a side note in your planning thread... Your comment about the dump at Algonquin Provincial Park brings back such a strong memory for me. My first trip to Algonquin was my Dad taking us in our family's '57 Chevy towing a pop-up camping trailer he built...

Welcome to Wander the West! Are the windows like the ones in this video? This is an '88 Keystone but I assume they'd be similar. Also, if you have dimensions that could be helpful to verify fit, particularly for someone with a non-'88 camper with similar-appearing windows.

We had that problem occasionally on our previous van's Fantastic Vent.... a manually-operated model. My wife just reminded me that we used one of those mini-bungies with light wire hooks. The tops of the knob arms were hollow. I drilled a hole in the end of one of the arms to put the hook...

You might take a look at this post for help in your wire-tracing efforts. You may be able to see the yellow wire running along the cabover floor in the left-front of the camper and then down into a cabinet. Tech Tip / Service Bulletin (Camper to Roof Wiring) I'd also look for yellow at...

My brother called this morning about testing his new Chinese diesel heater. I had demonstrated my Planar portable when I visited him over the holidays and that got him thinking about a permanently-installed heater for his Sunlite truck camper. A few weeks later he bought a Vevor heater kit off...

Thanks for the posts and especially the photos and blog link, Rob. First time through I failed to click on the blog link and now am so glad I went back to it. I really enjoyed reading through it and lingering over the photos and videos. PS-- I also appreciate the good wishes in your post. I...

It would be interesting to see what the DLS30/IQ4's LED (on the fan end of the unit) does during a charge of a LiFePO4 battery. I assume that's not easy to see (given where the DLS is mounted). But I just don't know if that's the case. Is it possible to see the LED or its reflection? The...

I recently ran onto a good overview video for the Big Bend Ranch State Park interior. Big Bend Ranch State Park is the largest state park in Texas and lies west of Big Bend National Park. There are two very different experiences in the state park. The typical tourist experience (and that's...

A few diesel heater resources. If you've been looking at diesel heaters for a while you may already be familiar with these... 1- "Chinese Diesel vehicle air heaters - Troubleshooting & Parts sales" (Facebook group). This is a private Facebook group of more than 63,000 members. I've seen it...

Good point, Sage. I've been getting good support from the North American distributor in Canada. They've replied promptly and thoroughly to my emails and phone calls and offered ideas. They stock parts locally but of course we can't tell how deep their stocks are or whether they've been having...

ski, I don't know if this idea is possible with the non-Chinese diesel heaters but I recently ran onto this info. It may interest you if you're considering a Chinese one.... I'll show it in two forms-- a web site and a Youtube video as they offer slightly different perspectives Chinese Diesel...