We find this pretty amazing. Since our first trip with the old FWC/ATC hybrid on Friday November 27, 2009, we have logged 47 nights in the camper as of Dec 31, 2010.
All in all for a simple review, the bottom line is we love it. For our style of travel and adventure which is visiting remote areas where it serves as a simple base camp it fits the bill.
Things we really like about it are the light weight, relatively unobtrusiveness on the truck, simple but effective construction, and quick set up when we stop.
I did much of the remodeling of the interior with much help from info on the Wander the West forum. The SMEV appliances are great. I removed the built in refrigerator and use our old stainless steel coleman ice chest. It works but we are considering an engel for extended summer trips. Our travel cooking is kept simple so cooking indoors and eating outside when weather permits works for us. I did install an electric water pump for the sink faucet. I would not do that again. A simple hand pump faucet is better. No energy draw to get water out of the interior tank and no noise. For some reason I just don’t like the noise. Most places we camp are quiet and that pump sound irritates. We augment our water supplies with one of those 6 or 7 blue square jugs. We primarily use this and the inside tank is reserve or for quick water needs at the sink.
The inside furnace with a thermostat is the way to go. It is simple to operate, just move a switch. Coming in from a frigid outing and having quick heat is a comfort we love.
The interior size is small with limited storage. For travel many of our items (packs, gear, clothing bags) are on the floor and need to be moved as we set up. We have a simple system that works well so this is not a minus for us. We are backpackers, if you get one of those monster packs, it can tend to get filled.
Our camper is pretty much ready to go with sleeping bags, cooking, eating, and cleanup gear always stored inside. We use a small actionpacker for our dry goods and the ice chest for cold. These are packed and put in the back along with clothes bags, packs, fly rod, etc., and we are ready to go.
In cold weather the amount of condensation has surprised us. The main places are on the sideliners and under the bed pads. The inside bottom of the cabover sections appears to be a real cold spot. We keep a towel handy for wiping things down and cook with a lower port open and run the fan in the roof vent (a fantastic fan is highly recommended). Once we learned about the condensation we developed simple ways to keep in at bay. We always pull the sleeping pads out after a trip and thoroughly dry and air them out. We will be getting some sort of arctic pack and also looking at simple ways of cutting the drafts in real cold camping trips. The furnace fan draws current so we keep an eye on consumption. Finding ways to cut heat loss will help here.
We have one aux. battery in the camper. In very cold weather we can sit in place for two nights without draining the battery. In typical warm weather conditions, we have sat in place for five days without a problem and probably could have gone a day or two more. I did install an Iota converter in my camper wiring. This converts household 120 (through the exterior standard outlet) to 12V so we could come live in your driveway for weeks plugged in with a cord. The converter has the smart charger so it also will charge the aux. battery. The inside 120 outlet (when connected to shore power) is handy for lights and vacuum for clean up.
If I could wish for one minor thing, it would be enough head room to be able to sit up in bed. We come close on a tilt. This is really no big deal. We tend to leave most the clothes below and slide out of bed and dress standing up below. Also, climbing up into the bed takes a little effort. It’s easy for us spry old-timers, but is probably not for everybody.
Hope all this firsthand experience is helpful. This is the first camper of any sort we have ever used.
