Hawk vs Fleet

[DonC]

I currently have a Tacoma 4 cyl and am looking to upgrade so I have more truck for a camper. My preference is to stay with a Tacoma since most of the time I am by myself, and do lots of narrow desert roads. I would upgrade to a Tundra if the camper would also be significantly bigger. However, looking at the dimensions for the Hawk (Tundra), vs the Fleet (Tacoma), the Fleet is actually 1 inch longer, has the same floor length, and the body width is only 5 inches narrower.

Intuitively it would seem the Tundra with a Hawk would give me much more room, but that does not seem to be the case. So, for 5 inches of width, is it worth upgrading to a much larger truck? Is there anything I'm missing?

If I stay with a Tacoma is there any reason not to get the Fleet which is wider than the Eagle? Seems most Tacoma's have Eagles. I'm curious why.

I live too far from FWC to go see these things.

 

[leadsled9]

When my girlfriend and I went to the FWC factory and went inside an Eagle....we both felt cramped....but we felt fine inside the Hawk. A little bit of extra room goes a long ways.

 

[Lighthawk]

I could be wrong, but I think a Hawk is 9" wider than an Eagle. Width also matters if you're going to sleep crosswise. We do that w/o extending the bed, which keeps the sink/counter accessible.

 

[SunMan]

When my girlfriend and I went to the FWC factory and went inside an Eagle....we both felt cramped....but we felt fine inside the Hawk. A little bit of extra room goes a long ways.


Lead speaks the truth. It may only be 5" but in our small campers it makes a big difference. It will be your call ultimately, plus going with the Fleet will keep you from buying a new truck which seems to be your preference. Whichever model you choose will beat a tent on a wet and windy night!

 

[DonC]

My question was a comparison between the Fleet (not the Eagle) and the Hawk. Anyone with first hand experience with these two?

 

[leadsled9]

Well since you are upgrading your truck....might as well get a 3/4 ton of you favorite flavor. Then it would be a great truck for the Hawk.

A 3/4 ton truck is not physically much larger than a Tundra...but the difference between a 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton truck while hauling a Hawk camper is night and day.

Lots of threads on this forum about the issue.

This would provide you with much more room and be much safer in general.

 

[bsharp007]

Hi Don
I would also consider the 2005+ Tacoma with the Fleet. Here's why, better gas mileage, smaller footprint for those narrow desert roads or for city parking. You will still have plenty of interior room and power to pull the camper. I have the Tacoma/Eagle combo but if they had made the Fleet I might have gone with that model for the shower option alone. IMO the Eagle is plenty big enough for 2 people, there's not a huge difference between that and the Hawk and less so then the Fleet. And if you plan on using your truck as a daily driver get the Tacoma.



I currently have a Tacoma 4 cyl and am looking to upgrade so I have more truck for a camper. My preference is to stay with a Tacoma since most of the time I am by myself, and do lots of narrow desert roads. I would upgrade to a Tundra if the camper would also be significantly bigger. However, looking at the dimensions for the Hawk (Tundra), vs the Fleet (Tacoma), the Fleet is actually 1 inch longer, has the same floor length, and the body width is only 5 inches narrower.

Intuitively it would seem the Tundra with a Hawk would give me much more room, but that does not seem to be the case. So, for 5 inches of width, is it worth upgrading to a much larger truck? Is there anything I'm missing?

If I stay with a Tacoma is there any reason not to get the Fleet which is wider than the Eagle? Seems most Tacoma's have Eagles. I'm curious why.

I live too far from FWC to go see these things.

 

[DonC]

Will - good info, thanks. I currently have a 2006 Tacoma 4x4, 4 cyl. I bought it new and love it and am only considering moving to the V6 if I get a camper. I see you have Riderite air bags. Do you like these?

 

[generubin]

Well since you are upgrading your truck....might as well get a 3/4 ton of you favorite flavor. Then it would be a great truck for the Hawk.

A 3/4 ton truck is not physically much larger than a Tundra...but the difference between a 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton truck while hauling a Hawk camper is night and day.

Lots of threads on this forum about the issue.

This would provide you with much more room and be much safer in general.



I totally agree here. About mileage, my Dodge Cummins 3/4 ton gets better mileage with an ATC camper on it than my friend's 4 cyl Tacoma with only a small shell. We do a lot of trips together, he always needs more fuel when we stop at a station. The 6 cyl. Tacoma gets even worse. Plus with the 3/4 ton Dodge I get the super low gears for crawling, big brakes, a real truck clutch and best of all I don't need no stinkin' airbags. Oh yes, and with a 34 gallon tank and over 18 mpg I get an easy 600 miles per tank. I sold all my Nato gas cans long ago!

 

[bsharp007]

I do like the Riderites absolutely no problems thus far. When you dont have the camper you just dial down the air pressure for a OEM ride and forget about them. You will need some kind of suspension help for all the half tons or medium size trucks due to their softer suspensions. FWC also installs a special mounting bracket on the Tacoma due to the composite bed, simple to remove if needed. The turnbuckles FWC uses are junk imo and dont work with the Tacoma very well, so I found a much better more heavy duty turnbuckle that almost never needs tightening. Let me know when you get closer to getting the camper and I'll post a picture, It'll save you a lot of grief.



Will - good info, thanks. I currently have a 2006 Tacoma 4x4, 4 cyl. I bought it new and love it and am only considering moving to the V6 if I get a camper. I see you have Riderite air bags. Do you like these?

 

[bsharp007]

Well that's some great gas mileage with the camper on, the Tacoma 4 cyl gets an EPA of 25 mpg hwy, Dodge doesn't post thier mileage but owner reported real mileage was in the low 20's hwy (without towing or load), still good numbers for a powerful truck. I currently get around 21 mpg hwy with the 6 cyl and around 18 with the camper on. But another consideration is the initial cost of the vehicle and the cost of diesel. It's all about finding the most economical vehicle that works for your needs. This year alone I've spent 60+ nights in my camper and towed a raft plus expedition gear thousands of miles for multiday raft trips all over the Western US and Canada. Now if someone comes up with a diesel in a mid size truck, I'll be all over that! I'm a big fan of the diesel engine, rented a sedan in Europe and really was impressed with the car, not sure why we don't see more here.





I totally agree here. About mileage, my Dodge Cummins 3/4 ton gets better mileage with an ATC camper on it than my friend's 4 cyl Tacoma with only a small shell. We do a lot of trips together, he always needs more fuel when we stop at a station. The 6 cyl. Tacoma gets even worse. Plus with the 3/4 ton Dodge I get the super low gears for crawling, big brakes, a real truck clutch and best of all I don't need no stinkin' airbags. Oh yes, and with a 34 gallon tank and over 18 mpg I get an easy 600 miles per tank. I sold all my Nato gas cans long ago!

 

[cfike]

Could the Fleet fit (or be made to fit- perhaps with bracket extensions?)on a full size truck like a Tundra or Titan? I know my Fleet is several inches wider than my 2001 Nissan Frontier but I don't know if the jacks are wide enough for the larger truck bed. If the Fleet does fit it may give you flexibility to use with either the Tacoma/Frontier or the Tundra/Titan, whereas I think the Hawk would be too big for the smaller trucks.

 

[rcsellmeyer]

I totally agree here. About mileage, my Dodge Cummins 3/4 ton gets better mileage with an ATC camper on it than my friend's 4 cyl Tacoma with only a small shell. We do a lot of trips together, he always needs more fuel when we stop at a station. The 6 cyl. Tacoma gets even worse. Plus with the 3/4 ton Dodge I get the super low gears for crawling, big brakes, a real truck clutch and best of all I don't need no stinkin' airbags. Oh yes, and with a 34 gallon tank and over 18 mpg I get an easy 600 miles per tank. I sold all my Nato gas cans long ago!


Aloha,

 

[rcsellmeyer]

Aloha, I'm new here and have tons of questions. My wife and I are fairly young and have a one year old baby boy. We've been in hawaii for a long time but are gearing up for a big move back to the mainland for my wife to finish grad school. We're hoping for Oregon. Anyway when we lived in so cal before we had our first truck camper experience. We bought an 85 scamper truck camper and threw it on our 4x4 2005 4cyl. Tacoma. The thing weighed a ton! It was massive! Nonetheless we were hooked and fell in love with our old camper. Last month we bought a shell model fwc hawk and are storing it in my dads garage until we move over their in may. Now is where the questions begin. I was dead set on buying a new 4x4 tacoma 6cyl. And throwing a custom alum line flatbed on it with a Deaver spring pack and taking off for the 3 months we'll have before school starts. Now I'm reading about 3/4 tons getting better mileage running diesel?
How is it possible? That such a heavy truck to begin with could get better mileage than a much lighter one even while carrying a load. Anyone out there have a Tacoma with an fwc on it? Anyway, please pardon my ignorance the more advice I get the better. Mahalo.
-Ryan

 

[Cort]

welcome!

I have an ATC Bobcat on an 01 Tacoma, Deaver Springs, OME Front Coils, Bilsteins on all 4 corners. I like the setup and don't have any problems with it. We (wife, 9 year old son, and myself) have traveled all over the west in it and loved that fact that it could go places that some of the larger 3/4 and 1 tons could not go.....having said that if you are buying new and you can afford it I would go for a 3/4 ton. We will be going this route as we just had another boy so the tacoma is just to small. The reason these bigger trucks can get better gas mileage is because they are not working as hard pulling these light campers around. There are two downsides to these larger trucks in my opinion....they can't get onto some of the smaller jeep trails and they cost and arm and a leg....especially the diesel. I have done the calcs a few time on diesel vs gas and I can't see how diesel pays off...unless you are on the road all the time....and I mean like all the time.

by the way I get anywhere from 14 to 18 in my Tacoma

Cort

 

[bsharp007]

I'm not sure if a 350 loaded with a FWC gets better gas mileage then a Tacoma with an Eagle but I kind of doubt it. It's probably fairly close but you should also take into consideration the cost of diesel and the increased cost of the truck. The Eagle/Tacoma configuration is a very popular one and there are a lot of threads about this combo that you can search on this forum including my posted gas mieage on this very thread. It kind of sucks that if you want a diesel which is fairly ideal because of the torq you end up with a moster truck like a 350/Granby or a 1/2 ton gas truck that is at it's max weight limit with a Hawk or Eagle on it. I just find it hard to believe that there's not a market for a half ton truck with a diesel engine. When they offer one I'll be first in line.



Aloha, I'm new here and have tons of questions. My wife and I are fairly young and have a one year old baby boy. We've been in hawaii for a long time but are gearing up for a big move back to the mainland for my wife to finish grad school. We're hoping for Oregon. Anyway when we lived in so cal before we had our first truck camper experience. We bought an 85 scamper truck camper and threw it on our 4x4 2005 4cyl. Tacoma. The thing weighed a ton! It was massive! Nonetheless we were hooked and fell in love with our old camper. Last month we bought a shell model fwc hawk and are storing it in my dads garage until we move over their in may. Now is where the questions begin. I was dead set on buying a new 4x4 tacoma 6cyl. And throwing a custom alum line flatbed on it with a Deaver spring pack and taking off for the 3 months we'll have before school starts. Now I'm reading about 3/4 tons getting better mileage running diesel?
How is it possible? That such a heavy truck to begin with could get better mileage than a much lighter one even while carrying a load. Anyone out there have a Tacoma with an fwc on it? Anyway, please pardon my ignorance the more advice I get the better. Mahalo.
-Ryan

 

[Gormley Green]

This thread has again inspired me to email Toyota and ask nicely for a diesel Tacoma / Hilux in our market. They will see me drop my Ford loyalty the day they give us one.

 

[ski3pin]

This thread has again inspired me to email Toyota and ask nicely for a diesel Tacoma / Hilux in our market. They will see me drop my Ford loyalty the day they give us one.


Please let us know their response. Ford no longer sells a Ranger pickup for the north american market. The do have a little larger ranger available with a diesel for the international market. Can't get it here.

 

[Cort]

If Toyota would offer a Hilux in the states I would buy two out of fear that they might not offer it the next year

Cort

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Just looking this thread and saw an advertisement for the G-Force chip $65,guaranteed increase hp and mpg.Has any one tried these.I am skeptical of things like this sounds to good to be true.Any thoughts.

Frank