New FWC Hawk in Minnesota

[JimArneson]

Picked up my new Hawk camper from Go Anywhere in Wisconsin yesterday. Sean made this entire adventure a fantastic experience. Everything from placing the order to waiting for delivery and finally installing the camper went great!

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

That looks like a nice camper. Congrats!

 

[takesiteasy]

Welcome to WTW- nice to see another MInnesotan on here! Nice looking setup.

 

[ski3pin]

Congrats to you and your family on your new camper! We are looking forward to lots of stories and photos of your adventures!

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

Nice looking truck !

 

[Bird Dog]

Congrats Jim, I will be waiting to see how you like it! You have it on a Chev, any issues getting it loaded and unloaded give the narrow tail gate opening on GM products? (I think Hawks are about 58" wide and the tail gate opening on a GM is about 59".)

Also, I see you are close to retirement age, so are we. There are 2 of us and 2 bird dogs, so I am wondering if we would find a Hawk too small for a week or more on the road? Best of Luck, Dave

 

[JimArneson]

A couple more photos here...

https://jwpictures.smugmug.com/Cars/Four-Wheel-Camper/Go-Anywhere-LLC-delivery/

 

[TrapperMike]

Jim,
Nice. I see you got the right truck for it too! Should handle that camper easily. I picked mine up from Sean also 1.5 years ago. Great folks to work with. Enjoy!

Bird Dog -- Loading and unloading from a my 2011 Chev 1/2 ton not a problem. They have the chev cutout in the bottom outside rear corners to clear the rounded edge of the bed at the bottom outside rear. TTakes me about an hour from beginning the loading process to finishing including jacking up camper, getting lined up, lowering on to truck, tie down, and airing up tires to handle the load. Might be a little cramped with 2 large bird dogs and 2 people. I find one person and 1 dog about right, but you can make it work if only sleeping in camper.
-Mike

 

[Bird Dog]

Mike, Thanks for the information. I have a 2009 GMC 2500 diesel I could probably put it on. Do you think I would need to cut the bottom corners of the tail gate opening?

 

[longhorn1]

Jim, congrats. We purchased or Grandby from Sean back in 2014. Jd

 

[trailrider71]

Thanks Jim. Nice pictures, Love the lens.

Sean

 

[n2Jeepin]

Jim, that's a great looking Rig, love the blue/silver combo. I'm a Minnesota native now living in California. Hope you got a heater

Enjoy the outdoors!

Bob

 

[CougarCouple]

All right time the go camping, welcome to WtW.
Russ

 

[JimArneson]

No Problems fitting the camper into the pickup bed. It fits nicely and only squatted the rear suspension about 3".

 

[JimArneson]

Two more...

 

[trikebubble]

Oh boy, the next 4 months are going to be tough. We just ordered our Hawk, and now I'm forced to look at these great pictures. Keep them coming, it will help pass the time for us.

 

[JimArneson]

My first modification to the Hawk is installing Front Runner Under-Rack Table Slides to the front over hang of the camper (nicely documented by Jonathan Hanson on his Exploring Overland website). This allows the Front Runner Stainless Steel Camp Table to be stowed under the front overhang while traveling.

First the tools and Vacuum in the camper

A Rockler Jig-It carbide Forstner bit and drill stop to create the counter bores for the stainless mounting hardware

All exposed wood in the overhand is treated using Smiths Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (available here)

Nuts and bolts installed

Finally the Table installed in the slides

I'll follow up with the aluminum end stop and securing hardware in a posting later.

 

[kmacafee]

Welcome to the FWC family. We've had our Eagle mounted on a Tacoma for the past few years and love it.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Welcome to the group.Missed your first post on your new camper.
Looks great.Nice place for the table.
Another ,member used that area for a slide out solar panel.
Good camping with your new rig.
Frank

 

[BozemanHawk]

Very nice!! We love ours too here in Sioux Falls[emoji1303]