New Hawk

[photohc]

Hello all, just thought I would share my impressions of my newly acquired Hawk. I've been lurking here for 8 mos., soaking in all the experiences of owning a popup camper. I'm sure there are others out there looking for information, so my post. I just picked up the Hawk on Monday (4/29) at Woodland. The Hawk was married to my F150 FX4 after about 2 hours of preparation. I live in So. Cal., so we decided to make it a two day trip back home to test out the rig. My wife decided to make a night of it at Kirk Creek campground in Big Sur. The drive really gave the whole rig a good test. Lots of curves and up and down hills. The F150 handled the whole trip without breaking a sweat. Here is quick run down of what I have:

Truck: 2013 Ford F150 FX4 with Eccoboost, short bed, Firestone airbags

Hawk: 1525#
Silver Spur In/Out
Mechanical Camper jacks
Solar plug
2 way Ref 80 ltr
Forced Air furnace
DSI water heater
Fantastic fan
Screen door
8' Awning
Rear Floods LED
Glass top Sink/Stove
Aux battery + 2nd battery
Front dinette

Pretty much maxed out Hawk.

 

[ski3pin]

Wow, show us more!

 

[rotti]

Hawk: 1525#



Was that the final weight on yours?
If so, that sounds about right. Mine was a little over 1300 dry with the jacks removed.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Congrats on the new camper!

 

[Spitfire]

Did you see mine there? I'm picking mine up next Monday (5/6). It's basically almost the same as yours.

 

[photohc]

Was that the final weight on yours?
If so, that sounds about right. Mine was a little over 1300 dry with the jacks removed.


The final weight was 1525# with jacks and all. I'll be removing the jacks during our trips, they tell me about 100#'s off the truck.

 

[photohc]

Did you see mine there? I'm picking mine up next Monday (5/6). It's basically almost the same as yours.

Spitfire, no I didn't. I was too focused on my new baby. I did notice lots of activity there with lots in the middle of build. Congrats on you new one as well!

 

[Spitfire]

Spitfire, no I didn't. I was too focused on my new baby. I did notice lots of activity there with lots in the middle of build. Congrats on you new one as well!

Hey no problem. Congrats to you too.

 

[SmkSignals]

I love your first picture. Looks like you have a hard sided pop up with windows.

 

[photohc]

I love your first picture. Looks like you have a hard sided pop up with windows.

Bad photography. he he

 

[Timothy McGowen]

Let us know what kind of mileage you get.

 

[Laramieskibum]

Let us know what kind of mileage you get.



FYI I have a early '90's hawk on an fx4 ecoboost with max tow. 3.73 gears. I'll start a build thread soon. I got 11mpg over 900 miles, to pickup the camper from phx. I kept my speed over 80 most of the trip, with spurts higher than that.

If I behaved, at 65mph, I got 13mpg, with a stout tailwind on i80.

Gobs of power, little higher center of gravity/sway, little slower stops, but nothing felt uncomfortable. Unloaded. Truck didn't squat much, but this a lighter early '90s. I had very high cross winds last Week on the way home, no real effect on how the truck drove.

Time for me to stop lurking, and start contributing soon, all you builders are really helpjng me out.

 

[photohc]

Let us know what kind of mileage you get.


Yes. I did measure the mileage once the Hawk was installed. Starting from Woodland and on to Monterey, Big Sur and cutting across the 46 to the i5 and back home to Orange County, I got 14.5 mpg. Most of the Hwy 1 speeds were below 45 with the curves and hill climbing. On the i5, I was maintaining 70 mph. Once in LA, I hit some going home traffic around the 60 to 710S, then back to i5. The FX4 has a 3.55 rear end.

I also had 25#'s in the airbags. Very comfortable driving and no issue climbing the hills. I was careful to keep appropriate distance to insure I had good stopping distance, but for the most part, braking didn't feel any different from without the camper. I don't want to sound that the weight was not felt, in fact if I had to do an avoidance maneuver, I am sure the weight will be felt. So caution should be taken with the truck/camper combo. Harv

 

[imcolej]

Congrats on the new Hawk! Looks great on your F-150! I can't wait to pick up mine on the 14th of this month!

Enjoy and we hope to see some trips reports asap!

 

[Bosque Bill]

Sweet! Congratulations.

Kirk Creek is one of my favorite camping spots of all time!

 

[ETAV8R]

Congrats on the awesome FWC!
Lucky to get a spot at Kirk Creek. We were there a couple years ago and tried two days in a row to get a space. Instead we went up to higher elevation which was still awesome. Just not as awesome. Anymore pics of your camper and trip?

Where in OC? I would love to check it out in person even though I would be getting an Eagle instead of a Hawk. Missed the last show down south when FWC was present.

 

[photohc]

Congrats on the new Hawk! Looks great on your F-150! I can't wait to pick up mine on the 14th of this month!

Enjoy and we hope to see some trips reports asap!


Congrats on your new Hawk as well. Don't forget to post pictures of your new Hawk!

 

[photohc]

Sweet! Congratulations.

Kirk Creek is one of my favorite camping spots of all time!

We pulled in pretty late and was prepared to find a full camp, but as luck will have it, there were three spots left. Enjoyed a very nice evening learning how to operate things. Everything worked as expected, except the smoke alarm went off because of the new furnace. Next day I called FWC and was told that would happened until the new furnace is aged. Because the furnace is new, operating it would cause some fumes to burn off the surface of the metal causing the alarm. I'm sure my neighbor was not happy with that sound as I fumbled to pull the battery.

 

[photohc]

Congrats on the awesome FWC!
Lucky to get a spot at Kirk Creek. We were there a couple years ago and tried two days in a row to get a space. Instead we went up to higher elevation which was still awesome. Just not as awesome. Anymore pics of your camper and trip?

Where in OC? I would love to check it out in person even though I would be getting an Eagle instead of a Hawk. Missed the last show down south when FWC was present.

I'm in Irvine. If interested, just send a message and we can hook up. Harv

 

[billharr]

Please let us know how you like the Front Dinette. From looking at the pictures, looks like it might make better use of space than my side dinette.

Bill in STockton