What's better than an All Terrain Camper?

[MANXMAN]

Two All Terrain Campers!

 

[fireball]

Looks like you put it on backwards!

What's the plan?

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Interesting!

 

[Tuff Guy 62]

His and Hers?

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Very interesting.
Frank

 

[MANXMAN]

What's the plan?

Ordered the new camper shell seven months ago and went down to get it this past weekend from ATC.

Lots of changes from the previous one and also changing from the F150 to a F350.

Marty, Jeff and Chad did another excellent job. Starting the interior build in a few weeks and am shooting for completion in May.

 

[Wango]

I might be a tad biased, but thinking one ton truck, flatbed camper is about as good as it gets.
Build photos coming soon (we hope).
w

 

[kmcintyre]

I might be a tad biased, but thinking one ton truck, flatbed camper is about as good as it gets.
Build photos coming soon (we hope).
w

I agree and wish I could do it and still get some really good mileage (and the funds )

 

[Durango1]

I might be a tad biased, but thinking one ton truck, flatbed camper is about as good as it gets.
Build photos coming soon (we hope).
w

My thinking exactly. For those considering this and ordering new look closely at a "chassis cab". Quite a few advantages over a regular pickup. I'll probably be going with a Ford Supercab in the F350 SRW.

Manxman, what is the height of your new unit from the bed to the top of the camper and also from the bed to the cab overhang?

Many thanks and looking forward to more photos...

 

[MANXMAN]

The bed to the top of the camper is 54" without the fan. The bed to the cab over is 44". The cab over was made 2" deeper than normal.

 

[MANXMAN]

I might be a tad biased, but thinking one ton truck, flatbed camper is about as good as it gets.

It came down to features for the price that made the decision to go 350 over 250. I certainly didn't need a 1 ton to haul the 150 lb estimated weight increase that the new camper will weight over my existing one on the F150. The F150 hauls the original camper around easily and 5.0 V8 gets excellent mileage while doing so.

There is a luxury tax on F250s here, the 350 gets the upgraded transmission and the payload of the F350 turned out to be 4442 lbs.
Add those things to the fact that the 350 and the 250 have very little difference in ride quality when I test drove them, the 350 was a clear winner.

 

[Pax2525]

It came down to features for the price that made the decision to go 350 over 250. I certainly didn't need a 1 ton to haul the 150 lb estimated weight increase that the new camper will weight over my existing one on the F150. The F150 hauls the original camper around easily and 5.0 V8 gets excellent mileage while doing so.

There is a luxury tax on F250s here, the 350 gets the upgraded transmission and the payload of the F350 turned out to be 4442 lbs.
Add those things to the fact that the 350 and the 250 have very little difference in ride quality when I test drove them, the 350 was a clear winner.

What were you getting MPG wise in that 5.0 V8 with camper?

 

[MANXMAN]

The truck was rated to get 26.65 mpg (22 mpg U.S.) on the highway empty and we got 20.2 mpg (16.8 mpg U.S.) on the highway with the camper on and fully loaded on our way to Utah.

After getting home our combined mpg for the total trip was 18.83 (15.7 U.S.) which included 3 weeks of off road exploring and camping in the Moab area.

The F350 with the 6.2 V8 and 4.30 gears sure isn't going to give me that kind of mileage.

 

[Durango1]

Lots of changes from the previous one...

So what changes did you make from the previous one? I'm already planning my next flatbed camper (undecided between ATC or ordering my third FWC) and really would like to learn from your experience.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[MANXMAN]

A lot of the changes to the frame were little ones to accommodate things like width and length adjustments to suit the F350, different window placement, water tank relocation, fridge being moved to opposite side of the camper, a larger propane tank, dual solar ports in the roof, etc.

The bigger ones were to lengthen the cabover to 5 feet from the standard 4 feet and to make it 2" deeper. They also reinforced both sides of the back wall for water/gas cans to be mounted there.

ATC was totally open to letting me design my camper the way I wanted it and were able to make every change I asked for. I don't think there is another pop up camper builder who will do this, especially to the extent that I asked for.

I certainly don't know as much as a professional camper builder like FWC does about designing campers, but I do know what I want and I can't buy it off the shelf. It needed to be custom built and only ATC will do that.

 

[Durango1]

Did you have ATC do the solar?

 

[MANXMAN]

It's a shell not a complete camper so ATC just installed the roof entry ports for the solar panels. I get to have the fun of doing the interior build including installing the solar system.