Why did you choose ATC over FWC

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Other than the small,friendly the ATC team. I chose their camper for the following reasons

1.the extra 4"width.Its nice to sleep across the bed instead of carrying the 2 extra mattress pads

2.the extended cab over at no extra charge $600 plus with FWC

3.the simple storage design. Sliding doors seem to work better for us.

4.the willingness to work with you on ways to customize the camper

5.the difference in price for the same,apples to apples design and options was about $2000 less,and i can't see any difference the craftsmanship or quality.

6 the screen door and sliding window are no extra charge.

We had the dinette floor plan and it really works out for us better,more room to move around and the table stays up all the time(we have no need for the extra bed space). There is enough storage since i added the plastic drawers, see the thread about mods i started. We just came back from 3 weeks at yellowstone and the camper worked out perfectly. What else can i say for our input i recommend ATC. To be fair i did go to FWC first at the time i hadn't heard of ATC,so i did compare. Hope this helps. See some of my threads for pictures.

Frank

 

[CJinCA]

Other than the small,friendly the ATC team. I chose their camper for the following reasons

1.the extra 4"width.Its nice to sleep across the bed instead of carrying the 2 extra mattress pads

2.the extended cab over at no extra charge $600 plus with FWC




Those are the 2 main reasons I did not choose ATC. I didn't want the wider, longer and resultant heavier ATC Bobcat. If the Bobcat had the same dimensions as the Eagle I might have went with ATC.

Just an observation, not a criticism. Both ATC and FWC make a quality product. As said often here, it's good to have choices.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Other than the small,friendly the ATC team. I chose their camper for the following reasons

1.the extra 4"width.Its nice to sleep across the bed instead of carrying the 2 extra mattress pads

2.the extended cab over at no extra charge $600 plus with FWC


Frank


I would have to agree with the above post, I do not want a wider camper. If ATC made a narrower camper I would consider going with them. (Also FWC does make the wide body Fleet)

The extended cab over is now standard on most FWC's. So #2 is a moot point.

 

[Dughlas Stiubhart]

I would have to agree with the above post, I do not want a wider camper. If ATC made a narrower camper I would consider going with them.



Hadley, the narrow ATC you're looking for may be the ATC Ocelot.

 

[pods8]

Yeah I'm pretty sure they'll narrow down any camper to your liking.

 

[HIKEMT]

Yeah I'm pretty sure they'll narrow down any camper to your liking.


Although worth checking with them, I'm not sure this is necessarily true for ATC these days. When I talked to Marty recently about narrowing a Panther from 84" wide down to 80" at build time he said they either offered the Panther at 84" or the Ocelot at 78". This could be new now that they have the ocelot.

They're also about 3 mos out on new orders instead of the previous 6 weeks, and they were still very open to the custom stuff I requested.

 

[generubin]

Yeah I'm pretty sure they'll narrow down any camper to your liking.


When I ordered my Ocelot, I had Jay check if the cab-over could be made 2 inches shorter to help retain my 2-way radio antenna where it was. ATC was not able to do this and I now understand why. It is easy for them to do almost any custom work you'd want but difficult to do custom dimensions if it requires an alteration of the vinyl dimensions. The vinyl is pre-made in large batches to keep the cost reasonable.

 

[pods8]

Makes sense, hadn't thought about that.

 

[brett13]

Just a quick comment on ATC's service. I lost one of the hooks that clamp the roof down. Not the whole thing, just the threaded part. Apparently, I had it too loose and lost it. So I called ATC, told them about my mistake. Marty actually had this very piece on his desk- someone had broke the other part and this little piece was lying around. Instead of charging me, he just mailed out. Not only is this little part expensive, but he didn't even ask me to pay postage. Gotta love their service!

 

[contento]

So how relevant is this thread these days? FWC has made some big improvements while ATC, at least to my untrained eye, is still making the same product- a quality product to be sure but with few changes.


I'm leaning towards a Grandby shell, here are the big reasons why:

-Seamless roof, a good idea for obvious reasons, not that I'd be worried about the previous roofs leaking with proper maintenance

-Composite lift panels, I hate that they're pitch black windowless panels but the fact remains composite>>>wood.

-The newer "birch" interior FWC has upgraded to, this matters little in a shell model but I'm still gonna rail on ATC for this one...the 1970's faux oak garbage they use is totally out of date and there is no reason to keep using it. There are simply more modern lookign materials for the same price...maybe less, I bet the guys at the faux oak factory are thinking "It's 2013, who still buys this stuff?" I don't care if it's one drawer front I don't want this "boogie nights" crap in my camper.

-The radius door, not a huge deal but it does look 10x better than the square door



Now the reasons I'm considering an ATC Cougar:

-Customization from the factory, FWC has said no to most of the "custom" stuff I've inquired about. I have no interest in your stock mattress, can you leave it out and give me a credit? nope! I'll defitnitely want some custom things on my camper and there's a few of them that it wouldn't be worth the hassle for me to do myself if the factory could do it for a reasonable price. This is really the main sticking point for ATC, they would presumably put in or leave out any option I wanted along with maybe a few unique ideas.

-Cost, everything is cheaper at ATC. Not by a huge amount, but a buck is a buck

-Exterior window flaps. I'm not sure this is a plus, but I've seen plenty of pics of a camper in hot weather with those velcro sticks propping the window flap open...it provides needed shade while allowing airflow. Does that override the nuisance of having to open the flaps up from the outside everytime you stop? not sure.

-Supposedly, I read it in this thread I think?, stouter aluminum frame.



Thoughts?

 

[Taku]

I am looking at ordering a shell with specific options and "special" items to my specs. Talked to both FWC and ATC. It obviously was either "No" or expensive and painfull for FWC to do anything outside of their standard package. Which is why I am going with ATC. Not necessarily good or bad, just different ways of doing business I suppose.

 

[Riverrunner]

I was in the same boat so to speak for the very reasons you posted contento. I had planned to visit both shops at the same time so I could compare. I figured I was going to end up getting new since used ones are tough to find and a shell was what I thought I could afford. I don't think you can go wrong with either one. They both have different markets. FWC may be more progressive in design and materials but they are also a production shop/assembly line type operation.

I'm not sure if anyone has ever built custom "stuff" before, but it's extremely time consuming. A "one off" type build can consume a tremendous amount of man hours and doesn't work if you're trying to meet a certain number of units/wk. Sure there are some things that don't seem that big of a deal but when most of the parts are premade, it's tough to have to stop and make a custom part. ATC probably has the leeway in their builds to be more flexible where FWC doesn't.

 

[winks]

I was looking at both, but a used ATC Puma that kinda-sorta-mostly fits my truck came up and I just had to jump on it. I am sure I would have been happy with either.

 

[N'kwala]

Well, actually I didn't exactly buy an All-Terrain Camper. I'd visited the shop, and Marty gave me lots of time and we discussed what I needed and I was really impressed. I was all set to order a new camper and then the Ski3pins put their wonderful hybrid FWC/ATC on the market.

So I e-mailed Marty and asked his opinion. Maybe this was impudence, since it was going to cost his outfit a sale, but I don't know any other camper owners and I thought if he said the Ski3 camper was a good deal it likely was. He suggested I drop by and talk, and he said yes, it would be a very good buy. I'm pretty sure it is. The ATC guys did the install (see Ski3pin's nice photos http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/7979-ski3pins-camper-has-been-sold/page-2)
and I'll have them do a couple of little tweaks in January, after the holiday financial drain has subsided..

It's got to be a real endorsement that I could expect and receive an honest answer from an outfit that knew I would likely buy a new camper from if they didn't recommend the used one. I think this is a very good, competent, and honest business and I'd recommend their products and service to anyone.

PS. I'm generally not a very trusting person...even my friends call me a skeptic.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Well, actually I didn't exactly buy an All-Terrain Camper. I'd visited the shop, and Marty gave me lots of time and we discussed what I needed and I was really impressed. I was all set to order a new camper and then the Ski3pins put their wonderful hybrid FWC/ATC on the market.

So I e-mailed Marty and asked his opinion. Maybe this was impudence, since it was going to cost his outfit a sale, but I don't know any other camper owners and I thought if he said the Ski3 camper was a good deal it likely was. He suggested I drop by and talk, and he said yes, it would be a very good buy. I'm pretty sure it is. The ATC guys did the install (see Ski3pin's nice photos http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/7979-ski3pins-camper-has-been-sold/page-2)
and I'll have them do a couple of little tweaks in January, after the holiday financial drain has subsided..

It's got to be a real endorsement that I could expect and receive an honest answer from an outfit that knew I would likely buy a new camper from them if they didn't recommend the used one. I think this is a very good, competent, and honest business and I'd recommend their products and service to anyone.

PS. I'm generally not a very trusting person...even my friends call me a skeptic.

You hit it right on the head IMO.
Frank

 

[MANXMAN]

Although I ordered my camper from ATC, in no way do I feel FWC isn't an excellent product. When I first started researching flat deck campers for my Tacoma, I looked seriously at the FWC version. The layout wasn't right for me and they do not sell a shell model of it for me to do the interior myself.

Other than the Canadian FWC distributor who refused to return any phone calls, everyone else I spoke to was great. Terry at Sacramento and Denny in Jackson were very helpful and gave 1st class service.

In the end, ATC was willing to build a flat deck camper shell to my specs and with all the options I wanted. Nearly every question was answered with "yes we can do that." E-mails and phone calls during the designing stage were promptly answered and the visit to their shop was very helpful to clear up the last of the small details before production.

ATC will build a camper for those who want something different or maybe personalized to the buyers needs. For me, that was the difference.

 

[Wrinklie44]

I hit 70 years of age this year and my wife some how, reaches another mile stone in her mid-50’s and we’ve been married 33 years. Our honeymoon was camping at the Gila Cliff Dwellings and we’ve been camping ever since. After retiring and seeking more comfortable ways to camp, we tried VW pop-tops (loved them), pop-up tent trailers, hybrid trailers, and a regular trailer. We enjoyed all of them, but fine tuned our likes to: off road, no towing, and more comfort for these getting-older bones.

In 2013, we looked into getting a VW Westy in a four wheel drive and found them to be way too expensive for a vehicle that old. Anything in a Class B was usually too expensive for anything reliable. We finally decided to get a reliable, easy to maintain, 4x4, mid-size, pickup and put a camper on the back. The camper HAD to be low profile: we didn’t want to be swaying around the country with some huge monster on the back.

We found a 2008 Dodge Dakota that fit our needs and started to narrow the field of campers and ended up, of course, with the ATC and the Four Wheel. We really had a hard time trying to decide: owners of both rave about their camper and no one seemed to have any complaints about either camper. The truth is: a computer glitch made the decision for us and we ended up purchasing the Bobcat from All Terrain Campers. Brad drove up from Sacramento and delivered and installed our Bobcat shell. We used our ATC the first year for short stays, none over 10 days, never contemplating a 10,000 mile, 70+ day camping trip. We also noticed that there a lot of curiosity about the camper style - the pop-top is unusual, after all - with people asking us about it all the time. We were happy campers and were please to spread the word of ATC.

My wife had been wanting to go back east to see relatives she hadn’t seen in 35 years. I had always wanted to take a camping trip to the east and back. The idea of that trip bounced around for more than 10 years, but life kept intervening. Then, one morning, in early April of 2014, as I stared at the reminisce of my former self in the mirror, my own mortality obvious, I decided to follow Larry the Cable Guy’s advice and “Git ‘er done!”

We contacted Jeff and Marty about getting some upgrades for our trip. We also proposed to advertise ATC by talking to those we meet and handing out our business card with a copy of their business card on the back to as many people as we could. We concluded a deal on a handshake. We made arrangements for housesitting and some upgrades to our Bobcat, then packed up and went “On the Road Again” in an attempt to get something off the Still-To-Do List: a 10 thousand miles or so camping trip back east.

The Bobcat camper was the perfect size for two of us and the addition of a couch, furnace, stove, and backup battery system added immensely to our comfort during the trip.

We found the ATC to be a sturdy, well-built camper. The ATC carried nicely into some pretty remote places, all the way up until the vehicle operators would chicken out. It’s low profile allowed for much stabler driving in the high winds we encountered - both back and forth across the country. Even with the addition of the extra comfort items, the camper came in at less than 850 pounds - an easy carry for our 2008 Dodge Dakota. And the comfort items were a welcome addition for a 10k like this one.

We gave thanks to the “Furnace Gods” one frosty morning in Colorado; the first of very few. We performed the “Coffee Mass” at least two, mostly three, times a morning, on the Stove Alter. And the couch was a welcome comfort during the thunderstorms and rain we encountered.

We enjoy dispersed camping - some place out in the middle of nowhere. You know. Somewhere you can hear the sound of silence. Luckily, we were able to do that several times this trip. We also like to explore the back country and we were able to do that with our 4x4 truck, Silver (Hi, ho, Silver, good job!), who bore the ATC with ease.

Our Bobcat (Bob’s Cat) from All Terrain Campers is the best of all worlds for us; our home on wheels wherever we are.

Our adventure is documented on our web site: http://adventure2014.thegallivanters.net.

 

[craig333]

Welcome to WTW. Unfortunately your net is down at the moment. Glad to hear your ATC has been just right for you.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Welcome to a fellow Bobcat owner.
5 years ago we were in a similar position as you. Doing our camping via tent or the Kamperoo trailer we had.
On our fall trip to Glacier and Yellowstone it came as a flash that the trailer just wasn't going to cut it.We saw pop up campers along our trip home and started searching. When we came across FWC/ATC we checked out both and went with Marty at ATC.
Haven't regretted it one bit.
Now after almost 5 years we have traveled about 25K miles with it to many great places.
Congrats to you and have many more great trips.
Frank

 

[kmcintyre]

For me, it was about what I could find used. They go fast and when a FWC Eagle popped up near me, I jumped on it and went to get it the next day. Luckily I had planned on getting a camper for a few years and had it ready to go. Visit ATC and FWC. They are great and will show you around, etc. A lot may depend on how much time you have before you need/want one too. Lead times are different but they both seem to be quality products.