After years of tent camping, then Sportz Bed-Tent camping and a few years of camping in a Snugtop topper it was time to upgrade to something more substantial with more room and amenities. I narrowed down my choice to a
Four Wheel Camper,
All Terrain Camper or a
Phoenix Camper by Coyote RV in Denver. What sets these three campers apart from your usual cheaply constructed Palomino, Sunlite, etc pop-up truck camper is the fact these are constructed from light weight aluminum frames opposed to the typical heavy wood frames with stapled joints. The aluminum frames are also much more suited for off-road as they flex with the bed of the truck like an airplane wing instead of breaking up into a pile of kindling.
It was a tough call between the Four Wheel Camper and the Phoenix. I chose the Phoenix over the FWC as the Phoenix is made locally (150 miles away in Denver) and each of their campers are custom made to order with no two campers being the same. The folks at Phoenix were great to work with as well. What turned me off about the FWC the most was their exterior construction made of corrugated aluminum siding. How 1970’s is that! You can hardly tell the difference from a 1981 FWC or a 2011 FWC. Not to mention the corrugated siding would last though one hail storm or one trip to the mountains without being denting up like a piece of aluminum foil in a wind storm. I also didn’t find the crew at FWC very friendly when I looked over their products at the 2010 Denver Outdoor Expo nor did they seem flexible to build anything outside of the box. Ironically, the owners of Phoenix (Coyote RV) are actually the children of the founders of FWC but their family sold the FWC brand to an investor in California many years ago.
Here are a few pictures of my Phoenix camper in the build process.
Loaded on different truck as it was being transported to the paint shop today for a coat of late model GM truck Storm Gray.
You can see the edge of the refrigerator (gray thing). It is a hard core off-road and marine refrigerator from South Africa called
National Luna that is very effective in extreme hot temperatures and resistant to vibration. If you ever had experience with the typical camper refrigerators that never seem to work, the high cost of this South African gem was well worth it extra $1000. A guy has got to have cold beer in the desert!
If all goes as planned I will be taking delivery of the camper next Thursday (3-17-11) then shortly after the rear bumper will be going through a remodel to add a barn door style tire and fuel can carrier. Much like the one my buddy just finished for this Ram Charger.
More to come soon as the mods begin!