Boondocker recommendations?

[JHinman]

I am thinking of replacing my 2011 Arctic Fox, but am not sure what to replace it with.

Our camping is almost exclusively dry, and normally older Forest Service campgrounds and dispersal sites.

Big deals for us are cold weather capacity, and larger waste tank capacity than we currently have. A more generous shower would be nice, too! TV, fireplaces, and fancy chandeliers would have no place in my rig!

I tow with a 2018 F350 Crew cab, long bed, so can probably tow anything that will fit an older campground.

There is a bewildering variety of TT out there. Any recommendations?

[JHinman]

campigloo wrote:
It won’t be long before I’ll have the same question. I’m seriously considering partially gutting mine and adding tanks and good insulation under the floor. I’ll make some changes to get more outside storage too.
Good luck with your hunt!

Sounds like a major project! It could be fun, if a person has the capability to pull it off.

I rewired mine to put batteries inside near the back, instead of outside on the tongue. It was interesting, but not something I would choose to do again!

[campigloo]

It won’t be long before I’ll have the same question. I’m seriously considering partially gutting mine and adding tanks and good insulation under the floor. I’ll make some changes to get more outside storage too.
Good luck with your hunt!

[Vintage465]

JHinman wrote:

ReneeG wrote:
When you mainly boondock, a lot of features in current units don't make sense. Islands in kitchen is one feature that I shake my head at. We've been in windy situations that we feel better with all the slides in while we wait out the storm. Had we had an island in the kitchen, either the stove, fridge or sink would not be accessible. Outside kitchens are another crazy idea as are residential fridges and no ovens. For crying out loud, how do you boondock without an oven for those biscuits and rolls, then after they're baked, using the residual oven heat to warm your space?! Our unit is completely self contained, with solar power and heated basement (ducted to). We don't have thermal windows, but our unit can maintain a 30 degree difference from the outside to in. In addition, it is rated for full time use.

Roger! Gotta have an oven! I don’t remember baking rolls, but a pan of lasagna sure is good after fishing or hunting all day.

As far as insulated windows go, the biggest load on my batteries is the fan for the heater. I could keep my previous three-season trailer warm, but want to minimize power requirements. I have not done any heat loss calculations, but thermal pane windows are not expensive and I take that conservative route.

Oven? Yes! We added dual pane windows to ours after purchase. Biggest and best thing about dual pane windows is mitigating the moisture build up on the windows. Good for summer and winter. I love winter camping and like to be able to regularly keep in the teens. We are Buddy heater keeping warm in the evening. Furnace over night. Stove(making coffee)and Buddy Heater in the morning. The solar your rig comes with will need to be revamped to really keep up with the needs of the furnace on a frosty night. My 450w with 4-6v golf cart batteries keeps up with my winter needs easily but it is nothing like ORV designed the factory prewire. I have a generator but have not needed it.

[Vintage465]

JHinman wrote:

Bionic Man wrote:
Curious why you aren't looking at another Arctic Fox? Looks like their gray capacity is 44 and 35 for black, is that not competitive with the other manufactures?

FWIW, we are considering upgrading our 5th wheel. I've looked at Arctic Fox and Grand Designs. The AF quality sure appears better to me.

We looked at a Grand Designs FW, model 29RS. It has a pretty nice layout, and the center island in the kitchen would be nice. It is just a bit longer and taller than our current TT. There is one stored very close to our AF, so we could almost compare them side by side. Lots of nice big windows, but they are not thermal pane windows unless I made a special order.

The GD had features that we laughed at, like an exterior TV and a little bitty exterior ‘fridge that requires shore power.

The TV in our new ORV will probably be relocated to the basement of our house before our first trip. That is where the TV from our AF has been for the last ten years.

Sorry,
Punched the wrong quote button and don't know how to delete this!

[JHinman]

ReneeG wrote:
When you mainly boondock, a lot of features in current units don't make sense. Islands in kitchen is one feature that I shake my head at. We've been in windy situations that we feel better with all the slides in while we wait out the storm. Had we had an island in the kitchen, either the stove, fridge or sink would not be accessible. Outside kitchens are another crazy idea as are residential fridges and no ovens. For crying out loud, how do you boondock without an oven for those biscuits and rolls, then after they're baked, using the residual oven heat to warm your space?! Our unit is completely self contained, with solar power and heated basement (ducted to). We don't have thermal windows, but our unit can maintain a 30 degree difference from the outside to in. In addition, it is rated for full time use.

Roger! Gotta have an oven! I don’t remember baking rolls, but a pan of lasagna sure is good after fishing or hunting all day.

As far as insulated windows go, the biggest load on my batteries is the fan for the heater. I could keep my previous three-season trailer warm, but want to minimize power requirements. I have not done any heat loss calculations, but thermal pane windows are not expensive and I take that conservative route.

[ReneeG]

When you mainly boondock, a lot of features in current units don't make sense. Islands in kitchen is one feature that I shake my head at. We've been in windy situations that we feel better with all the slides in while we wait out the storm. Had we had an island in the kitchen, either the stove, fridge or sink would not be accessible. Outside kitchens are another crazy idea as are residential fridges and no ovens. For crying out loud, how do you boondock without an oven for those biscuits and rolls, then after they're baked, using the residual oven heat to warm your space?! Our unit is completely self contained, with solar power and heated basement (ducted to). We don't have thermal windows, but our unit can maintain a 30 degree difference from the outside to in. In addition, it is rated for full time use.

[JHinman]

Bionic Man wrote:
Curious why you aren't looking at another Arctic Fox? Looks like their gray capacity is 44 and 35 for black, is that not competitive with the other manufactures?

FWIW, we are considering upgrading our 5th wheel. I've looked at Arctic Fox and Grand Designs. The AF quality sure appears better to me.

We looked at a Grand Designs FW, model 29RS. It has a pretty nice layout, and the center island in the kitchen would be nice. It is just a bit longer and taller than our current TT. There is one stored very close to our AF, so we could almost compare them side by side. Lots of nice big windows, but they are not thermal pane windows unless I made a special order.

The GD had features that we laughed at, like an exterior TV and a little bitty exterior ‘fridge that requires shore power.

The TV in our new ORV will probably be relocated to the basement of our house before our first trip. That is where the TV from our AF has been for the last ten years.

[JHinman]

Bionic Man wrote:
Curious why you aren't looking at another Arctic Fox? Looks like their gray capacity is 44 and 35 for black, is that not competitive with the other manufactures?

FWIW, we are considering upgrading our 5th wheel. I've looked at Arctic Fox and Grand Designs. The AF quality sure appears better to me.

We did look at AF, And in fact that is what we looked at first. We like some of the others better in terms of layout and features.

We have been really happy with our current Arctic Fox (2011 model 26X). It is well built, but I am not sure the interior is built any better (or any differently) than the Nomad/Skyline we had before that.

We just put a deposit on an Outdoors RV model 24KRS. It is the same length and weight as the AF, The kitchen has a little less counter space, and the fridge is 7 CF instead of 8 CF, but the bedroom and bathroom should be more convenient.it will hold 100 gallons of fresh water and 80 gallons of grey (two 40-gallon tanks, so we cannot use all of that capacity). I think the exterior-accessible storage will be more convenient also.

It seems the trailer has been built, but is sitting at the factory waiting for a shipment of air conditioners. With luck it will show up by the end of September.

[Bionic_Man]

Curious why you aren't looking at another Arctic Fox? Looks like their gray capacity is 44 and 35 for black, is that not competitive with the other manufactures?

FWIW, we are considering upgrading our 5th wheel. I've looked at Arctic Fox and Grand Designs. The AF quality sure appears better to me.

[JHinman]

Thanks for the video, DeltaBravo!

No joy at the dealership, as the trailers are still on order.

They sure look good!

[Old_Days]

We love our Outdoors RV 18 rbs its the smallest trailer they make but is perfect for just the 2 of us. Having the 80 gallon water tank is great for the camping we do, which is up in the mountains by are self.

[deltabravo]

JHinman wrote:
We looked at some Grand Design products yesterday, and hope to see some Outdoor RV models today - a Backcountry 24KRS TT and an F26KRS FW.

Outdoors RV is a sister company of Northwood. ORV builds their own frames, just as Northwood does. For that reason, I prefer those two manufacturers. Nearly all other towable RV manufacturers use outsourced frames from Lippert, which have some pretty sketchy construction from what I have seen.

Northwood/ORV build their frames to survive off the beaten path travel.

24KRS was at the top of my list when I was shopping back in March.
I saw one of the first ones off the production line.
Here's a video when I found them at RVs NW in Spokane.

24KRS Tour

[JHinman]

Cold weather means upper ‘teens” for us. That is late season camping at higher elevations in Idaho, but before it snows so much we get stuck.

I vividly remember the first time we took our Arctic Fox out. The first morning I was drinking coffee in my shirt sleeves, watching the sun come up on a 22 F morning. I was comfy and the heat was not constantly on.

Thanks for the video. Broadmoor RV is the dealership that sold me my Arctic Fox. The local dealers did not carry one with the optional double-pane windows.

We looked at some Grand Design products yesterday, and hope to see some Outdoor RV models today - a Backcountry 24KRS TT and an F26KRS FW.

[deltabravo]

JHinman wrote:
Big deals for us are cold weather capacity,

What is "cold weather capacity"?

Arctic Fox, Nash or Outdoors RV is what I'd recommend if you want off the beaten path capable rig.

I had on ORV 24RLS for a few months. SOld it because I decided it was a dumb purchase since I prefer to use my truck camper.

Here's a video tour of it.