Four Wheel Camper vs Northstar Pop Up Camper- Which Is Better?
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- čas přidán 17. 01. 2024
- After years of camping, overlanding, and exploring with a Northstar 650SC on the back of my American Expedition Vehicles-equipped Ram 3500 it was time for a change. The Northstar had a wet bath, which takes up a lot of real estate in a shortbed truck. The 650SC was also heavy (1,600 pounds), which was not a huge concern on the one ton truck but still made for slow going when the going got rough. The solution? A Four Wheel Camper (fourwheelcampers.com/) Hawk model that weighs 25% less and has an optimized layout with a king sized bed and front dinette that folds into a second bed.
Four Wheel Camper (FWC) puts the “custom” is customer, allowing you to choose options to fit your needs and budget. For us that included a furnace and hot water heater for winter camping, a large 130 liter refrigerator for extended trips, and a 160 watt solar panel on the roof. We passed on a lithium battery, awning, and even jacks to save money, knowing we could add these items down the road as funds allowed.
The hardest part was waiting the three months after submitting our order for the camper to be built to our specifications. After the Hawk was installed at Four Wheel Campers’ facility in Woodland, California, we brought it home and started customizing it to our needs. This included things like Brightroom crates from Target to organize our gear (www.target.com/p/small-decora..., a 200 ah Renogy lithium battery (www.renogy.com/12v-24v-48v-20..., spice racks (www.ebay.com/itm/334659680223), and Bezia nesting cookware with removable handles (www.aliexpress.us/item/325680.... On the rear of the camper we added a DMOS Delta shovel (dmosproshoveltools.com/collec...) and Maxtrax recovery boards (adventure-imports.com/product...) like we had on the back of the Northstar.
The Four Wheel Camper has already proven to be comfortable for long weekend trips with our young son and Texas Heeler, and we look forward to bigger adventures in the years to come.
Nice Vid Harry. Congrats on your growing family. Camper set up looks sweet.
Thanks Mike!
All you need and nothing more, perfect.🤙
Hey, Harry. Your old Albuquerque neighbor here. Good to see you and I'm thrilled to see your wife and son! Congratulations! (Love the camper too!)
Thanks Ethan! I would love to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons of truck campers versus vans.
@@HarrySituations You know I've only had vans, but I'm more and more interested in truck campers. Trucks have better off-road abilities. Campers like the 4 Wheel Campers and the SuperTramp campers give you everything a van camper can but with better camping spots. You can also keep your camper and just change the truck. The vans have better gas mileage (usually), but the reason we have our Recon is it fits in our garage in L.A.! We keep going to Overland Expos and looking for our next rig in retirement.
Congrats on the baby, Harry!
Great video! I thought the music is great too! We loved our FWC and wouldnt be surprised if we end up in another!
I see a Grandby in our future as our son gets bigger but this is working out great for us now.
Great video. We have a Hawk front dinette with the Ford f250
Nice trucks
Where's the toilet and shower? Isn't that what you were talking about at the beginning?
The old camper (Northstar) had a wet bath but the new Four Wheel Camper has an outside shower and no toilet. This really frees up a lot of useable space inside the camper.
Huh! I can't help but wonder if you are going to miss the inside bathroom/shower of the Northstar with a baby and your plans to winter camp.
The issue was with the inside bath the table was so small that only one of us could fit there. Now all three of us can sit together, but we can’t s*it together.
Great video! Where did you find that great bungee pillow holder. I just bought a Project M and need something like that.
This is the one that I found was the right width for the camper.
www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08X4NWJS8?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
@@HarrySituations Thanks for the info
The cargo netting is a great idea for bedding storage! Do you have a link to this? Thank you!
Sure thing, here is the link.
www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08X4NWJS8?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
Thanks for the walkthrough and comparison! I am wondering how you tie the camper down to the truck? Frame mount or something else? Thanks in advance.
FWC does offer a bolt-in option but mine has turnbuckles to the four corners on the camper that allow you to easily remove it from the truck bed with jacks. I don't like to leave the jacks on because they have the potential to get ripped off on the trail.
@@HarrySituations gotcha! Thanks!
Better? ATC in my opinion.
Lose the music. It interferes with the speaking and is totally unnecessary. Why? Keep it simple.
Does this door emblem say RAM? Personally, I wouldn't ever buy a RAM or Jeep or anything made by Stellantos. Pure GARBAGE!
is that the 400AH battery renogy sells?
This one is only 200 aH but it has served me well.