The Ultimate Rig to Travel and Ski Full Time
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- Hey! We're back, on the road and shooting full time again out of our newest rig. This offroad truck camper build has been a longtime in the making and is still something we're working on every day. After exploring so many options and doing months of research, planning and work I'm stoked to show you our latest project!
Cheers,
-Nathan
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"Don't buy a solution for a problem that you don't have yet" -- some of the best advice I've heard.
Made my day, glad you like that! I really think people should spend the time on the road before dropping money, if you don't like it when it's as simple as a sleeping bag in the back of a car, you're not going to like it when you have year round maintenance to keep your rig from falling apart.
@nathansaier I mean, it's easy to get distracted by all the things you could have if you shelled out for a fancy camper. But it's also just great advice for anyone doing outdoor sports. I'm constantly telling myself to not upgrade my equipment (MTB, rock climbing, skiing) until it becomes a problem.
Absolutely! He also gives some really practical and good opinions about the adventure craze. An excellent video from such a young kid.
This advice has stopped me from numerous unnecessary purchases, wise words indeed!
I think a truck camper is by far the best way to go. The only reason the van is a good idea is if you’re old and you feel like you can’t get in it and out of the truck camper it’s on a 4 x 4. I’ve lived in mine for about 11 years now full time. I used to chase the snow, but the resorts got so annoying that I haven’t been doing it for a few years. Yeah diesel heater is good but a propane heater works great you just gotta keep the condensation down. And deal with it so you don’t get mold. It’s really the price point is what I would be looking at. You can get a nice slide in truck camper and a great truck for a third or less of what you would pay for a nice van. I took my shower out and also my hot water heater. They just didn’t seem very practical to me. Maybe one day I’ll put an on-demand hot water heater in, but it’s easy to heat up some water and it’s easy to take a sponge bath. I ended up getting all of that black water tank space as storage and I have a gear locker now instead of a shower, which I remodeled. I have a composting toilet so I don’t need a black tank and I don’t really like holding my shit for very long so I just offload it pretty quickly these days I’m camping in the desert in the winter in Arizona so it’s easy just to bury it and I have a folding toilet that works great. But yeah, I love your rig. It’s definitely the best of all worlds. You have so much more space than a van and you can carry so much more weight. The van definitely have some good points to them but they’re just so overpriced. It seems ridiculous. I have a client that spent almost $200,000 on one of the pre-built ones and all it has done is caused her hassles. All the systems are proprietary, and not that easy to fix. I got lucky and found a 2012 Lance used that I bought in 2014 for $18,500. I had to drive across the country to pick it up, but it was such a good deal and barely used that I was pretty stoked. I don’t think lances are necessarily the best, but the frame is good and so I can change everything else out which I have done most of. I basically redesigned the inside. I think most of us are built like crap. If I didn’t care about being stealthy, I would’ve just built something on the back, but I also didn’t have a great place to do that build out so this was my best option. And if you’re not a handyman, you will become one because I like to say living on a rig/RV is like living on a boat with wheels, there’s always something to fix. It used to bump me out when things would break but now I know it’s just part of the territory and I have a high tolerance now for things breaking, which is great much more peace of mind knowing that it’s just gonna break and I’m just gonna have to fix it.
Picked up a beat up 1977 six pack truck camper and tossed it on a 2020 ram 2500 flatbed … so nice to have the flexibility.. diesel heater solar lithium and simple plumbing go in this week!
Nice discussion about rigs. I am solo skier with a van, so the title caught my eye. Van works great for me but I am not full timer, don’t entertain in rig, and dont cook much other than heat up stuff with cooktop or microwave. Limit trips to maybe 2 weeks. I like stealth parking and have a simple shower area, and only have porta potti, no black water tank. For full time the van even for me is too small. So figuring out what boxes to check is the key. Building any rv is enormous undertaking.
Vans are just tool boxes! your rig is the best!
Yeah, we went silverado and travelite slide in, both used for about $30k total, no build time or headaches, killer ground clearance and 4x4 ready to go anywhere. Ideal for sure
We had a Northern Lite 10-2. Awesome rig with great quality. You definitely found the best combo out there!
Nice video! Some benefits of the truck camper - A much safer way to drive for passengers. And like you pointed out, larger interior, all the comforts of home, nice place to hang wet stuff. Some benefits of a Sprinter - A safe place to transport mountain bikes and dirt bikes. This was the main reason for me. Also the diesel heater tapped directly into the fuel tank, can run that heater for weeks, just sips fuel. And like you mentioned, no need to exit the driver area to head to bed. But it all depends on what activities you do. For skiing, the truck camper makes a lot of sense, aside form the heater issue. But adding a diesel heater to a truck camper seems like an option. If you don't need to transport bikes, a truck camper is great.
All great points going to be making a video covering 3-5 specific cons and how to address them the propane consumption is out of control so going to install a diesel heater at some point. Also having issues with condensation
I use my truck camper in crazy cold South Dakota winters. For condensation always crack a vent or window 1/4 to 1/2 an inch. Counterintuitive in sub-zero temps but makes a world of difference with condensation. Use hypervent or a Froli system under your mattress to prevent mold. Fans are good too. Open up cabinet doors when extremely cold. Helps keep exterior walls inside cabinets from frosting. 12 volt heated blanket underneath you… not on top is really nice if you have the juice.
Propane heater works great but is a power hog due to fan. Diesel heater is a good idea. I’d keep both. Redundancy is good in extreme weather.
Van life got a whole bunch of hype, but a solid truck and slide in camper setup with a shower is hands down the best comfort for resort jumping, parking, and camping. Definitely less discreet, so camping wherever you want is a bit more difficult, but way easier to haul around than dealing with a trailer.
I have a 4x4 sprinter, and an arctic fox 811 on a gmc 3500hd diesel. I use the sprinter for work. Thought about converting it until I got in one that had been converted. My arctic fox is waaay roomier and set up better than a converted sprinter. Truck camper is the way to go.
I would highly recommend looking at Carli suspension, specifically their radius arms as a solid reinforcement over the stamped metal radius arms. They can build you custom Deaver leaf springs for pay load etc. Stay on top of some frame maintenance and inspections your 11 has the old style C channel and as great as super duty is, it still needs some help especially with a big ass camper living in it’s bed. Another thing to make sure to keep tabs on in your steel bed and being in winter conditions. Get that camper out to inspect it and linex it if you haven’t already.
Merci de me donné la vérité sur le sujet. Je commence mes recherches sur ce genre de sujet et ton point de vue m'a éclairé sur le sujet. je suis abonné et merci pour les infos. Carl de Québec
100% .. totally agree - very nicely presented. I've been going through the same thought process and only a couple of months ago concluded just as you have. Maybe not the same rig but very similar. Outpost 6.5 on a Tundra is what I'm now looking for. Thank you!!
Been running a 96' Bigfoot,9-6 on a 99 f350,4dr PS for years.Sitting on a alum. flatbed with 4 alum. storage boxes and a under mat for gen.Solar and a back up wave heater for boon docking.Tons of storage, done many months long trips and lived in while building a log home threw a MT winter,9 months.Its my hunting set top and I tow a T4R Hill or my built jeep, if I need a run around rig.Fishing trips I have my Woolridge AK jet boat.
Thanks for sharing! Love some of the work you’ve shot for Liberty 🤙🏻
Appreciate it! We do a ton of photo work for them, doing some wild stuff with them this year.
You probably know this but make sure to figure out how to run a dehumidifier in there in the winter. That and the hypervent under the mattress is garbage. I replaced mine with some 2” blue foam board and have no condensation problems.
Are you referring to the 2” styrofoam you find at Lowe’s/Home Depot? We’re not having great luck with the hypervent, and were eyeing the Froli system, but it’s crazy expensive for a bunch of plastic pieces.
@ yes the hard foam though. Never had problems with condensation sonce
Yo Zacatwell just bought a froli system I'll let you know if it works well
@@nathansaier Awesome! I've heard only positive reviews! I'm sure you'll be set!
I just 3D printed some cases I'll be using to hold some desiccant by the headboard. Hoping that helps some. An alternative would be to just get some 'damp rid' and stash it in moisture zones, too.
I bought hypervent off Amazon. Spendy at $100 but have had zero mold in 5 years of extremely cold winter camping.
I paid 22,000 for my brand new Bigfoot camper back in 2005. I’ll never sell it but I’ve seen them listed for 18 to 20,000. Bigfoot’s and Northern lights really keep their value.
Lmao, that's about what I paid hard to find used ones that have had good upkeep
Intro is beautiful 👌
And all very well spoken, everything has its pros and cons, and your rig fits you well!
Wait until you get a 15k bill when your cp4 shits the bed and sends metal throughout the whole fuel system. That’s a fun challenge when it comes lol
Yuppp well aware, of the potential for that
Perfect timing....have been on the fence between Truck conversion or Van conversion....but leaning heavily towards a truck conversion....ie 2018 to 2021 Toyota Tundra with a composite type trailer for 4 season outdoor home away from home!! This just confirms what I am ....leaning towards myself!! Cheers, B 1000 islands Ontario
Stoked to help, I'm going to make a second video talking about more specific problems to watch for, kind of a 3 pros, 3 cons type video. I will warn you with tundras you are going to have very serious fuel economy issues. We have a friend with essentially the exact build you're talking about and they get 7-10mpg. Went diesel (still stock not deleted) and I've averaged 15.5mpg across the last 10k miles, theoretically that could go up with a deleted but I'll be leaving it stock.
Awesome, Northern lite is a premier rig in the TC world.
Still finding quite a few struggles with it, going to be making a 3 pros, 3 cons type video here soon where I can dive into specifics because I feel like I got overwhelmed with too much to talk about in this first one
Oh and worth noting as I point out the issues to look for im also going provide the solutions we're putting in place, stuff like condensation mitigation, propane consumption etc.
@@nathansaier Awesome, that will be good content.
Awesome video, at the sleeping bag SUV stage of my journey.
How do you find handling in snow with the camper on? I'm not looking at backcountry trails, but highway driving in chain control seems sketch!
Friction force = the normal force (essentially weight) × friction coefficient. 12,000lbs x good snow tires = a lot of friction. I'd say it handles as well if not better than my Crosstrek but you do need to drive differently because your stopping distance is longer and once you stop moving you have trouble starting again on a hill (basic inertia problems).
Stoked to hear you're at that stage man! It only gets more complicated from there so enjoy it! I think about those days all the time most of my best adventures were from sleeping in the back of a Crosstrek.
What is your favorite winter jacket for all around use? Maybe 1 down and 1 synthetic?
Shell: Boundary Ridge
Puffy: Ghost Whisperer
Fleece: Basic Quarter zip from Columbia
What model Northern Lite is this? The floorplan is excellent.
2008 8.11 Queen
Traveling and skiing? Sweet. So many questions? Cannot believe the size of the sink. Tv monitor? How, where do you park? Up close parking is a fortune over time. Do ski resort have off site parking, then you take a bus in?
Totally know nothing on this. Wanna break free. Always end up skiing with rich relatives or siblings where you park the car at the hotel and you are ski in/ski out.
This setup would offer so much more flexibility self contained.
Let me get back to you on all this might make a complete video detailing how we do everything.
@@nathansaier Look forward to that video.
those campers are ok if your a little tiny person. If your like me 6 foot tall 250lbs Id much rather have an Airstream.
I do happen to be a little tiny person (5'8ish) but a couple even my friends at six feet tall can stand in here comfortably and the bed is a full size queen. I feel like there's too much hassle with a trailer
Did you say king bed?
I shouldn't have it's a full size queen not king
Awesome setup!
What about the fuel consumption?
I kind of addressed this in another comment, but this is a 2011 6.7 power stroke completely stock except for some of the breakable bits replaced. (To say not deleted) I went diesel for the increased fuel economy, reliability and for future expansion into a sled trailer etc. I've been getting about 15.5 mpg on average with a low of 13.5 and a high of 17.7 across the last 10k miles. Theoretically with a deleted power stroke or Cummins those numbers could get up in the low to mid 20s. With any gasser, especially tundras (not strong enough to support most full slide ins) you're going to be talking 5-10mpg.
Andrew Muse ...started out with a truck conversion on season one with Booter dog....and then tradegy struck, and he eventually built a earthlike roamer for season 2 and 3....the earth roamers are just too damn expensive !!!
If I had all the time in the world I'd get a 7.3 power stroke, Carli suspension, Bowen flatbed and build up from that with a custom total composite shell. It'd be way better off-road but I'd definitely lose the homey feel of this thing and some of the amenities like a bathroom.
Awildtuan on Instagram is another worth watching dudes going the same route from custom Tacoma build to old f350 flatbed up build.
@@nathansaier Thank you ...appreciate that you took the time for advice...much appreciated....Tundra V8 is reliable and durable but sure does drink the gas!! Might look elsewhere now...( hmmm makes you think twice
did i miss the tour of the outside of the rig??
Hadn't even thought to do that 😂 filmed most the video after dark in knee deep snow. What sort of questions would you have or want me to cover on the outside
Nice rig......is that 8-11?
Yeye 2008 8.11 queen
i have bigfoot c8. 1100lbs! can have it on a ford f150 eco boost. that is the beauty of a truck camper aint it, the truck dies, you can just put it on another one.
Subscribed I like you!
😂 alright I appreciate it!
Delete and tune your powerstroke
They look awful so they will be less tolerated. They are top heavy.
Drives like shit. Modern diesel problematic recirculating exhaust into engine. No Bueno. AWD transit way better.
Idk where you got the idea that it drives poorly but on an f350 with airbags it drives excellently on road, considering doing a Carli suspension build for off-road. Personally I prefer the look but I do think you have to be more careful where u park in cities overnight
lol F350s drive better than Transit vans, especially if you upgrade the suspension. And AWD isn’t really comparable to a 4WD vehicle with locking diffs.