JimK

If self defense is the concern, I highly recommend bear spray! I saw only one discharge and became an instant believer. I think it would stop a herd of charging elephants. In addition there are no major ethical or legal concerns.

Since your camper is winterized, you will need to bring some jugs for a supply of water. At a low of 25 degrees, you might want to consider dewinterizing. You should have no issues with water or waste tanks at those temps. I have made just a few adjustments for cold weather camping. I hung a blackout curtain that covers the rear door and greatly cuts down on the cold. Second I stuff some rags in the kitchen exhaust vent. Otherwise cold air can blow in. At one time I made reflectix vent covers. I don't use them anymore since I found that ventilation was a necessity in cold weather due to condensation. I have a couple of jumbo hot water bottles that work great Amazon. Each holds about a quart of boiling water. They are very tough, never leak, and there is a cover to slowly dissipate the heat. They warm up the bed and keep it warm for most of the night. With the hot water bottles and enough blankets, I have been able to conserve propane and turn the furnace off overnight. When I get up in the morning the RV temp might be in the 40s but the furnace is good sized and it heats up quickly.

Real numbers are better than the top of your head. I am not planning on spending this Winter in an RV in NY. With luck I will be in Death Valley next month. At that location 300 watts of solar will generate 55 AH/day. The vast majority of that if not all and more will be needed to run my 3.7 cuft NovaKool refrigerator. That leaves no power for lights, water pump, charging my laptop and camera batteries. Even in Southern California in bright desert sun I will need to run my generator. The situation is all different if you have the equivalent of a mobile home with plenty of room for a big battery bank and lots of solar panels. Of course, you also have to pay the cost of lugging all that stuff around the countryside. This thread is about living in a truck camper which has much less space but is better suited for mobility.

Here is how smaller works on a Truck Camper. I have a pretty decent sized battery box and was able to fit in $950 worth of Lifeline AGM batteries to reach 300 AH capacity. I had room for two 135 watt solar panels. I use that system to run a small, highly efficient compressor refrigerator. Depending on ambient temp in the RV, it pulls about 25-65 AH/day. A residential, dorm sized refrigerator would pull about twice that amount. At this time of year in NY, my two 135 watt panels can produce a maximum of 48 AH/day. Of course that is not going to happen. I am likely to get shade at least part of the day regardless of where I camp. Even worse we have had quite a few cloudy and rainy days lately. If I removed the old batwing TV antenna, I could fit one more panel, but even that is barely going to keep up with my efficient refrigerator on a sunny day if I camp in full sun facing the correct direction so the A/C unit never shades a panel.

So your recommendation on buying a residential refrigerator has nothing to do with the current topic of living in a Truck Camper full time.

That seems pretty efficient but even so that would pull about 170 AH/day requiring 300-400 AH of battery and at least a couple of solar panels. That is quite a load for a truck camper. Many TCs are maxed out with just a couple of batteries and have roof space for not much over a couple of panels.

A typical smallish residential refrigerator runs at about 200 watts. That is about 17 amps. If it runs 50% of the time that would be about 200 AH/day. It would take about 4 good sized RV batteries and several solar panels to keep up with the power consumption. There must be something going on you are not telling us.

Sorry I have not been on this forum much and missed this. No, my northern most Canada trip was to the northern Rockies. If you are planning on trips on rough or unpaved roads, I again recommend keeping the TC weight and size down. When it comes to the toilet arrangements, I would not want anything but my cassette toilet. It requires almost no water to flush but the tank is small and it still needs to be emptied every few days. I can empty it at a dump station but often use an outhouse or a flush toilet if no one else is around. Only one time out of a great many trips, I had to dig a hole in order to dump. You might also want to think through your electrical power needs. My wife uses a CPAP and we have a NovaKool electric compressor refrigerator. Even so we have done well with 2 AGM batteries and 2 x 135 watt solar panels. Bill Penney at TCW installed them at a very reasonable cost. BTW, I would not recommend a compressor refrigerator. The propane units don't use much propane.

We are all tired of Covid and the restrictions and risks. Even so take the talk of a vaccine with a handful of salt. Remember Moderna months and months ago. They keep making positive announcements and their stock jumped upwards. It was all BS talk. None of the drug companies and potential vaccines have made it through the investigation phases. We can hope for great results. We can be encouraged by press releases. But none of that is certain. Even when the studies are done we need governmental review. Even then most of us will be skeptical. Remember the lies about not needing masks? Remember the early testing. Huge numbers of tests were available and most of them were garbage with inaccurate results. When the CDC merely asked the companies to submit data, 100 different test kits were quickly pulled from the market to avoid the risk of lawsuits for fraud. I am definitely NOT an antivaccer, but I am going to be very cautious before taking a Covid vaccine. In any case. IMO, it is way premature to worry about the protocols that might be put in place for distribution of vaccines.

If it truly keeps going off in the middle of the night, then testing should be simple. Shut off the propane tanks and turn on the stove to burn off any propane in the lines. If it goes off again you will know for sure it is a false alarm. I have had 2 detectors fail over the years and the symptoms were the same. In both cases I got false alarms in the middle of the night. Why in the middle of the night I could not tell you except if it went off in the day likely I was not around to notice.

Why do you suppose all of the chlorine has been added to the water? If there are issues requiring a high level of chlorination, do you think it wise to remove that chlorine from the water entering your RV?

There are practical concerns about dealing with others during the time of a pandemic. RV life and travel during such times seems to be something many people want to ignore even though the recent infection rates show it is more important than ever. There is nothing funny about hundreds of thousands dying from Covid. Nor should we take precautions lightly. Approaching strangers to discuss you hobby and to arrange for portraits is something I would avoid.

Sounds good. Would you prefer doing my portrait wearing a blue surgical mask or an N95 mask?

There are a lot of wind deflectors for RVs. Most are sold with the intent of improving aerodynamics and fuel mileage. It is doubtful that any of those make any even minor improvements. As a reference, you can check YouTube videos from Marion Blair. He is a pickup truck performance nut who also tows an RV. His careful studies showed no improvement in mileage. Some deflectors in the front hood area can help keep bugs from hitting the windshield. The bugs do seem to hit the camper anyway. BTW, donuts are still available to go between the back window of a truck and the front camper window. Inflatables are easy to find. There is also a substantial vinyl covered foam boot which I believe is still available from Truck Camper Warehouse and also Northstar campers. Mine works well and prevents any whistling sound when the windows are open. I typically leave the windows open and a camper vent open so that the truck helps maintain a reasonable temperature in the camper. I have a gap between the camper and the top of the bed rails. The gap is about 1 1/2" in the rear and about 2 1/2 in the front. I made dense insulation foam strips to fill those gaps on all sides. Sealing off that area helped to keep the camper warm in cold weather. I also use that area as storage and the seals help keep out dirt and bugs. At one time I even had birds trying to nest in that area.

I should have been more specific. Clearly those who post of this forum are not likely to be in the majority of Americans who are overweight and especially not in the 40% group of obese Americans.

What you describe is way, way beyond the typical. I believe 15000 steps works out to be about 7 miles. That puts you well into the top 1% for exercise. You must be pretty fit and I would guess that would be very noticeable. Sadly, the pre-Covid obesity rate in the US was over 40%. Covid has only made that worse.

As a nation we tend to be fat and lazy. That is no exaggeration as obesity is extremely common and overweight to the level of nearly obese is almost the norm. Lots of us more active Americans do visit National Parks and other scenic and more remote areas. Even then the statistics are well known. The NPS studies show that 97% of visitors to the National Parks never leave a paved area. As a frequent visitor to the National Parks I have see this frequently. I even did a study of my own at Artist's Drive in Death Valley. The drive to and from the main viewpoint takes a good 20 minutes. At the viewpoint the colors are awesome with soil and rocks of intense shades of greens, purples, and reds. You can actually walk through this wonderland by going down the equivalent of a flight of stairs and walking another 50 yards or so. I timed visitors on a sunny, 75 degree afternoon. The average visitor stopped at the overlook, got out of the car, snapped a couple of pictures and was gone within 2 minutes. Virtually everyone who stayed 5 minutes or so took the extra time because one or more members of the group stopped at the outhouse. Maybe 1 in 50 visitors actually walked down the steps and the 50 yards to at least the start of the area. Since we are fat and lazy, it should not be any surprise that the typical RV needs to have recliners, a large refrigerator, and a TV and weighs several tons.

I have traveled on foot and canoe in the back country. The difference between that and a TC is huge. For the former the limit is 50# or so of gear each person and that would include a tent and cooking and sleeping gear. Not counting the bed and bedding and cooking gear, I have room for well over a 1000# of clothing, hobby gear, food and miscellaneous. That includes the entire back seat of my truck, several cubic feet of storage between the camper and truck body, 4 lockers and 2 wardrobes in the sleeping area, several drawers and overhead cabinets in the kitchen area, another 2x2x3 wardrobe, a 1 1/2 x 2 x 3 pantry and a huge storage loft of 2x2x6. I also have 2 storage compartments and a dual propane compartment and a battery bank accessible from the outside. Even the rear bumper is hollow and provides storage for a wood saw, HD extension cord, tools and hardware. There is just no comparison with foot or horseback camping. In fact a great many larger RVs have less storage than my TC. What I give up is mostly floor space, shower stall, oven, reclining chairs, extra beds, and a big screen TV.

Let me add a comment or two about food when stores are not available. Again I can go up to a month living primarily off of the refrigerator and meat that I cook and then freeze. There are a lot of items that can extend trips when shopping is not available. Next month I may start my long postponed trip. I will likely spend a month in Death Valley. There is no grocery store or even overpriced miniMart. I always travel with plenty of rice, pasta and dried potatoes. They keep forever and are light weight. When the fresh or frozen meats run low, I switch to canned. Canned chicken and some canned red curry sauce from TJs can make a great meal especially with some stir fried asparagus or broccoli. Both of those keep quite well. I even developed a taste for spam when I stayed in Hawaii. Fried spam, garlic, Thai garlic sauce, canned pineapple, soy sauce, and dried or fresh ginger can make a great stir fry with rice. Canned clams, a squirt of lemon juice, lots of garlic, parmesan and pasta also make a quick tasty meal. Those are just 3 examples of my many quick go to meals. I guarantee you will be able to come up with lots of options that are better than Mountain House and cost a lot less.

Again, my preference is definitely to go without slides. I want to be able to have full use of the TC for day use and for stealth camping. I also do not want the size or weight. Forget about any sort of remote areas off the beaten path with a heavy, 2 slide camper and a trailer. I would not want to take a rig like that anywhere off road unless the off road driving was a very good gravel road. Also carefully consider what you are gaining with slides. Many times it is just useless floor space. We don't dance in the camper. No bowling either. Again these are lifestyle choices you need to make. I want to be able to stop for the night on a residential street. I rarely do that any old place but it comes up frequently when visiting friends and relatives. I also wanted to keep the weight down to get by without a dualie. You will definitely need that for a 2 slide Host. When buying pay careful attention to the weight. Make sure you know the wet weight and also that all of the accessories you are buying are included in the total weight. Then for 2 people and extended trips, add 2000# to get a more accurate weight. Regarding the size of the refrigerator, mine is 4 cu ft. I have no issue for keeping meat. My freezer is typically packed with many pounds of cooked hamburger, sausage, and chicken pieces which is the basis for most meals and with planning will last up to about a month for the 2 of us. My wife does like a lot of fresh vegetables which can be an issue for fridge space. When we stock up on those items I also have a 1 cu ft collapsible insulated chest which fits under the dinette table. By the time that runs out those "fresh" vegetables are way past being fresh. I also find we eat differently while traveling. We eat things like tomato sauce with pasta, burritos, stir fry, sausage and peppers and other meals that can be cooked within 15 minutes. When the fresh meat gets low, I also have a pile of tasty recipes for canned chicken, tuna ,etc. I have never tried to take the camper off during a trip. Mine fits really tightly and is difficult to load. BTW be sure to check this. The issue is not the space between the wheel wells. I have 2" on both sides there. The issue is the opening on the tailgate. With the extension for the bath that leaves me way less than 1" on that side of the camper. Secondly I make use of the storage area between the camper and the truck body. We have access doors on both sides and we fill those areas: extra boots, shoes, dirty laundry, toilet paper, paper towels, 100' HD extension cord which is rarely used but can be essential, space heater, tools. Now that we are no longer full timers some of the storage has opened up. However we still go for several months at a time and often from plenty warm to down below freezing at night and maybe 40s during the day. I plan on 30 days between Laundromat visits. I would need to move a lot of stuff to take the camper off and leave it. I sure would not want to stay in it while on the jacks. There is way too much movement and the camper will not lower to the ground. Also remember there is a lot of weight on those jacks. Even if you put down some wooden blocks you need to be sure you are on a very firm, dry area. I certainly cannot tell you what camper to get. I can only advise that you seriously consider your lifestyle and the type of trips you want to take. Even though I live in NY almost all of my camping is in the Western US. Choices are much different out West and incidentally TCs are more popular because of those choices. In my area the few TCs are mainly for fishermen to camp on the beaches.

The dealer installed mine with aluminum tracks which raise the panels about an inch above the roof. The air circulation is supposed to help keep the panels cooler which significantly improves efficiency.

There is very little I would have done differently. I got lucky with the initial purchase. By luck I visited a truck camper expert, Bill Penney, at East End Campers, now Truck Camper Warehouse. He sold me on a relatively uncommon brand that he believed in as well built - Northstar. I also bought a relatively new unit that was on consignment. That also worked out well because the seller agreed to fix anything that was not like new and Bill did the inspection and made the couple of minor repairs he could find. The Northstar Igloo also came with some features I would not want to do without. First a full sized Queen bed. We did immediately replace the mattress. Second, there are no slides. That greatly reduces weight, allows stealth mode and allows total use of the camper without extending slides. Next it came with a wet bath. We use a squeegee to dry down the walls after a shower and that works remarkably well and is quick. That is a minor nuisance to gain that huge amount of space for storage and other use. Finally it came with a cassette toilet. I can empty it virtually anywhere including outhouses, a flush toilet if no one else is around to be bothered with the odor, a dump station and even once in an emergency, I dug a hole. The only issue was a huge oversized compressor refrigerator. I replaced that with a more reasonable sized Nova Kool and added a second solar panel and 2 x 150 AH AGM batteries. My other mods have been pretty simple such as wardrobe dividers/shelves and a half dozen 12v charging ports. I also put in a piece of indoor/outdoor carpeting which turned out to be a better choice than I imagined. The TC lifestyle is a significant notch up from most conversion vans in terms of comfort and space but otherwise is similar. It is a really good choice for those who are going to travel as opposed to those who spend long times in one area and are more concerned about TV, recliners, floor space and hook ups. I have no set up/breakdown time except for the possible need to use leveling blocks or those very rare occasions when I need to unplug from 110v service. The pros and cons of a TC is the necessity of going everywhere with the full rig. A quick story of my visits to Yellowstone might highlight this attribute. Yellowstone campgrounds are always crowded but with a TC I can fit in virtually any campsite. When I leave the campground during the day, I need to travel with my 13000# rig. So when I drive over to the Lamar Valley it takes me longer to get there. I can also avoid using some of the world's worst outhouses. I can set up a lawn chair watching the wildlife, eat a hot meal and then take an afternoon nap. Most of the visitors in their toads are worn out and leave by late afternoon. Instead I have my dinner there and return usually well after sunset. I see more wildlife in that last hour of daylight than I saw all during the daylight hours. I hope that helps.

We full timed as a couple with 2 cats. "Nearby stores" reminds me of my stay in Jasper. Every day we went out all day and returned to our camping area after dark. For the first week or so we stayed in a low cost "overflow" area. It was beautiful but without water or a dump station. We visited those as needed in the nearest regular campground. A ranger came and gave us notice that the overflow was no longer needed and we would need to move the the regular campground for over $30 a night without hookups. Instead we moved to Jasper and parked on a residential street in front of a church. That way we did not take any neighborhood parking spaces which seemed to be in short supply. We could not have been closer to the stores and events. In fact it was a one block walk every morning to visit the bakery for fresh baked goods and coffee. Not having hookups will not necessarily kill the long showers. With a small 30 gallon tank, when water is not readily available, we have learned how to take Navy style showers with about 1 gallon of water each. We often stay in campgrounds where water is readily available but there are no hookups. Long showers are then a great, well enjoyed luxury. This discussion also reminds me of a National Park statistic I read years ago. 97% of the visitors to National Parks never venture beyond a paved trail or parking lot! I am in the 3% group. I enjoy the staying in the more primitive campgrounds with hiking and remote areas nearby.

My wife and I full timed with 2 cats in our truck camper for 2 years. Now our trips are likely to be 4 months or so. Our truck camper is a Northstar Igloo which is 9.5' and has no slides. We had a couple of large AGM batteries and 2 solar panels. A truck camper can be ideal for those who want to do a lot of travel. Breaking down camp consisted of making sure cabinets were closed and there was nothing left on the kitchen counter or the dinette table top. Sometimes I needed leveling blocks which would add an additional step of moving a few feet and picking up the blocks. A truck camper allows parking in most parking spots designed for cars. That is great for day trips in national parks, etc. It means we could stop anywhere for lunch, take a nap, and avoid using outhouses. Storage was pretty good. We had a separate pantry closet, an entry wardrobe closet. In the bed area each of us had a small wardrobe closet and both a bed high footlocker and another equivalent overhead cabinet. Additional storage was the space between the truck body and camper with 2 access doors. That was great for extra shoes, dirty laundry, tools, etc. In addition there was a 2x2x6 foot storage area over the dinette. We had a crew cab truck and the back seat area was used for storage of additional bulky items: my archery target, luggage, extra bedding, travel platforms for the cats, etc. Amenities include a TV (never turned on), a microwave (rarely used), a 4 person dinette, 3 burner stove, double sink, a 4 cu ft compressor refrigerator/freezer, restroom/wet bath, full queen sized foam mattress. Downsides are limited floor space, no recliner chairs and the pros and cons of always traveling with the RV. An TC is ideal for off grid camping. We rarely used hook ups and often stayed in BLM, forest service or NP campgrounds. We did some "stealth" camping where we parked and stayed in residential areas. Some people view this as an illegal activity. Typically it is not or the laws are unclear. We stealth camped next to a golf course in a very exclusive area after checking with the police to be sure it was legal. Even so neighbors don't want a gypsy camp and keeping a low profile is the best course of action. Anyway I will be happy to answer any questions about full time TC camping.

Solar systems do not require any maintenance except for perhaps washing off the panels. Even that is not typically required. Solar panels are built and rated to last for at least 20 years, but I suppose there could be additional risks for an RV such as being hit by a large tree limb. I don't understand the concern about living in the "sticks". A solar system and an appropriately sized battery bank offers additional choices. It is not necessary to find an RV park when traveling between locations. It is not necessary to limit yourself to campgrounds with hook ups. There are plenty of really nice National Park and other campgrounds without hookups. They aren't in the sticks any more than any other NP campground. Solar systems have come way down in price. The big issue is not the cost of the components but either doing the work yourself or finding someone who knows what they are doing and will do the work at a reasonable cost.