Camp in Comfort: 4-Season Cabover Rig on Duramax Power

So I'll tell you what... I was looking for a setup for a remote Alaska road trip for myself and my two sons. Did not want to drive our own RV from the mainland. Very long way to go, did not have enough time and too much gas$ to burn round trip. Our options were to drive a smaller car and tent camp, find a truck with a cabover camper.... or not go at all. We had a rather limited budget. That is when this thing popped up as a new listing and we were able to match the dates on our itinerary. The owner was easy to reach and communicate with and delivered/picked up the truck to/from the airport at a reasonable cost. The truck and a camper while not new by any means served its intended purpose very well and met all our expectations. We put over 2000miles in 10 days, made it to the very end of the Dalton Hwy / Deadhorse, AK and came back. We stayed off the grid and at new location every night. Have not used hook ups and have always had a place to seat, sleep, relax, cook, use bathroom/shower and refrigerator for our food. We were lucky with the weather... 7 days were mostly sunny and dry, the last 3 days was non stop pouring rain day and night. The truck and camper were great in all conditions. Tent camping while moving every day would be a bit too much... setting up and breaking up camp every day sucks... add rain... add dirt... add mosquitoes... you get the drill. It can be done in a tent, but there are times when its best to not be in one ;) We had a few small issues, but nothing that got us stranded. It was all part of a great adventure that me and my kids will never forget. Once we had bad diesel in from Coldfoot and on the way back had engine loss off power and check engine light came up. The issue went away after refuel in Fairbanks and never came up in the next 600miles+ of our trip. If you plan to drive up Dalton Hwy, beware it may happen again, otherwise it should be good. For the picky ones (I see one bad review was recently left).. this is not a 5* Hilton on wheels and you can't expect that from a 2007 truck that is priced similar to a regular rental car. This truck has some battle scars and a story to tell! If you want a new fancy shiny stuff, go with GoNorth and they will set you up with a 1-3year old truck/camper. I don't know if it will be a full 5* but it will be a 1-3 year old vehicle/camper but will also be twice+ the money AND you will probably spend more time worrying about scratching it vs. driving it. The choice is out there. For us personally it worked great and I would rent it again.

Thomas should not be renting through your site. The truck was not at all road worthy and the Camper was not fully functional. The most significant safety issues: No license plate on Camper and no Registration nor proof of insurance in pickup • Taillights on camper did not work – I had to buy a magnetic mount light kit and plug them into the trailer light plug so we were safe and legal. I had to file a claim to get re-imbursed since he refused to pay for the lights • Tires drastically over inflated – 96 PSI for tires rated to 80 PSI. This could easily resulted in a blown tire and potential fatal accident. • Camper tie downs not to proper specifications – he was using old low tensile strength rotten ratchet tie downs – these should be chains with turn buckles or purpose built tiedowns like the Torklift FastGuns tiedowns. This could easily resulted in the camper rolling off the truck and a potential fatal accident. One of the straps broke during the trip and I had to jury-rig it to make it work – see photos. • Camper was loaded askew in bed of truck so visibility in the rear view mirror on right side was very limited. It looks like he loaded the Camper on top of the power cord which probably resulted in the tail lights not working • Power cord was missing ground prong – potential electrocution hazard. • No keys to camper – we could keep our gear secure. • Engine air filter filthy – hadn’t been changed in years and it looks like fuel filters had never been changed. This could have led to a breakdown. Inconvenience issues: • Truck cab and camper interior were filthy – dog hair and dust. • Mouse excrement in side storage • Fridge would not run on propane – we had to buy a cooler and ice to keep our food cold. • Water supply hose was missing – I had to buy one so we could fill water tank. • Sewage hose did not have a 90 degree adapter to make a secure and sanitary attachment to sewer line. • Inadequate disposables: o Paper Towel o Toilet Paper o Cleaning supplies I don’t think Thomas really cared about our safety nor our comfort or he is too ignorant to know how his inactions could result in an accident

This is very sketchy and the shower wouldn’t drain… the seatbelt was ripping.. the panels were coming apart and it wasn’t even very clean when we picked it up. We made sure to take photos and then the host is trying to charge us for not filling it up when we didn’t even receive it with a full tank and returned it with the same fuel we got it with.