Gpassida, That is the kind of info I was looking for. I definitely will require that any camper I get have AC out here in AZ. I don't plan on offroading with the camper but I would not rule it out I guess with the cool stuff up in Colorado. Is there anything that I should look out for that you know of that may be a problem or a future problem?
If you want to run the AC and you are not in a campground with hookups, you will need to bring a generator large enough to handle the load from the AC. Same for a microwave, everything else can run off the batteries. In my pic, the compartment you see to the bottom right of the main door is where the generator goes on that model. I'm pretty sure most of the popups don't have an on-board generator option. So that means you need to carry it somewhere else.
You will want to wire it into the truck so the camper batteries charge while you are driving. I had a plug in the drivers side of the truck bed. I would load the camper and then from inside, open a small access door and reach through and plug a pigtail into the port on the truck. Of course you need to unplug it before removing the camper - which I learned the hard way once.
As xplorutah said, the "Fantastic Fan" I had really worked well to move air when you aren't running the AC. I also found it handy to de-mosquito the camper. You get in and turn that on high, the mosquitoes could not fight the wind suction and would get stuck on the screen of the fan. Then we would get a small computer keyboard vacuum and suck them up. That was a frequent activity before going to bed.
And for my camper, which hangs off the back, I needed a hitch extension. (Roughly 24 inches) So I installed a Class 5 hitch with a 2 1/2 inch receiver. The extension necked down the 2 1/2 inch on the truck side to a 2" receiver for the trailer.
The last thing I can think of is to allow time to add or remove the camper from the truck. It is a bit of a process:
- Jack up the camper high enough to get on the truck
- Remove the license plate from the truck
- Remove the tailgate from the truck and safely store it somewhere
- Back up the truck carefully under the camper - be sure to align it evenly side to side
- Drop the four jacks so the camper is now fully on the tuck bed
- Attach and tighten the four turnbuckle hold downs
- Plug in the wiring pigtail
- Add air to the airbags (100 psi for me)
- Change the RS-9000 shock dials (six for me) to stiffen things up
- Add air to the tires to go to max PSI to handle the weight
- Attach the optional front cab struts to reduce the bounce of the overcab (you can barely see it in my pic)
- Install the license plate on the camper
And reverse it to unload. That was more than I anticipated, and I found myself not unloading it in campgrounds as much as I thought I would.
