22 replies to this topic

[junek]

Hi All
Great forum

I am from australia and planning a 12month trip around Australia next year. So far a Toyota Hilux (Tacoma in USA) with a pop top slide in camper is top of the list for vehicals.

There are no FWC's in Australia as far as i know, but I really like the look of them and the weight of the smaller models. We have similar locally made campers but they around around $35000US fully optioned and not as refined internally. (Therefore I am looking at shipping a FWC over personally). They do look a little more robust, although the FWC looks well built for rough off-road also.

This leads me to my question...

Here in my fine land, we have dust. Lots of dust. Real dust. Red dust that gets everywhere. Everywhere. We call it Bull Dust and it is a pain in the but!
When people travel the outback here, they use campers that do not have vents for the fridge (We almost exclusively use 12V compressor fridges) and no furnace or anything else that requires a vent. (noone has a furnace here as we are generally trying to cool down, not warm up!)
Every external locker and door ways is double sealed with rubber seals to try to keep the dust out.

So my question is....how well sealed is a FWC?

Also, what is the general build quality like and robustness for off-road work? Keeping in mind, if a camper is going to fall apart anywhere, it will be in outback Australia!

Cheers
Jamie

[Overland Hadley]

I have just had my FWC for one year, and I have not had it through a bad stretch of bull dust at this point. But I can say that I have looked over the door and window seals as I really hate having my gear covered in dust. I think that the camper is fairly well sealed, but for long stretches of dusty roads you might want a little more sealing. From what I have looked over it would be fairly strait forward to seal the openings a bit better.

But thinking about it I have never heard of a dust ingestion problem.

There are a few people here that have taken their camper through Death Valley and/or Baja many times, they would know how well it keeps the dust out. I am sure they will chime in.

As far as holding up to rough road and off road travel, that is what these campers are made for. You have nothing to worry about as far as that goes.

Let us know if you have more questions.

[Hittheroad]

While I think the FWC is pretty good for most USA applications the stock version is not completely dust proof. We have had the 3 way propane fridge crap out because of dust on the Big Bend roads. Some dust gets in through various small holes which can be plugged once you find them but that takes time. I can imagine that in a situation with lots of very fine dust you might encounter a good many problems. If you can get one with a compressor fridge and no heater (or a wave) that would help a good deal. But the back door seal needs to be watched as well as the emergency exit window.

[SunMan]

No stock furnace or stock refrigerator in my Hawk and I have been pretty impressed with lack of dust as compared to my years of traveling with just a camper shell where every thing would be absolutely dust covered. We are talking about Baja Moon Dust which is like a fine talc and likely very similar to your BullDust. That said,i Haven't noticed too many complaints from friends who have campers with fridges and furnaces either though.

[bsharp007]

I have to agree with the previous posts, my Eagle was almost dust proof. I enjoyed many miles of driving on the dirty roads of Baja, Utah and Arizona. The desert Southwest features an especially fine gritty dust but I dont remember hardly any dust inside the camper once I reached my destination.

[junek]

Thanks guys. Sounds promising. I realise nothing is fully dust proof out of the factory and will need some small customisations. Baja 'moon dust' sounds like it would be as bad as our dust!
Good to hear the build quality/strength is up to scratch also.

Bsharp007 - thanks for letting me know your camper was sold on the other thread. Although i wish it wasn't! I am getting pretty keen on a FWC. Will bo cool to be the only Aussie with one!

[Smokecreek1]

Thanks guys. Sounds promising. I realise nothing is fully dust proof out of the factory and will need some small customisations. Baja 'moon dust' sounds like it would be as bad as our dust!
Good to hear the build quality/strength is up to scratch also.

Bsharp007 - thanks for letting me know your camper was sold on the other thread. Although i wish it wasn't! I am getting pretty keen on a FWC. Will bo cool to be the only Aussie with one!

I agree with the posts so far-have not had any problems out in the desert with my FWC and I've had it for almost six years. I remember how I seemed to live in dirt and dust in my old BLM rigs and my toyota 4x4-it went with the job, but again I spent almost 30 years pounding about where most sane people don't go unless they had too!!! Enjoy, and hope you don't get that one that is a lemon!

Smoke

[leadsled9]

I found my Hawk to be fairly dust proof. As far as the capablility to handle fwd terrain....well....that might vary for different folks.

My girlfiend likes to remind me that I break everything....trucks...campers...trailers...atvs...etc.

I really do get off of the beaten path and drive numerous FS roads and jeep trails on my hunting trips. I've had my Hawk back to the factory twice for cracks in the skin around the rear door. Both times the cause was broken framework in the aluminum frame at the rear of the camper. The last time FWC completely rebuilt (different design) the rear frame to prevent another repeat performance. So far it has held up. All of the repair work was done on warranty.



I only bring this up to warn you that these campers are not totally up to the task of hard four wheeling without some structural damage.

I cringe everytime I see folks mounting heavy items on the rear frame....water cans...gas cans...etc.

[highz]

I've driven on some very dusty roads on Otero Mesa. Some dust did get past the door and I had to dust the interior afterward. Given the thick dust cake on the back of the camper and truck, it wasn't excessive. Even so, I think the seal could be improved.

[Overland Hadley]

I only bring this up to warn you that these campers are not totally up to the task of hard four wheeling without some structural damage.

To be fair to FWC, the campers now have a redesigned door opening to address this problem. But yes, that has been an issue with the pre radius door design.

This is something to consider if you are planning on shipping over an older model. If you do buy a used camper to ship over, I would try and get it to the factory to have them give a look over and see if anything needs repair or replacing.

EDIT Oops. Did not mean to suggest that the new campers are perfect. Just that the door issue has been addressed.