Bigfoot Truck Camper Review of Sorts

[RedRocker]

I had that setup a few years ago, crosswinds are a real treat too.

[Ozarker]

Very nice rigs. The vehicles are the 2500s and a heavy truck. May I ask what might be a similar camper for a 99 F-150, V8, ext, cab, 71K miles withe a towing package and larger factor gas tank? Are these too big...sounds like it?

[deminimis]

Actually, my truck is a 3500, with substantial suspension mods to make it all work right. For a smaller, perhaps more practical camper, Bigfoot has a 1500 series of campers. Lower profile and you don't really give up a lot with the smaller size, other than weight.

Sidewinds: We live in the Columbia River Gorge. Yup, the windsurfing capital of the world. With our setup, side winds are not a big deal. Side winds were once a big deal when in Baja. The winds were so brutal, our fully loaded (including 56 gal water tank) camper actually shifted in the bed of the truck (due to wind and lightening the camper from the truck bed when hitting some of those pot holes, etc. on Mex1). Since that time, I switched my in-bed set up using a Gm bed mat and a thick stall/ horse trailer mat on top of that. The stall mats allow the camper to imprint into the mat a bit. This locks the camper in place and keeps it from sliding at all. Prior to this, we were using some hard rubber ribs provided by Bigfoot for the new body style trucks to raise the camper's seating position high enough to avoid contact with some body parts on the new style trucks. Anyway, that's my pitch for horse stall mats in the bed of your truck. Relatively cheap from any feed/farm store. Downside is they get hot in direct sun (I don't remove them) and will give off something of a tar-like smell when that happens. No biggie.

Okay, this is now a long-term review; Since posting this a year ago, we had a friend from Switzerland stay with us for about three months. You guessed it, we made the Bigfoot his home for that visit (off-truck). Worked great as a guest house. We've used it on numerous camping trips (MX trips or boating trips). Has not failed us in the heat or the cold. If I were to do it all again, I'd get the Bigfoot.

[805gregg]

I like the newer Big Foot campers, I like the new Lances campers but the uber cost is a big drawback. I bought a perfect condition, Lance 9.5' for $5000, it does all the same things and leaves me $25,000 for Diesel, it lacks a generator, but a portable is cheap.

[Regcabguy]

Dually's the safe way to go with a large hardside camper. We encountered some very stiff sidewinds south of Vegas on I-15 a few yrs. ago. The dually's were unfazed. Conversely,the srw trucks were condemned to the right lane and 50 mph max. and it was still a white knuckle affair.

I've got a Carli/Thuren suspension upgrade and 3900# load rated tires and could still feel the popup on mine.

A dually will hang in there in an emergency collision avoidance manuever on the freeway,but the srw will roll.

Those Bigfoot's are the way to go in a hardside.