I found this valuable information buried in the Overland Adventure Planning section. I'm copying it here to increase its visibility.
Just back from my True Grits tour of the Carolinas, which included two days at Provan in beautiful suburban West Columbia. Some impressions:
-- While a dated design, the Provan Tiger is well proven. The camper body comes with a five year guarantee. In the twenty some years of production, they have never had a camper frame break. They have had cabinets separate and have taken two remedial actions - added more brackets where needed and steadily upgrading the quality of materials. (As a subtext, there are no plans to change the mounting of the current Tiger - it ain't broke and they ain't gonna fix it. And anything more complex would increase the weight.)
-- The new Siberian is a radical rethink of the Tiger with many, many changes. (However, there is no change to the floor plan.) The first Siberian is expected to ship this year. It uses new materials, and new construction techniques. Although several have already been sold, sight unseen, they are proceeding very carefully to assure that it will match or exceed the quality of the current Tiger. It is a big beast, too large for our purposes and significantly more expensive. :Wow1: And yes, they are playing with a pivot mount. They are also looking at different appliances - all of which require lots of care before shipping the first unit.
-- There are many, many upgrades to the materials used in the current (Bengal and CX) models, ranging from very useful (warm colored LED lighting to decrease battery consumption) to cosmetic (LED marker lights). There are lots of nice, new options in stoves, etc. With a built in genset, large propane tank, 30 gallons of water, modern two way fridge, and much, much nicer cabinets, the look and feel of the Tiger is much better than that of any truck camper that I have seen. (I hasten to add that I have not seen them all, the Northstar is nice, and it features even nicer thermal windows.)
Probably the strongest impression is that of a serious, growing company - production has doubled to almost 50 units per year - that is very interested in listening to customers. They did complete refits of the Howe and Blackwell Tigers. Beyond restoring them to better than new condition, this gave them a chance to look at what had failed and make corrections. Provan is very interested in meeting the needs of "expedition/overland" customers, as well as more conventional campers. Interestingly, they have just found and purchased the first Tiger ever built; the original Tiger that Dave Rowe built as a pop up on a full size Chevrolet van. I would estimate it at about a 1977 van. It is being prepped for lobby display. Make an offer, it has only 50k miles!
There were several Tigers at the factory for upgrades, including one registered in Alaska. The most interesting is one that had been destroyed by a fire started by a sparking camera battery. All of the damaged cabinetry had been removed and although the camper was more than ten years old, the structural wood, including the floor, was in good shape.
We also had the opportunity to visit a Northstar camper dealer who had several units in stock. I had never heard of this company until Dave Truzinski selected one of their units for his flatbed.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ld-has-started Very much a sleeper company that probably deserves more attention here. If only because they have dealers in Australia, France, Germany, UK, and Sweden. Their Australian dealer offers a five year warranty - on Australian tracks, and their Swedish units are set up for serious cold. At least one of their campers has done Bolivia.
Still don't know what we are going to do, a lot depends on jobs, etc., but I think that the Tiger is still the least expensive way to get a 4x4 camper with a pass through.