Provan Tiger diesel camper

haven

Expedition Leader
Rick and Kathy Howe are traveling in Europe and North Africa in a Provan Tiger camper, mounted on a Chevrolet diesel 4x4 pickup chassis. The couple is in their second year of travel overseas with the Tiger. They have been on the road (using other vehicles) since 2001.

This is the web page about their vehicle http://www.travelin-tortuga.com/Site/Our_Vehicle.html. Rick invites questions about their experiences by email through the site.
 

tamangel

Adventurer
a great read..good ideas also on prep.. Another couple carrying on the tradition of 'Tortuga' travels..

Mike
 

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TomH

Adventurer
The Soon to be Released Siberian Tiger

should give EarthRoamer some real competition. Stay tuned!
 

DiploStrat

Expedition Leader
Rick and Kathy Howe are traveling in Europe and North Africa in a Provan Tiger camper, mounted on a Chevrolet diesel 4x4 pickup chassis. The couple is in their second year of travel overseas with the Tiger. They have been on the road (using other vehicles) since 2001.

Dude, yer late to the party. :) The raid en Europe was undertaken only after they did the classic Arctic Circle to Ushuaia drive - in the same Tiger, so this is really about the third year "overseas" or at least outside of the United States. Been following their travels enviously for years.

I have encouraged Rick to post on this forum but he says he avoids forums like this one because he gets tired of the experts who insist that the Tiger can't be used on rough roads, etc. Says he is too busy traveling to read them.

Wonderful people who have collected a wealth of great information on their website. And some lovely photos.

And to be pedantic, it is not a Tiger "camper" but rather a Tiger motorhome, which does, in fact, start life as a Chevrolet/Dodge/Ford pickup.
 
Last edited:

Alpentalic

New member
Hello,
I recently purchased this and want to install some Thule TB60 Top Track Roof Mount Rack Mounting Tracks.
My plan is to use Rivet-nuts . I'm wondering if any other Tiger owners have used Rivet-nuts on the top shell and if so what spec.

Thanks!

IMGP5927.jpg
 

ExpoMike

Well-known member
Hello,
I recently purchased this and want to install some Thule TB60 Top Track Roof Mount Rack Mounting Tracks.
My plan is to use Rivet-nuts . I'm wondering if any other Tiger owners have used Rivet-nuts on the top shell and if so what spec.

Thanks!

First, nice Tiger!

As for Rivet-Nuts, I haven't used them on a Tiger but I have used them on other projects. The "standard" ones, you will want to be using in metal. For a fiberglass or plastic application, you will want to use the "slotted" ones as they spread out over a larger area and will be less likely to ever pull through. The standard ones do not have a large "bulge" factor on the underside and since fiberglass and plastic have some give when compressed, you could run into a problem down the road after vibrations of driving. Just my recommendation.
 

Alpentalic

New member
There are not many Tiger owners on this forum, (yet) mostly a few wannabes. You may want to join this group and pose your question. http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/tigermotorhomeowners/

But welcome!

Thanks for the pointer, I will pose the question over there.

In the mean time I may start a "Provan Tiger thread" here for all things Tiger related
as there only seems to be a few isolated threads that don't really cover the topic in a general sense...
 

rblackwell

Adventurer
Hello,
I recently purchased this and want to install some Thule TB60 Top Track Roof Mount Rack Mounting Tracks.
My plan is to use Rivet-nuts . I'm wondering if any other Tiger owners have used Rivet-nuts on the top shell and if so what spec.

Thanks!

IMGP5927.jpg

We had a Thule on the top of our Tiger all the way to Cusco (Heres a good photo of it http://whiteacorn.com/theamericas/journals/entries/090412/index.php). It was a bit of a pain as we had to mount it backwards in order to open it while standing on the roof.
(I know I should have mounted it on the other side of the vehicle).
It was mounted at the factory (under the previous owner) with simple screws. The screws survived some pretty rough roads BUT not a tree in front
of a laundry in Cusco. The good news is that the tree only removed the Thule not part of the roof. The screws were the failsafe.

Later in the trip I had to do some repairs to hold up the interior cabinets. Eventually I put some bolts through the roof, used a piece of car tire with glue as a
gasket so prevent the bolt heads breaking through the fiberglass roof (see http://whiteacorn.com/theamericas/journals/entries/100601/index.php).
these held until we replaced the roof back in the US. The fix did not leak even in central Americas rain storms.

So my only advice is make sure the fasteners break before the roof comes off.
 

haven

Expedition Leader
Diplostrat's visit to Provan

I found this valuable information buried in the Overland Adventure Planning section. I'm copying it here to increase its visibility.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/67144-tiger-rv-vs-land-cruiser?p=992851#post992851

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.​

Last edited by DiploStrat; 11-20-2011 at 03:22 PM.
 

DiploStrat

Expedition Leader
Small add-on on the subject of camper mounting. The Bengal/CX is a relatively small camper on a relatively smaller truck. Indeed, the original Tigers were built only on a standard cab pickup, giving you a vehicle under 20 feet long. Over the years, Ford, and especially Chevrolet have stiffened the frames of their pickups (see Chevrolet's current advertising) and Provan has gone to one ton pickups. Torque is an issue, but not a big one. Going the other direction, more and more Tiger customers are building on the extended cab (cab and a half) which is less rigid than either a short cab or the crew cab that has a "B" pillar. In my far from professional opinion (I am not an engineer) the Bengal on a one ton pickup is right about at the limit of a rigid mount - any bigger and you are going to need some form of relief. Length of wheel base is probably the driving factor, followed by rigidity of frame, and finally, camper construction.

The Siberian, on the other hand, is on a 200" wheel base. I was told that the Ford frame displaces 11" when torqued, thus making some form of pivot mount essential.

Ironically, one of the best advertisements for Tigers (and Earthroamers, too) comes from Northstar who note that their flat bed camper is much more stable than their conventional truck camper due to its wider base (seven feet vs. four feet). Tigers and Earthroamers share this wider mounting base.

Full disclosure - I have a deposit in on a Tiger.
 

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