dtruzinski
Explorer
I bought FusoFG’s 2004 FG with a custom built 13.5’ x7’ camper. The Fuso had 66k miles and he was the original owner/builder; it never saw duty as anything other than an expo rig. FusoFG and his wife could easily write a best selling travel adventure guidebook based on their travels. This was the second Fuso camper they built, so they had nearly 20 years of Fuso expo’ing experience. FusoFg and his wife were also sailors. Not the weekend sailors, rather they were full timers “raising a family” type of sailors. They engineered the rig much like a sailboat with redundant systems and a minimalist approach. Most of the hardware and electrical components were from marine supply houses like Defender in Florida.
Now to the design elements…the camper is steel framed, three-point mounted (with front pivot), and it has a plywood floor and roof. There is NO propane needed, as it is appointed with diesel appliances including a D5 Espar hydronic heater, a Wallas cooktop, and an Isotemp 6g hot water heater. The refrigerator is a 12v Isotherm 41L. The toilet is a Thetford C4 cassette. It came with two 10 gallon fresh water tanks and two 33 gallon diesel tanks.
I drove this from just North of Atlanta to Livingston, MT and upon arrival decided to start the upgrading of the ride quality. The cab has an air ride seat for the passenger and a Fuso factory suspension seat for the driver. While those certainly helped, bridges and concrete freeways were white-knuckle moments. I replaced the factory duals with Earthcruiser aluminum super singles. What a difference that made. In fact, I would highly recommend anyone who is looking to improve their Fuso ride quality look into this option first (there is a separate thread that details that upgrade)! I also installed ATW’s suspension kit. Again, I have a separate thread on the forum that details my first impressions. I live on a dirt road that has heavy washboard effect. The difference driving on the new suspension is simply incredible. It doesn’t wander, you are not jarred to death and the contents of your camper are not destroyed by vibration. I will do some flex testing this summer and post pics and update in this thread.
We camped in it a few times to see what we liked and disliked. Two of the trips were up in the Beartooth Mountain range above 8,000’. We quickly learned that elevation and the older diesel appliances did not always work in our favor. The Espar heater failed to start one night when the outside temps dropped to the low teens and six inches of snow fell. Fortunately, it was an insulated camper, so we just got cold, nothing life threatening. We went to make coffee and the stovetop wouldn’t light. I don’t mind being cold, but I refuse to go without coffee, so I pulled out my Jetboil stove and we had some Starbucks VIAs. Since everything was 10 years old, I budgeted to replace/refurbish the systems.
We have replaced the old Wallas stove with the new Wallas 85Dt with high altitude compensation switch. Wallas has made some significant improvements in 10 years and this stove works exceptionally well. It comes to heat fast, has better heat transfer to the secondary burner and the altitude compensation work great. Installation was very straight forward: connect electrical, fuel, add in high altitude switch and viola a working stove (cut out for this stove was slightly larger than the older stove). I will be replacing the Formica counter top later in the season.
Here's a pic with the super singles from E/C in the snow...they worked incredibly well.
Now to the design elements…the camper is steel framed, three-point mounted (with front pivot), and it has a plywood floor and roof. There is NO propane needed, as it is appointed with diesel appliances including a D5 Espar hydronic heater, a Wallas cooktop, and an Isotemp 6g hot water heater. The refrigerator is a 12v Isotherm 41L. The toilet is a Thetford C4 cassette. It came with two 10 gallon fresh water tanks and two 33 gallon diesel tanks.
I drove this from just North of Atlanta to Livingston, MT and upon arrival decided to start the upgrading of the ride quality. The cab has an air ride seat for the passenger and a Fuso factory suspension seat for the driver. While those certainly helped, bridges and concrete freeways were white-knuckle moments. I replaced the factory duals with Earthcruiser aluminum super singles. What a difference that made. In fact, I would highly recommend anyone who is looking to improve their Fuso ride quality look into this option first (there is a separate thread that details that upgrade)! I also installed ATW’s suspension kit. Again, I have a separate thread on the forum that details my first impressions. I live on a dirt road that has heavy washboard effect. The difference driving on the new suspension is simply incredible. It doesn’t wander, you are not jarred to death and the contents of your camper are not destroyed by vibration. I will do some flex testing this summer and post pics and update in this thread.
We camped in it a few times to see what we liked and disliked. Two of the trips were up in the Beartooth Mountain range above 8,000’. We quickly learned that elevation and the older diesel appliances did not always work in our favor. The Espar heater failed to start one night when the outside temps dropped to the low teens and six inches of snow fell. Fortunately, it was an insulated camper, so we just got cold, nothing life threatening. We went to make coffee and the stovetop wouldn’t light. I don’t mind being cold, but I refuse to go without coffee, so I pulled out my Jetboil stove and we had some Starbucks VIAs. Since everything was 10 years old, I budgeted to replace/refurbish the systems.
We have replaced the old Wallas stove with the new Wallas 85Dt with high altitude compensation switch. Wallas has made some significant improvements in 10 years and this stove works exceptionally well. It comes to heat fast, has better heat transfer to the secondary burner and the altitude compensation work great. Installation was very straight forward: connect electrical, fuel, add in high altitude switch and viola a working stove (cut out for this stove was slightly larger than the older stove). I will be replacing the Formica counter top later in the season.
Here's a pic with the super singles from E/C in the snow...they worked incredibly well.
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