The simple day

Good old days

Here’s a 25 year old solar job . Still working lol

We traveled for years with a tent which is what I still consider "camping"

When we decided to try RV travels we bought a $500 cab over camper. We figured if we didn't like RV's it wouldn't be an expensive lesson. It was called "chicken coop" by a friend and that stuck.

The camper had few amenities. No toilet or shower. No holding tanks. No heater. For lighting it had a lantern style propane light inside and a small fridge which amazingly worked great. We traveled all over the western US in it including one night in Crested Butte CO where it got so cold we woke to icicles above our heads in the cab over due to frozen condensation. It was then we realized having a heater might be nice. :D

Well, we loved it. This camper was so rotted out and I feared the wind would take off the back of the truck going down the highway so we gave it away to an RV scrap yard.




After we gave CC away we splurged on a brand new Bigfoot camper. It had everything! Big tanks, a queen sized bed, and a heater! Camping in the mountains was no longer an exercise in wearing every bit of clothing we had to bed at night. :) These campers are made in Canada and I highly recommend them. This camper was named CC2.



We have since replaced it with single slide camper (CC3) which was then replaced with a 3 slide camper (CC4 and current camper) but we still have fond memories of our first camper. Chicken Coop 1, where it all began for us traveling in an RV.

We see a ton of truck campers up here as a big draw to the north island is fishing both fresh and ocean, and with a truck camper they can tow their boats and take on the backcountry logging roads. Lots of Bigfoots

The camper had few amenities. No toilet or shower. No holding tanks. No heater. For lighting it had a lantern style propane light inside and a small fridge which amazingly worked great.

got so cold we woke to icicles above our heads in the cab over due to frozen condensation. — Greg F

That's what i remember ice fishing here in Canada when i was younger...and boots frozen to the camper floor.

After the kids got older it was back to motorcycles traveling and sleeping where ever. Now we take the toyhauler on long trips but I'll still do solo trips to Sturgis with family & friends.

@Jetlag if you’re near Milwaukee give me a shout. I got a scooter I’ll give you a sweet deal on it.

It’s got to go...make some room in the toyhauler lol

After about 25 years of tent camping, I finally got an A-liner Scout model. No battery, no tanks, no sink, no heater, no vent fan… and the list goes on. It was only 900 lbs and easy to tow, got me up off the cold ground, had an interior height of over 9', 30-45 secs to setup and had insulation in the walls and roof. Perfect at the overflow camping at Jasper National Park. I carried over a lot of my tent camping equipment including, a wash basin, propane heater, propane water heater (Coleman), portable propane stove. You can see the water heater sitting on the picnic table (has the cover on it though).



Then I saw a deal I couldn't refuse … a used Great West Vans Supreme Classic with fresh/black/grey tanks, rear wet-bath with flushing toilet, stand up shower and little sink, propane stove top, hot water, furnace, kitchen sink, air conditioner and the buying feature, for me, was a slide out for the dinette/bed. The upper section expanded into a 2nd bed for kids too (I used it for storage).




Now I have the 2018 Okanagan Tribute built on a 2017 Ford Transit.

Hi Ray, I still see these camper vans on the road occasionally. Spoke with a person at Fortuna Pond that had a nice one … think he said it was from '86.

seen lots of them on the road we where at 6mile cove in
Nevada and this young couple had a 1990's in great shape.
And we love Fortuna Pond spent 2 wreaks there last year had our toyhuarler deck backed right to the water's edge.

My Elite had an interesting history. It was camperized by a company in Ontario then ended up in BC and people bought it and gutted it to use as a wheelchair van but found out it was only a 1/2 ton and wouldn't work. So it was recamperized in 1994. So a lot of the components were newer. It had a 300CI fuel-injected straight-six, kind of a pig but a really reliable engine.
I bought it around 2003 for 8500 bucks with 111,000 km on it and used the heck out of it for 10 years. Ended up selling for 4500 bucks. Wish I could have kept it but leaving it parked all winter wasn't good for it.