Hi Ralph.

We have owned 4 truck campers, before buying our Host we had an Arctic Fox 1150. If you ask around you will hear generally nice comments regarding Northwoods manufacturing. Unfortunately our experience wasn't great.

On one of our first trips the slide wouldn't retract. At the time I was very impressed with the company as the owner Ron Nash answered the phone on a Sunday and had one of their guys call me and walk me through how to remove the slide motor (thankfully I carry a lot of tools) to get the slide in so we could drive down the road. Ron was very apologetic, explained they had a batch of bad motors that had a plastic gear. We cut our trip short and headed directly home to receive the new and improved motor with all steel gears. I installed the motor and the slide worked again.

On our next trip shortly after that we got caught in a heavy rain in the middle of the night. Water was pouring into the camper. Part of the skylight in the bathroom was missing sealant. This was a miss by the manufacturer but also by me. I would definitely get on the roof of any new RV and carefully inspect sealant.

We bought this camper in 2006. At about that time in my working career I was promoted and began taking on serious responsibilities and vacations became pretty much non existent. The camper just sat until we recently took an early retirement about 4 years ago.

We were pretty stoked and took our dream trip to Alaska. I went over the camper top to bottom, installed solar, resealed everything. While in Alaska the slide broke again. This time it was a shear pin. No problem, I used a drill and cleaned up the hole and installed a larger grade 8 bolt. That worked for a while. The side moved back and for the easily by hand without the motor connected. There wasn't anything binding or broken in the rack. Unfortunately the slide broke again. I pulled the motor out, opened the case and low and behold another plastic gear broken. This motor that replaced the defective motor (per the owner) was also defective.

So I called Northwoods to explain my dilemma and ask what they could do to help me out. After all I never had a non defective slide motor. I was well out of warranty but was hoping they could at least ship one to me at their cost. I was basically told to bugger off. Ron was no longer in charge, unfortunately he has some serious health issues. I was told that their slide motors NEVER used plastic gears and I should go to a dealer and have the motor replaced... I am basically being called a liar as I sit there on the phone with them holding a broken plastic gear. We are not near a dealer. I understand why manufacturers may elect not to sell directly to the public but it seemed given the history of my problem they could have just shipped me a motor to replace the obviously defective one. We called a couple dealers to see if they could drop ship a motor to us and finally found one that would do so for $1200. Wow, these are just cheap dc motors. The mark up is insane.

I removed the defective motor and moved the slide manually for the rest of the trip using a piece of 2x4 to wedge the slide closed for travel. Again tools and making do. We were not cutting this trip short. There were lots of other little quality issues that I won't go into. Things I fixed myself. Some things are to be expected on any RV. In general these campers are assembled by hand using labor that is somewhat seasonal and low cost. Quality control seems to vary.

On our way home we stopped in Bend Oregon toured the Host factory, worked out the model and options we liked with the plant manager and ordered a camper the next day through one of their dealers. Our new camper has been outstanding. We already have more nights in it than our AF and the few issues we have had the dealer and manufacturer stepped up and handled without issue.

That's my history with Northwoods. When we go down the 5th wheel road sometime in the future they will not be on my list to consider..

That was a major factor in the camper we chose. We like the Eagle Cap 3 slide campers but heard too many issues about the slides. The power gear slides on ours have been rock solid.

Will did my major surgery on it pulled it all apart on the one side and I think I might have found my problem the gear on the top had at least two maybe three teeth missing so we took the gears out and now we can slide it in and out on the one side by hand till we get down to Yuma and I'll find the parts and replace it

Have the Blue Driver now for several years, works great love how useful it has been in monitoring live data and troubleshooting. Yes they fine you in California if your hand is anywhere near a cell phone. Problem solved by mounting it out of sight.

Thanks for reminding of the one view I miss now that we don't live on the island.

Looks like another place we'll have to checkout next year Ray. Thanks

Wow... has an off road vehicle, why didn't he scout the road before driving down it?

My wife has problems with her legs (hip replacement coming next month). To make travel easier we made some mods to our trailer including a couple things in the bathroom. Just wondering if anyone else has made mods to help with accessibility.

Had that happen to us a few months back, we went with a heavy duty metal Rod we got at Menards. It allowed me to ditch the center support.
With winter coming, it will get a test as we switch out the summer clothes for their heavier winter counterparts.

Nice tool, thanks for the video Ray.Love the information I can get on my 2016 Ram 3500 with it, might have to get one after the first of the year.

that looks pretty cool Ray. I have a ' scan gauge' which is good . Yours looks like it does a lot more

I was using the Torque Pro app and a OBD2 bluetooth reader on my 2014 F250 gasser it was working great. I have tried to use it on my new GMC 3500 SRW diesel, but have not got it adjusted to get the correct readings yet. I like being able to look at the readings at a glance, not having to scroll through a menu on the dash to find temps and other readings.

Was able to change mine out you taking 4 screws out and just pushing the joint apart to get the old valve out and the new one Bach in. The hard part was getting the rubber seal lined up just right. Good luck. You can do it.

Since they put a sensor on the turbo it would be nice if they put gauge in the truck. Our ram has a plethora of info that can be displayed on the dash. I would put EGT up there with coolant and oil if you are towing with the kinds of loads they advertise. I'm sure the sensor is there to defuel when things get hot but it would be nice having that info on tap in the cab without having to buy more stuff and use your phone for a gauge. At least the sensor is there. Back in the day you had to drill a hole very carefully to keep shavings out, tap and install the sensor. I wonder what is made aftermarket as a stand alone gauge that would work with the factory sensor.

It’s always nice to have extra gauges to look at.
More information when driving is good

Love his channel. Matt does a lot with an old jeep. He has a couple of interesting vids on the mods he has made to it. Of all the recoveries I have seen this was the one that dropped my jaw the most.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whBbHcOmaxE

This is so true. We have a large garbage bag of stuff every spring to take to the Thrift Store - clothes, shoes etc.

We weigh our truck and 5th wheel every fall before heading south, and the last few years, we started weighing the 5th wheel axles side to side. (This year we actually weighed each individual tire). We were surprised a few years ago, to find we were 900 # heavier on one side than the other. We now stow accordingly for travel and have displaced of that weight.

Many of us Fulltime to get rid of stuff, but apparently it is our nature to continue to collect.

Out for a walk this morning and came across this berry special looking tree. Not sure what it is, but sure is pretty.