The Random Thoughts Review

eBay Motors: Project Truck Camper – small slide in – pop up (item 8013394621 end time Nov-15-05 10:33:25 PST)

Before I read the description, I thought that ‘Project’ was maybe a brand name.

It’s obvious to me that this would fit on my toyota truck, but the description is more than scary….

The camper needs lots of work and is a project camper or for parts. The roof got snowed on and caved in. The roof is made of fiberglass or plastic of some sort and just bowed downward and broke the rafters. The top is not broken through as far as i can tell. I know it still holds water a foot deep in the center. This camper has sat this way for several years. The water has since rotten the celling on the inside and the cloth canvas should be replaced

So, when he says “Project”, he means that it is going to be a serious project for someone to work on.

I hope, for his sake, that he gets his one dollar.

So, after some of my recent excursions, I’ve been thinking about getting a truck camper to use for future camping trips. It seems like the ideal blend of functionality for me. It’s more than large enough for one person, lets me stay in tent sites at the rv parks, and has a stove, sink, etc for actual living.

Anyway, I’ve been watching the truck camper scene on ebay, and have bid on one that showed up a few months ago. It was a 1997 (or 1998) popup, which means that it has a section at the top that extends upwards when you actually camp. Driving down the road it only extends about a foot over the top of the truck, which would help a lot with wind resistance. I had set my max bid at $1,700, and it ended up going for $3,030.

Another one that I had thought about bidding on ended up going for $2,500.

The current one that I’m thinking about is an older model, without all of the amenities, with a starting price of $1,000 and a buy-it-now of $2,500 (ya, right). The
listing on ebay gives the details, which I’ll repeat here since the listing URL won’t last very long..

PERRIS VALLEY SMALL LIGHTWEIGHT TRUCK CAMPER RV
This Is a lightweight camper. This is the only mini camper I have seen where the bed pulls out over the dinette into a huge master bed, and the dinette makes into a double bed. The camper is in great conditon and has brand knew curtains and a front slider for access to the cab.It has 110 and 12v lighting. The outside is nice with no scapes or dents. The color is white with red and silver stripes. All the windows came tinted and do not leak. The roof is in a great shape and does not leak. It has one three gallon propane bottle that feeds a two burner stove top and will last for a long time. Yes this camper is Very efficient and cost little to maintain. The camper has 4 hydrolock jacks that work great. It has a ice box That kept all of my food cold for three days without replacing ice. I bought it from the original owner, he kept it covered and so did I. we are Having a baby and it must sell. email me for more picts. THE BOTTOM FOOTPRINT IS 6’10” LONG X 3’1” WIDE. thank you and good luck.

I emailed for more questions. Below are the questions, along with the guy’s response, and my thoughts on it….

1. What’s the dry weight of the camper? “700 dry”. Wow.. 700 pounds? That’s insanely light. The other campers, which have been newer, and probably made with lighter material, have been up around and over 1,000 pounds. This is suspicious to me.
2. What’s the height, both overall and the height to the cabover section. How far forward does the cabover extend? “6’2″, 3’3″, 3’9″ ” So, I’d probably have to duck slightly when in it. No biggy. But, this does mean that I’ve got something 6 feet high sitting in the back of my truck. That’s quite a ways up there. 3.75″ forward of the bed is going to put the front of it over the front window, but I don’t think that would be much of an issue.
3. No furnace, air condition, swamp cooler, hot water heater, or refrigerator? “no-heat no air no swamp no hot water” No surprise here, but too bad.
4. Is the ice box basically a built in ice chest? “the ice box looks like a fridge but takes ice” Bummer. A fridge would be nice. Wonder how it handles the ice melting. I guess if it is just a ice chest you’d be ok… but it looks like the door opens on the front like a regular fridge.
5. Any 110 outlets inside? “110 light and plug,12 volt lights”
6. Size of water tank for sink? Grey water tank size? “6 gal fresh no gray or black” Wonder where water goes when you drain it down the sink.
7. You explicitly mention the windows and roof as not leaking? Does this mean that the whole thing doesn’t leak? “No leaks”
8. Any instruction manuals with it? “no manuals”
9. What vehicle did you/previous owner have it on? “dodge dacoda”
10. What’s the Center of Gravity for the camper? “gravity???”
11. Does it come with mounting equipment? “yes 4 twist locks no bed hooks” I don’t know what this means. I’ll have to do some research.
12. What sorts of weather (summer/winter/etc?) have you used it in? Any experiences to share? “used in summer and in cold weater we boiled water in the morning for heat and it roasted us in less than 3 min”
13. Do the windows open? Screens? Roof vents? “all windows open and have screens,one roof vent and one vent\esc hatch over bed”
14. Width of camper/how long is the double bed. How long is the master bed when extended? “master bed 6’wide x 7′ long, double is 3’6”x6′”
15. How much storage space is there? “3 cabinetss 3drawers and a jacket closet”
16. Place for a portapotty? “cubby for portapot under jacket closet by rear door”

Other comments: “camper is all stock and on a 1-10 scale its a 9.9 very clean and no tears or holes one latch is broken on the a drawer.”

Subsequent emailing…

“this is my sons camper so im not totally familiar with all that’s included but I did just remember that he has 4 bed mounts that install on the truck bed and are removable when not in use I am sorry I forgot that so you wont need bed hooks we have them.”

“Hi the camper has eye hooks and we have the common threaded twist type anchors with hooks on each end and you will need hooks on your bed or the ones that mount under the truck.”

My random thoughts.. The camper is a few miles from the border of Yosemite in California. While that’s a pretty area, it’s a long way from here. About 2,100 miles, as best I can tell. That means 6 days of driving to get there and back. That’s 3 days out, 3 days back. Figure $500 in gas, and a couple hundred more in hotels.. That’s sizeable. And, I need hooks to attach the camper to, it would appear.

Planning Your Visit to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Yesterday I went to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. It was really nice. Took me a little while to find the place. The driving instructions weren’t as clear as I would have liked. But, with the help of the GPS I managed to find it.. (Come to find out, from I-72, it’s really easy.. When I-72 ends at Springfield, just go straight.. Turn north on 7th street.. Go a block or two and you are at the parking garage).

Got to the parking garage at 3:28pm. Left at 6:26pm. 50 cents per half hour for parking. So, I stayed about 3 hours at the museum.

Spoilers follow. If you plan on going, I’d recommend not reading the following. Experience it yourself. That’s part of the journey.

The museum had a special exhibit on John Wilkes Booth and the actual assassination, which I went to first. It discussed all of the conspiracy folk and what happened leading up to the day of the assassination, the actual assassination itself, and the followup (how the conspirators were caught, basically).. They had the actual carriage that Lincoln and wife took to Ford’s Theater on the evening of April 14th, as well as the bed where they took Lincoln following the shooting (where he died at 7:22am on the 15th) Pretty neat.

Then I went to a 3d presentation discussing the lincoln library and what they have there. Something like 12 miles of stacks.. Millions of books and pieces of stuff (various memorabilia)..

Next were the pre-presidential years.. Talked about his childhood, first exposures to slavery.. (If you go, note the colors of the lights on the first slavery display.. The slave is bathed in pure white light.. The auctioneer is lit from below in red light.. very demonic looking.. He might have even had a slightly pointy nose). Next was when Lincoln started getting interested in politics and how he moved up through the ranks.

Had a cute piece of “what it would have been like if Tim Russert were around to talk about the 1860 election.” That section ended with Lincoln getting elected in 1860.

Next, I went to another show on ‘Lincoln’s Eyes’. It was also pretty neat. The shows at the museum are technologically advanced. I won’t give anything away beyond that. But, this show discussed what you could see in a person’s eyes, and provided another history lesson on lincoln.

Next were the Whitehouse years. It started with a display of the women’s dresses and quickly moved into the political satire of the day. Many, many cartoon caricatures of Lincoln doing stupid things. They didn’t seem to like Lincoln, no matter what he did. I was really reminded of the current position that Bush is in. Both were in a war situation, etc. etc. The exhibit went on to show the whitehouse kitchen, the emancipation proclamation, and the war effort. There was a really cool display showing the north and the south on a map. It was called “the war in 4 minutes” or something like that. There was a date display at the bottom that slowly moved through the early 1860s. The map showed the area that the south controlled over time, and you could watch the area expand and shrink as the battles occurred (which were also shown). In the corner was a casualty count, so that you monitor the deaths that the north and the south incurred over time. Very very cool and very well done. Very sobering. Soon after that was an entire room devoted to the battle at Gettysburg. Very somber. Sends a chill down your spine. 52,000 dead between July 1 and July 3, 1863. Wow.

From there, they clean up the remaining details. Lincoln got reelected, Lee surrendered, and Lincoln decided to go to the theater. John Wilkes was considered by all to be the top romantic actor of the day. He was supposedly very handsome, and well respected. He just didn’t like the thought of abolition. A mockup of the theater was provided, and you could see the wax figure of Lincoln sitting there, with JWB getting ready to charge in and shoot him. When I was in DC 17 years ago, I saw a play at the Ford theater, and had seats up in the balcony. I was seated one seat from the end, right next to where Lincoln’s roped-off booth was at. The seat location where I sat was actually shown in this mockup that they had. Again, a very solomn thing.

After the death, they touched on Lincoln’s trip back to Illinois and they had a very large room showing where he lay in State here in Illinois.

All things considered, a very nice place. I would recommend it to anyone. They have a very high concentration of tech stuff there. Projectors all over the place. Neat way to spend a few hours.