theboondork's RV blog

A good vehicle for boondocking

6/20/2023

Pics love clicks like a dog loves belly rubs.

The South Platte River, and a few creeks are what fills up the Chatfield reservoir which is one of many water reservoirs that serve Denver and the outlying areas. And right now the South Platte is running high.

Today went back to being cloudy, but there was no chance of rain, so I could get some things done in the trailer.

The backsplash behind the Arctic Fox's stove had fallen off, so I glued it back in position. The glue the factory used just wasn't up to the task. On the other hand, it may have been all the bumpy dirt roads that boondockers often travel on that caused a few things to fall apart on the Arctic Fox. A little of that kind of travel is fine, but if you have resigned yourself to live a life of long-term boondocking and driving on bumpy dirt roads regularly, most RVs will not hold up to that since that's completely different from what they were designed to do.

I think the Arctic Fox did better than some other RVs, mainly because it has a stronger frame. But driving on bad roads sooner or later will cause problems with any RV.

In my opinion one of the best RVs for living a boondocking lifestyle is a van, mainly because a van is built to withstand driving on sketchy roads, just like any truck would be. So when a van has a kitchen and a bed added to it, that doesn't take away its ability to take bumpy roads in stride.

A lot of slide-in truck campers do well on poor roads. Now I have serious doubts about these 4000-pound truck campers loaded with all the bells, and whistles, which strains a one-ton truck just sitting there. But your average truck camper that's not overloaded does pretty well because the pickup truck it sits on is designed to deal with rough roads. And the camper itself, if it's one of normal quality, is constructed to survive the vicissitudes, of at least some, off-road travel.

So if my oldest son buys the Arctic Fox, which is expected, he's not a boondocker. He lives in a trailer that suits his jobs traveling lifestyle, so I think the Arctic Fox will last a whole lot longer if it's not subjected to the kind of roads I've put it on for the last ten years.

Theboondork

A long walk, but my granddaughter still has the strength to run.

Cactus flowers.

Horses are welcomed on the hiking trail.

4 Comments

Larry Worsham

6/21/2023 05:30:21 am

It's is good that you can keep the AF in the family. They are probably one of the best overall trailers out there IMHO. I bought a AF trailer new in 2003 and it has shown some wear but is still running strong. It is heavy as it is the old wood frame construction. I've had a few problems over the years but they have had nothing to do with the construction and durability of the trailer.

Even though I would like to have a smaller rig this one serves me well and doesn't required a high price tag. I know it very well and fill very comfortable with it.

I follow the RV boards closely and even see production problems with the AF and sister company ORV. I think staying with pre-2020 is the way togo.....but for now I'm staying with my 2003.

Tom

6/21/2023 08:27:05 am

Yeah Larry, I think that whole Covid nightmare screwed up a lot of things and RV production was one of them. It seems like we went from not having enough RVs being produced, to way too many RVs being produced pretty fast.

I think just about anyone could see that a lot of RVs were being put together with spit and glue before Covid hit, and Covid just made it much worse. With thousands of orders for new RVs pouring into the factories and the factories not having enough trained people to build the RVs something had to give, and I think that quality was the first thing to go out the window. And considering the lack of quality that most RV manufacturers started with, they didn't have a whole lot of quality to lose.

So keeping what you have is probably a good idea because RVs can be repaired and last for a long time if they were put together fairly well to start with, and I think it's pretty hard to beat an Arctic Fox and the way there build.

Tom

KennyD

6/21/2023 07:44:31 am

If your son does a lot of traveling for work, it sounds like the Fox will be a great thing for him. Always good to pay it forward.

6/21/2023 09:07:13 am

My oldest son is a heavy equipment operator and has a CDL so he works for different companies for varying amounts of time, about a month ago he was working in the Florida Panhandle, and now he's up in Montana... Great place to be in the summertime, but kind of cold in the winter; fortunately for him, he likes the cold.

Tom

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A good vehicle for boondocking

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