After years of camping, overlanding, and exploring with a Northstar 650SC on the back of my American Expedition Vehicles-equipped Ram 3500 it was time for a change. The Northstar had a wet bath, which takes up a lot of real estate in a shortbed truck. The 650SC was also heavy (1,600 pounds), which was not a huge concern on the one ton truck but still made for slow going when the going got rough. The solution? A Four Wheel Camper (fourwheelcampers.com/) Hawk model that weighs 25% less and has an optimized layout with a king sized bed and front dinette that folds into a second bed.
Four Wheel Camper (FWC) puts the “custom” is customer, allowing you to choose options to fit your needs and budget. For us that included a furnace and hot water heater for winter camping, a large 130 liter refrigerator for extended trips, and a 160 watt solar panel on the roof. We passed on a lithium battery, awning, and even jacks to save money, knowing we could add these items down the road as funds allowed.
The hardest part was waiting the three months after submitting our order for the camper to be built to our specifications. After the Hawk was installed at Four Wheel Campers’ facility in Woodland, California, we brought it home and started customizing it to our needs. This included things like Brightroom crates from Target to organize our gear (www.target.com/p/small-decora..., a 200 ah Renogy lithium battery (www.renogy.com/12v-24v-48v-20..., spice racks (www.ebay.com/itm/334659680223), and Bezia nesting cookware with removable handles (www.aliexpress.us/item/325680.... On the rear of the camper we added a DMOS Delta shovel (dmosproshoveltools.com/collec...) and Maxtrax recovery boards (adventure-imports.com/product...) like we had on the back of the Northstar.
The Four Wheel Camper has already proven to be comfortable for long weekend trips with our young son and Texas Heeler, and we look forward to bigger adventures in the years to come.