Re: Oakland/Bigfoot 20' Class C 4x4
Anytime.
We've owned several different campers and really like the fiberglass one's, Bigfoot being the best in our opinion. I can't tell if your exterior is all fiberglass or not since they switched a couple of times. It looks bonded in the photos. I'm sure you know this but like boats, keep them waxed and that will help the exterior last a long time. We used Meguiars but some fiberglass RV owners like their wax like we like our fuels so use what you prefer. Living in Florida we had to do ours twice a year and she was all dull when we bought her. After a full fiberglass restoration kit, and really sore arms and elbows, she had that fiberglass shine. Subsequent waxing was much easier.
I should probably ask Bigfoot for some type of kick back since I've become such an evangelist. Ours had a molded one piece shower (no seams - yeah), enclosed tanks (not heating elements taped underneath), ducted furnace, etc... The big difference is all of the systems ran under the floor so the cabinets weren't full of the typical RV boxed over stuff, they went to the wall for tons of storage. That's huge compared to all of the other brands we looked at! They are heavy though.
We considered pulling the bed off our truck, having a custom flatbed installed and getting a Bigfoot truck camper instead of building out a van. Probably would have been cheaper but we like the pass through access instead of getting out then back in. Plus we once owned a Pleasure-way van, another great product for what it's for - build quality like none other, and learned we are van people. Albeit, a super small 4x4'd class C is close enough!
If we had the means we'd have some franken home built pop-top Bigfoot truck camper on a cutaway van chassis, Ujointed of course. Something like an XP camper but with a Four Wheel Camper type of pop-up system. OR, we'd take a 4-door jeep and mount a Mangiolina RTT as a pop-top to act kind of like the penthouse top does. If we were offered a diesel version of the 4-door here in the states we would have had a much harder time picking our vehicle. GVWR is low for the 4-door though. The Ursa Minor top for the jeep is pretty sweet, as is the one made for the Defender [drool], but now that we have a top that adds the head space to the entire length we're a bit spoiled. Trying to build out a stealth and in-camp floor plan in such a Jeep could end in divorce. I can already see Mandi's face if I said "your clothing space is half this bin". Two full bins in the van is already a problem, not counting shoes, jackets, rain and sporting specific gear. That's something we already miss from the Bigfoot.
Anyway, sorry for the digression, you have a great set-up that we appreciate.
-John
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