Intermittent Electric Jack Problems?

Electric jacks sure take the stress off. When we first started out, we had to use those horrific "freestanding" things that you took your life in your hands with, setting them under the sides of the camper and hoping they didn't fall over at the wrong moment.

Then we went to hydraulic jacks--that was the "cat's meow," until you started wearing out seals, and hydraulic fluid wound up being part of your wardrobe. It was a bit crazy, too, if you singlehandedly loaded or unloaded the camper: Running from one corner to another, trying to keep everything "on the level."

Then there were electric jacks: Switch controls, easy operation, not much running too and fro, and always clean. Unless you get an intermittent jack operation. Some users have reported problems with jacks stalling, bucking, and jumping. Here's something to check: Since electric jacks are electrically operated, tight connections are critical. Obviously a good solid connection to the house battery will affect all the jacks. If you get "sometimes" operation with some of the jacks, you may have loose connections on the switches, the motors, or other control panel connections.

Pull the covers and examine all connections. Solder joints can break or come loose with road vibration. Oft times, just that alone will cause all kinds of heartache.

'I would not buy another Lance Camper,' RVer writes

An RVer who traveled extensively throughout the East in a Lance Camper felt compelled to blog afterwards about his feelings toward his RV. "Although in many ways we're pretty happy with our Lance, we've concluded that we probably wouldn't buy another one," he wrote.

"The real problem is that Lance's quality leaves a lot to be desired," wrote Sterling Udell on his website, where he chronicled three years of RV travels with his partner Teresa Petrykowski.

His comments were about his 2003 Lance 1121 camper. So keep in mind that a few years have passed since then.

"We've also heard enough from other Lance owners . . . many [who] have much more serious issues than we do. To me, it shows how a company with a majority of the market share has become complacent and lost sight of what gave them that share in the first place."

Website focuses on RV truck campers

If you read the traditional RV magazines, you'll find very little about truck campers, just a lot about big ol' motorhomes and fifth wheels. And you won't find much on the Web, either, with the exception of this blog and in bits and pieces at a few other cyber places. But there's one exception -- one place for truck campers to go -- that focuses squarely on news and information of interest to RVers whose rig of choice is atop the bed of their pickup truck. If you travel with a truck camper or plan to one day, you should benefit from reading Truck Camper Magazine.

Dishes and Tight Galley Space

After being on the road for several weeks in our truck camper, an almost universal complaint is the lack of space in the galley. Counter space literally amounts of a few precious inches, even when the "dog leg" pull up countertop is extended. Hence, having any amount of dirty dishes is about as popular as a dog with fleas.

Of course, filling up the sink or the dishtub for a handful of dishes doesn't tread easily on the fresh water supply--nor the gray water tank space. We've tried a "new wrinkle" by using the new "direct foam" dishwashing soap, put out by Dawn. The idea here is to pump a single squirt of the direct foam cleanser on a sponge, then wipe the offending dish down with it, give it a quick rinse, and off it goes. It really does tend to hold down the use of water, particularly if you catch the rinse water in a tub or pot and use it until it's too full of soap to rinse.

We have learned that using HOT water in the sponge is a must if you really want a good cleanup. There are times when we resort to the dish tub and regular dish soap: When we have a major stack of dishes or a lot of greasy pots and pans.

Ladder Rack Chair Storage on the Cheap

As truck camper folks, we have some of those unique challenges that face us that a lot of other RVers don't deal with: A whole less space to stow stuff. No basement storage is readily available to stuff the folding lawn chairs.

Being miles away from the nearest Camping World and in need of chair hanging fixtures, we hit the local hardware store. There we found a pair of utility hangers, designed to be screwed onto your garage wall, from which you could hang a ladder. Hmm, if you could hang a ladder on these racks, why not hang these racks on a ladder? We picked up four good size hose clamps along with the pair of ladder racks and headed back to the camper.

By fully opening the clamps we were able to clamp them over the hangers and the vertical shafts of the roof ladder. With the clamps cinched down, we had a completely serviceable rack for lawn chairs and our folding "patio table." Problem solved locally for less than $10.

Unique "Utility Body" Truck Camper Setup

We ran across this unusual rig in Quartzsite, Arizona. Here's a custom "utility body" truck with a very much full sized truck camper. While that big old camper is definitely not a light weight, it's pretty apparent the truck suspension is more than up to the job.

What intrigues is the "hang over" at the rear of the truck bed. We're used to having 48" from the end of the truck bed out to our camper bumper, but this looks like a whole different animal. And with this custom job, there's no need for an "after market" tie down system. Wonder if they'd done anything "inside" to customize?

Got an unusual truck camper photo? Run it by us at tcphotos@icanrv.com and we may run it in a future blog!