Bigfoot Campers a Thing of the Past

The popular Canadian truck camper builder, Bigfoot, has apparently become yet another sad anecdote in the current industry crisis. According to a bulletin from Truck Camper Magazine, Bigfoot Industries is closing its doors after over 30 years in the trade.

While no official spokesman for the company was available, the switchboard operator did tell us, "We are closed, sir." Calls to a company sales representative have not yet been returned.

According to the Truck Camper Magazine story, one of the company's major lenders pulled the pin on company operations. For pending orders, what this means is unclear. For Bigfoot owners with warranty issues, it means heartache, as there will be no one to fill the gap in handling service issues.

Bigfoot campers were particularly popular in Canada and other cold-weather venues, as they relied on tough two-piece fiberglass body construction and thick insulation. The company was founded as a camper building enterprise, but in later years had branched out into travel trailers and Class C motorhomes. At last report, the company employed 150 workers.

Oldest Truck Camper?

Shortly after we were married back in the 70's, we bought our first truck camper. It was a thing of beauty with an aluminum shell exterior, and gloss-white painted interior. No "bathroom facilities" graced the inside of our rig, and a night, you turned on a propane fired gas lamp to play cards by. Our dish water had to be heated on the top of the four-burner LP stove, and you hand pumped water out of the fresh water tank into the somewhat miniature sink.

We were the second owner of this glorious rig. The first owner worked for the company that build the rig. He personally oversaw the rig off the assembly line, then took his family from Washington state back to New York City for a big religious convention in 1958. As we recall, he had a BIG family (and sure enough, some of them must have ridden in the back all those long miles). With the kids grown and gone, we bought the rig to share with our kids.

Wish we still had a picture of that old rig.

But all this leads to our question: What was the oldest truck camper you've ever had? And do you have any pictures you could share? There must be some folks who even today have one of those "oldies but goodies" in their hands, and we'd love to share your thoughts and photos with all of our readers. Drop us a line at rdemaris at juno dot com (pardon the spell out, we're trying to ditch the automated email address "bots").

Ride 'em in the Back of Your Camper?

In an RV users' forum, a member mentioned he carried children in his truck camper. This set off a firestorm of commentary regarding the safety of carrying passengers in truck mounted campers. Most readers were pretty adamant about the subject, on one side or the other. Viewpoints exchanged ran the gamut of "protecting the lives of children," to avoiding the scourge of "allowing Big Brother to dictate our every move."

One interesting point made was more visual than loquacious--and it spoke volumes:

We can really muddy up the discussion by bringing in pertinent state law. Among the comments posted by forum goers were two different web sites, each purporting to answer the question: "Is it legal" on a state-by-state basis. The results weren't particularly satisfactory. One site indicated most states didn't specifically comment on the issue; the other said "Yes" it was OK to ride in a truck camper--perhaps not commenting means OK.

We asked our consulting Arizona DPS officer his opinion. Would he cite a truck camper user for allowing children to ride in the back of a truck camper? He initially said yes, and cited a relevant Arizona statute. But on closer examination, we found the statute specifically exempted "recreational vehicles" from the mandatory child seatbelt law, and by the state's own definition, truck campers are indeed, recreational vehicles.

But let's get down to brass tacks: Just how smart is it to carry any passenger, child or adult, in a truck camper? Truck campers admittedly have a fairly high center of gravity, and as cautious as a TC driver might be, you can't always "watch out of the other guy." T-boned in a highway intersection could easily spell a rollover situation. No, the camper might not disintigrate like the one in the photo, but passengers, bounced around like so many peas in a can, will certainly suffer plenty of bumps and bruises, if not death itself.

And tell me, when was the last time you saw a truck camper roll off the assembly line equipped with seatbelts? Airbags? Crumple zones?

We'd love to hear your comments.

image: mooney on photobucket.com

No, Virginia, This Isn't a Garbage Truck Camper

A lot of truck camper enthusiasts really enjoy the lifestyle because of the places you can go with a TC that you can't get to with an "ordinary" RV. The trouble is, sometimes a camper is just a bit too crowded. Here's an alternative--that's sometimes accused of being an "RV garbage truck."

If you've never seen one, then welcome to high-brow off-road RVing with the Unicat Terracross. A luxury 6x6 rig, it looks pretty utilitarian from the outside, but whoa! Check out the insides of this monster.

It's actually a bit deceiving, as from the "outside" exposures, it doesn't look like there's any kind of natural light reaching the inside of the rig. But hey, if you can afford the rig, then you've afforded the lift up style roof that exposes the windows in the sides of the rig.

There's plenty of room, and an office, if you have the time and desire to work on your novel while out in the wilderness. Come to think of it, perhaps some pretty fine inspiration can come from the beauty of nature.

And be sure to check out the wall hung espresso machine in the galley. Wonder if that's an option, or if every customer gets one to ensure a fully leaded take off for the wild yonder each morning.

Well, most of us humble truck camper owners will have to pass on this one. Too many euros for our budget, but hey, wouldn't it be nice to borrow one for a little spin in the country?

It's a German engineering thing, ja?