Hello Mint Chip!

It’s been a while since you’ve heard from us because we’ve been busy. Since our last post we’ve bought a new rig.  We moved out of our beloved Scotty, Sero and moved into our new home, a Ford 550 diesel 4×4 truck with a slide-in camper. It was a difficult choice to make as we had made ourselves very comfortable and at home in our old RV, Scotty, but we do love our new camper even more…

We made the switch for a few reasons. We wanted to be more agile and get off the beaten path. Even though Scotty was a 4×4 camper, it wasn’t really built for off-road. Bad weather, muddy, snowy roads were not a problem for Scotty, ruts and boulders not-so-much. The ability to create a secondary vehicle also was important. At times it is valuable to have two cars and with a truck and slide-in camper we could use the truck alone when needed and also have Gidget (Jeep), our tow vehicle. Thus we made the decision that having a truck with slide-in camper would better suit our needs with full-time RV living. We also found that the RV had more space than we actually needed (I know, crazy, right?!?!) and felt we could go even smaller.

Although we miss our Scotty, Sero, we are loving our new set-up.  The power and capacity of the Ford 550 seems endless (at a slight cost of less MPG’s). The 550 like so many of our items, is rich in history and has a story of its own. It was built to safely carry Prescott Hot Shots across the most rugged terrain, to fight fires in the remote Arizona landscape, as it was a former bush truck and has the mint green paint job as a badge of honor. This vehicle was built for abuse, skid plates from nose to tail and a custom gas tank that appears it could take a bullet. Supple suspension makes the bumpy roads manageable with such a large rig. The interior has a permanent campfire smell that we’ve grown to cherish. Totally 365Camper worthy.

We were excited to possibly use the utility bed that came with the truck but found out that the majority of slide-in campers would not fit with the existing utility bed, thus we had to trade it out for flatbed with boxes along the bottom for needed storage. We also added some storage on the top side of the flatbed that fit perfectly with our slide-in camper. We have a ton of storage in the boxes along the sides.

When picking the slide-in camper it was important that we liked the layout. We looked at a ton of different campers and finally found one that had a layout that we really liked.  It’s a 2002 Corsair. There were a few things that were key to us. In our last camper the bed faced East/West and if you had read in previous posts, it was something that we didn’t love about the camper but had grown used to. In our new camper it has a North/South facing bed and way more room in the bunk area which we love. The camper doesn’t have any slide-outs. Usually people want slide-outs as it can make a small camper much larger, but we figured with bumpy roads we want to take and with constant use, having slide-outs might not be the best idea because they could break. We also wanted a camper with ample counter space in the kitchen area. We can now stand side-by-side in the kitchen and prepare meals together. Having a camper with dry bath was important to us, with our full-time RV living. Many small campers have what’s called a “wet bath” and it basically means that the toilet is in the middle of the shower area, perfect for multitasking shall we say… but we didn’t want it for everyday. We’ve also grown to love our dinette table area and the window just above, that allows for you to see the stars at night and lets a lot of sunshine in during the day, making the camper feel more open. We are very happy with the layout of our 2002 Corsair, now we just need to do some updating with the interior.

Again, we opted for a slightly older camper, thus the interior is old and dated looking.  We’ve already started to make some updates like spray painting plastic items on the exterior and exterior that have yellowed with age. We’ve redone the carpet from a slate blue to a more versatile taupe/gray color. We’ve also put up some wallpaper in the dinning area and we’ve reupholstered some of the valances. We have plans do more wallpaper and to paint the cabinets as we did in our other RV.

Stay tuned for more DIY in our new camper. We are excited to show you the progress that we’ve made on the interior and exterior!