Go-Anywhere.us

CASUAL CAMPING AND EFFORTLESS TRAVEL ARE STANDARD FEATURES OF THE FOUR WHEEL CAMPERS PRODUCT LINE

Text & photos by Jeff Johnston

 Some RVs are more fun than others. The Four Wheel Campers Grandby 8-foot model is one of those no-frills RVs that lets you have fun with a minimum of hardware hassles, and that's what we liked about it. It provided comfortable, no problem time in the  outdoors.  What makes the Grandby fun rig? It's lightweight, which makes it easy to drive the pickup; it's simple to set up in camp; it's comfortable; and it's com­pact, which means we can go anywhere we want without concerns about fit­ting into the campsite.  Four Wheel Campers has been building fold-down campers for more than 25 years. The company's goal has always been to build a durable, high quality, lightweight rig that can hold up while traveling to the most-rugged places a pickup driver might want to go. A full-size hardwall camper is a great adventure vehicle, but a fold-down, with its roof that raises to provide interior headroom, has a charm and functionality all its own. It also has some limitations, but a buyer will likely take those in stride while utilizing the fold-down's specific features.
Most of the company's campers have similar floor-plans with a cab over bed up front, a kitchenette unit street-side and a sofa bed/dinette/storage arrangement curbside. The test rig also has a padded bench and storage unit up front at the forward end of the living space. The camper is based on an all-welded aluminum-tube frame that forms a very strong structure. This frame is the pri­mary detail that sets the Grandby apart from the others, and the balance of the rig's assembly is similarly heavy-duty and aimed at years of serious use. The fit and finish on this rig are terrific. As befits its extra-rugged construc­tion, this is not the cheapest fold-down on the market. In base trim, its manu­facturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $8,395 is a bargain, albeit it is only equipped for the most-basic type of RV living. Our test rig carried a MSRP of $13,660, equipped with a variety of must-have options that bring its comfort level up to fully useable status.

ON THE ROAD
The Grandby is the largest model in the company's product line, which in­cludes campers sized for short-bed, mid-sized and imported trucks. It tips the scales at approximately 1,100 pounds wet and is equipped with a vari­ety of options, so it can be fitted to al­most any 8-foot-box pickup including many X-ton models. The company's tie-down system fits entirely inside the bed using four large eyebolts installed inside the truck bed and four turnbuckles to secure the camper to the pickup.  Our trip covered several hundred miles of freeway as well as assorted state highways and downright unimproved dirt roads in the Whiskey Ridge area of the Sierra National Forest above North Fork, California. GM's 6.0-liter engine motivated our test truck, and it made easy work of packing the Grandby up the grades, around curves and to a stop in short order.  Due to the camper's low profile ­something like 14 inches tall above the cab roof - we noted very little sense of roll induced by the load. A hard-wall camper can feel top-heavy under certain cornering and other driving maneuvers, but not the Grandby. The pickup han­dled as if it was empty.
It's after the pavement ends that the value of a fold-down camper again be­comes apparent. The pickup rode very well over the bumps and dips in the road, and the Grandby has little affect. on the truck's suspension. In addition, when the road is somewhat off-camber; it doesn't make the driver feel as if the truck is ready to turn turtle at any moment. That's a welcome sense of security.
The manufacturer includes an op­tional rooftop storage rack ($195) capa­ble of carrying a small boat or other cargo with the roof folded down, and the optional rear wall steps ($195) help gain access to the rack. Naturally, any topside load will raise the rig's center of gravity, but our rack was empty so we were unaffected by such conditions.

LIVABILITY
Our Forest Service campsite was known as Camp 5, named after a residential loggers' camp of the Sugar Pine Lumber Company, which once operat­ed in this pan of the Sierra mountains. Once at the site, the Grandby required just a few moments to set up. Several exterior hold-down latches that secure the roof to the lower wall section are first released. Next, after climbing in, the barrel bolt securing the aft-wall "Easy-Lift" mechanism is released, and using a combination of the push-pad on the ceiling and the spring-loaded hinged end panels, the aft end of the roof raises and is latched in place. The front end of the roof operates the same way, and a remote-push handle that saves the user the need to climb on the bed is used to lock the front hinged panels in place. The whole process is a lot easier to do than to describe, and breakdown when leaving camp is just as simple. 

A fold-down camper of this type is not for an RVer who wants to be coddled by a fully self-contained RV, The Grandby's less-complex equipment is typical of that found in a lower-cost fold-down trailer for example, and calls for some user ingenuity and flexibility.  Climbing through the reduced-height door is easier than it looks. It's natural to bend down and crouch forward a bit when climbing into a camper of this type anyway, and after a few tries, the door opening ceases to be a problem.  There is a decent variety of storage cabinets and cubbyholes, including spaces below each of the padded seats in the rig. There's also a small wardrobe in the curbside back corner but users will likely need to juggle various cloth­ing and equipment items to make good use of the space while maintaining inte­rior usability. We stored duffle bags on the bed by day, and stashed them down below at night when occupying the cab-over bed.  The sofa folds out into a bed, but prac­tically speaking, this rig is sized best for just two people unless any other occu­pants are small children. Elbowroom would otherwise be in short supply.  The rig's 12-gallon freshwater tank is adequate for a camper with no toilet or shower facilities. It's enough water for handwashing, meals, dishes and gener­al clean-up, and hauling along an extra jug of water will help extend the stay.  At 1.9 cubic feet, the optional three-way refrigerator ($700) is a tiny little unit, but it does the job and it's a dam sight better than the standard icebox. We planned our meals around minimal perishable items, and the fridge served us well.  A two-burner stove is enough for a basic camper-style meal, and the small sink with the optional switch-type water pump ($95) nicely took care of our cleanup chores. Since there's no gray-water tank, we used a small gar­den-hose extension and a 5-gallon jug outside the rig to secure our gray water for later disposal.  Setting up the dinette table is easy. A small piece of wood serves as the table base and is fitted with a dinette-table-post socket, and a single center post holds the table to the base. It's not the strongest arrangement in the world, but it works, and there's easily room on the sofa for two at the table.  The Grandby has no toilet facility, but a convenient cabinet is sized to accom­modate many standard Porta-Potti-type toilets. We kept slip-on shoes handy for our sprints to the campground facili­ties, a reasonable plan for a short-term camping jaunt.
Likewise, a shower is lacking, but we heated a saucepan of water on the stove and used it for a sponge bath, which isn't quite a hot shower, but does get the grime off after a dusty day in the woods. We understand a water heater is in the works for future models.  The queen-size cab-over bed mattress seems thin, but it's surprisingly com­fortable and gave us a good night's sleep. The forward half of the bed is fixed, and the aft half is on a shelf or drawer that slides out to expand the bed to its full size. When not needed, the stowed bed-half creates more living space in the camper.  Interior climate control is simple. The optionaI16,OOO-BTU furnace ($495) puts out enough air to warm the rig when it's cold, and the optional Arctic Pack insulation ($475) helps keep the warmth in. There's no air conditioner, but for fresh air, the expansive side win­dows in the fabric wall sections open to allow delightful cross-ventilation and let the smells of the forest in. The op­tional Fantastic roof vent ($295) also helps bring in the cool air if there's not much breeze.  A good place to sleep, space for meal preparation, storage for your stuff and a roof over your head - what else could you ask for in an adventure-style RV? We sat back near the fire, watched the sunset through air tinted an interesting shade of orange by recent forest fires, and pondered how well the apparently simple Grandby 8-footer took care of our basic needs. It's a fun alternative to a conventional hard-side camper. TL