My understanding is you are not supposed to occupy a camper when it's on jacks with the front jacks swung out.
Hmmm. Never heard that before, either, but different campers are different. Mine has been on the jacks- swung out- since January while its undergoing extensive repairs/renovations. Guess I better be careful.
I do agree about the electric jacks, however. I don't normally take the camper off as I have 440 amp hours- 250 lbs- of golf cart batteries in the bed supplying the house power, but I always use the jacks to level the camper since the chances of finding a level camping spot outside a "campgound" is pretty slim. Here is a pic of mine at the Pipestone River in northern Ontario. You can see the jacks are down to level it.
To the original poster (Robert): I got your email but figured I would reply here rather than on RVnet. As you noted I've driven alot of those roads.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41606
I can tell you my thoughts in ending up with my truck set up the way it is, but a lot of what you end up with depends on what is available to you.
Going front to back on the photo above: 1) the Buckstop bumper is the first line of defense against kamikaze moose. They are not afraid of your truck, and they don't mind jumping in front of you to prove it. Likewise the overcab lights: the outside pair are aimed along the roadsides to hopefully give some warning that those crazy moose are there. Deer are bad; but moose will kill you, or at least total the truck a long way from anywhere.
2) 5.9L Cummins engine. Pretty much anywhere in the world, if they have boats, buses, or mines, they will have spare parts and mechanics experienced with this engine. In Labrador it is fishing boats. In China, Dong Feng builds the same engine under license. I would have been happy with a standard shift, but since the automatic was all I was finding available lightly used, I settled for the 48re and not the trouble prone 47re transmission. Unfortunately, the Cummins is in a Dodge truck. Its OK but I think it is more prone to rust. I added a steering stabilizer to tighten up the front end and gauges to keep an eye on things. Bilstein shocks and AFE airfilter and larger exhaust but otherwise it is stock. I like the Ford trucks too, and I notice that in Northern Canada that GMC seems to be used by the power companies so those would be easy to get fixed as well. In my mind, the quad cab is a necessity for the added space it provides for backpacks, tools,etc.
3) I wanted only either a Bigfoot or a Northern Lite because water infiltration is the number 1 problem with any camper and I am somewhat familiar with fiberglass boats...and live in Rhode Island where boat building and repair is a major industry. They still can leak around the cut-outs, though.
The hardest thing on your rig on those roads is the washboard...hundreds of miles of it will test every joint and connection, and there are fewer of those with the clamshell style construction. No slide for this reason either.
Since it is either cold,wet, and rainy or swarming with bugs where we tend to go we spend a lot of time inside the camper, as opposed to, say, Arizona where you can hang outside most of the time. Combine this with the added insulation, and a hard side made more sense to me. (plus fewer moving parts, see above.) I prefer my Northern Lite 10-2000cd over the comparable Bigfoot (10-6 2500 series I would say)because it has more storage space, and the wet bath is fine with me, but I really bought it because I found it used and there are not many campers of this type available in New England. The slightly smaller 9-6 model Northern Lite is the one I would go for if I bought new, I think, but then its only about 8" shorter anyway.
Since the camper is 8 feet wide, why not put it on a dually. You have that much more margin and the vehicle will perform better the less overloaded it is. If I did it again I would consider a 1500 series Bigfoot or comparable Northern Lite on a SRW truck, but the only drawback to the DRW I have experienced is that it is a pain to air down when I go on the beach or in other soft sand.
OK. I have to do some work now but may post more as I think of it. My question for you is 'what is "Freedom 55" and how do I get in on that?'