A new hope ... (build journal and component reviews)

[Steven_B]

Looking good.

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[cug]

Here are some more impression photos.

Storage for two camp chairs, easily accessible:

Rear door table space, this is where we'll cook most of the time, easy reach to the outlet for induction cooking or heating water. Easy access to filtered water:

And the passenger side with mosquito netting installed, not very nice looking, but practical:

 

[cug]

Updated the summary in post #2.

 

[cug]

So, navigation is also sorted. Offline maps for Maps.me downloaded for the upcoming trip, OsmAnd offline maps downloaded and iOverlander data in the categories that interest us converted and imported.

This is a zoomed out view of a part of our travel area.

And when zooming in, it shows more detail:

Primary navigation will be OsmAnd since we are likely offline for long stretches of the trip. Secondary/backup is Maps.me. And iOverlander2 as offline data backup.

Overall, lots cheaper and significantly nicer than a Garmin Tread. And much more flexible since I use the iPad for reading and other data as well.

 

[cug]

Packed the rear door.

 

[cug]

And of course, put a FpF sticker on the Pelican case after I took the photo. ;-)

Holler if you see us driving down the road!

 

[cug]

So far, the build works as expected. Not perfect, but nothing is ...

The mosquito tent has been a sanity saver in BC and Yukon over the last few days. It's absolutely awesome to sit outside without need for Deet or constantly swatting at mosquitos, wasps, and other flying critters.

And induction cooking at camp is another sanity saving thing. It was very windy at this spot, but of course, it absolutely didn't matter ...

The Maxtrax running double duty as leveling blocks works well, too:

At the last spot, we also got a nice light show from the northern lights:

It's a crappy phone shot through the mosquito netting, but it doesn't really matter, it was awesome to just lie back and enjoy the view.

 

[cug]

Impressions ...

 

[cug]

Gave it a new “paint job”:

 

[cug]

What a difference a few days make:

 

[cug]

The Dempster in bad weather is utterly disgusting. A lot of the camp options were very muddy as well.

The Jeep seems to be a terrible vehicle in these conditions. It's incredibly hard to clean and tends to soil itself all over. We haven't seen any other vehicle as dirty as the Jeeps on this road. It's utterly disgusting.

We are running Rokblokz mudguards, but I don't get the impression they are doing much. If they do, the Jeep is even worse in getting itself dirty than I thought. I have cleaned the Land Cruiser a few times after bad weather outings and I've never seen such a frigging mess as on this Gladiator.

Due to corrugations and bad shape of the Dempster, we ran with a reduced tire pressure. Saw a lot of vehicles along the road with puntures or even torn up tires.

We stopped a few times checking whether people needed help, most didn't. They were still on the first flat ... ;-) But we did meet a couple from France a few times along the Klondike Highway and then on the Dempster and they did need some help. Fixed their tire puncture with our plug kit and gave them our spare tire pressure gauge when we parted ways. We heard that they made it safely to Dawson City and got the tire properly repaired there.

Here's me filling up the tires after we got on pavement again:

The AluCab Canopy camper was mostly tight, although it did leak some dust in the corner above our bear canister / trash container. Doesn't seem to have enough pressure on the seal there.

It's a bummer that AluCab uses these piss poor latches which can't be adjusted. I might have to drill some more holes into the camper to install beter ones when we are back home.

Our Patriot Camper used this style and they are vastly superior to the cheap things on the Canopy Camper, link is just an example for the style of adjustable latch:

https://www.amazon.com/Toggle-Upgrade-Adjustable-Release-Latches/dp/B08R8P37VB

After a pressure wash we found that some water made it past the side window seals. Not all that much, but still annoying. Overall, I'm not super concerned since this was a VERY extensive wash, but still doesn't speak to the quality of the AluCab components.

Here it is, mostly clean and drying out ...

 

[cug]

And yours truly during and after pressure washing the truck:

 

[cug]

A quick recap of stuff that works, and stuff that doesn't. Not a comprehensive list, just some thoughts that come to mind.

What works:

• RV like interior: friggin awesome to have in bad weather or with tons of mosquitos around; the seating and the tables have been incredible for time in the camper before going to bed when it was cold and wet outside
• Electric cooking: what a revelation, I absolutely love it; would NEVER go back to propane or other fuel for this type of travel
• 12V Travel Oven: again, awesome; put food in, run for 60 to 75 minutes while driving, have hot food ready
• Bed and Froli system: small, but workable; the Froli bed system is great since I'm a sidesleeper
• Webasto Heater: great to have in temperatures around 5 degree Celsius (40F) and rain
• Teraflex Suspension: I doubt it's properly balanced front and rear, but overall the suspension is handling the task rather well
• Falken Mud Terrain Tires: We ran 20 psi front, 26 rear (cold pressure) for the 1800km (~1120 miles) of gravel and mud on the Dempster and had zero issues
• Diesel: averaging 10.4 liters per 100km or 22.6mpg
• Maxtrax: We've used them mostly for leveling the truck while at camp, works a treat
• Having a toilet inside: great when you have to go at night and it's windy and rainy outside or when you are in bear country and have seen Grizzly bears of alarming size not too far off
• The sink: I absolutely love having a sink with running water inside the camper for cleaning stuff or myself before heading to bed
• The water filter system: We've been cooking and drinking from our water tank without any issues, refilling at visitor centers or camp grounds

What doesn't:

• Bear container for trash: Not worth the hassle; everybody keeps their trash in the campers/cars/vans/... we've put our trash into bins every day or two; the bear container is way too much hassle to open/close, especially when covered in Dempster dirt
• Split space between truck and camper: The base concept is just idiotic for this type of travel. Having to go out in mud and rain to either get to the truck or the camper cabin is nasty. Not being able to just drive away, without leaving the camper, if there is a problem in a camp spot is not great. Always forgetting something in the front, when we are in the back, or in the back, when we are in the front is shit when it rains. I can't understand people who travel long term with this particular setup. It might work with a bigger camper on the rear, but not with the small AluCab.
• Setting up the awning when it rains: The main problem is, that you can't open the tent when the awning is deployed, you have to deploy the awning, then add that stupid little flap over the rear door to not get rained on right at the entrance to the camper or where the table is; it's basically impossible to get out of the car, deploy the awning, then open the rear door and THEN open the tent; stupid.
• The AluCab tent and side windows: when the whole camper is closed down, it isn't properly dust and waterproof. Not much is coming in, but a little here and there. Not too happy about it.
• Rear seat storage: we are relatively organized and it's still an absolute pain in the ass to move stuff around either for cooking or between driving and sleeping, or just to get to things. Part of this is due to the "two distinct spaces concept" and part of it is that we have stuff in Zarges and FrontRunner boxes in the rear seat area. Just too much hassle to get to things.
• Rear door layout: next time, I'll do it less cluttered, meaning less stuff to clean

Somewhere in the middle:

• Space in general: the whole thing is tiny; we don't have trouble packing all our stuff, but then there is little space for either getting to something (truck) or adding ourselves to the space (camper); I wish I had more space; I could live with the space if we had camper and truck cabin as one space, not two separate ones (think Land Rover Defender or Toyota Troop Carrier with a roof conversion)
• Rotopax fuel containers: They are pain to clean, are prone to expand or leak a bit on pressure/temperature/altitude changes; I would go with a NATO can next time; the Rotopax work, but aren't what I hoped they'd be

Conclusion so far

Nearly everything we have thought about works as we hoped (furniture, bed, door, heater, water, most storage, tables, electrics, ...). Nearly everything we didn't think about has been a pain the ass (truck vs. camper space, handling of stuff in bad weather).

Overall, I would not recommend this kind of setup for the travel we do right now. It's absolutely doable, but if the weather turns bad or the mosquitos want to grab you and carry you off to feed to their families, it's just not practical and gets annoying VERY quickly. A Defender or Troopy with a roof conversion is better and a dedicated build that combines truck and camper cabin together as one unit is worlds better. And for trips with less offroad focus, just get a damn Sprinter or other van, it's in a different universe in terms of quality of life without getting as big as one of these houses on wheels that Americans seem to love so much.

 

[cug]

As an FYI for those who might be tempted to try OsmAnd with iOverlander data and have some proficiency with Go programming (at least basic understanding on how to compile and run a Go program is required) and are comfortable with doing things on a UNIX commandline, I have made the repository for the waypoint converter public.

General approach:

1. Download iOverlander CSV data for a country.
2. Clone the converter repository.
3. Compile the project or run via "go run"
4. Import the output into OsmAnd as favorites.

There is basic documentation in the repository.

With OsmAnd you can get REAL offline navigation (albeit sometimes a bit whonky, so have to use the brain and be at least minimally aware of directions) and with the imported data you can can imported iOverlander data points along the route or generally doing map browsing. I don't own a Garmin Tread, but I believe this is something the Tread doesn't do (showing iOverlander POIs while browsing and navigating), it's why I wrote this. Plus I had an iPad anyways and therefore this saved me the price of a better navigation unit.

Like this:

The screenshot is from an 8" iPad mini I'm using with a RAM mount in the truck.

Here's the repository link:

https://github.com/cug/wp_converter

Again, this requires some software engineering proficiency and is not meant to be a turn-key solution. If there is interest in documentation to make it easier to use, please file a request on GitHub.

I could make it an online service where you could upload an iOverlander CSV file and download the resulting favorites.gpx, but since this is a lot more work than just writing the converter itself, I don't want to do this without a certain number of people actually wanting it.

 

[AustinKalb]

My own experience with tiny rig is that they are super happy to sell you something but will ghost you for months when it's warranty or an issue on their part. Took 2 months and 4 months to respond to me when I needed stuff done for warranty.

Omg. So exactly describes my experience. I’ll post a review after I cool off a bit!

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