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Alright! The…die…is…cast. After a long gestation period, and looking 1st hand over dozens of small hardside truck campers, the search has ended.
We ordered a 2020 Northstar Laredo SC (self contained). After a good chat with Mike Smith right here on @ Truck Camper Adventure and his bona fide experience with the Laredo, and after agonizing over every little detail, we ordered the rig with these options:
Gray water tank hose
Glass top stainless steel sink
Dometic Glass top 2 burner stove with iron grate
Dometic 3.8 cu ft 12V compressor refer
4-season Insulation upgrade foil faced walls and roof
Permanent wrap around rear for short beds (the small storage boxes at the side/rear)
Dually swing out brackets with 3 inch extensions (to get around my super singles)
Electric Jacks which I will make removable with weather resistant quick plug soldered connectors
Snap insulated cover for the standard exit vent
240 Watt solar panels w/ Zamp controller (2 x 120W) placed on either side of the standard exit vent
2-AGM grp. 31 batteries
2-Propane tanks with option of one or two hooked up or even just one taken depending on length of outingNot so many options ordered which keeps the weight down and those that we ordered are on or near the floor keeping the weight low; always a good thing.
I’m not sure whether it was either a good thing or not that we knew from 2 decades of experience exactly what we wanted in a new TC.
We’ve always been happy with our ’98 Lance Lite and essentially wanted to replace it with a newer, better laid out model with the same not wide; not tall; not heavy footprint. Since Lance has changed their protocol to be storage free and increased the bling factor, we weren’t going there.
What did we want that we could not find in the competition? 1. Storage space. 2. trouble free, tried and true appliances. 3. Better use of solar power. 4. No basement. Why? It adds from 4 to 6 inches to the total height of the TC on the truck, and with the Laredo’s 41 gallon water tank in the living space and insulated enough to get us down into camping in the single digits, it’s good enough. About the weight of the 41 gal. tank: we will fill it with the amount of water we think we will use plus some extra to keep the overall weight down. 5. Going against the grain (there is a pun in there somewhere) we wanted a wood frame camper again, as they are slightly flexible and forgiving, whereas, welded aluminum is rigid and will eventually break if I’m driving.
The delete list: TV, Air Conditioner, microwave oven, frame mounted tie downs, rear bumper, awnings, back up camera.
The big deal is Jeanie’s acceptance of the cassette toilet instead of a wet bath with black tank. Yess! I convinced her by saying, “I’ll be the one taking care of the dumping of the cassette”.We will actually pick it up at the factory in Cedar Falls Iowa at the beginning of our fall color trek to the N.E.
Our bullet proof 2001 RAM Cummins H.O. short bed with stuff will continue to be the beast of burden for the new acquisition.
I’m glad our quest is over. Let the 4-season travel begin.
jefe2020 Ford F-350 XLT FX4 4WD SRW SB SC 7.3L Godzilla Gas TorqShift 10R140 397 amps dual Alt dual batts Frnt Dana 60; Rr Dana M275 E-locker 4.30's 4580/4320/4066# payload 7243# curb wt. 11,300# GVWR 5-er prepped. 2020 Northstar Laredo SC, 12v compressor fridge, cassette, 320w Solar sub zero insulation.
Congrats on the new camper. New is always fun! We have had our Laredo SC for a couple of months and have begun posting the changes we have been making. We went thought a similar process in deciding what to buy, although having purchased from a stocking dealer we have more options, some we wanted, some would not have been of our choosing.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about our camper is according to the factory invoice, our camper had detachable boxes so should be for either short or long bed truck. The boxes were taken off by the dealer before we picked it up (we have a 2012 Super Duty long bed). Our delivery inspection was very rapid as I have been working on these things for years and how to work things was really not necessary. So we go to load it and take note of the fact that the gray water dump was underneath and was obscured by the bumper. Our camper also has the extended wings again suggesting we had a mislabeled short bed model.
However, the good news is the long bed fit is perfect, although our side doors open to nothing except the bed of our truck. 🙂 My wife and I were both pleased the gray water dump did not come straight out the back wall as is normally done with long beds and is the feature about Northstars we most dislike. Not a big deal to change our dump so we now hook a hose at the back corner on the driver’s side.
So do we have a model with detachable boxes with the dump wrong or do we have a short bed model mislabeled at the factory? Don’t know or care as it is working out great. And when it comes time to sell or we change to a short bed truck, we can put the boxes back on. 🙂
Many more changes are coming so if you are inclined, check out the thread on what folks are doing to their camper today. I have three more to post. 🙂
Steve and Andra
2012 F350 6.2 gasser SRW LB
Fab Fours front and rear in case we run into a rhino
2019 Northstar Laredo SCArd,
According to Billy McHale, a salesman at Northstar, there were 3 versions of the Laredo SC: all versions had the rear wings
1. The shortbed version with permanent small storage wing pods with those little doors. This is the one we ordered. Billy said they sell a LOT more s.b.’s than long.
2. The convertible long OR short bed model with detachable wing pods when used on a long bed. The doors stay on whether the pods are attached or not. This sounds like the version you have.
3. The long bed model with no doors at all, just the empty wings. Very smooth looking appearance.
jefe2020 Ford F-350 XLT FX4 4WD SRW SB SC 7.3L Godzilla Gas TorqShift 10R140 397 amps dual Alt dual batts Frnt Dana 60; Rr Dana M275 E-locker 4.30's 4580/4320/4066# payload 7243# curb wt. 11,300# GVWR 5-er prepped. 2020 Northstar Laredo SC, 12v compressor fridge, cassette, 320w Solar sub zero insulation.
Just reading this on Mother’s Day. Glad you went with a Northstar. I have no doubt Mike will become a valuable source for information when it comes to upgrades and problem solving.
IMO, in this size category with wood framing as a requirement Northstar has no competition.
I look forward to reading about your up coming camping trips. Have fun.
Hey Jefe, a Hearty Congrats on your new diggs, after checking it out it looks like an uber smart design and a perfectly thought out choice! – Glad to see you’re spoiling yourself!!
Phil
Phil, i was confused when the ‘3-tons’ moniker was not attached to your person.
jefe2020 Ford F-350 XLT FX4 4WD SRW SB SC 7.3L Godzilla Gas TorqShift 10R140 397 amps dual Alt dual batts Frnt Dana 60; Rr Dana M275 E-locker 4.30's 4580/4320/4066# payload 7243# curb wt. 11,300# GVWR 5-er prepped. 2020 Northstar Laredo SC, 12v compressor fridge, cassette, 320w Solar sub zero insulation.
Hey Jefe, well nowadays it seems like more and more folks are afflicted with one form or other of ‘identity confusion’ anyway, eh!!…I tell folks that for $5 bucks I’ll answer to almost any dang thing!! lol
BTW, I well agree with you comments on Mike and TCA, and appreciate the fact that it seems a tighter and bit more mission oriented group – much more like ‘folks helping other folks’ minus the annoying diatribes…(just my $.02 worth).
Update: Though our Eagle Cap is a bit more on the larger side of things, it gets lots of use as a solar self-supporting base station while exploring the BLM (etc.) via a most capable Polaris RZR!!
Phil
Ard,
According to Billy McHale, a salesman at Northstar, there were 3 versions of the Laredo SC: all versions had the rear wings
1. The shortbed version with permanent small storage wing pods with those little doors. This is the one we ordered. Billy said they sell a LOT more s.b.’s than long.
2. The convertible long OR short bed model with detachable wing pods when used on a long bed. The doors stay on whether the pods are attached or not. This sounds like the version you have.
3. The long bed model with no doors at all, just the empty wings. Very smooth looking appearance.
jefeHowever, the version we have with what was listed as detachable pods also had the gray water dump pointed down behind, not through the rear wall which meant unless I modified it we would have had to raise the camper off the truck bed to clear the back bumper when time to dump the gray. Again not a big deal, as I said we do not like the dump penetrating the back wall. And our wings are rounded like those found on short bed models. Again this is all just a curiosity as we like the camper as it is. Modifying the dump was simple to do and we prefer the rounded wings over the square cut.
Although this is just my opinion, if I were Rex at NorthStar, I would make just the one model like we have and run the gray water line to the driver’s side of the camper. It would simplify inventory and construction and the savings and simplicity might cover the cost of putting detachable pods in every camper. It also would make it possible to change every Laredo to a short or long bed model based on buyer preference both new or used (pods are just screwed in place). Dealers would only have to order and stock one model. Maybe I’m missing something here?
Steve and Andra
2012 F350 6.2 gasser SRW LB
Fab Fours front and rear in case we run into a rhino
2019 Northstar Laredo SC
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