A major highlight of the annual Truck Camper Adventure Quartzsite Rally is the top rig contest. In it, the best rig of the entire event is chosen. With an average attendance of 400 rigs, choosing the best truck camper rig is no small feat. Unlike previous years when a panel of judges chose the winner, this year we decided to change things up by having the attendees do the voting. In this article, we shine the spotlight on the second place winner: Jon and Vicky’s Arctic Fox Rig. To say this rig is special would be an understatement because this rig has it all. It features a Ford F-450 outfitted with a SherpTek custom truck bed with an Arctic Fox 1150 truck camper mounted on top. To tell us more about this special build, Jon and Vicky were kind enough to answer a few questions.
Thanks, guys, for talking with us. And congratulations for taking second at Quartzsite. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Jon and Vicky: We are Jon and Vicky Rankin and we currently live in the south of France. Our property and holiday property rental business is on the market and once we sell it, we will be heading back to the US to collect our truck camper and start our long-term journey—driving the Pan American highway from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to Ushuaia at the bottom tip of Argentina.
We are currently at the southern tip of Baja, enjoying a 10-week vacation in our truck camper!
It has long been Jon’s dream to do an amazing journey like that, and now is the time to do it—we are not getting any younger and are in good health, so it simply has to be done. Jon has lived and worked outside his home country of the UK for much of his life, so a journey like this doesn’t hold any major qualms for him or Vicky—other than not seeing our kids quite so often for the three to four years that we will be doing it!
Can you tell us about your truck camper and why you chose that particular make and model?
Jon and Vicky: When we first thought about doing this trip, we visited some friends in Phoenix and rented a truck and camper through Outdoorsy. It was a Ford 250 XL and a Lance 610 that had seen better days. Within 24 hours we realized that we needed a much higher spec truck and a much better camper. Before we finished that trip, we found the Arctic Fox 1150 at a renowned dealer in Phoenix. Pretty much straight away we knew that it was the camper for us, even though it was HEAVY and BIG! It had the right space inside, and was the right height for Jon who is 6 feet 4 inches tall—he can even stand upright in the shower! It’s four season rated, so we should be good in the colder regions that we might encounter. We wanted to avoid a slide out if we could, because of the added weight and the potential for issues on rough roads. However, the extra space of the Arctic Fox 1150 swung us towards a single-slide camper, and we are delighted with it.
Does your Arctic Fox 1150 have anything unique or custom about it?
Jon and Vicky: We ordered it with most of the bells and whistles that could come with it—except the Cummins propane generator! We deleted this because I had read quite a few complaints about its reliability, but mainly because where we are going, Honda really is the only generator option. You can find Honda repairers and service all over the world, unlike Cummins, which is mainly the US and Canada. The camper came with two 200 watt solar panels and we had the option to add an extra 200 watts, which we jumped at!!
What features do you like best about your Arctic Fox 1150?
Jon and Vicky: We were very impressed that the camper has three 200 watt solar panels. In fact, when exploring the options, we discovered that they are double-sided panels, which gives us between 5 percent and 10 percent extra power from the underside of the panel—so we probably get between 630 watts and 660 watts of solar power. We have had no power problems when off-grid (so far!)
The 12 volt fridge is also a major plus point. It is very large (8 cubic feet) and is both energy efficient and quiet, and two less holes are cut in the exterior of the camper!
Finally, the space is a major bonus—both height and width. We have just spent two months driving from Portland to the bottom of Baja, and really have not felt at all cramped or confined—even when it was cold and dark outside in Oregon!
Have you made any modifications to your 1150 that are worthy of note?
Jon and Vicky: We have made one major modification to the camper so far—we removed the porcelain toilet before it had ever been used and replaced it with an Airhead Tejo composting toilet. Central and South America has nowhere to dump a black tank, so a composting toilet was absolutely a must-have! We have been able to continue to use the black tank for the liquid waste, whilst the solids are composted, which makes life much easier! We can go about a month before we have to empty the solid waste, which is pretty good! It also has a small low wattage extractor fan which continually draws fresh air over the composting material and our through a hole in the rear wall, which means absolutely no odors whatsoever.
I won’t hide the fact that it was fiddly to install—the instructions are pretty poor, but I managed to work it out in the end. The only really tricky part was that the original toilet was fixed to a mounting plate on the floor, which sits about 1cm proud of the floor and is cemented to the down pipe to the black tank which in turn is cemented to the black tank—so it could not be removed! The new toilet has a flat bottom and therefore needs to have a support constructed around the old mounting plate to support the new toilet on a flat surface. If it sounds fiddly—it was! But after all that, the toilet is great, and saves us using lots of water on flushes, which means our fresh tank lasts up to 5 days if we are fairly frugal (even with two adults showering per day).
Can you tell us about more about your truck?
Jon and Vicky: We spent a long time investigating the truck. None of the manufacturers make it easy to find all the information online, and because we were in France, we couldn’t just drop into our local Ford dealer and ask – the F series trucks aren’t available in Europe.
Our main requirement was to have a truck that was capable of carrying the Arctic Fox without being overweight. Despite one camper dealer in Phoenix insisting that an F-250 was more than capable, we quickly realized that we would need a dually, and settled on the F-450 Chassis Cab (I’ll explain why the chassis cab later). The F-450 CA has the snow plow option and the camper option, both of which we took. The snow plow option comes with the additional 240 amp alternator and a second battery, which were very attractive for powering the electrical system that I mentioned previously. More importantly, it comes with additional sway bars front and back, and upgraded rear leaf springs, all of which increase the GVWR from 14,000 to 16,500 pounds. Finally, we had to choose the Godzilla 7.3L gas engine partly because it weighs 800 pounds less than the diesel engine, and partly because the diesel fuel in central and south America is higher (or much higher) in sulphur than US diesel which would risk killing the modern diesel engine.
Of course, the F-450 is known for its tight turning circle—even on the 84-inch CA version, which is another necessity.
To answer a question that I get asked a lot—it handles superbly on the freeway, even in windy conditions! We stick to 60mph and never have any issues! Fully loaded with water and fuel at the moment we are at 16,100 pounds, so we are under the GVWR.
Can you tell us about your camper’s electrical system, including your solar power and DC-to-DC charger system?
Jon and Vicky: Currently we have 200 amp hours of Battle Born batteries, with 600 watts of solar, and only limited DC-DC. We haven’t encountered any real issues with it so far, but of course, look forward to the major upgrade that we have coming (mentioned previously). The one trick that I’m really pleased with is powering the Starlink Mini. I bought a bunch of Milwaukee tools when we bought the truck, and they all came with 5 amp hour batteries. I found a small inverter on Amazon for $35 that allows me to use the Milwaukee batteries to provide about 3.5 hours of 120 volts electricity to power the Starlink when we are stationary off grid! Its so good I have ordered another one – its about the same size as the battery itself and ultra portable! We voted it our best accessory buy of the trip so far!
How do you keep your camper’s batteries charged?
Jon and Vicky: A combination of good solar charging, some limited DC-DC, the very occasional use of the generator, and connecting to shore power at least once per week. We have spent the last month in Baja and nature has provided us with lots of free electricity!
Have you made any modifications to your truck to carry your truck camper or improve its ride?
Jon and Vicky: Aside from the features mentioned previously, the main upgrade has been the wheels. We changed the stock 19.5-inch wheels for Thorson’s Extreme 20-inch steel wheels. They are much more easily repaired than aluminum wheels, especially when in a remote South American village! We bought Michelin LTX/AT2 275/65/R20 and they have made the ride MUCH better. They took a long time to get balanced correctly, but can be aired down with ease, and replacements are available across both continents that we will be traveling
Can you tell us about your SherpTek aftermarket truck bed?
Jon and Vicky: Yes—we bought the custom bed from SherpTek in Prineville, Oregon. We first saw the video that Truck Camper Adventure made with Ryan and Rebecca at SherpTek, and decided there and then that it was an absolute must-have for us, which is why we went for the Chassis Cab version of the F-450.
We flew from Europe to meet the guys at SherpTek (as well D&D RV camper dealers in Helena, Montana), and as soon as we saw the end product first-hand, we knew it was the right choice. We ordered almost their entire catalogue (except for the onboard air) and are truly delighted with it. It has a huge garage behind the truck cab, holding two full size spare wheels plus at least 12 storage boxes fill of tools and equipment for a long journey – and the gull-wing doors look fantastic. The dropdown sides are a godsend, as they give us access to all the space that is hidden behind the flanks of a regular truck. We added the Superhitch setup from Torklift in case we need to tow anything, as well as the underslung storage boxes in front and behind the rear wheels
Does your rig feature any other accessories or features worthy of note?
Jon and Vicky: We added the Cross-fire tire pressure system to the rear wheels, which helps us to keep the tires inflated easily without scrambling around on the ground under the truck to get to the inside tires. It has made airing down for sand in Baja a real breeze.
We also added big bull-bars to the front along with a winch, which not only protects us from minor accidents, but should be able to help us (or others) get out of tricky situations.
Having the 120v socket in the cab of the truck means we can run for extended periods with the Starlink Mini on our dashboard, and not have to consider whether we have cell connection or not – even in the mountains or beaches of Baja
Do you have any plans for future upgrades or modifications?
Jon and Vicky: The biggest modification to the camper is yet to come. We decided to be cautious with the use of our funds until our property has sold, but once we have got the funds from that, we are planning a $20,000 upgrade to the electrical system. We found a company in Milwaukie near Portland who are Victron experts, and they will be doing a complete replacement of the electrical system and a big upgrade to our capability. We will have an extra 200w of solar installed, and then a complete Victron system throughout. We will have a big inverter charger, 2×330 ah Victron Lithium batteries, probably 150 amp DC-DC charging, a large management display in the camper and (most importantly) a 240 volts charging connection on the outside of the camper! It might sound an unusual thing to do – but most of South America is 240 volts 50 Hz, unlike the US which is 120 volts 60 Hz. The only way to handle this dual voltage requirement is to install a connection for 240 volts that connects directly to the battery system with a charger. So when we are in South America on a site with hook up, we will never be using 240v directly for all our internal appliances (sockets, chargers etc). Instead, the 240 volts will be charging the batteries and the inverter will be supplying power from the 12v batteries inverted back to 120 volts for all the sockets in the camper!
We believe that with this power system we will have all the comforts of home (including a/c) no matter how long we are boondocking for!
We really were not great fans of many of the lighting choice in the camper, even though they were new. We felt they were a little bit old fashioned, and not reflective of some of the modern lighting options on the market. We replaced almost all of the lights over the table, sink, bed, and bathroom with much more modern and stylish options, and added a string of TPLink LEDs around the frame of the slide-out to give much more light with minimum power usage.
Do you have any regrets in your choices? Anything you wished that you had done differently?
Jon and Vicky: The only downside about choosing the Arctic Fox is that Northwood uses (almost) exclusively Lippert Group products (Furrion etc) or Thor industries (Coleman, Airexcel etc). Having had several camper in Europe, I’m no fan of the Furrion stove/microwave/extractor nor of the doors or windows which let in lots of dust whilst traveling. Neither am I a fan of the Coleman Mach AC unit which is incredibly noisy. Once we have the funds available, I will be looking at various options for replacing the stove and oven, and the AC unit. The Dometic hob and oven has a built in grill, and is much easier to use, so what would be my preference, and there are several quieter a/c units.
The weight of the camper is the only real issue that we see, and if we could replace the glass windows with plastic ones (such as the Dometic windows) that open much further and have integrated blinds and fly screens, it would not only reduce the weight but improve the airflow.
What kind of mileage do you get when hauling your truck camper?
Jon and Vicky: Bearing in mind it is a gas engine, we have managed about 8 mpg on our current 6,000 mile journey down to the bottom of Baja. Without the camper on the truck, it leaps to about 13 mpg.
What tires do you have on your truck and what inflation values do you typically run when driving on and off-road?
Jon and Vicky: We have Michelin LTX AT2 275/65R20 tires. With the camper on, we are running about 75 psi front and back – but I may put the rear up to 80 psi on our return journey to the US to see if that helps.
Where have you taken your rig thus far?
Jon and Vicky: We collected the empty truck with just a chassis in Montana and drove it to Prineville, Oregon where the bed was fitted. We flew back from France to collect it in Portland in January, and have driven through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California before dropping over the border into Baja, and we have spent the last month driving the whole length of Baja. We are about to start the return journey to Phoenix and then to Las Vegas where we will put it in covered storage until our next visit (hopefully when we have sold our house).
Where are you planning to take your rig in the future?
Jon and Vicky: Our next trip will hopefully be to Prudhoe Bay in Alaska before we turn around and head due south, all the way to the bottom of South America. After that, the plan is to drive up through Brazil before returning through Central America to the US. The Darrien Gap in Panama is the only major obstacle, so we will have to ship the whole rig from Colon in Panama to Cartagena in Colombia (and back again when we are finished!)
Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your truck camper rig that would interest our readers?
Jon and Vicky: Yes—the process of choosing the truck and getting the work done has been almost as much fun as the journey itself. Extreme patience is required because everything has long lead times, but the hours and hours of research definitely pays off, making the journey just as much fun as the destination.
Oh, and if you are wondering where the name for the rig came from (and the Montana license plate), our first two motorhomes were on Ford Chassis, and we called them Henry and Gerald, so the best option for this Ford based Truck camper was obviously Betty.
Do you have any social media channels where our readers can follow you?
Jon and Vicky: You can follow us on Facebook at Betty and Beyond, or on the Polar Steps app at BettyandBeyond—its open to anyone to follow us, and we will have a website Bettybeyond.com which we will update periodically
This has been great talking to you. Congratulations again for taking second place at Quartzsite. Do you have any final advice for our readers?
Jon and Vicky: Take the chance to travel when you can, and don’t spend too much time worrying about things that you have “heard” from others. Research for yourself on the many Facebook groups and websites that exist, and take that step! We have just spent a wonderful month in Baja, and so far, none of the “calamities” that we were told were bound to afflict us have come remotely true, and our rig has held up remarkably well despite us choosing to take it off-road for hundreds of kilometers.
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