Truck Camper Adventure is proud to present another truck camper review written by a guest author. In this insightful and informative piece, Thomas Wilson provides us with his thoughts on the 2015 Adventurer 89RB, a hard-side, non-slide truck camper made for one-ton trucks.
The ALP Adventurer 89RB is a non-slide, basement model that fits on both long-bed and short-bed trucks. We purchased our 89RB in May 2015. There are a number of features that drew us to this particular camper. We did not want a slide-out and we were looking for a good match for our 2015 Chevy 3500 short-bed pickup truck. The 89RB is very large and open inside. The camper features large fresh water (42 gallons), grey water (25 gallons) and black water (22 gallons) holding tanks, and modern conveniences. It’s LED equipped, inside and out, has a 7 cubic foot double door refrigerator, an electric awning on the rear, heated holding tanks, thermal-pane windows and a 100 watt solar power system. The floor length is 8 feet 9 inches and the dry weight, with options, is 2,802 pounds. The camper weight fully loaded is 3,452 pounds.
Walking in you are greeted by a very open and spacious camper. The bathroom is on the left, the dinette on the right, the kitchen on the left in the middle, and the bedroom, of course, is in cabover. The 89RB has a very large wet bath. The wet bath has plenty of floor space and is tall enough for a 6 foot adult to stand straight and take a shower. You do have to pull a curtain across doorway to keep water inside the bath and the wet curtain can be a little bothersome when using the toilet afterwards, but you expect this in a wet bath camper. There is a fold-away hanger over the commode to hang wet items (swim suits, towels, etc.) and a nice sized medicine cabinet and sink are in the corner. There is plenty of space for a small waste can on the floor. The biggest item missing is a shelf to store a few small things while camped.
The dinette area has honest to goodness, face-to-face seating for three adults and a large two-door overhead cabinet. Below the front dinette seat is a large storage compartment. It’s really too tall for good utilization, so I added a shelf to improve the compartment’s usefulness. The table is large enough to have a nice meal and is mounted on a “dream-mount” which allows you to convert it to a guest bed in a matter of seconds. The guest bed is over 74 inches long, which is long enough to sleep most adults. There is a 110 volt AC outlet in the dinette area, located on the wall next to refrigerator. It would’ve been a lot more convenient to have this outlet placed closer to the rear of the camper (in front of bathroom). Having the outlet in this location would allow you stand in front of the bathroom door mirror while using a hair blower, curling iron, etc.
The Kitchen has four big drawers and a double door overhead cabinet. There is a very large knife rack behind the stove. We use this space to store our toaster oven. Counter space is well laid out for food prep and the large double sink aids in the cleanup afterwards. The electrical outlet is on a wall behind the sink. There is also ample room behind the sink for a coffee pot.
The cabover section is tremendous. The driver’s side has a full-length hamper with a storage shelf in front corner, the passenger side a closet with double sliding, mirror doors. The high overhead and generous amounts of lighting makes it a breeze to add and and remove clothes from the closet. The closet is only slightly deeper than your standard hangers, so it helps to hang the clothes at a slant. There is also a storage shelf in the front corner. Both storage shelves are level with the mattress leaving the space open all the way to the ceiling. I installed wire shelves on each side, again to improve the utility of these large storage areas. The 12 volt 19-inch LCD TV is mounted on a swivel mount that can be viewed from either the bedroom or the dinette. The radio/DVD/MP3 player is mounted in the dinette overhead, but can be operated from bedroom with the wireless remote. The stereo system has interior and exterior speakers. A Fan-tastic Vent fan is in the cabover area. We visited the Badlands last September and dry-camped while we were there. A couple of days it reached 99 degrees, but the fan did a good job of keeping us comfortable during the night.
ALP did a great job of organizing things on the outside. Starting up front on the driver’s side you have a propane compartment with two 20-pound bottles; a battery compartment large enough to hold two Group-27 batteries and a battery disconnect switch; and a large water compartment that houses the outside shower, the city water connection, the fresh water fill, and a black tank flush. The 110 volt AC connection is a 30 amp Marinco connection enabling you to remove the cord from the unit for storing.
The back of the camper features a narrow compartment door to the basement. This door provides access to the dump valves and a long (14 inch wide, 6 inch deep and 60 inches long) storage tray that slides in and out. Placing the valves in this location protects them from the elements and makes it convenient to dump the tanks when traveling, a nice touch. However, ALP mounted the storage tube for the sewer hose on the passenger side under the wing. It works there, but it’s not conveniently located to the dump outlet at the rear. This is especially inconvenient when you have a trailer in tow when dumping. I relocated the storage tube to rear of the camper underneath the overhang. As an added bonus moving it to this location avoids spilling any leftover water on the side of the truck.
The generator compartment is also located on the rear of the camper. It’s a fairly large compartment that can be used whether you have a long-bed or a short-bed truck. We don’t have a generator so this compartment has become a very valuable space where we store bottled water, soft drinks, onions, potatoes, etc. There is an electric 8 foot awning on the rear of the camper. To deploy it all you have to do is press a button, which is located just inside the entrance door. It extends out almost 7 feet, providing excellent protection from the sun and rain. We also have a box awning on the passenger side, but the rear awning is such a pleasure to use we seldom use it.
Overall, we’ve found the Adventurer 89RB to be an excellent truck camper. It’s well constructed, well insulated, and finished with a high gloss fiberglass exterior. The decals that ALP used complements many of the colors used in today’s pickup trucks. The camper is such a joy to own that I’ve recommended it to several fellow truck camper owners. Even friends who have travel trailers have commented on how large and spacious the interior of the camper is. The Adventurer 89RB has the living space, water capacity, and storage space to make it a pleasure to take on four to six weeks adventures through this beautiful land of ours.
Mr. Thomas Wilson thank you for your service. I enjoyed reading your article on your Adventurer 89RB, it was well written and thought out.
Thank you. We have really had a good time in our 89RB.
Cool to see my camper reviewed, I know they aren’t as popular in the US but moreso up here in Canada. I’ve had no problems with mine in two years, the only thing I don’t like is the lack of passenger side window in the cabover. I’ve considered adding one but not that brave yet. I also wish that it had optional pods that could be added to the wings for storage when used on a short bed truck. Mine also has the big bumper, it’s a bit of a hassle when towing but love the ‘deck’
small mods I’ve made (mine’s a 2013 so some of these things may have changed)
– replaced mattress, found oem one terrible
– converted ac cord to marinco detachable
– added usb/12v plugs throughout
– added 12v tv + blu-ray player, found it awkward using the built-in dvd player with it being across on the other side.
– added backup camera, Garmin BC30
PS: Mine doesn’t have the little doors in the wings. Haven’t seen that on the models up here. What’s behind the doors? does it now have wing storage… that may be a mod I want to make.
That’s a modification that Thomas made. I’ll be publishing the article about it next month.
Those are an easy mod I completed adfter purchase. I’ve submitted a write-up on the mod to Mike so you should see this in the near future.
ok, thanks. Looking forward to it. If the admin could provide my email address to you I’d appreciate a heads up as to the size of the doors in case I see any come up on ebay.
thanks.
Thanks for your comments. Mike had an earlier mod on adding USB/12 V outlets. That may be my next addition.