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Bigfoot pickup camper review

Today’s RV review is of the Bigfoot truck camper. While the RV reviews are relatively new here, I’ve been writing these for a while on RVTravel and have over 400 reviews published. That means a lot of RVs reviewed, and a lot of forgettable RVs as well.

But I can’t forget talking to the founder of Bigfoot in Canada and being very impressed with their travel trailers. Now I’m seeing people making requests for RV reviews including the request to look at Bigfoot pickup campers.

Chris S suggested I look at Bigfoot’s 1500-series pickup campers which brought back that feeling of happiness when thinking about the company.

Bigfoot is a Canadian company that builds fiberglass-shelled travel trailers and pickup campers. The company states that their offerings are particularly well insulated and market them as four-season campers.

In addition to the travel trailers Bigfoot makes two ranges of pickup campers - the 1500 and 2500 series.

What makes a Bigfoot

Bigfoot pickup campers are composed of two large fiberglass “tubs” which are joined down the middle and fused together. Each of these tubs is made of 1/8” thick fiberglass and then an inch of insulation resides between the inner and outer shell. This is both relatively light weight and also strong with the added benefit of providing good thermal and sound insulation.

The walls are bonded before the whole thing is released from the molds so you’ve got a very strong structure.

The idea here is similar to those new coolers that seem to be able to hold ice for a very long period of time. The structure and insulation is not tremendously different, nor are the results.

The gel coated fiberglass also lasts a long time owing to the fact that the few videos I could find about these campers were about people who had purchased models that were older but still looked great and functioned well.

You’ll also notice that the interiors have a different feel than many campers owing to the materials chosen to finish that interior. Along the ceilings is a marine-grade woven fabric that sort of looks like carpeting but is washable and helps with both sound and thermal insulation.

The walls, too, are a washable material being a soft vinyl. Cabinets and other wooden structures are solid wood with a choice of two wood finishes, a traditional birch finish or a slightly darker “Driftwood” finish.

Insulation continues to the thermal-pane windows that have day/night shades on them.

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More Bigfoot

From owners I’ve talked to people rave about the buying experience. While the campers are sold through dealers, Bigfoot founder, Grant, has been mentioned in numerous places where you can really customize a Bigfoot to your liking.

I had a chance to speak with Grant Bilodeu, head of Bigfoot and heard a lot of build philosophy.

Grant also spoke to the design of the Bigfoot being more like a cooler with no aluminum ribs in the sides. Instead the thick fiberglass walls act as the structure which is much like an ice chest.

Aluminum is a terrible insulator so Grant mentioned that you can feel the heat loss in RVs with aluminum studs in the walls. According to Grant, Bigfoot campers are comfortable inside down to -10°F.

It’s unusual to find a company in the RV space where there are this many really positive comments in the various social places I troll so that speaks well of Bigfoot RV. With these kind of credentials no wonder the waiting list is so long.

My thoughts

Yesterday I shared the story of our journey in a borrowed pickup camper. That was an interesting experience and made me think of something.

Right now van life is extraordinarily popular but I’m not so sure that a pickup camper wouldn’t be a much, much better choice. In fact we are considering getting a larger ¾ ton pickup and putting a Project M camper on the back, as you may have read in yesterday’s daily RV review.

As always, I welcome your input on this. If van life is something you’re interested in, what would you think of going with a pickup camper instead? If that’s your choice, Bigfoot certainly makes good stuff.

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