August 12-13 and 14 will find me up north with 3 others. Because of the bear issue we will all sleep in the camper so someone will wind up on the floor on a backpack foam pad. Won't be me, I'm the captain so I get the upper berth......:D

I need to be 'plugged in' at night anyway, Cannot sleep without my CPAP machine.

SidecarFlip, I have been checking get out the Palomino SS 1251 Backpack series camper after reading your feedback. It is the one that fits my short bed and has the toilet and shower.
It looks like a pretty nice outfit and I am going to check them out the next time I am down in Denver. It weighs only 1750 lbs dry and probably just a little over 2000-2100 loaded. I am thinking with the lower roofline it should have a lot lower center of gravity to allow you to truly get off the beaten path.
I would definitely want the electric jacks and maybe A/C, but not sure as it does get hot here during part of the summer.
I look forward to hearing your feedback after your trip coming up about how everything worked for you.

I'm off in 2 weeks again. Since I posted last, I went and bought another Inverter Generator, a Champion 2000 watt from Generators Direct. They have them at a quite reasonable price.. Like 200 less than Cabelas.

Ordered it on Monday morning, it arrived this afternoon

I have a Yamaha 2800I open cradle Inverter but it's too big (and heavy) for the Palomino so I went with a lighter (and slightly less capacity unit) plus it fits nicely on the floor in the front.

Additionally, I called Palomino in Colon, Michigan (where the factory is) and inquired about material to fabricate access doors (like my lance has) so I can stow stuff between the bed and the camper sidewall and surprisingly, they are going to make them up for me with matching wood paneling inside and the black textured material outside, complete with gaskets and all hardware for 50 bucks each. I cannot make them myself for that with the hardware included. Nice folks, had a long conversation with them as well. My dealer took pictures of the camper on the truck and forwarded them to Palomino and they were interested in how I used it and where I took it...

My SS 1500 came AC prepped but I opted no AC, I believe they all come AC prep now. Electric, remote control Reico Titan jacks. are optional. I use a DeWalt cordless drill and the Palomino supplied adapter(s) to raise and lower the jacks (I put my wife on one side and me on the other) and run 2 jacks at a time (2 adapters, 2 cordless drills), however the remote electric jacks do work better, my Lance has them. Like using a remote for the TV, I keep the Palomino on the truck all the time except in the winter, when I'll store it in my barn. One big advantage of the Palomino, it's low enough that I can get it in the garage (or barn) on the truck, take it off and leave it inside. I could never do that with the Lance, way too high.

I'll take pictures and post them on this trip. Accomodations will be a bit tight. The camper is designed to sleep 3 but it will be 4 with one (unlucky buck) on the floor. Most likely my cousin's son. He's the youngest (teenager) so he can deal with the floor and a foam pad. No outside with bears around. I'll be carrying either a 460 Smith or a 44 Smith just in case of an issue....:-X04

I have no intention of using it for winter hunting (I prefer the motel for that), it should be fine for fall to early winter hunting. It has a 30K btu forced air heater with thermostat and it's not a big space to warm up.

Should be fun. I have a nice menu planned with Montana Mule Deer steaks on the wood fire on Saturday night, Bacon, eggs and hash browns for breakfast and pulled pork sandwiches for lunch. Jim and I are going up Friday afternoon so I'll make burgers for dinner for us with a salad and some craft beer.

It has a good sized Dometic 3 way (12 volt / propane / 110 volt refrigerator with a freezer so storing food isn't an issue.

I'm sure we will all sit around and tell lies like we always do. I sure like getting away with the boys.... Especially in the woods.

Pictures to follow when I get back......

Great, I look forward to seeing the pictures when you get back.

You keep talking like this, and I'm gonna have to come and join you on that trip!!!

No room left. One is already sleeping on the floor.:D

The ac will raise your c/g a bit. It's based on anything above the floor of the camper weight wise. If you get one, I'd get it without. You can add it later, they are all prepped for an ac unit.

Good point, thanks for letting me know they are all prepped for it versus a tech with his sawzall on the roof after the fact... LOL :-X04

The unit drops into the manual vent opening toward the rear of the unit. No cutting needed and the hard wire is already installed at the factory. I'm thinking about adding a couple solar panels and using the ac hardwire to feed the controller.

I guess I'm the only one so far. I've had mine for about a year and been pretty happy with it. There were a few little quality control issues with it when it was new (stuff like crooked blinds, cross-threaded kitchen faucet, etc.), but it was all easily fixed. I've camped in Wyoming in the winter time with it (comfortably), but the walls are only half as thick as the Arctic Fox, so the insulation isn't as good. In general, though, I would definitely buy it again.

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Nice unit. How do you like the Titan remote jacks? I didn't get them on the Backpack I got manual because the camper stays on the truck all summer but I do have another brand on my Lance. Thinking about retrofitting, manual jacks are a PITA even it I don't use them often.

I have to say no fit and finish issues with the Palomino at all. Everything is and was as it should be. Very well put together.

This is my first truck camper, so I've never owned one with manual jacks to compare, but the Titan remote power jacks have been fantastic. My truck is my daily driver, so the camper is not usually on it. I imagine cranking manual jacks every time I want to take it off or put it on would quickly become a pain. Especially since I have to lower it almost to the ground so I can set it on the dolly and roll it under it's canopy for storage.

Like I said, all the issues were easily remedied, but I don't feel like any of them should have been there to begin with.

I'm in a bit of a quandry over a dolly. My Lance has a winter cover the Backpack don't so I was either going to keep it in the garage (which necessitates a dolly) or in the barn (I can set it off in the barn no issue).

Mine came with 2 cordless drill adapters so I put the wife on one side and me on the other and crank the jacks via cordless drill. The Reico remote kit is not cheap, it's like 1200 bucks. My jacks are convertible and the plugs are already installed on the unit.

I was thinking about buying a single axle used boat trailer and converting that to sit the camper on. I see Reico has a dolly but it's pretty expensive plus the wheels are small diameter, not really any good for rolling except on concrete and that isn't an option here. It's gravel.

I can get a used boat trailer cheap. That way I can use the quad to set the camper.

Ideas?

I made a simple flat dolly with 8" heavy-duty casters. It works fine on concrete, but I intend to build something just like you described.

Well, I did have 2 issues (I guess), one was the cooktop. It's fastened down so it's removeable for cleaning, with 2 thumbscrews with metal washers and it rattled so I replaced the metal washers with nylon ones and the door for the toilet / shower kept unlatching so I added a box store hook and eye.

Fit and finish is perfect. The Lance has the typical RV plastic edge mouldings to cover up mis alignments between the cabinets and countertops. The Palomino had none. All the transition edges just have a bead of silicone sealer, that is it. Everything is straight and true everywhere. All the weather seals are tight too. They are obviously attentive to quality control.

I like the floor too. Same Armstrong engineered resilient flooring I have in my den. The only downside which I'm going to change is the camper has no wheel well access doors. I like to keep my chainsaw and gas can and tools between the camper and the truck bed so I'm having Palomino make me up a set of access doors. Not to far away (Forest River), about 2 hours so going to the factory is no big deal.

I have a friend who delivers the campers all over the country and speaks very highly of Forest River and Palomino.