These babies are RARE, especially in this condition. This is your opportunity to own this beautiful, very clean 2014 Bigfoot 10.4. And, believe me when I say we were very torn about keeping this one. We paid to have it professionally polished last week and it looks almost new. We also added dually swingout brackets so it’s ready to go on your dually.
There was an area where some water had gotten into the door on the back driver side storage area that Todd has since fixed and sealed. We can share the photos of the small repair that was made. The water affected a small piece of wood that wasn’t structural at all. Since Todd repaired the area you almost can’t tell that it was there but we like to be up front when selling something. If you’re interested, please email us at [email protected], we have a TON more photos and can take any photo you’d like to see. Thanks!
We wanted to add some outside lighting to our truck camper but we didn’t want it to be invasive, meaning if we wanted to be able to remove it easily we could. So, Todd thought about it for a little bit, then he took to Amazon, because well, you can find almost anything on Amazon. He was able to find a neat, very inexpensive set of LED lighting that features multiple colors, multiple settings and bonus, a remote control to be able to control them.
This project cost us around $45 so, it’s relatively inexpensive. Here’s a link to the LED lights that we bought, they were $29.95 – https://amzn.to/2QrUUxD.
Sometimes there are things that make you happy and this lighting makes me sooooo happy. When we posted our video about the installation, we got tons of negative comments by people who hate exterior lighting on campers because it bugs them when they’re camping. You know what, so what! I don’t care.
We installed this lighting because we wanted it and we like it so who cares if you like it or not. When I rent my camp spot at a campground, as long as I don’t audibly annoy someone, then who cares, right?
We did not buy this lighting because it flashes like a disco ball. We bought it because our camper is dark at night on the outside and we wanted it to add a bit of lighting for security so that we can see to get around the camper at night. We’ll be using it either on amber (which as a bonus amber keeps away the bugs) or we’ll use it on the blue which matches the awning over the door which came on the Northern Lite.
If you are interested in this lighting, what we think about it so far or how we installed it, be sure to check out our video below.
PLEASE NOTE…Since this happened to us in December and we released the corresponding video, we have been alerted and have confirmed that the front page of Margaritaville RV Resort at Lake Lanier’s website now states, “Please note, at this time; we do not accept pop-ups or truck-campers.” We appreciate this clarity and hope that more RV Resorts that do not allow certain camper types will follow suit and clearly communicate these stipulations on their websites and their booking engines. Thank you Margaritaville RV Resort at Lake Lanier for clarifying. We only hope that we had a hand in this change but even if we didn’t we’re glad that it is more visible on their website now.
When you hear Jimmy Buffett, what do you think about? Hmmmm, let ‘s see…
The Keys? Definitely
Margaritas? yes
Flip Flops? yep
Hippies? Sure
Pirates? Yep
Sharks? Maybe
Parrotheads? Of course
Weed? Well that goes without saying
The list goes on and on but we’re not really here to talk about Jimmy Buffett, well maybe we are. What do you think about when you hear the word Truck Camper?
The Keys?
Freedom?
Hippies?
Freedom to camp anywhere?
Margaritas?
Pirates? Okay maybe not pirates, but you get the drift
And in some ways people who own truck campers could be considered pirates of sorts. There are some similarities and with Jimmy’s values from all of his years as a starving musician, a salty sailor and a pirate, you could probably imagine him in a truck camper, right? Okay, well here’s where this is going….. last July we bought our first truck camper and sold our Bigfoot travel trailer. After looking at tons of Truck Camper Magazine articles, websites and YouTube channels about Truck Camper owners and all of the information out there, visions of the freedom of the open road with our boat or 4-wheeler danced through our heads. We were excited to hit the road on our free weekends in our Northern Lite Truck camper, thinking that it would allow so much more freedom than a travel trailer…….. WRONG, during our annual Christmas Camping trip, which would have been the 2nd trip in our Truck camper, those visions were abruptly screeched to a grinding halt as we pulled into Margaritaville RV Resort at Lake Lanier Islands.
We were going to arrive late that day and we let the campground know, they kindly acknowledged it would be fine, to just come to the office when we arrived. As we pulled up around 5:30pm, just before dark on Friday, December 6th, I went to check in and when I did, a lady (I know her name now but won’t say it here) pulled up on a golf cart, ran in the office and proceeded to tell me that, “TRUCK CAMPERS ARE NOT ALLOWED HERE.” You can only imagine how I felt at that very moment and it was not a good feeling. Not one time during the registration process prior to arriving do I recall anywhere the website said, “Truck Campers were not allowed there.” But, we weren’t allowed or even welcome there at all, the lady frantically started writing some stuff on a scratch piece of paper and mumbling about a super nice campground not far way that would allow us to stay there and we could even have a “premium waterfront site” for a discount since this happened, she just needed to make one quick phone call. It just so happened the premium waterfront site was at Shoal Creek Campground and while we only have great things to say about Shoal Creek campground, that isn’t what this is about.
Earthroamer on site 31 at Margaritaville RV Resort on May 11, 2019
Back to our story, disappointedly I turned and started to walk out of the office, then I suddenly remembered earlier in the year seeing an Earthroamer there, I even took a photo. I know, I know, a Northern Lite is not an Earthroamer but it is a pretty darn expensive camper and when you look at them side by side they look very similar. To think we weren’t allowed just pushed me over the edge. And as a last ditch effort, I turned around and said in my best pissed off voice, “this summer I saw an Earthroamer truck camper here and you guys allowed them to camp.” The lady in the office said, “you can’t take an Earthroamer off of the truck.” Well, I couldn’t argue with that but we were not given the option not to take our Northern Lite off of the truck. I stormed out and slammed the door, pissed and upset about the whole experience. After we arrived at the campground (after dark and we all know how fun setting up in the dark is) we found a site, got set up and settled in for the night. I had internet and against my better judgement I started to take to social media. The next morning I went back and decided to delete what little bit I had shared about the experience online because I really wanted to be the better person and give them a chance to redeem themselves, or whatever.
This is a photo of our camper on December 7, 2019 after we were denied our spot at Margaritaville RV Resort the night before. This photo was taken the next morning after we ended up at Shoal Creek Campground which we enjoyed so it worked out anyway. Typically we enjoy spots that aren’t super close to the neighboring spots and this one was perfect for us.
I first wrote to the resort and when I didn’t get a response, I wrote to Safe Harbor Development. Safe Harbor manages and oversees the operations at the resort. To my surprise, Safe Harbor did respond in an email, it wasn’t the COO that I sent the letter to that responded but the Director of Business Development responded.
Their response sounded reasonable to us. After Todd and I worked the conference call into our schedules mainly busy because of work stuff, we were finally able to schedule a mutually convenient time for us and them. And, bonus, he was even going to get the COO on the phone to join us. Two days before we were going to have the call, he sent me an email that his the COO couldn’t be on the call but that he’d still be on. Just when we thought that we were going to get to get some answers about what happened to us at the resort, wahhhh, wahhh, wahhh, he cancels the call just 2 hours before we were supposed to talk with an email that he’d be glad to offer us something (like a boat rental) in return for our troubles, oh you mean rudely being turned away when we arrived at the campground to check in after a miscommunication that was clearly their fault, not ours? What if we had driven 500 miles only to find we weren’t allowed in.
While it was kind of him to offer the boat rental, we weren’t looking for monetary gain, we just wanted answers. I wanted to know that if someone else gets on their website to book a site that has a truck camper or one that isn’t allowed, they are very well aware that the camper they have will NOT be allowed to camp there. Well I won’t tell you what I think about them cancelling the call because it isn’t very nice.
From what I understand Jimmy Buffett is an investor for Margaritaville RV Resort at Lake Lanier Islands and managed by Safe Harbor Development. So, we contacted Jimmy Buffett and asked him, What would Jimmy Buffett do?……..nah just kidding…., but I would like to chat with him about this, I could tell him a thing or two about what I think about their guidelines. I’m sure he’s not even involved in managing it anyway, gone are those days where he would be directly involved in something like this.
As some of you may have seen, we posted a poll on Facebook to find out how many people have experienced being turned away because of your camper, year model, type or age. We found that only 16% of the 212 that participated said they had experienced being turned away. While this doesn’t seem like a ton, in my opinion, it’s shocking to find it happens at all.
So many people have pointed out that liability reasons could be the reasoning behind why we were not allowed to camp at Margaritaville RV Resort. That if someone took the truck camper off of the truck and left it raised up, it could topple over on someone, or much worse, a child. We totally agree that this could be dangerous but here’s the thing, why were we allowed to camp at Shoal Creek Campground (which is part of Margaritaville RV Resort at Lake Lanier) if it is a liability. Things that make you go hmmmm.
While these are things that should have been pointed out in our video, during recording we forgot to mention them, so we’re pointing them out here. Please make sure your camper, whatever camper you’ll be taking camping with you, is going to be allowed at the campground or RV Resort you’re going to. Call them and directly ask them if the type or year model will be allowed.
And, another thing, if you think this practice is wrong, even if you don’t have a truck camper, a pop-up camper or an camper older than 10 years old, if you can help it do not patronize the private campgrounds that do not allow campers based on type or age.
Again, we ask what would Jimmy Buffett do? Well, while we’re still not entirely sure about that but his camper would probably not be allowed there either based on their guidelines. I’m sure they’d make an exception.
If you’re interested and have not seen it yet, you can watch the video and our discussion about this topic using the YouTube link at the bottom of this blog post.
This is an old photo and it isn’t ours, we found it on Pinterest. While we do know that Jimmy owned this camper van at some point, which he fondly referred to as the Green Tomato. Based on information that we’ve acquired online recently, it seems he may have sold it.
This camper has been sold. We’ll keep the photos and write-up here for informational purposes only.
Perfect for off-roading, hunting or fishing, our 2005 Northern Lite Ten-2000 Truck Camper is now up for sale, it is in great shape, recently renovated and if it were necessary, you could take it camping tomorrow. On multiple occasions when we’ve had it out camping people have told us that it looks like new. We are located just north of Atlanta, Georgia if you’re in the Southeast and looking for a good deal on a great truck camper.
This camper will require an 8 ft truck bed to haul it and it weighs approximately 2,800 lbs. This is one of the larger truck camper models. It has tons of storage inside and out. The bed is a 60″ x 80″ queen size bed. In the kitchen it has a nice white acrylic double bowl kitchen sink with sink cover, a three burner cook top, an rv oven big enough to do most cooking and a new microwave. It has a nice large 6 cubic foot three way refrigerator/ freezer which will hold enough food for a week while you’re out camping. The gas furnace works really well to keep it toasty on cold nights and a roof-top air conditioner to keep you cool in the hot summer as well as a Fantastic Fan for when it’s comfortable out. The dinette converts into bed that is big enough to sleep one adult comfortably. All of the cabinet hardware has been updated to oil-rubbed bronze. We’ve added an Oxygenics shower head in the shower and installed all new faucets inside and out. The Happijacs have swing out dually brackets and recently we had the motors factory refurbished and added a new wireless controller. It currently has one battery but the compartment is big enough to hold two if you would like to add one. There are two propane tanks. We recently had the fiberglass exterior professionally polished as you’ll see in one of our videos. Lots of basement storage. The tank sizes are 36 Gal Fresh, 40 Gal Gray and 18 Gal Black Tank. You can see videos of most of the renovations we’ve done using the link at the bottom of this page.
After using a tent and then owning a 2004 A-liner for a year or so we decided that we wanted a camper that had a toilet so in 2017 we upgraded to the 2006 Casita Spirit Deluxe. Naturally it seemed like the best fit for what we wanted at the time. And we were right, we absolutely loved the convenience of such a small camper. Like the A-liner it didn’t take much to tow it, we were able to tow it well with our Toyota Tundra with no problems at all. Even though it was older model, it was only gently used so we didn’t have to do much to it before camping in it.
Polishing it up
The one thing that really bothered us was that the outside of it was very chalky. Fiberglass has a tendency to get this way over time without the proper maintenance on it. First we took it to a car guy, he worked on it for hours but it just didn’t look shiny like we wanted it to.
Todd did a little research and we found a guy that did boat work at Lake Lanier, not too far from us. He sounded like he really knew his stuff so we had him over and he agreed that he could get our Casita Shiny as new. That’s what we wanted. If you’re anywhere near the Atlanta area, reach out to him. He does a great job and is pretty reasonable.
You can see a more recent video below of Lanier Mobile Detailing when they polished up our 2005 Northern Lite 10-2.
