Sold: Expedition vehicle

The camper is a 2021 model year Palomino SS-1200 which we bought new in November 2020. The factory model from Palomino is 12 feet 10 inches long and ours had a factory dry weight of 1491 pounds when we purchased it. This model in recent model years is currently listing for $17k to $25k without all of the upgrades we have made.

This is a very comfortable and fully featured pop up camper and we had a blast living in it. I wrote more about our assessment of the camper in this blog post from July 2021.

We just spent a few days in May 2022 doing a deep clean in the camper and putting a fresh sealing on the roof and exterior and the camper looks better than new.

Upgrades we’ve made to the camper

As we’ve traveled in the camper we’ve made a number of upgrades including:

• A Renogy 200 Watt Solar Panel Kit with 20A MPPT Controller.
• A larger 25 gallon water tank.
• A rear backup camera with a 7in monitor in the truck cab.
• Extra USB jacks for device charging (8 in total).
• Custom built wood cabinets that replaced the low quality hanging cabinets from the factory.
• A custom built oak table that replaces the particle board table from the factory.
• Lots of extra storage with elastic mesh sleeves, wire baskets, and fabric boxes.
• A small A/C inverter.
• Lots of extra DC jacks and outdoor string lights.
• A brand new black soft top.
• An anti-condensation pad under the queen mattress.
• External mounted traction recovery boards.
• LED String lights and dimmer switch.

The truck is a 2008 Ford F-250 Super Duty with the factory camper package, 4x4, and the off-road package. It has the 6.4L Powerstroke diesel, a 6 and 3/4 foot long bed, an extended cab, and the Lariat trim package. Everything works like new in the truck including heated seats, power mirrors, power seats, and the rear sliding window. The exterior and interior are in great shape and as of May 2022 it has almost 105,000 miles on it and has driven like a champion for us on and off road.

Before we bought it, it spent all of it’s life in New Mexico with low annual miles and we have carefully serviced it since we purchased it. The CARFAX report is available here and we have a more complete maintenance record that we can share if you’d like to see it. We have had excellent reviews every time we have it serviced and and would expect this engine to last for many more hundreds of thousands of miles.

We bought this truck because we wanted an extremely dependable and off-road capable truck that could easily haul our tiny home. While we didn’t tackle the absolutely most challenging 4x4 paths, we spent a lot of time off pavement and the truck met every challenge easily whether it was steep climbs, loose sand, thick mud, snow and ice, or bare rock. We always felt like we had power and payload to spare, which is a good feeling when you’re dozens of miles from cell service and pavement.

We also wanted a vehicle size that would be highly manueverable and at 21ft long and only 9ft high we were able to get into a lot of tight spots where bigger rigs had no chance. We often camped with no one in sight, but if any other campers were in the vicinity they were usually tent campers in small 4x4 vehicles.

It currently has the highly regarded Cooper Discoverer LT275/70R18, but these are near the end of their life and you’ll want to buy new tires before setting off on any longer trips.

Heavy duty used trucks are hard to find right now, and this generation of F-250 (the 2008-2010 generation) with a Powerstroke engine, Lariat trim package, 4x4, and less than 150,000 miles are currently listed between $26k to $40k at dealerships (obviously a private sale will be cheaper than that though).

The truck has the following additions:

• 2 Torklift F2012 Front Frame Mounted Tie downs.
• 2 Torklift F3004 Rear Frame Mounted Tie-downs.
• 2 Air Lift LoadLifter 5000 Ultimate air bags on the rear axle.
• A front grill guard. The top bar on the guard is missing and we could remove the whole guard if you didn’t want it.
• A textured spray on bed liner.
• A lighter and more aerodynamic tailgate.
• A 7in backup camera monitor.
• A WeatherTech floor liner.

In addition to the truck and camper we have outfitted the rig with extra gear that we no longer need once we start backpacking abroad. We would be happy to include this gear if you purchase the truck and camper together with our bundled asking price.

• 4 Torklift Long Grey FastGun Turnbuckles with FastGun locks.
• Two high PSI air compressors for heavy duty tires. We would often air down our high PSI Series E rated tires for rough roads or loose sand and then air them back up when we reached pavement. We added 2 external DC plugs to the camper so we could run both compressors at the same time from the solar panels.
• A DJI Mavic Pro drone with 3 batteries, controller, case, and extra propellors.
• The excellent Advanced Elements Inflatable Kayak (which fit very nicely in the middle seat of the truck cab) including 2 paddles, a pump, and 2 life jackets.
• A pair of jumper cables.
• A heavy duty ratchet kit. We never had to use this but it’s nice to have when venturing off pavement.
• A 5 gallon metal fuel can that fits in the truck sidewall or the cab. We never had to use this but preferred to have have extra just in case when we drove far away from pavement.
• A 2 pack of 5 gallon water jugs. These slide into the truck sidewall and can be siphoned into the 25 gallon tank if you want to bring extra water for long boondocking stretches.
• An external 5 gallon gray water tank.
• Various hoses that are useful for refilling the water tank, siphoning clean water, or draining gray water into the external tank.
• 2 standard 5 gallon propane tanks. We found that one tank would often last us for 10 days but we preferred to always have a full extra tank for long boondocking trips.
• Folding camping table.
• Collapsible buckets which are very handy for washing things or going fishing.
• 2 strands of exterior string lights that run on the outside DC jacks.
• All of the pots, pans, cups, bowls, cutlery, and kitchen equipment that we used while traveling. Our custom built storage fits the things we’ve selected quite well!
• The Cleanwaste toilet, a shovel, and lots of biodegradable wipes. This setup worked great for us when nature called.
• A small tool set that we used for all of the upgrades while on the road including a drill, an impact driver, a ratchet set, lots of electrical tools and supplies, a handsaw, and more.
• We will share our list of favorite boondocking spots with you. We spent over a year scouting and exploring hundreds of camping spots and navigating the various listing sites. After all of that experience we have a short list of favorite spots (with GPS coordinates) and would be happy to give you advice on the lessons we learned finding excellent boondocking locations.