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TCM visits Truck Camper Warehouse in West Chesterfield, New Hampshire. Bill Penney’s vision for the ultimate truck camper dealership is finally here. ...
There’s so much more to Truck Camper Warehouse than meets the eye. Every inch of the dealership represents a vision Bill Penney, Truck Camper Warehouse’s Owner, has been dreaming of and working on for many years. And now that the land is bought, the building is built, and campers are arriving by the day, Bill could not be more excited.
When we arrived at Truck Camper Warehouse on April 13th, we were on a mission to drop off our Arctic Fox camper and pick up our new Adventurer. We had just two days to get to the Mid-Atlantic Truck Camper Rally. Did Bill take care of us despite two loads of campers arriving and at least a half dozen customers needing his attention? He sure did. After having the opportunity to watch Bill work on several occasions, we are sure that Bill does more in a day than most of us do in a week.
LEFT: There was an amazing amount of new and used truck camper inventory at Truck Camper Warehouse. When we walked around, we counted over thirty truck campers in inventory.
CENTER: The Truck Camper Warehouse sign is nice and clear to make sure you see the dealership just after you cross the New Hampshire state line from Vermont on Route 9.
RIGHT: Behind the Truck Camper Warehouse building, Bill is putting in three full hook-up campground sites complete with 30 amp electric, water, sewer, and cable television. When we visited, the electric, water, sewer, and cable services were all in place and operational, but the site pads had not yet been leveled.
LEFT: Truck Camper Warehouse had plenty of 2010 campers in inventory; seven Northstars, five Northern Lites, two Eagle Caps, one Chalet, two Arctic Foxes, and three Adventurer campers. Then there were another ten or more used or new 2009/2008 model campers. Did we mention there are a lot of truck campers there?
CENTER: The used campers are on the right side of the building. Bill told us that he’s always looking for good quality trade-in truck campers. Used campers tend to sell fast so don’t hesitate if you see anything you like.
RIGHT: Truck Camper Warehouse is one of two dealerships that carry the Chalet TS116 triple slide truck camper. While we were there, Thomas Best drove in with his Chalet TS116 that he bought from Bill immediately after the Springfield RV show in February. In this photo, you see another Chalet TS116 in inventory and ready to go.
LEFT: Inside Truck Camper Warehouse, there’s room for six to seven truck campers. All of the campers pictured in this photograph were sold and waiting for delivery. What’s not shown in this photograph is one more truck camper bay that’s used for detailing campers and seal testing.
CENTER: Above the main office, there’s a loft with truck camper parts and supplies. In this photograph you can see Torklift tie-downs and turnbuckles, Happijac tie-downs and turnbuckles, and Firestone airbags.
RIGHT: No story about Truck Camper Warehouse would be complete without mentioning Bill’s three poodle friends. In this photograph, Angela is giving treats to Cocoa (brown) and Fletcher. Molly, Bill’s third poodle, is not pictured. They are all very sweet dogs.
LEFT: Just after we published our story and sent email alerts for the day, a shipment of four Northern Lite Special Edition truck campers arrived from Kelowna, British Columbia.
CENTER: Bill immediately got to work helping the driver, Clayton Clarke, to position the campers to be unloaded. Once each camper came off the truck, Bill used his truck to put them where he wanted at his dealership.
RIGHT: We were very impressed with how Northern Lite secures and protects their campers for transport. They wrap each camper jack leg with foam to protect them from rocks, salt, and other road debris during their 2,860 mile trip from Kelowna, British Columbia to West Chesterfield, New Hampshire. The other clever details are more difficult to photograph or describe. Suffice it to say that between the protective foam padding and the multiple methods of securement, the Northern Lite load was very impressively protected for transport. Nice work, Northern Lite.
LEFT: About an hour after the Northern Lite load arrived, our new 2010 Adventurer 90FWS camper arrived from Yakima, Washington. If you look in the center left of this photo, you can see the Adventurer load arriving behind the Northern Lite load.
CENTER: We really enjoyed meeting the truck drivers and learning about what it’s like to haul loads of truck campers. It’s not easy to bring a load of campers cross country. Clayton Clarke and his dog friend, Charlie, drove the Northern Lite load and Gary Holbert of Avery Transport drove the Adventurer load.
RIGHT: Once our new Adventurer was ready, we unloaded our Arctic Fox 865 and loaded the Adventurer. It took us about two hours to move all of our stuff from one camper to the other. We really enjoyed our time with the Arctic Fox and are very excited that it already has a new owner. Thank you, Arctic Fox, for the camper loan! And thank you Adventurer for our new camper loan!
There are two primary ways truck campers are unloaded from a tractor trailer load. The first method is to drop the camper jacks to the ground and carefully drive the flatbed trailer out from under the campers. If the flatbed is too wide or too tall to allow the jacks to drop to the ground, a forklift is used to lift the campers off the trailer and drop them to the ground.
Half of the Northern Lite load was on a pull behind trailer and was dropped using the camper jack method. The second half was located on the main truck bed and required a forklift for unloading. Truck Camper Warehouse doesn’t yet have a forklift so Bill and Clayton used the ingenious turntable lift on the Northern Lite delivery truck.
In these three photos you can see Bill Penney controlling the turntable to lift and turn the Northern Lite campers. Once turned ninety degrees, the campers were dropped to the deck of the flatbed and then unloaded using their jacks. The process took longer than a forklift would have taken, but it worked very well. To the best of our knowledge, Northern Lite is the only company to have this system and it was really neat to watch.
Still Fulfilling the Dream
During our visit to Truck Camper Warehouse, Bill told us about all the work he has yet to complete to finish the dealership. There's site work to be done, an even better sign in the works, and a short list of other details.
What's important is that Truck Camper Warehouse is open and ready for business. There are more campers there than you can shake a stick at and Bill couldn't be more knowledgeable about truck campers and the truck camper accessories he carries. Just be sure to call ahead before you arrive and have some time on your hands. There are a lot of campers to see.
Congratulations Bill and the Truck Camper Warehouse team. Well done.
For more information about Bill Penney and his other truck camper dealership, East End Campers in Southold, New York, check out our article, East End Campers: A Destination Dealership.
For more information about Truck Camper Warehouse, visit their website at www.truckcamperwarehouse.com.
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