Palomino Backpack Edition reviews

Now 3rd review after 3 months. Forest River products continue to be piece junk/crap. Storage cabinets completely fell upon itself destroying cabinets.. had to rip out and replaced with open shelves. Sitting area completely collapsed.. removed totally and rebuilt. No longer table( which was completely useless anyways) Now rebuilt into day bed area only.. no more tabletop couldn’t sit in it anyways… completely rediculous .. maxx fan stopped working… 2 of the 4 jacks that go to ground don’t work. Just waiting for top jacks to fail ( which would render camper useless ) when that happens off to dump it goes after just 3 months of use!!! Forest River you guys suck and really bad!!! Selling completely junk campers and I have no recourse to get it right. Just don’t do it people seriously!! Take note from all these reviews to avoid like the plague !! We should join together for lawsuit against ForestRiver for this abomination of a” camper” . Completely mislead and scammed out of 22 grand.. can’t even resell at any price it’s that bad. Just don’t do it people seriously and I kid you not!!! DON’T DO IT…!! Complete waist of hard earned money/ my time/and the money spent trying to shore up and fix this piece of “ engineered “ junk. Yeah use the word cautiously.. complete piece of crap worthy of the dump ( and sorry for the dump!!) YES it’s that bad!!! Show less

To continue on will my scathing review of the piece of junk called Palomino 1251 backpack edition. 1 day later after 1st review.. yes it’s raining and guess where water is pouring in?? Yep you guessed it.. directly above the bed from maxx air fan.. the supposed “ engineering “ geniuses ( used mockingly) put 4 small screws in attachment of fan.. needs 18 screws!!! To save probably 25 cents. What a cheap piece of crap Forest River!! Once again this is a brand new never used truck camper.. sooooo many problems sooooo little time and space to write about them all. Horrible job Forest River… you should be sued for fraud!!! Forest River …the rip-off company of the USA. People wonder why I should buy American?? This is reason NOT to buy cheap junky poor engineered product… belly up is you should go by deceiving the general public with your terrible products, poor designs and outright lies you press upon the buying public. Your products are garbage to be nice. Anyways for sale 2022 Palomino 1251 backpack edition camper…. CHEAP… ( no pun intended!!) Show less

Wow where to start on this complete piece of garbage the Palomino 1251 backpacker edition. Let me get this right… in order to drain water on bathroom floor you must empty the black water tank..?? You got to be kidding me. Major problem so much for using the shower!!! Absolute horrible” engineering “. Speaking of horrible “ engineering “ the bathroom door is 1.5” shy of completely opening up… same with refridge door.. 1.5” shy of opening up!!! Another major problem. No magnetic on extremely limited storage. Your” engineers “ missed numerous spots for some extra storage.. like under the sink area.. hodgepodge of wires laying about.. probably 1 ft of storage not utilized . Blackout shade curtains?? Another huge joke… no way to secure curtain in wind . So much for privacy/sun shade. Or when raining!!Complete joke!! Fan blows one way and that’s out.. great engineering!!propane tank you have to be Houdini to get it out.. again just inches too small. Kitchen window does not open!! I paid 23,000$ for a piece of junk . I don’t consider this cheap by any means but that’s what I got.. a Forest River piece of junk!!! I read all the negative comments( and there are many MANY ) I didn’t listen and ignored them…. My fault and now I’m paying the price for dropping big cash on piece of utter junk of a camper. Don’t do what I did!! Don’t purchase this poorly “engineered “ piece of crap. The inside is so cheaply made ( 1/8 sawdust “board”) that you can’t secure anything.. the “board “ just crumbles to sawdust when trying to repair anything. running out of space and time to tell all the problems. AND I’ve only had camper less than a week.. Many more problems to come..I feel like burning it to the ground, that’s how big these problems are. Show less

You would be better served to find an slightly older SS-550. Our price was only $10k for our 2016 model new and it has cabinets over the kitchen area, cabinets over the seating area and much more storage space. It has also better build quality. The 2020 to 2023 models are built much much cheaper quality and cost more than double in price. We like our 2016 SS 550 but would not purchase the 2023 even for $10k Show less

I bought this camper new last June. Health issues intervened and I've decided to sell it. Inspecting it I discovered that the bathroom door had warped-- it was an inch out of line, causing the door to hit the trim at the corner and the latch did not hit the striker. I contacted the dealer and they said it would be covered under warranty, bring them the door and lots of pictures. I took pictures, removed the door and drove 2 hours to the dealership in my small truck (big truck was working out of state) to show them the door and pictures only to be told that the pictures had to be taken with THEIR camera. So I drove home with bad door. Haven't heard reply to my email to Palomino asking why my pics weren't acceptable. (Just having them ship me a replacement door would run about $200 according to the parts guy at the dealership; I'm a woodworker and would just make a better door if I were keeping it.) One other problem-- the support jacks are mounted to stick outside the body of the camper which means they block the sight lines of my Chevy 2500HD extendable rear-view mirrors. I was planning on moving the jacks (simple side-to-side swap) so they were inside the sight lines but I'm selling it because of my health. Show less

Terrible, do not buy Palomino or Forest River!! Bought a camper 2 years ago brand new.  Nearly every exterior screw fell out first year and was replaced and glued in. Service center told me that was normal and they see it a lot. Two years later I'm being told I need all new canvas and a new roof.  $10 k worth of work according to my local service center.  Tried calling Palomino for help, got an email from Jerald at Palomino basically saying its my fault!.  Said the repairs are only $3400.  Shows you just how much the mark up is at the service center. Jacks that lift the top broke 3 times.  Last time it took my service center 15 weeks to get replacements from Forest River, they lasted a week before breaking again.  4th time all my jacks were replaced with a linear actuator.  This means if they malfunction again, they cannot be manually operated to open or lower the roof. Have you ever slept in a pop top truck camper with the roof down? I have, with my wife and 3 dogs.   Again, my camper is 2 years old. The roof leaks in multiple spots, the canvas is torn in multiple spots. The service center told me the new jacks that were installed is raising the roof too high and stretching the canvas more than it was intended. I have broken lights and my heater doesn't work. I've had it in the service center for electrical problems, water pump, refridgerator, etc. 2 years old!! These guys are a joke.  Nelsons RV, RV's.com, Palomino, Forest River....  Save yourself the trouble and shop somewhere else.  Hit me up if you wan to kow more.  Show less

Do Not Buy! Horrible! Terrible quality and customer support. They will not stand behind their product. Bought this camper 2 years ago, brand new. Wife and I have spent our life hiking and camping with a tent. Now in our 50s we decided to buy a camper to make life more comfortable. Well my camper has been in the shop for repairs more times than I can count. My camper is currently at the service center and I'm being told that it needs all new canvas $6k and probably a new roof $5k due to leaks. Mind you I bought this camper brand new two years ago! Palomino/Forest River was contacted and they will not help with anything at all. The manufacturer will not take responsibility and neither will my local dealer, Nelsons RV/RVs. Com. The past two years of electrical and mechanical breakdowns and terrible service has been an absolute nightmare. Show less

I love that camper but I’m disappointed with its reliability. One of roof jacks stopped working. I had to bring it back to the dealership. They replaced new jack last April. I was getting ready for my trip then that same jack won’t close it. There is no manual way to use that jack to close it. Bad design! I’m very disappointed with that brand. I won’t buy it ever again! I would prefer hard side camper instead of soft side. Show less

An excerpt from my longer review here: https://www.truckcamperadventure.com/review-of-the-palomino-ss-1200-pop-up-truck-camper/ With the top up and the soft storage boxes removed the inside of the camper feels impressively roomy for the small footprint. The soft top is mostly transparent plastic (or a screen with the windows rolled down) so there’s an abundance of natural light, cross breeze, and views. If you’re in the bed area or standing down below you can see in every direction which is great when boondocking in wide open spaces. For such a small space we’ve found the kitchen to be very workable. We travel with three different pans and a lot of our storage is devoted to food and kitchen supplies. We often set up the table during meal prep for extra counter space and are able to assemble relatively complex meals for camping conditions. The Palomino SS-1200 is a very capable and fully featured pop up camper. We have lived out of it full time for seven months and it has performed admirably on most of the dimensions we care about. The biggest downside for this entry-level camper is the interior build quality and many of those issues can be addressed if you’re up for a little bit of light carpentry. Show less

This truck camper pop up is lightweight wait easy to travel and park anywhere very good on gas mileage due to the 1700 pound weight. This truck camper is bullet lined for a completely unique look one of a kind This truck camper is ready for overlanding/dry camping or rv campgrounds with full hookups the best of both worlds This truck camper has also 280 W of solar with an inverter has attached Max tracks for if you get stuck also has 2 extra water jugs with external lightweight stairs to come into your camper Also has a Max fan to pull out hot air from the camper windows all around pop up section for great ventilation I have used this camper in RV campsites and the campsites and for overlanding the bullet liner one of a kind paint job makes it scratch proof I give this pop up camper trailer 5 stars. This camper is one of a kind and a eye catcher Show less