educate me on slide in truck campers

[rfuerst911sc]

I am toying with the idea of getting a used slide in truck camper. Main goal would be weekend camping with the wife and still have the ability to tow a 16-18 ft. car trailer. My truck is a 1997 GMC 1/2 ton short bed 2 wheel drive with 5.7 and 3.42-1 gear ratio. Also has positraction and factory towing package. I know I can't go with a full size camper but any of you guys have similiar setup? I'm thinking a " pop up " truck camper may fit the bill. Will pretty much just be used in the Southeast so heat is not a major factor. I do know about travel trailers as I was raised with them but not too knowledgeable on truck campers. I have local to me 2 that I found online and very reasonable in price ( 500.00 + 750.00 ). I have not looked at either yet but have started email conversation with the sellers. I do know to look for leaks and I pretty much know the water/heat/sewer/plumbing from travel trailers. Any advice is appreciated.

[BLEW911]

I do know that older (pre95/96) campers may not fit on newer trucks without some work. On newer trucks wheel wells may be narrower, and cab height to bed height is higher I think. Different makes vary.With a 1/2 T short bed you'll want to stay with a light weight rig.
Try this site for answers...http://www.rv.net/forums/index.cfm/fuseaction/listings/forum/27.cfm

Don

[porsche4life]

Your gunna need a bigger truck if you want to haul a camper and pull a trailer. Trust me.

[dhrcr911s]

With an Alaskan pop up pulling trailer and Pcar.. Doable.. Camper weight about 1500, Trailer about 2000, 911 about 2100.. No problems.. Bob

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by dhrcr911s

With an Alaskan pop up pulling trailer and Pcar.. Doable.. Camper weight about 1500, Trailer about 2000, 911 about 2100.. No problems.. Bob

Bob nice rig. I figure a pop up camper weighing 900 - 1200 lbs. plus an aluminum 16 foot car trailer should be quite doable for my setup. Florida is hot but hills are only 2 foot high . Guys keep the comments coming.

[porsche4life]

I predict you needing a new tranny before 200k. Maybe even 100k....

[Seahawk]

I have been toying with this option for awhile but have yet to do anything more than research.

Alaskan is a great brand. Here are some more:

http://www.outfittermfg.com/home.htm

http://www.fourwheelcampers.com/

http://www.hallmarkrv.com/page/home.html

http://www.wanderthewest.com/

There is some really good, "real world" articles in the links.

Happy hunting.

[CMDR Perry]

We had a Starcraft pop-up truck camper for about five years when Busch Jr. was president. We (3) took it up north with the 17" Lund on many weekends. It was great for cooking and sleeping. The cross flow ventilation when parked near the shoreline was fantastic. They are heavier than you think, ours was almost 1500 lbs. I had to add air bags to the rear of my F150 to get a level ride. Some people just add 1/2 leaf helpers. The model we had used a full size rear door and keeping out the state bird (mosquito) was a problem with the panel gaps. We sold it to a local drag racer a few years ago when my son passed me in height.

They are great fun but I would personally go with a hard-side next time which of course means a bigger and more powerful truck. Rent the movie "The long, long trailer" for a frame of reference. LOL

[Rusty Heap]

As the previous poster Perry posted, you'll need a bigger truck. These get heavy fuly loaded/dressed out........okay, maybe mine is an extreme at 4500 pounds loaded, 10 foot Artic Fox, with a full side slide out of fridge and dining area. Still can tow a 18 foot 3 horse slant trailer, I've scaled out at 15,500 pounds rolling down the road. The camper makes my truck look small, but it's not being a long bed club cab 2" lift with 33" tires.

truck and camper scale out at 10,500 total wet and loaded, 6200 truck , 4300 camper.

Truck: Dodge V10 3/4 ton 488 cu in gas motor with 3:21 gears (monster torque is a great thing to have!), Airbags in back, 33" tires load range D rated at 3400 pounds each (important) Rancho RS9000 9-way click adjust shocks at all corners to adjust roll dampening (we call our camper the Tilten Hilton) Shocks make a huge difference for roll control.

Artic Fox is made by Nash Trailer, VERY nice, Lance campers are very nice too, watch out for the cheap crap out there in "no name camper land".

A 9.5 or 10' camper is perfect size, not too big not too small. But no way I'd tow a trailer AND carry a camper of any size on a half ton truck, sorry. They made teeny tiny short campers or as others have suggested a pop top, but you'll be sorry in the long run. We love to camp in ours to explorer logging roads.

The Full side slide out makes a HUGE difference in the kitchen area for space. It amazes me to think while we're camping we're on the back of my truck bed. You really need a bigger better truck!


http://www.northwoodmfg.com/campers/

[HardDrive]

Dad has been running a Lance camper on a Ford F350 diesel for about 4 years now. Loves it. Lance camper is very high quality.

Gotta be honest, I don't think you have enough truck for a camper and towing. At best your going to eat your drivetrain up, at worst it could be dangerous. Suspension and brakes need to be up to the job.

[Rick V]

They make a tent attachment that converts the truck bed into a tent. Very light.

[jyl]

I had a Lance camper on a Ford F250 3/4 ton 460 longbed 4x4. Never towed anything behind it.

Here's the issue with truck campers: they are a pain to get on and get off the truck, so they usually stay on. Now your truck is a 8 mpg hog that is only useful for camping. It is just okay for camping, more cramped than even a small trailer. When you do take it off for storage, it's an eyesore.

The times I did really like it were when I'd four-wheeled into campsites that no trailer could ever have reached. The rest of the time, I kept wishing I had a trailer.

If you have a frequent need to camp while towing a race car, I've seen combo trailers that have a car space in rear and a bedroom in front, small kitchen too. They looked nice. Once the car is unloaded, you have plenty of living space.

[Rusty Heap]

I have to disagree with JYL the previous poster about how hard it is to load a camper. Takes me all of 5-10 minutes. Don't know what vintage camper you're talking about, but anything in the last 10-15 has 4 syncronized electric jacks that go to a small pendant for independant or syncronized control of each corner of the jack......GONE are the days of cable winches or hydraulic pump jacks. See the picture of the prior Lance or My camper in these posts to see the jacks on each corner.

The whole point OF a truck camper is yes you can tow a trailer, and yes go off road into places and still be able to turn around that you couldn't if you WERE towing a trailer. I never see my camper as an "eye sore" (sounds like you had a very bad experience with yours)

Yes a "toy hauler" trailer meant for quads and dirtbikes would be able to have a 911 loaded into it, as sand rails do all the time, but still, a 1/2 ton won't cut it, unless he gets a 5th wheel hitch.

many options and personal use criteria to select for each persons use.

[BLEW911]

I have to agree with Rusty Heap. Maybe 10-15 minutes to unplug/jack up/drive out with manual jacks. Loading is only slightly more time consuming, or not at all if you can back up straight.
I pull my camper off all the time and at a moments notice.
At least consider a transmission cooler and sway bars. If the camper is very heavy you'll want air bags too.
I keep it fully loaded (gas, food, water). It's my earthquake/zombie attack kit. I'm always ready to leave town if I need to.




Don

[jyl]

Maybe I was just a spazz. I remember my truck was pretty high, which made loading trickier.

Here's how I remember loading:
- Can't store the camper standing on the fully extended hydraulic jacks, it is too unstable/flimsy. So it is stored resting on sawhorses, with the jacks about half-way extended.
- Get out the jack handle, start pumping up the jacks to the fully extended position. Four or five pumps at one jack, then move to the next, repeat over and over, circling around the camper, until the camper is raised up pretty much as high as it will go, 1500 lbs quivering on four spindly stilt-like jacks. This step alone takes 10 minutes.
- Remove the sawhorses, back truck up to the camper. Get out and check that it is lined up exactly right, laterally and directionally. And that you jacked the camper up high enough. Then double-check. Because if you get it wrong, your 3/4 ton truck will knock over that 1500 lb camper, four feet of steel jack leg will tear the bolts right out of the (wood) camper frame, you'll collapse the whole house of cards, before you can say "oh s--t".
- Back up the truck slowly, slowly, about halfway the length of the camper. Let's assume you've got it straight. Put it in park, get out, walk back to the bed, fish out the electrical cable, and plug it into the camper. Check again that you're lined up exactly right.
- What is "exactly"? Well, with my rig the camper fit in the bed with about 1/2" extra width to spare - this is at the narrowest point of the bed, between the rear wheelwells. So you needed to be lined up within 1/4" in each direction. Otherwise, at some point in the 8 feet of backing up, a wheelwell will start rubbing against the camper, and you will actually hear the jacks, or rather their mounting brackets, making that ominous creak-crack sound, as the camper is being dragged along by the truck. For me, lining up and reversing a F250 within a 1/4" tolerance wasn't that easy.
- Get back in the truck and back it up the rest of the way. If you're lucky, this back up - double check - back up - double check - back up takes 5 minutes. Sometimes it took a good deal longer.
- Get out and release the jacks' pressure. Grab the jack leg and raise it - oof - until it is fully retracted, secure with clip, then get the jack handle and give the jack a few pumps. You want the jack jammed against the clip, so that the clip doesn't come undone when you're driving - otherwise you'll damage a jack eventually. Repeat three more times. 3 minutes.
- Get the turnbuckles, hook them into the eyes on the camper and the truck, take the wrench and screw them down, down, down until they are tight. 5 minutes.
- Gather up wrench, jack handles, sawhorses, whatever, get in the truck and drive a mile or two. Stop, get out, re-check all turnbuckles, and retighten the ones that have loosened as the camper shifted around in the bed. Re-check the jacks too. Another 2 minutes.
- Basically, it took me a minimum of 1/2 hour to load the camper of the truck, and if I didn't get it lined up exactly right the first time, then it could take 45 min. That qualified, to me, as a PITA.

[porsche4life]

Suck thing about truck campers is that like a motor home, once you get it all set up you have lost your mode of transport. Pull a camper trailer and you drop the camper and can run for groceries in your tow rig...

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Suck thing about truck campers is that like a motor home, once you get it all set up you have lost your mode of transport. Pull a camper trailer and you drop the camper and can run for groceries in your tow rig...

???

My dad takes his camper down to Florida, takes it off and puts it on a stand made from 1 inch plywood. Comes apart for transport. Don't have details, but they have been using it for years, and its been stable through some wicked Florida storms.

[rfuerst911sc]

Well I've taken the first step I just purchased a 18 foot aluminum car trailer I pick it up on Saturday. Brakes on all 4 wheels and weighs 1300 lbs. unloaded. The feedback has been very helpful, the posted links have provided good information. Seems there are two trains of thought, the light duty guys and heavy duty guys there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. I went and looked at a Travel Lite pop up camper that had a posted dry weight of 1,000 lbs. The " bed length " of the camper is about 6 inches longer than my 6 1/2 foot bed so the tailgate would have to be down but all other dimensions look like it will fit fine. While these super duty trucks are great I just recently purchased my truck and I'm not replacing it any time soon. I'll let you guys know if I pull the trigger on the camper.

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

???

My dad takes his camper down to Florida, takes it off and puts it on a stand made from 1 inch plywood. Comes apart for transport. Don't have details, but they have been using it for years, and its been stable through some wicked Florida storms.

If you have ever assembled a water bed frame I believe this is the same type of construction some truck camper guys use as a base. Basically you take two pieces of plywood aprox. 24 inches tall by maybe 5-6 foot long. You make a cut in the center halfway on each piece. Then you insert one half into the other, this makes a " X ". Now make a box with plywood around the X. The box can be held together with hasps or similiar so it can be broken down and stored. I learned this on one of the links posted earlier.