Thread: Truck Camper
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billybek billybek is online now
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Calgary
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Weight. Be very careful about how much the camper weighs and how much gear you will carry with you. This puts you into 1 ton dually territory very quickly.

I have a camper now. An Adventurer 80W that I picked up a few years back. It fills the 8 foot box and a queen bed over the cab and at about 1800 lbs wet which is pretty light for a full size.
The guy I bought it from was carrying it on a 1/2 ton with airbags. It is a pretty good workout for my 2500hd GMC with the 6.0 gas in the mountains. You need to pay attention to keep up.

The Adventurer is pretty good for me but when my son is with me space gets a bit tight and he claims that I snore. I am not sure about the last part.

Pluses:
You can get into some pretty tight spots with it as long as you have enough room overhead.
You can tow a boat with a truck and camper as long as you don't exceed the vehicles rating.
You can stop pretty much anywhere that is relatively level and grab a quick nap and no one knows (unless you snore) that anyone is inside.
If you are going to be in one place for a while it can be unloaded and used as long as you have a solid base. You can't leave them hanging by the camper jacks.

Negatives:
Heavy in the truck.
Bit of a handful in the wind.
Seems like I am always taking something out and putting it away.
Space is tight inside in the smaller campers.
You have to really pack up everytime you want to move or get groceries.
Leveling up can be problematic if you ( or the refrigerator ) is fussy about such things.
Relatively small grey and black water tanks that require more frequent trips to the sani station. The charge is the same for a little camper as it is for a large 5th wheel to dump.

My old camper was a Starcraft popup. Loved that little camper and wish I had never sold it.
I had it all over Alberta, BC, down the west coast in the states and down into Mexico to Cabo San Lucas.

Advantages of the popup were numerous. Lower centre of gravity, less wind resistance and my old Starcraft was very light compared to my current camper at around 800 lbs. It was actually built for mid size trucks and I have some photos of it on my old Jeep Comanche.
I had my kayak racks on the pop up camper. Easy on and off for the boat. No weight on for taking the top up. Most lift systems cannot accommodate more weight on the roof.

Disadvantages to the pop up was storage space.

I am honestly looking at going to a bumper pull trailer. I am a mountain biker and I would really like to be able to move about a little easier once set up. Will see.

It is a good time to buy with campgrounds closed due to covid. Have seen some deals out there.
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Bill K.
"I started out with nothin and I still got most of it left...."
83 911 SC Guards Red (now gone)
And I sold a bunch of parts I hadn't installed yet.
Old 06-08-2020, 06:56 AM
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