Open Roads Forum

Print  |  Close

Topic: Old Campers & Newer Trucks
Posted By: standdup on 06/04/18 12:13am

My truck is a 2011 Ram 3500 long box with the Cummins. I know that newer trucks like mine have a tapered box, unlike the older trucks which were pretty much straight.

My question is: In what year did the manufacturers start making their campers narrower to fit the newer trucks? I have been looking at some older Bigfoots and Northern Lites online and they are a long way away from me here in Alaska so I can't just drive there to measure them. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Dave

Posted By: SidecarFlip on 06/04/18 04:08am

Interesting, I went the other way, old truck, new camper. I think it's more the cab over height than the camper width. Pretty much standard between the wheel wells on any pickup will be 4 feet and change (so a sheet of plywood will lay flat). Might hang on the back on a short bed however.

A camper with no overhang in the back will be less than 4 feet wide. It's the overhang that hangs up newer truck beds (I believe). Could be mistaken on that.

2015 Backpack SS1500
1997 Ford 7.3 OBS 4x4 CC LB

Posted By: TxGearhead on 06/04/18 06:07am

Strangely my 2018 Ram DRW bed tailgate opening is narrower than the 2016 Ram SRW I had. I had plywood cut to fit in the bed including behind the fender wells to support the Bigfoot wings. I had to cut an inch off the width to get the plywood in the bed opening. My rubber bed mat has the same issue. I might have just over an inch clearance in the tailgate opening with the camper in.
Also, I had to put a couple sheets of about 12" x 48" x 1/2" plywood against the front of the truck bed to move the camper back so I can open the rear doors without hitting the Fastgun tiedowns. I'm thinking I have a little over 49" between the wheelwells. I'm not really sure what you mean by tapered though.
My bigger issue is my tiedowns on the Bigfoot are too far inboard. My Fastguns will rub against my fenders. I just posted a thread about that. Even with an eyebolt in the Torklift tiedown extensions, I'm against the fenders. I talked to Torklift about longer extensions and they have no solution. I have a call in to Bigfoot about re-locating the tiedowns. I may have to put eyebolts on the Bigfoot tiedowns and the Torklift extensions. I know I shouldn't pull sideways on the camper tiedowns, but I might anyway. Another solution is to have a weld/fab shop make copies of the Torklift extensions, just a few inches longer.
Bottom line...I have just enough clearance in the tailgate opening and enough between the wheel wells. No issue with the overhang hitting the tail lights. No issue with the cabover to truck clearance, but I have plywood and a rubber mat. My only issue is the tiedowns.
Are you a dually or SRW?

* This post was edited 06/04/18 06:13am by TxGearhead *

2018 Ram 3500 CC LB DRW 4X4 Cummins Aisin Laramie Pearl White
2018 Landmark Oshkosh
2008 Bigfoot 25C9.4
2014 NauticStar 21 ShallowBay 150HP Yamaha
2016 GoDevil 18X44 35HP Surface Drive

Posted By: KD4UPL on 06/04/18 09:39am

Chevy narrowed their tailgate in 2007. My 2003 Fleetwood camper had a protrusion on the driver side at the back that was hard to deal with on the newer truck. I had to load the camper offset hard to the passenger wheel well to get the protrusion to clear the tailgate opening.

Posted By: standdup on 06/04/18 10:06am

My truck is a SRW and the width at the tailgate is right at 60". I believe the older trucks had a width of 65". I'm trying to figure out when the RV manufacturers changed their units to match that smaller width. Thanks

Dave

Posted By: burningman on 06/04/18 06:24pm

Generally, 1988 is the year the campers started being made to fit the narrower tailgates.
1988 (not 2007) is the year Chevy went to the narrower tailgate and stopped making the old “square body”, although the crew cab and Suburban kept the square body through ‘91.
Dodge kept their square body until ‘94.
Ford kept the square body until ‘98.
Before that all full size American tailgates were 65 inches wide.
They’re now down to about 60.

Space between the wheelwwls isn’t the issue, that’s still four feet.
Many campers have a little “kick out” that uses the space inside the truck box behind the wheel well.
That’s where the interference is.

Sometimes you can just slice it there and narrow it a coupe inches and make it fit.
In my case the fiberglass shower enclosure was right up against that area and I had to section it and re-fiberglass it to make it fit.

Anything fits anything if you want it to.

* This post was edited 06/05/18 06:49am by burningman *

2017 Northern Lite 10-2 EX CD SE
99 Ram 4x4 Dually Cummins
A whole lot more fuel, a whole lot more boost.
4.10 gears, Gear Vendors overdrive, exhaust brake
Built auto, triple disc, billet shafts.
Kelderman Air Ride, Helwig sway bar.


Posted By: JimK-NY on 06/04/18 09:27pm

burningman wrote:

..........

Sometimes you can just slice it there and narrow it a coupe inches and make it fit.
In my case the fiberglass shower enclosure was right up against that area and I had to section it and re-fiberglass it to make it fit.

Anything fits anything if you want it to.


I think it would be easier to cut the truck than to try to rebuild the side of the camper.

In any case I have a 2010 Dodge Ram 2500 and a 2005 Northstar Iglo. If the camper is centered on the truck bed, I have a bit less than 1/4" clearance. That makes loading a nightmare.

Posted By: burningman on 06/05/18 06:55am

Often there is enough space behind the camper kickout to cut it down a little and get it just slim enough to fit. It’s onjy a matter of a couple inches, and it’s just wood.

Cutting the truck would mean cutting the tailgate opening wider.
You’d be cutting nto the tail lights and the gate wouldn’t fit back on.
It absolutely would not be easier, unless you didn’t care about the truck at all and weren’t ever going to use it without the camper. And it would look terrible.

Posted By: JimK-NY on 06/05/18 07:16am

And what do you think is behind the wood?

For my camper, the aluminum skin would have to go. Then structural wood. Behind that is the cassette toilet and then the shower floor and wall. Where is this couple of inches supposed to come from?

Posted By: burningman on 06/05/18 12:50pm

Well you’re talking to a guy who has done two of them, so I don’t think, I know.
Go look at your truck and tell me if you can cut it so you have 2 1/2 more inches of tailgate opening width on one side. It’s literally next to impossible, and I’m a car building guy who has turned hardtop ‘50s Cadillacs into convertibles that look factory no matter where you look.
Cutting the truck instead isn’t a realistic option unless the truck is junk and you don’t care how much you hack it. It’s not just sone sheet metal inside the box that would have to go.
If I were going to do it, I’d pie-cut the bed floor and un-taper it, adding in a 5” pie slice from a donor bed floor, then redrill or otherwise modify the bed mounting bolt areas. Then I’d cut two tailgates and weld together one 5” wider version, or just make a custom 5th-wheel style gate.

The interference area is usually the bathroom. Sometimes there’s enough room to “clearance” it without disturbing anything inside.
On my current one, you’re right the shower wall was right up against the kickout area. Some careful slicing and fiberglassing gave me the two inches I needed.

The other thing you CAN do, although it will look funky, is just swap an earlier model square-body bed onto the truck. In the late 50s and early 60s some pickups came from the factory with mismatched beds, because they wanted to get on the “fleetside” bandwagon but didn’t have their own tooling yet.

Posted By: JimK-NY on 06/05/18 04:47pm

I guess you did not realize I was only joking. I would not want to tackle either and with minimal clearance I can still load the camper. I use a laser to help and I load the camper about an 1" away from the bump out. Then I physically push the camper back so it sits evenly between the wheel wells. I use a board between the camper and the wheel well so it cannot shift into the tailgate frame. It is a big PITA that I do as infrequently as possible. In fact the first time I loaded it, I left the camper on the truck for the next 4 years. Since then I have been removing it at the end of each camping season. I will need to load it in another month before I take off for the Summer and Fall months. I will allow at least an hour. Once I was lucky and backed up perfectly. I thought the laser was magic but unfortunately perfection only happened that one time.

Posted By: standdup on 06/05/18 05:03pm

Thanks for the info guys! I think I will just focus on campers that are newer than 1995 or so. Sounds like I'll be safe that way.

Posted By: JimK-NY on 06/05/18 05:38pm

standdup wrote:

Thanks for the info guys! I think I will just focus on campers that are newer than 1995 or so. Sounds like I'll be safe that way.


Again, my camper is 2005 and the truck is 2010. Clearance is about 1/4 inch!

Posted By: towpro on 06/06/18 06:01am

in mid year 2015 Ram changed the bed in the duallys to give more strength to the body.
See how the opening is tapered towards the bottom of opening
[image]

2022 Ford F150
Sold: 2016 Arctic Fox 990, 2018 Ram 3500, 2011 Open Range
Sold Forest River Forester 2401R Mercedes Benz. when campsites went from $90 to $190 per night.

Posted By: CAJW on 06/09/18 02:44pm

Bed opening for our 2013 Chevy 3500 DRW is 59 1/2” near the top of the stakepocket and 58” at deck level. Our 2013 AF 996 has about 3/4” clearance per side, so I keep my speed down when loading, [emoticon].

Imgur link

[image]

* This post was last edited 06/09/18 03:10pm by CAJW *

2013 AF 996, 2013 Chevy 3500 CC,LWB,4X4, Duramax, DRW, 3.73 rear, Torklift Stableloads & Tie-downs,Fast Guns, Ride Rite Air Bags, Superhitch w/ 32" extension.Big Wigs, Front Timbrens, TST TPMS-507,CubbyCam, Trimetric. TM & SC 2030 150W + 100W suitcase

Posted By: Wagonqueen Truckster on 06/13/18 09:54am

Wow... I did not realize that the newer truck clearance was so reduced. Now it all make sense why my 76 TC was so darn tight in the back of my 2017 Ram. Loading was a nightmare, so I bought and installed a Stable Lift to make it a little easier. Learn something new everyday.

Posted By: GHCreekside on 06/19/18 10:41am

My 2001 Northern Lite just barely squeezes into my 2006 Dodge 3500 bed. If there was any less room it wouldn't fit. I bought it from a guy who tried to put it in a new Chevy but it wouldn't fit. I also had to raise it off the bed about two inches to clear the top of the cab.

2006 Dodge 3500 QCLB SRW 4x4 5.9 Cummins
2002 Bigfoot 1500FS

Print  |  Close