Long time camper in pull trailers, 5th wheel, Class C and Class A. I did own a small overhead camper 30 years ago when I traveled Baja twice to Cabo and back. Used for those two trips and then sold. I traveled solo both times.
Now near retirement in the next 5-6 months (58yo), I am considering an overhead truck camper. We currently have the truck and toy hauler in my sig. Wife wants me to keep our TH, as it is great for trips near our home (within 100-300 miles), is very roomy, and she loves camping in it. It is also very nice for longer trips when we are not moving often from place to place.
Who will be in truck camper? Me, 16yo son with Autism, and hopefully wife, but she may not go on too many trips in camper (she's not a big fan due to its smaller interior compared to out TH).....time will tell if she goes often. I may even travel solo if others do not want to go.
Why do I want a truck camper? Less hassle of towing, easier to park, easier to travel in general, explore and visit areas with ability to park and sleep when necessary, easier to travel solo if required, etc. I love to fish and tow my boat when I want, visit rivers for fly fishing (new hobby), etc. These pursuits are much easier IMO with a TC. Jump in truck and GO!!!...at least I assume it's that easy!
The above are the positives, I am assuming.
The negatives I am assuming...top heavy in winds can be dangerous, limited storage, ?????.
My truck has a Max. Cargo Weight of 2980# (per Ford Spec sheet).
Would a camper at 2000# dry be appropriate?
My truck is a Ford Super Duty Standard size bed (6'-9"). It has the camper package.
I will purchase a used model
I don't think I want a canvas pop up.
Alaskan TC are great, but expensive and hard to find used.
Desires: AC/Heat, Refer, Micro, stove, wet restroom
Based on above info:
What should I be looking for, models, sizes, weights, etc.
What to avoid...models, sizes, ???
I need a complete Overhead Camper education!!!
Thanks!!!
* This post was edited 01/23/21 01:53pm by Baja Man *
2023 GMC, 3500HD, Crew Cab, 6.6L Gas/6 Speed Auto, 4X4, Standard Bed; SRW
2011 Outback 250RS - Anniversary Edition
Equal-i-zer 10K
Less than other RV types. I prefer a TC strapped to a truck in wind vs. my current truck and TT.
Winnebago 2101DS TT & 2022 Chevy Silverado 1500 LTZ Z71, WindyNation 300 watt solar-Lossigy 200 AH Lithium battery. Prefer boondocking, USFS, COE, BLM, NPS, TVA, state camps. Bicyclist. 14 yr. Army -11B40 then 11A - (MOS 1542 & 1560) IOBC & IOAC grad
Look for 8 foot campers, or max 9 foot.
Start with reading your rear axle capacity and weighting it empty, so you know exact capacity for your rear.
Unlike car brands, there is not much difference in campers quality.
When Host seems to be leader - it only in big campers and bottom line is that all campers share the same appliances and there are only 2 manufacturers of camper jacks to my knowledge.
I used to own Lance and Fleetwood.
Fleetwood was having much more fancier controls and with aluminum frame beat Lance who had poor engineering.
Than I liked Lance finishes better.
The tongue weight of your boat trailer needs to be subtracted from the available payload / axle weight. This may limit your options.
A well matched truck/camper rig is neither difficult to handle or dangerous.
Where / at what time of the year do you plan to travel? Most campers in that segment do OK in cold weather, but I would not call them true four-season units.
There is a thread right near this one titled "Helping a very new TC owner with a truck decision". Might be worth a read.
You might have a look at a used Northstar camper. Their Arrow and Adventurer lines offer a twin bed in the cabover and the dinette bench converts into a third bed fairly easily. The Arrow is no longer offered; only its cousin Arrow U which has a different dinette (but may still work for you).
Mfg. homepage: http://www.northstarcampers.com/
* This post was last edited 01/23/21 02:32pm by joerg68 *
2014 Ford F350 XLT 6.2 SCLB + 2017 Northstar Arrow
I’ve had many hard side TCs and the pop ups always appealed to me for their smaller size etc.
I recently bought a Northstar 850 SC for a trip to the Midwest and back and unfortunately had a lot of bad weather with wind, snow and ice. Most nights for just sleeping at a rest stop I didn’t even raise the roof for fear of having the canvas covered in ice in the morning. I was able to sleep in the dinette with the top down but it was tight.
I was also disappointed in my mileage. Even though it is 1-2’ lower than a hard side, I maybe got 1-2 mpg better in my 04 Dodge Cummins.
If you’re going off-road a lot and the size matters, a pop up may be better.
As far as Northstar, it was a quality camper and built well with many nice features.
I ended up going back to a small hard side, Lance 815 but will probably upgrade later to an 850 or similar.
Unfortunately, as you have probably seen it’s a sellers market and trying to find any decent RV is hard.
I think things will improve soon as Covid will seem to fade away now that Biden will fix everything. LOL
For your truck I would look at the Lance 855 or 855s (slideout) you will probably be over GVW but with a 2x4 gas F350 I wouldn’t worry. I’m probably right at max on my 3500 with a Lance 815.
I’ve seen a few 855 in So Cal recently but they come and go.
Unless you really need the room when you’re set up, I like the non slide for traveling and simplicity. You can also get a built in generator in either.
Happy shopping.
13Jeep Wrangler
07 Ragen 21FB
12 Yamaha Super Tenere
14 Suzuki DR 650
Door sticker specs states:
FT GAWR: 4250#
RR GAWR: 6830#
GVWR: 9700#
GCVWR: 17000#
![[image]](https://i.imgur.com/ETc1vi5.jpg )
![[image]](https://i.imgur.com/m3zZPvb.png)
Click For Full-Size Image.
* This post was edited 01/23/21 06:44pm by Baja Man *
I prefer hard sided.
Baja Man wrote:
I'm fine with no slide and expected no slide for my weight limitations.
I prefer hard sided.
I'm fine with no slide and expected no slide for my weight limitations.
I prefer hard sided.
Maybe look at Northstar Liberty or Lance 650. Those would be in your weight range.
2015 Ram 2500 Laramie Crew Cab 4x4 6.4l Hemi
"Overstating the Obvious rarely helps the Oblivious!"
A Lance 650 is made for a 150.
1860# dry weight:
Palomino HS750
FULL SPECS
2460# dry weight
Palomino HS-8801
FULL SPECS
The 2460 dry weight will come to about 2700 lb with water and propane.
Add food & beer and you are shooting toward 3500 lb, even more when you have to carry waste water.
That still without AC when your handle indicate that you might need it.
Read all the fodder on here, same question, different person asking, similar trucks, similar litany of responses.
Short story, a lightweight camper that is around 2k dry and 3k loaded will be child’s play for your truck. Assumption, older truck is in good condition for being used for heavy duty purposes.
Difficulty will be finding a full featured camper at this weight. They exist but not plentiful and are a compromise.
Good news, I wouldn’t worry about upping the loaded weight to 4klbs with the truck properly equipped to haul it.
2016 Ram 2500, MotorOps.ca EFIlive tuned, 5” turbo back, 6" lift on 37s
2017 Heartland Torque T29 - Sold.
Couple of Arctic Fox TCs - Sold
There is an 865 on Ventura CL.
The payload rating is calculated at the factory on how the truck is configured when it leaves and the limiting factor is the wheels and tires and leaf springs on the truck. When looking for a new truck I found many 3500 pickups with a lower payload rating than the 2500 that I bought and the difference was with the tires and wheels. The 3500 has a second set of leaf springs and the SuperSprings worked equally well.
But my GM truck was the one with the new fully boxed frame that was introduced in 2011. Ram did the same in 2013-2014 and Ford did this with its "super duty" trucks starting in 2016. A slide-in camper puts a lot more stress on the frame and it is easy to find pictures of pickups with frames broken just to the rear of the cab. And DRW put a much higher strain on the frame with the added leverage of the tires being further out from the frame.
Of the new Lance models I would be going with the 855 model which with a full tank of water is going to be at 2900 lbs before adding anything else.
Be aware that when RV makers specify that a given model sleeps X number of people that some of those people need to be shorter than 5'6" in height. Measure the extra beds, as with the dinette that converts to get real measurements.
The Lance owners website is the best place for information on the different new and used models and what modifications can be done to them. For example I added a rack to hold two 100W solar panels and added holder for a second battery underneath the camper. My 845 had a compartment for a generator but I prefered to use the compartment for items I did not want to take inside the camper, like firewood and tools.
wintersun wrote:
But my GM truck was the one with the new fully boxed frame that was introduced in 2011. Ram did the same in 2013-2014 and Ford did this with its "super duty" trucks starting in 2016.
But my GM truck was the one with the new fully boxed frame that was introduced in 2011. Ram did the same in 2013-2014 and Ford did this with its "super duty" trucks starting in 2016.
Except Dodge HD pickups were fully boxed starting in 2003 models.
I was referred to this data.....See Here
As an example in a recent survey of NL owners found that ~70% of the SRW owners did modifications to their truck while nearly ~40% of the DRW owners did the same thing.
Recently I asked in THIS forum if anyone was using a 3/4T or 1T truck with camper WITHOUT modifications to the truck. There were no responses. (seemingly everybody here has done modifications)
So to conclude, almost no matter what truck you end up with, your more than likely going to make modifications to ether the suspension, tire/wheels or both for hauling a camper. You might as well get used to the idea.
- Mark0.