Last year we jumped into the world of truck camper RVing as total newbies, and what a wild ride it has been! We learned a lot and want to share a few insights we picked up along the way plus give you some news about where this journey has taken us.
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Of course, our info about truck camper RVing is based on our limited experience with one particular truck camper, a 2005 Arctic Fox 860, and one particular truck, a 2016 Dodge Ram 3500 dually. Other RVers with different truck/camper combos have different experiences.
A large part of why we decided to get a truck camper after living in a fifth wheel for 13 years is that good friends of ours spent 25 years wintering in a fifth wheel in Arizona and going on short jaunts around their home state of Montana in a truck camper in the summertime. They absolutely loved the various truck campers they had over the years, and hearing their stories inspired us. We considered other options like selling the truck and getting a Class C or even an overlanding rig like the Baja Series. But we liked our truck and thought a truck camper would be a great way to go.
What could be better than camping in the forest and riding the US Forest Service roads in a Polaris RZR?!
TRUCK CAMPER JOYS:
There are many great things about truck campers and they all stem from their small size. Unlike most other kinds of trailers and motorized RVs, you can park it in an ordinary parking space, whether on the street, at a store, at a National Park overlook, in a National Park campground, or at the hospital, as we found out.
You can load it onto a ferry boat where fees are charged by vehicle length, and it will cost you half as much (or even less) than if you were towing a trailer.
You never have to be concerned about whether your rig will fit into any kind of campsite, and you can even pull into a friend’s driveway for the night without knocking things over as you plow through their neighborhood (been there, done that, yikes!).
If you plan to tow a boat, or a side-by-side, or a Jeep or anything else, you can hitch it directly to the truck. Of course, if the camper sticks out beyond the back of the truck, you’ll need a hitch extension, but at least you won’t be towing your extra toy behind a truck and fifth wheel in a long train that isn’t even legal to drive in a lot of states.
In our case, the truck we had to work with is a diesel. So, we could take our camper up any steep mountain grade and the truck didn’t even break a sweat. This meant we could transform our powerful truck into a motorized RV worthy of mountain passes with the modest incremental cost of purchasing an older truck camper.
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WHERE TRUCK CAMPERS & TRAILERS ARE MORE OR LESS EQUIVALENT:
We were surprised to discover that our truck got the same fuel mileage when we were carrying the truck camper as it did when we were towing the fifth wheel. The camper weighs around 3,500 lbs while the fifth wheel weighed 14,000 lbs, so you’d think the truck wouldn’t work as hard with the camper, but that’s what we saw.
Our truck gets anywhere from 15 to 21 mpg when it is not towing or carrying heavy weight. It got around 9 to 12 mpg towing the fifth wheel trailer and it got about the same carrying the camper.
TRUCK CAMPER CHALLENGES:
This is where our learning curve took off.
Swing-Out Landing Legs for Dually Trucks
Our first discovery was that the wide hips of our dually truck couldn’t fit between the front landing legs of the camper. We had to replace the two front factory-installed landing legs with a special type that can swing outward so the truck could fit between them as it backed in under the camper to load it up. Then they could be swung back inward for driving.
The wide hips of the dually required front landing legs that could swing open to let the truck back in. In this pic, the leg is in the “out” position.
The landing legs can be rotated outward for loading and unloading the camper and then rotated inward for driving. Shown here in the outward position.
The camper we bought didn’t come with swing out legs so we had to add them before we could bring the camper home. The seller delivered the camper to an RV repair shop where we had the work done.
Install a Tie Down System
Our next discovery was that the camper must be tied down to the truck so it doesn’t slide off (the tailgate of the truck gets removed so the truck camper can be loaded into the truck bed).
We chose to go with the top-of-the-line Torklift camper tie down system which consisted of Torklift’s bolt-on anchor points (the Talon Tie Downs for the truck and the Camper Anchor Relocation/Repair Kit for the camper.
Once these were bolted onto the truck frame and the camper frame, we used the Torklift FastGun Turnbuckles to tie the camper onto the truck. The FastGuns are super secure and they have a quick release mechanism that makes them very easy to put on and take off when loading and unloading the camper.
The Torklift Tie Down system has three components in each corner: an anchor point on the camper (“Camper Anchor Repair/Relocation Kit”, an anchor point on the truck (“Torklift Talon Tie Down”) and a connection between the two (“Torklift FastGun Turnbuckle”).
As great as this system was, the installation was another step in the process that needed to happen before we could take the camper home.
These two upgrades — swing-out landing legs and camper tie downs — were modifications to the rig that were much like buying a hitch, a hitch receiver, tow mirrors and a brake controller (or buying a truck with a factory installed Tow Package) for a truck/trailer combo. They are add-ons that must be done and done right before you can go anywhere, and they not only take time but add to the overall cost of the rig.
Truck and Truck Camper Marriage – A Match Made in Heaven?
We hadn’t realized before we bought our beautiful truck camper that when you match a camper to a truck (or vice versa), you are setting the stage for them to get married. Hopefully, they fall in love and it is a match made in heaven.
In our case, it wasn’t. Our dually long bed truck was a bit big for the camper. Coming from the world of trailers, we couldn’t imagine that a truck could be too big for any kind of RV setup, but in the world of campers the pairing of the truck and camper is so precise that it is possible to have too big and ungainly a truck for a given camper.
Campers are designed with specific sizes of trucks in mind. Our particular camper was advertised back in the day (2005 era) as being compatible with either a short bed truck or a long bed truck. Since it was short bed compatible, I don’t think the designers intended it to be paired with a long bed dually.
Loading and Unloading the Truck Camper – A Unique Issue with the Arctic Fox 860 and Long Bed Trucks
The camper is standing on its own four legs so so the truck can slide in underneath.
Like all truck campers, the layout of the bottom of our camper was a rectangle designed to fit in the bed of a truck. However, it had an extra box sticking out on the left side of the rear entry door. This box held all the sewer valves and the outlet for the sewer hose as well as providing storage for the landing leg controller, so it was not something that could be removed.
The right side of this compartment is the left edge of the bottom of the camper that fits into the truck bed. So, the whole sewer gear compartment sticks out beyond the profile of the bottom of the camper (illustration below).
This simplistic drawing shows the problem. The truck bed is in red and the camper floor is in black. The sewer gear box sticks out of the rear driver’s side of the camper which reduces the clearance for loading the camper into a long bed truck by several inches:
The sewer gear box sticks out from the side of the camper, making it a tight fit width-wise in a long bed truck.
Unfortunately, as we backed the truck in under the camper, we had to make sure not to hit that box while also ensuring that the dually wheel wells didn’t catch on the sides of the camper either. All this had to be in perfect alignment while backing up the full 8′ distance of the truck bed. We had about an inch to spare in total, and we had to back the truck perfectly straight for the entire 8′ length of the truck bed.
Okay, now back the truck up perfectly straight…
Looking up at the bottom of the camper as it slides into the truck bed, you can see the sewer gear box is going to hit on the left side of the bed.
After adjusting the truck so the camper’s sewer box doesn’t hit on the left side, over on the right side the camper just clears the dually’s inner wheel well. Phew!
Needless to say, it was a white knuckle affair every time we loaded or unloaded the camper, and it usually required jockying the truck forward and backward a few times to get it aligned perfectly. Sometimes we lightly bumped the tall spindly camper landing legs in the process, making our hearts jump. With every bump and shudder of the top-heavy camper, I was grateful it didn’t fall over.
Also, our 2016 truck bed was a few inches higher than the 2005-era trucks our camper was designed for. So, we had to raise the camper a few inches higher on those spindly legs than was originally envisioned by the designers. The camper looked like a giant bug with very long legs, and one time when the wind suddenly picked up to 30+ mph, the whole very top-heavy contraption began to sway on those spindly legs. We both ran for our lives for fear it might topple over on us.
Ironically, we’ve done plenty of challenging things with RVs and boats together, but nothing was as difficult or frustrating as loading and unloading this camper. Down in Mexico, we anchored our large beautiful sailboat in lots of dicey places, sometimes spending the night listening to waves crashing on rocks right outside our windows.
One time, in the violently unpredictable Sea of Cortez, our boat dangled, twisted and turned at the end of our taught 300′ anchor chain in powerful onshore winds with huge waves pounding the beach just a few feet behind us. Unnerved, we decided to leave that frightening setting for a safer spot on the other side of the island only to have a mammoth wave promptly crash over the deck and bend the one inch diameter stainless steel Garhauer racks holding our 14′ kayak as if they were made of rubber. The kayak was saved from the raging sea by a few stout lines that now seemed like pieces of sewing thread.
Due to the higher bed height of modern trucks, the camper has to be raised a few inches higher on its thin legs than was originally intended.
Yet none of those experiences matched the panic that we both felt when we loaded the camper on and off our truck. It was an ordeal.
Because we couldn’t load and unload the camper easily, we essentially lost the use of our truck by itself, not only when we were traveling but also when we were home. At home, we felt like we needed to get another truck for hauling jobs in our daily lives (how silly would that be?!). While traveling, we couldn’t leave the camper in our campsite and instead always had to take pack it up and take it with us no matter how short a distance we needed to go. We did have the RZR with us, and we happily drive it RZR on lightly traveled roads, but we don’t drive it on highways or roads with fast moving traffic.
Leaving a campsite with camping goodies in it like a patio mat and camp chairs without a rig present is asking for trouble. Someone arriving at the campsite could easily assume the goodies were abandoned (we have found tons of abandoned camping gear on public land that we’ve watched sit there day after day). Likewise, having to put everything away inside the rig in order to drive a few miles somewhere is inconvenient.
This all sounds a bit dire, but I believe the ease of loading and unloading–which makes it either possible or impossible to drive the truck without the camper on it–is 100% dependent on how well matched the truck is to the camper. If it’s a good match, getting the camper on and off the truck shouldn’t be difficult. That said, we haven’t seen many truck campers in campsites that have been unloaded from the truck they drove in on.
The bottom line for us is that our truck and camper were not a good match for each other and they ended up getting a divorce. Thankfully, the divorce was an amicable one.
In Contrast: A Good Truck/Camper Pairing
When we sold the camper, the perfect buyer snapped it up, and we saw the difference that a good pairing can make.
We took the camper off our truck and got ready to load it onto the buyer’s truck.
He has a 2002 Chevy shortbed truck, and the camper fits it like a glove. He slid his truck underneath with ease, never having loaded a truck camper before, and he looked like a pro as he backed in. FIrst, the camper didn’t need to be raised very high for the truck to slide underneath. Then, the camper fit into the bed without that awkward sewer box even getting involved. Because it was a shortbed truck, the sewer gear box hung off the back of the truck and didn’t have to get squeezed into the truck bed. Undoubtedly, the designers assumed that half or more of their buyers would be people with shortbed trucks.
The camper sticks out beyond the short bed of the truck unlike on a long bed where the back end is flush.
The troublesome sewer gear box doesn’t have to be squeezed into the bed of the truck because it hangs off the back — perfect!
As we watched the buyer load the camper on his truck so easily, it was obvious his new truck/camper combo would be a match made in heaven. Perhaps a bigger camper would have given us a better overall experience, but by this time we were ready to try something completely different!
PERSONAL CAMPING STYLE – IS TRUCK CAMPING FOR YOU?
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Besides the technical issues of pairing the truck and camper, there’s also a huge difference between living in a camper and living in a larger rig. Obviously, a truck camper is a small space. But there is more to it than that.
The space is quite vertical, especially if the camper door is on the back of the camper at the level of the truck bed. The bed of our truck — which is the floor level of the camper — is at chest height for me. So, we had to step up from ground level to chest height just to enter the camper.
Torklift makes a stair system called the Glow Step that folds down to the ground accordion style from the truck bumper. Some folks nickname the Glow Step the Stairway to Heaven because it is such a long staircase. I found portable plastic stairs that fit into the camper while we traveled. These were sturdy and easy to go up and down.
When the truck was unhitched from the utility trailer it was a straight shot into the camper: two steps on the plastic stairs and two steps on the camper’s stairs. If we left the trailer hitched up, we had a turn in the staircase.
A two-step staircase was a cheap solution for climbing up to the entry door where there are two more stairs before entering the camper.
With the flat bed trailer hitched up to the truck, we step up to the trailer tongue and then up into the camper.
Mark also made a very clever platform out of plywood to fit on the tongue of the RZR trailer. This made a staircase landing where we could pause to open the door when our hands were full. We usually kept the RZR trailer attached to the truck, so this platform was a really nifty upgrade and didn’t take him long to make. We kept it in the RZR when we were driving.
Mark built a platform for the trailer tongue that gave us a landing midway up our staircase.
This stairway solution worked really well.
Because the buyer’s truck bed was much lower than ours, he didn’t need the plastic stairs and could get away with a 7 inch step stool, if even that. See? Match made in heaven.
Many truck campers have the entry door on the side of the camper rather than on the back. Because of the placement of this door, the truck camper hangs off the back end of the truck. The beauty of a side entry door is that it is substantially lower to the ground than a door placed on the back of the camper. This reduces the number of stairs needed to get up to the doorway and makes it much more like going into a trailer or motorhome.
The disadvantage of a side entry door is that if you plan to tow something behind the truck, you will need a hitch extension because the hitch receiver on the truck will now be recessed under the floor of the camper.
Once inside the camper, whether it is a rear entry or side entry door, you can sit at the dinette, stand in the kitchen or bathroom, or crawl into the bed. For one or two people this is fine — it’s just tight living. You’re out seeing the world anyway, so who cares? However, we found it is not so easy if you have pets.
Buddy had only one choice for where he could spend time comfortably in the camper: on the bed. He could sit at the dinette, but didn’t like to do that for longer than a few seconds.
Buddy joins us at the dinette.
“Hi, Mom.”
“What’s for lunch?”
He could also be on the floor, but he was under foot and not comfortable standing there. So, in the end, his only place in the camper was on the bed. He loved it there, though. He could watch the world outside through the windows on either side of the bed and it was soft and comfy.
Buddy’s favorite place was up on the bed where he could stretch out and look out the windows.
However, he was kind of stuck there. He’s a good jumper, but it was a long jump down to the floor and we didn’t want him jumping up and down off the high bed for fear the pounding would be tough on his slender limbs or we’d get in his way accidentally and cause him to injure himself.
He could aso jump up into the camper from outside on the ground, but again, we weren’t keen on having him jumping around in case we accidentally stepped in his path while he was jumping and injured him.
Buddy loves the outdoors, but with the truck camper he had to wait for one of us to help him in or out.
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So, we ended up having to lift him in and out of the camper and also lift him on and off the bed. This meant he had no independence, and he was kind of stuck wherever he was, either outside in the campsite or inside on the bed, until we helped move him. In contrast, when we had the fifth wheel, he could come and go as he pleased.
SELLING AN RV IN TODAY’S CRAZY MARKET
Everyone wants to get out into nature and leave Lockdown World far behind.
So, after our trip to Quartzsite we knew it was time to sell our Arctic Fox camper and buy something different (and exciting!).
We learned a lot in the selling process. If you are selling an RV these days, here are some things we learned when we sold our camper on Craigslist in February, 2022.
First, the market is moving really fast and NADA Guide is not keeping up. We priced our camper based on dealership asking prices for similar untils nationwide that we saw listed in RVTrader.com. The asking prices were through the roof and insane. They were essentially double the NADA Guide prices. But we went with the flow and asked an insane price that fit in with the others.
We’d had our eyes on the RV market for a while and had noticed that good quality used rigs in excellent condition were selling quickly. We’d see a cool rig one day and it would be gone two or three days later. That happened repeatedly.
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We put the ad up on a Tuesday and had some calls and made 3 appointments for showings on Saturday. None of the three who saw it on Saturday bit right away, but we had interest from five other people calling us from 200 to 1,000 miles away.
Saturday night I got a call from a serious buyer who put down a substantial deposit and promised to be out to pick it up on Tuesday. He lived 1,200 miles away and it would take him 2 days to drive to our place. Plus, he wanted to install new tires on his truck before making the trip. I changed the ad to “Sale Pending.”
On Sunday, all three people who had seen the camper the day before called to make offers. Meanwhile, four other people from 40, 180, 200 and 250 miles away respectively all made full cash offers, saying they could come with cash in hand the next day (Monday) to pick it up. I told them I had a deal pending that would take a few days to close and that I would call them if it fell through. Four of the prospective buyers kept in close touch during the next few days to see if the deal fell through.
Needless to say, the buyer was good to his word. Once he arrived, it took two days for him to complete the formal wedding ceremony between his truck and our camper. He got the tires he wanted before the trip and was able to find tie downs that fit his truck in a shop within an hour’s drive.
He was a smart shopper. He told us he had been looking for a camper like ours for over a year, and he had missed out on four previous deals because he didn’t move fast enough. That’s why he was willing to make the deposit sight-unseen and drive 1,200 miles to get the camper.
When I notified the other four prospective buyers that the deal had gone through, they were all sorely disappointed. Undoubtedly, they approached the next prospective deal they saw very differently.
The flatbed trailer was a fun place to hang out and get a slightly elevated view.
Of course, I have no idea if this kind of insanity in the RV market is ongoing out there three months later. A lot has happened in the world since then, and the inflation of both consumer goods, gas and diesel plus rising interest rates will surely put a damper on the enthusiasm people have for buying RVs. However, that is the RV sales experience we had just a short time ago.
It’s possible it could take a while for world events to affect the prices and availability of used RVs. Just prior to the financial crisis in September of 2008, we began shopping for a sailboat to go cruising. However, it wasn’t until January of 2010 that we began to see used boat prices finally begin to come down, due largely to marine loan foreclosures.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR RLT??
Lots!
We bought another rig, which I’ll introduce in the next post. Our RV buying story in this crazy market was just as wild as our truck camper selling story, and so far we think we made the right choice and totally love it.
When we went adventuring in the truck camper last year, each time we left we enthusiastically packed for 5 to 7 days. However, we invariably came home after only two or three! I don’t know if it was due to boredom or feeling fidgety or because we were living in such a confined space, but that was the pattern each time we took the camper out.
Two weeks ago we took our new rig out on its maiden voyage shakedown cruise. Cautiously, we packed for just 3 days only to find we had to run out and restock our essentials twice! To our great surprise, when we finally had to head home due to a prior engagement, we realized we’d been out for 9 happy days.
So, right now we’re buttoning up the homestead and packing up the new rig so we can head out and see the world for a few glorious summer months!
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SO happy to see a new post from Roads Less Traveled pop up on my blog roll, Emily! It’s always a treat to catch up on what’s going on with you, Mark and Buddy. Life is an amazing adventure that provides countless lessons along the way. I’ve always loved the flexibility of truck campers but, due to a slight case of claustrophobia on Alan’s part, we’ve never considered one. So your story proved to be both educational and intriguing. Can’t wait to hear what comes next! Extra ear and belly rubs to your beloved Buddy on my behalf, please!
It’s so great to hear from you, Mary, and thank you for considering my blog posts to be a treat. Love it! Truck campers are awesome for certain kinds of travel and certain kinds of people, but it is worth pondering for a while before jumping in. I’m really glad we tried it because it’s been something we’ve been curious about for many years. If it had just been the two of us, we would have made it work for at least one summer of longer distance travel. And we sure loved it for the animal hospital stay and for a few trips to the city where an overnight before driving home was most welcome. But our new rig is more our style and looks very promising. Buddy says thank you for the ear and belly rubs. Enjoy this beautiful weekend!
Thank you for the honest pros and cons of a truck camper. We are fulltiming in a 32’ fifth wheel since 2018 and love our interior space and it’s not too difficult to find campgrounds where we fit. However, we would love to get out to more remote areas and our fifth wheel is really a pavement queen. So obviously have really considered a truck camper but concerned about all you wrote about. Would love to know what your new solution is.
For now we just stay in campgrounds and leave our rig behind while we tent camp or canoe/kayak camp in the wilds.
A 32′ fifth wheel is a good size, easy to tow, fairly easy to fit into smaller spaces and spacious inside. A truck camper might be a good solution if you could find one that is easy to load and unload to/from the truck, but that might take some research! We’ll be posting news about our new rig soon. Happy travels!
Hi Emily,
I too am happy to see your emails. I was heart broken then elated about Buddy. I’m so happy for you 3.
I don’t know why but I’m guessing you guys bought a toy hauler, we’ll see.
Thank you, Bill. The experience with Buddy changed us both in fundamental ways, and meanwhile he just gets sweeter and smarter every day. This morning we were at a trailhead he knows and he ran more than 100 yards down the trail expecting we were heading that way. I called out to him that we were actually going to take a RZR ride down a different trail instead. He stopped and looked at me and I called out “RZR ride!” a few more times. Suddenly, he understood and he came trotting back, all excited about running alongside the RZR instead of hiking. As for your guess…we’ll just have to wait and see! Thank you for being a part of our journey.
Great to hear you three are doing well. We have been in our 2018 Lance 1062 on a 2021 Chevy dually for about a year now and can relate to what you have been through. We enjoyed our little trailer we had when we met you all at Jacob’s Lake a while back but our TC is the cat’s meow. We have been camping for several weeks at a time because we actually “upsized” from our trailer!
We hope to catch you guys in the woods sometime.
Say hi to Mark and Buddy for us!
Dave & Sherry
How wonderful that you love your Lance camper! I was hoping to hear from some folks who just love their truck campers — how cool for you guys! You can definitely “upsize” from a small trailer to a big truck camper and it sounds like it was the right move for you. Our RVing mentor who had truck campers for decades advised us to get a Lance instead of an Arctic Fox…maybe we should have listened!! Enjoy the woods — hope to see you out there someday soon!
Thanks so much for adding to your story. I have missed your posts and am looking forward to hearing what you have decided to do next. We had a similar experience. We also purchased a used truck camper and sold our much larger RV.
The dream of portability drew us in. Unfortunately, that dream never materialized and our truck camper never got the use we had hoped it would so I am looking forward to what you have moved on to. Best wishes to you.
I think that’s a common story. It has to be the right truck and camper combo as well as the right kinds of travel and travelers for it to work well. Friends of ours spent a month in their beloved Cirrus camper with no slides — two adults, an adult size 15 year old, 2 cats and a dog. What had been ideal for them as a couple traveling across country repeatedly with no pets just didn’t work with the added teenager and animals. They’re looking to change rigs soon!!
We too gave up the full time adventure with our Arctic Fox 5th wheel. We settled for a 20′ Back Country which is built by the same people who operate Arctic Fox. It was time we felt just like you and Mark did. We saw a lot during our Boon docking days and don’t regret doing it for a minute. Now we just try to take shorter trips around the Northwest. There’s still a lot that we haven’t explored and want to see and experience much more. I do believe that the gotta go gets in your blood.
You are going to leave us hanging just like a Saturday afternoon movie aren’t you? Not knowing what your next adventure rig will be. I have my suspicions tho! Whatever it is I know that you and Mark will enjoy sharing you travels with us. Safe travels!
You can’t beat the Arctic Fox family of products for well built and sturdy RVs, Bob, and Outdoors RV has followed in that tradition nicely. The Back Country looks like a great line of trailers and the onboard generator will come in handy when you want to run the air conditioning without having to haul the portable genny out of the truck and hook it up to the rig (and also deal with the gas cans…ugh!).
We feel the same way about the many “missing links” out there that we haven’t seen yet. After being very involved in the fun of home ownership and loving the stability of being in one place day in and day out, we got the wanderlust bug in a huge way this past winter and we can’t wait to get out and see the world again.
I won’t leave you hanging too long. I’ve got the pics lined up for the next post and am looking forward to sharing what we’ve decided to travel in!
I failed to say what we bought for a replacement for the big Arctic Fox 5th wheel. It’s a 20′ Back Country tow behind that we really enjoy. And just like the camper we can get into so many places that were impossible before. Great example was when we went to the Redwoods and could fit into a camping spot.
How cool is that! The 20 footer has everything you need and is a nice small package. Enjoy!
Thanks so much for writing this. I have been considering a move to a truck camper “shuttle craft” for several months now once we park our 2010 HitchHiker in a “permanent” location. I really have been smitten with the idea that I already have the truck and a unit with no wheels or motor is very alluring to me.
I have a 2013 Ram 3500 long bed diesel dually as well. While my research thus far has verified the truck has the payload capacity to handle most truck campers, I haven’t seen any mention at all of the “gear box” problem which you guys encountered. Definitely something to give careful consideration to as I move forward.
Loading and unloading has been the one facet which has concerned me the most if we choose to go the truck camper route and your timely info certainly gives me another major factor to consider, as well as the costs associated with tie-downs, turnbuckles and steps as well!
The sewer box problem was probably unique to our particular model of Arctic Fox and was only a problem with long bed trucks like yours. Before you buy, just make sure you see the camper standing on its own legs and look underneath to see if it’s a plain rectangle or if it has some appendage hanging out somewhere. It takes a little bending of the mind to figure out what goes on the bed floor, what goes over the wheel wells and what goes over the side rails of the bed! I suspect that 99% of truck campers are a plain rectangle underneath, but we learned the hard way that not all of them are.
My hunch is that with a dually you should be looking at larger size truck campers that have a door on the side. You’ll have more space inside and be able to get a dry bath — a big plus! Our truck has a 5,500 lb payload capacity and that is fine for all but the largest Eagle Cap campers (which are so gorgeous). I suspect anything with 2 slides would be okay, but the 3rd slide might be a problem for weight. Obviously, you’ve got to plan for carrying water/waste and propane as well as your stuff.
As for loading/unloading, I guess the best thing to do is to ask folks online in the forums and talk to people out camping or that you see parked on the side of the road to find out if they load/unload the camper frequently or not. Our friends with the Cirrus camper ended up dedicating a truck to the camper so it could stay loaded all the time, and they have a different truck to tow their Alpenlite fifth wheel and use for projects around the house. Our RV mentors in Montana unhitched from the fiver in the spring, loaded up the camper, and kept it on all summer til they hitched the fiver back up in the fall.
You don’t have to get the fancy Torklift turnbuckles. Lots of folks use chains and standard turnbuckles and also use the anchor points that come on the camper. The only anchor points you’d need to add would be on the truck. Some folks put the rear anchor point on the truck’s rear bumper. That doesn’t seem super secure to me. So you could just get the rear pair of Torklift Talon Tie Downs (anchors) and go with cheaper stuff for everything else.
As for stairs, the Glow Step is awesome — looks rickety but it’s not at all. There are tons of step stools available online too. Some are more rugged than others.
Thanks so much for the extra info! Indeed, I have been looking at (and strongly considering) a camper with a side door for the exact reasons which you mention. Would absolutely love to have that third slide, but I think that would put the weight over the top for us. One or two slides will have to suffice for us.
Sounds good, Peter. I think those triple slide campers are best for the 550/5500 pickups that have been outfitted with a traditional pickup truck bed. Enjoy shopping for your new camper and happy travels!
I love getting a new email from you guys! Really useful information y’all give us, plus we love the pics of Buddy. Can’t wait to read about your new RV. Exciting!
Thank you so very much, Cynthia!! That really warms my heart. I know the info in this post isn’t relevant to a lot of people, but Buddy is a charmer beloved by all. We have so much fun walking him and taking him to stores (where he’s allowed) and seeing the smiles on people’s faces. He brightens everyone’s day!
Talk about a cliff-hanger. Now how long how long do I have to wait for the finale? Or the new beginning! It brought fond memories of our Lance camper. The marriage was good, we easily took it off at campsites and we could move around with just our pickup. Then one day after getting a golden retriever for a buddy for our yellow Labrador we decided that leg room was a little tight. So we moved to the comfort of the 5th wheel world. We still miss the adventures the pickup camper allowed us. We can’t wait for the conclusion to the story and my mind is running wild to see what your purchase is. I’m thinking back on some of your post’s before the pandemic.
Gosh, Dick, you are yet another happy Lance Camper owner. Our friend wanted us to get an 1172 so badly. He found one for us in Oregon that was a fantastic deal but we didn’t want to make such a long trip without being 100% sure it was the right camper for us, and we hadn’t ever seen one before, so we let it go. I am thrilled to know you had great adventures in yours and that you could get it on and off your truck easily. That is the key to the whole thing! I’m sure your pups appreciate the extra legroom in the 5th wheel, though — and I’m sure you both do too. Enjoy your travels. It’s all good! I’ll be sharing pics of our new rolling home very soon!
We live in NW Montana and the back country roads around here are just not made for our Class C or A. So we bought a Lance -2004 and i do know from friends that the truck is a important part of the package, so we bought the truck Ford dully 2003 that went with the camper much easier, and we got a good deal on both. Now just need to sell the Class C. We have a big trip back East that we would like to do, then will sell the Class A. Looking forward to see what you guys came up with.
Sounds like you got a really good deal, Teri. If you aren’t starting with a truck or camper already, why not get a paired set that someone else has already gone through the process of marrying together?! Have fun on your trip back East and have a blast with your new camper!
What a great learning experience! I would never buy another RV without reading your blog first! Wow. So glad your camper found a new, perfect forever home.
That’s quite a compliment coming from you, Annie. Thanks!! But we’re hardly experts when it comes to truck campers. We’re just happy to share whatever we learn as we go along. And right now we’ve got a question about hot water heater anodes that we need to ask some experts…you and Phil!! 🙂
WOW, Emily and Mark – what a cliff-hanger, just right for this stay-at homer.
Loved seeing Buddy in good health….now THAT was the REAL “cliff-hanger” . Happy care-free travels in your new rig and look forward to pics.
Love, Mom
Thank you, Mom! Buddy is doing incredibly well. He just took off down the hall with Mark so they could take a nap together! As for stay-at-homers, I don’t think you qualify as one any more. Paris here you come!! Yay!!! xoxo
We are excited to hear about your new rig! I love the truck topper campers but Chris thinks it would be too small for us to go out for months at a time. We did just tour the Winnebago camper van factory in Iowa and those look like so much fun, too! Thanks for all of this great info on the truck toppers. And we love seeing Buddy!
Sandra, Chris and James the Poodle
They are wonderful for certain kinds of travel, Sandra. Mark took ours out by himself twice when he had things to do a hundred miles away and he wanted to spend the night. He was one happy bachelor camper and he came home all smiles! But with additional bodies and a pet it’s nice to have more flat floor space. Happy travels to you three — a comfy rig is out there waiting for you!
Hi you two. It is always a treat to see when you have a new post. Nice post on the truck camper. We loved our 5th wheel for the space and comfort that it provided but I always said that our next one would allow me to park and be in the camper without getting out of the vehicle. We built a Sprinter camper-van and it has been great but after a week you start wanting more space. We will keep it for a while and see what happens.
We look forward to seeing your new rig and hearing of the travels you have!
Take Care,
Ken & Denise
Hi Ken – It’s so great to hear from you! I can totally relate to the lack of space in the Sprinter van. It seems like such a cool idea, but when the rubber meets the road, it’s hard to get comfortable in a tiny RV, especially coming from a spacious fiver. Hopefully you’ll get out and have fun with it this summer and you’ll be so busy doing things outside that you won’t mind the small space at night. I’m sure you’ll find the right rig eventually. I think a lot of it is really pinning down what you want and don’t want, and the Sprinter is giving you a lot of info about that!! Thank you for continuing to read our various posts and happy trails.
Thank you for sharing your experience with the truck camper! We are always “considering” something different that might be better when we see different “set-ups” at the RV parks!! Since 2015, we’ve had a 2008 25′ motorhome & just start towing our CRV, but the shower & bath area is actually getting smaller! Imagine that!! LOL 🙂 Love the motorhome size, but twin beds that aren’t a mile off the floor and a bigger shower would be great!! So happy to see pictures of Buddy – what a cutie!!
We love checking out different rigs and seeing the many ways people set them up and use them. We’re glad we tried the truck camper and maybe someday we’ll try a motorhome of some kind too. I know what you mean about showers and bath areas getting smaller. After spreading out in a stick-built home for 2 years it’s a challenge to squeeze into anything mobile! It’s all a compromise, though, and remembering that the idea is just to get out in the world and see new stuff helps with the parts of the compromise that aren’t so easy. Buddy sends lots of tail wags!!
Oh no..used my 9’6″ camper on a 3/4 15yrs ago..bought a 1ton mostly to use the camper…your dually problems are now mine…terrible…wish i had thought this out
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that. At least you have company. We know many people besides ourselves who have unwittingly mismatched their truck and their camper. I hope it all works out for you. And happy trails once you get out there in your camper!