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Lexicon7
Explorer
Apr 16, 2015

TC Weight? Old Shasta Camper :::

Hi Guys, I found this 1989 Shasta on the Bend CL at a low & OBO price but we all know about the older TC's that are little more than a garage sized door stop! I don't think they started using aluminum construction until much later... Anyone???This looks clean but may be way too heavy to be feasable?!!!

3 Replies

  • People used to put those on 1/2 ton longbeds in te 60-80's.Maybe add the helper springs.My late FiL put many a mile on a 1970 Dodge and a cab over camper very similar,and pulled a boat also.
  • Whether too heavy would depend on what you use to carry it. They were built for the 3/4 ton and "camper special" pickup payloads of the time, which were not always as much as 3/4 tons can carry today.

    As for construction, it could be aluminum framed sandwich wall, some manufacturers were using that construction with ribbed aluminum or ribbed plastic skin as early as the late 1960s.

    In 1989, was Shasta still Shasta RV, or had the brand become owned by Coachmen? Coachmen was doing sandwich walls in the late 1980s, at the same time they were still using stick built construction on their budget lines.

    In any case, stick built construction is not necessarily heavier. Gulfstream was building wood frame lightweights for several years in their Amerilite TT line. Equivalent floorplans in the Streamlite line using sandwich wall construction ran 10 to 15% heavier. Weight can depend more on the weight of what gets put inside, than it does on the method used for the box structure.

    You need to find out what it does weigh, and know what you can carry.
  • Probably not aluminum and it would be easier to find the specifications if there was a model number to go by. NADA shows five different models of truck camper for that year.