jaycocreek wrote:
For years I had a Lance myself. I always hauled it on my vintage 1997 F350 4x4 diesel long bed. It was a 915 with no slide and it was heavy. Sticker said (Lance lies like a good politician) 2950 camper weight. It actually weighed 3500 empty (water and propane). Was I heavy, sure was and I knew it in every curve and every stop sign and traffic light. Loaded up with all out stuff, food, clothes, lawn chairs, fishing poles, coleman lantern and everything my wife likes including all her pots and pans, I bet I was pushing 4500-5000 pounds and thats no slide.
I have basically, the same camper(Lance 480/9.6ft)..The sticker on mine is like 2700? and loaded ready to camp completely full of everything with the wheel wells full of extra batteries and tools,it weighs in at roughly 3700 pounds.I run it on a '94 F-350 DRW..Rides like a champ with none of the sway that pickup campers give on most of the SRW units I have had them on.
I am split for an opinion for the opp..Years ago my buddies dad had a 10ft camper on his 1966 Chevy 1500 light duty truck.He used to borrow the truck and we would cruse around. It felt like it was going to tip over on every corner..I just new my friend would role that combo sooner or later being a young dumb kid..He never did..He never broke an axle/wheel bearings/shocks or anything to my surprise and his dad took it on some nasty roads camping..Infact,Myself personally,I have never seen any pickup suffer axle/wheel bearing/springs or shock failure due to carrying a truck camper and I have had and seen some Darwin candidates for it.
So from that experience and some others,I think the opp would be okay with that setup for the most part..Like I said,I am split in my thinking on it.
We all buy truck campers for different reasons..I bought a dually,not for carrying a huge heavy TC, but for stability on the windy mountain roads I travel and to pull a trailer full of whatever I take for a lengthy stay.
You are correct, we all buy different TC's for different reasons. I went lighter this time because I run off road and I wanted a lower vertical CG and overall transport height and I wanted to loose that sweaty palm driving experience on the freeway in the wind and when passing big trucks...and I did plus a dullay would not work for me anyway, too wide to negotiate the seasonal roads I frequent. I always take a pruning saw and loppers along (plus a chainsaw just to open tight roads up with. Some of the seasonal roads I've been down are extremely tight and my camper has many scratches on it from entoaching limbs and bushes but something I knew would happen anyway. Part of how and where I camp.
