Bed size vs. Camper size - Flexible?

There are several campers that are listed by their manufacturer as suitable for a long or short bed truck. These are rare.
Most long bed campers on a short bed will put a lot more weight on the rear axle and wont' be supported properly where they overhand.
A shortbed camper on a long bed truck will have a gap at the front because you can't slide it fully on or the taillights will hit. I've seen people use this gap to haul generators and other things. It looks funny but seems to work fine.
I have a flatbed with tool boxes above and below the bed for extra storage. I can put tools, lawn chairs, ext. cords, oil and other fluids, my grill, propane bottles, etc. in all the storage compartments. I don't know why a flatbed would be considered "unsafe". They make an excellent platform for hauling a TC.
I wouldn't want a lifted truck and the top of my camper is already 11.5' and I don't even have a basement. Some lift kits can be easily removed and the truck returned to stock IF you have all the factory pieces that were removed to install the lift. Some truck's need some of their factory parts or brackets cut off to install the lift. Returning them to stock would require welding these parts back together, again, IF you have them in the first place.
I'd skip the lifted trucks.

Isn't there one of our fellow TC'ers who put a short bed camper on their long bed truck and then installed a Honda EU3000is generator in front of the camper?

My camper is designed for long or short bed trucks. COG is right over the rear axle on my short bed.

As long as the camper is secure, there isn't a problem putting it on a flat bed.

Thank you!

I'm a newbie - but along the way in my search, I figured out that if the camper has a gray/black tank; it's probably (always?) going to have a dropped back end to accommodate the sewer line. I'm pretty sure THOSE models have to fit the truck's bed length - you shouldn't put a shortbed on a longbed truck. But other models (like mine) - don't have waste tanks or dropped backs. They will fit either a short or a long-box truck.

Here's what I wanted/needed: it has an 8' bed length. No tanks. Works on the shortbed truck shown (this truck is just being used to move the camper) and will be perfect on our longbed F-350



For comparison, here is almost the same camper in size, but this one has a toilet and tanks; and needs to hang off the back of the truck so there's room for the sewer connections:

For clarification: the short bed camper had a wood frame spacer with the generator tucked in the front. So his COG and overall length was just like a long bed camper. No black/gray dumping issues.

I have a lance 855s on a long bed dually and it handles perfectly fine. I built a spacer out of 2x6 so I could haul firewood and keep the camper where I want it in the bed. The camper actually slides into the bed about 7 inches farther so I only have about 11 inches of space between the bulkhead on the truck to the camper.

timdan94 wrote:
I have a lance 855s on a long bed dually and it handles perfectly fine. I built a spacer out of 2x6 so I could haul firewood and keep the camper where I want it in the bed. The camper actually slides into the bed about 7 inches farther so I only have about 11 inches of space between the bulkhead on the truck to the camper.

Hey- that looks GREAT!

Something to think about.

Interesting.

Although, with a dually and its weight carrying capacity, you can do pretty much whatever you want.

A Lance 855 only has a dry weight of roughly 2700 lbs, even if you load it down with an extra 1000 lbs of stuff, that is well below the carrying capacity of a dually.

So, even if you don't get your COG position dead on top of the rear wheels, you're fine because you have a huge payload capacity and stability.

Another vote for the dually approach. Extra set of wheels is only $1k more usually over a one ton SWR.

Our 855s closes in on 4000# with water, supplies and other stuff.