European TC

Marshfly wrote:
I don't get it. Everyone oohs and aahs over these European campers, all of which, obviously have the camper CG severely behind the rear axle. Why is is ok for these European campers to have the front wall of the camper a foot in front of the axle? Have someone put an 8ft camper in a 5.5' bed crew cab truck here and the stones start throwing.

I ran an 8ft ATC popup in my Ford Supercrew with the 5.5' bed for thousands of miles and over more than one 4wd pass in the Colorado San Juans with no bad manners whatsoever but according to a lot of guys here, I was flirting with disaster because my camper CG was behind the rear axle.

I understand. Many who see my 10ft Avion on my 6.5ft F350 start to give me grief. But then a 12ft TC on a 8 ft box has more overhang than I do... and more behind the axle...

But I think the difference on these overseas units is that they are specifically designed for going on the smaller pickups that are prevalent overseas. I live in Scotland for 2 years in the early 90's, and I drove all over Scotland and England. But even my 1976 Saab 99 was considered a "big" car to British standards for the non-highway (motor-way) roads. So it tends to be all relative, and just as in my Avion, I rebuilt it to move much of the weight forwards, a lot of these European built TC's the weight is purposely set as far forward as possible even though the aesthetics say its all behind the axle. I think if you lived in a place like Scotland, with the narrow roads with stone wall and no shoulders and sheep in the middle of the roads, you would understand more that a smaller (non-US Spec) truck and Camper will get you around a lot easier, and to do that the TC is going to look far different than a US spec, which the RV industry caters to the "plush" over the "functional" since they cant be caught selling a bare bones basic, when they offer full blown posh ecstasy in their trailers and motor-homes etc... just my $0.02....
Garry in AK