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flyguidemike's avatar
flyguidemike
Explorer
Nov 30, 2015

From Truck Camper to 5er and now back to a Truck Camper!

Just thought I would reintroduce myself to the forum, everyone on here has been a great help in the past, I started out with a 2014 Lance 950s and loved that camper, but decided to sell it and buy a 2015 Montana Mountaineer 42' 5th wheel, which we traveled around living in it full time for a year, and really enjoyed the travels but we decided it was just way too big. so we just sold the 5er and bought a 2016 Arctic fox 996, and I don't plan on switching rigs for along time to come, I am glad that I have experienced the different kinds of rigs, and after all that I appreciate my truck caper even more now. We Just took the new Arctic fox out for the first time over the holiday weekend, we ended up camping in Leavenworth Washington at a thousand trails campground. It was cold but I was incredibly surprised at how warm the camper stayed in the cold temps, it dipped down to about 10 degrees at night but we stayed nice and toasty inside. I am looking forward to many more trips with my family in this camper, and thanks again to everyone on this forum, you guys and gals are always so helpful on all sorts of different topics.
  • flyguidemike wrote:
    I just went out and looked in all the cabinets and did not see one anywhere.


    Maybe it's only on the trailers that they weigh them as they come off the assembly line.
  • With the 225/70R19.5 tires, you probably have close to 4000 lbs capacity per wheel even thought the Rickson rims are rated at 5000 lbs. My 811 could push the rear axle weight past 7000 lbs and when I towed my enclosed trailer was closer to 8000 lbs. I went 245's to get more tire capacity and some reserve so I did not have to worry about weight. I'm sure your boats are lighter than my 8000 lb enclosed trailer, but you may want to run the front and rear axles across a closed weigh station to get some real numbers.

  • flyguidemike wrote:
    The SRW handles this camper great, I was a little concerned about the weight so before I bought I talked to the Arctic fox rep ( Think his name was Doug) and he said that the combo with the air bags and the 1 ton SRW with Rickson's is a more than adequate combo, he also mentioned that with the kitchen slide being forward of the Center of gravity, I know that we are over on the GVWR but I feel with the extra modifications we are O.K. I have not weighed the camper, I can tell you that the Sticker on the outside of the camper shows it at 3900 wet with added extras, so it is not light but the truck handles it great. As far as having a 5er and a truck camper, I think if money was no object I would definitely have a 5er and a truck camper. We are planning on going full time again in the future, once our son is out of the house, and it would be nice to have a smaller 5er to go fulltiming, although I think I could full time out of the truck camper, but it could get a little cramped.


    Thanks for the response. Makes me feel like my combo is a little more "normal".

    That camper looks great. I checked their website out after I saw this.