How long is too long for camper

I'm going to chime in and say length alone will have little bearing on handling.

I, like many others here, have had several TCs over the years. I had an 11.5' Real-Lite on an F250. I've had a 9.5' on that same truck, then moved on to single-slides, and now my dual slide.

I can say without a doubt that height and weight are far bigger factors than length. Length on it's own won't be a factor since most all are designed with a mostly normal COG. Add slides, now it's heavier. Make the inside floor go over bed the rails like mine, vs inside the box like my previous Arctic Fox's, and now you have a taller TC, which tends to sway more.

All but one of my TC's were 11.5'. Weight and height made me go from an F250, to a 350, and now a 450. Length alone was not the factor.

Don't forget about these people for a custom flatbed camper....
Custom camper for flatbed

The longer campers drop in the back so it's not like you can position the camper anywhere on a flatbed. If you were to get the longer cab to axle wheelbase, the storage would be in front of the camper. I'm having a 9' low profile camper body built on my Ram 5500 and picking it up next week. The 9' body gives me a nice 10" wide storage space up front (think oversized cookie sheets) that's designed to carry the tailgate. I have an acquaintance that has the 11' body with a Host Mammoth. He has a huge front storage cabinet in front of his camper set-up that almost looks like a sleeper. Google Douglass Truck bodies in Bakersfield to see different campers on different makes and wheelbase trucks.

Ok, whatever you want. Personally I'd pick a camper I liked and then buy an appropriate truck. Difference in handling and ride won't be that much.

HMS Beagle Thanks, yes I am planning on going custom with the camper, I did never think about the possibility of a small 5th wheel like you mentioned. That is interesting. I saw an Oliver travel trailer on a flat bed Fuso that looked pretty cool.

I plan for a spare tire, and a light Honda CT 110 motorcycle on the back.

Since all truck campers are designed for pickups with a standard 8' or shorter bed and a CA of 56" or less, I think any truck camper you can buy will go on the shorter truck. The longer CA would probably handle better, and give the option of mounting the camper either further forward or further back on the bed. Further forward would give better handling and a porch out back (though many campers assume anything aft of 8' is open and have drop downs, drains, etc there). Further back would give you a big space to use ahead of the camper for storage, a motorcycle, or whatever you can think of. Also the cabover would not hang over the hood as far.

In my opinion the big win for a flatbed camper to to change the floorplan as it is now unrestricted by the pickup box and wheel wells - but that requires a custom build. I considered for a time buying a chassis-cab truck and mounting a small 5th wheel on it, like the old Bigfoot 5th wheel or the similar Escape 5th wheel. That would be a phenomenal setup. They amount to about a 13 or 14' camper but not confined to camper floorplans, with side entry.