Is it possible to use a 5.5ft camper on 6.5ft bed?

Here's the new thread. It should work better as I ended up raising too many questions. :)

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28760586/p/1.cfm

Acei wrote:
But the point for us is not moving TT around as much, while the truck will be much more active.

If you are active especially to park or go offroad, you want the truck as maneuverable as possible. Again, that means smaller and less weight is better. It equals better mileage harder to get stuck etc.

You can always carry a small amount of extra fuel in the truck if needed. That also means you won't have to commit to making the truck so unique that you can't simply trade for another at some later date.

Grit dog wrote:


Sweet dodge bed on the Ferd!
Belongs with the guy trying to rebuild a clapped out Suburban with a LS motor, 6 speed turbo super diesel.....
Actually this was a much better idea than that!

Not too many will notice :B
I bought utility body truck cheap enough to play with it.
Since Ford beds would cost a fortune, I bought a trailer, with Dodge bed on it and transfer it to Ford.
Put the Utility body on the trailer frame and resold it, so the swap cost me about $400 cash plus my labor.
Dodge parts go dirt cheap.
Still 3 years since I bought it the trade-in value for the truck seems to be $4000 higher than what I paid for it.

Now to OP, the 5 foot TT for fulltiming? Khmmm...

jimh425 wrote:
The weight of the fuel will make more sense in the TT.

I guess so. But the point for us is not moving TT around as much, while the truck will be much more active. Other than the weight advantage, its much more useful to have it on the truck (for us).

The weight of the fuel will make more sense in the TT.

Grit dog wrote:

Acei wrote:
I did find a 5.5ft camper, although I seem to have lost the reference to it. In the worst case, I could go with 8ft bed, and use a 6.5ft camper. 1.5ft worth of extra space sounds nice... :) The only reason for going with 5.5ft camper is because I still prefer to drive a shorter truck but still have some space left over in the bed.

Will not go with any slides to save weight, and I will be purchasing 1t SRW truck, brand new.

I would only consider underside mounted aux tanks if there's a way to take some fuel out of that tank. We are planning to build a TT with diesel based heating and generator system, similar to DMH.

While I applaud your thinking out of the box skills, your multiple threads started recently with some very basic technical questions asked tells me that your very involved plan will either be someone charging you a fortune to construct your off the wall ideas or a long frustrating project in your garage!
IMO think readily available products and tried an true setups. You'll be able to go camping during this decade then!

Thank you for the advice. We are still 2 years away from going full timing so we have plenty of time to research and learn. I enjoy the process of researching, so all this is very interesting, especially in truck camper which I didn't take it seriously before. We (more like my DW lol) has a rather involving wish for our full timing, so no matter which direction we go, its gonna be extreme. :)

Kayteg1 wrote:
In my case the space originated from the fact that my cabover was resting on roof lights and I like the idea of extra storage.
My truck is originally long wheelbase cab & chassis so weight distribution is not a problem.
In your case whole camper will fit on the bed, but still the front gap will be the same and with 5' camper I don't think you will have overload issues.

Sweet dodge bed on the Ferd!
Belongs with the guy trying to rebuild a clapped out Suburban with a LS motor, 6 speed turbo super diesel.....
Actually this was a much better idea than that!

Acei wrote:
I did find a 5.5ft camper, although I seem to have lost the reference to it. In the worst case, I could go with 8ft bed, and use a 6.5ft camper. 1.5ft worth of extra space sounds nice... :) The only reason for going with 5.5ft camper is because I still prefer to drive a shorter truck but still have some space left over in the bed.

Will not go with any slides to save weight, and I will be purchasing 1t SRW truck, brand new.

I would only consider underside mounted aux tanks if there's a way to take some fuel out of that tank. We are planning to build a TT with diesel based heating and generator system, similar to DMH.

While I applaud your thinking out of the box skills, your multiple threads started recently with some very basic technical questions asked tells me that your very involved plan will either be someone charging you a fortune to construct your off the wall ideas or a long frustrating project in your garage!
IMO think readily available products and tried an true setups. You'll be able to go camping during this decade then!

I did find a 5.5ft camper, although I seem to have lost the reference to it. In the worst case, I could go with 8ft bed, and use a 6.5ft camper. 1.5ft worth of extra space sounds nice... :) The only reason for going with 5.5ft camper is because I still prefer to drive a shorter truck but still have some space left over in the bed.

Will not go with any slides to save weight, and I will be purchasing 1t SRW truck, brand new.

I would only consider underside mounted aux tanks if there's a way to take some fuel out of that tank. We are planning to build a TT with diesel based heating and generator system, similar to DMH.

What 5.5ft camper? If such a thing exists, it must be fairly new on the market.

Last I knew there was no such thing.

5.5ft beds are achieved by lopping the front 12" off of a 6.5ft bed. Most of the bed hangs behind the rear axle, with only about 18" ahead of the rear axle. Very tight space to cram enough weight into to get the camper to balance anywhere near over the axle.

Before you say "what about the cabover" let me point out that while cabovers do contribute to the location of the COG, there is only so much you can put up there to move weight forward. It's not like you can move the water tank, refrigerator, sink, toilet, propane, etc. into the cabover to achieve balance.