Lance 1010 cabover strut

The struts are only an add-on. Your truck/camper should ride just fine without them. As do most other campers out there.

Try it without it to see if you can deal with seeing your camper move up and down, it doesn't bother me and I take mine offroad.

I have a 2001 1010 on my 2014 3500 Ram with no struts. Haven't found a need for them, I think the camper rides fine....but maybe if I put them on I'd think differently.

Yeah, I've seen there is a debate about need/wanting them. Since they were included with the camper, figured I'd use them. They are the 25.5" version vs. the 30.5" version for crew cabs... just a silly 5 inches... too bad they couldn't just make one size fit all! If it doesn't cost anything or much to keep them, figured they have to help at least a little bit! Second time hooked up, I ripped out one of the mounts (luckily still attached to strut). Of course as I looked closer at the set up and saw only an inch or two of travel left in the strut I understood why it pulled the mount out... plus the screws were rusted.

The question is more of whether it is doable and maybe any caveats to doing what I said, adding a couple bars and extending the mount. For $30, would I risk damaging camper? Or the truck... Did think after the one mount pulled out on the highway (fell onto the F350 mirror) that it was probably good it did that rather than rip the mount on the truck or anything else. Weakest link was the rusty screws. I'm thinking I could bolt a cabover support bar from inside the camper to make sure the 1 or 2ft bar under the cabover doesn't fall and hit truck one day... Any design diagrams out there on these campers? To see the width of structural bars?

I would definitely go without them vs. buying the proper longer ones for $500+. Just figured the few dollars in material and some know how might salvage the minimal help they probably are... I do agree that my 2014 F350 is probably a little better equipped to handle the camper vs. 2004 when they came out soooooo, yeah, maybe without the struts it really wouldn't be much difference... again, for a few bucks, is it worth trying to extend the mount?

A little added background - I spent the stoopid $120+ for the brackets before getting the camper thinking the strut size was correct (knowing there were 2 different sizes). Soooo, if I don't use them, I'm out the $120 for a couple of metal brackets that are about $4 in material! :-/

Previous camper owner swore by the struts... but was driving a 2000 Chev 2500....

You don't need them, unless your camper has major structural issues.
I just took my Fleetwood, who is basement/attic camper and scaled 6000 lb loaded -on Alaska highway.
I have seen the "nose" of cabover moving 8" up and down on some road bumps and hundreds of times I wonder when the nose will drop on the hood.
I am back home now and the nose is still on the camper.

Here comes the debate..
Strut vs no strut.
Regular oil vs synthetic
Air pressures to run.
It's all a can of worms.

1. Rusty screws mean water intrusion. You might want to look into that.
2. Previous owner may have "swore by them" but if he had them on since day one, he has nothing to compare to. Yes, they work. No, they are usually not necessary.

Brian-173:
I came to this forum for advice on alternatives to struts and saw your post and will offer the following observation. There seems to be a firm commitment by those holding an opinion whether struts are or are not of any use. Those who never drove both with and without are only speculating. My quest is for a means to stop the horrible forward and back rocking (called porpoising by some) and those who have conquered this problem with struts are in that before and after group whose opinion I would value. Some rigs, like mine (2016 Toyota Tundra and 2019 Lance 650) absolutely need something to stop the rocking. The camper has contacted the roof more than once in its out-of-control rocking. I've tightened up the hold-downs as much as I can. Having found out that the 650 is not designed to support struts I need to find another solution. Which brings up another point FYI to the OP: Instructions from Lance will show where the brackets are to be installed. This per Lance just minutes ago by phone so you might try getting their installation instructions to confirm where the upper bracket should be installed.

Thanks for all the input. I agree you have to sort of understand where the opinions are coming from and different rigs behave differently. My question was searching more for input about possibly altering the mounting location due to the difference in my truck and previous camper owner's truck. Will work on my idea in the near future and see if it works. If not, will throw some sealant in any holes I create and don't use. lol

My 2003 F350 crew cab and struts worked fine with my 2008 Lance 1050. The struts were too long with the new crew cab 2011 F350 dually so I moved the mounts on the camper back a few inches. That was in 2015. They are still there in 2019 with no adverse effects that I can see.