Long Bed vs Bigger Overhang - off - roading

I go off-road frequently, but I can’t do any serious four-wheeling with my camper. I avoid deep gullies and steep banks because of the rear overhang, but I have scraped the rear jacks a couple times when I misjudged. Not hard enough to damage anything. It’s usually trees I’m avoiding in the places I go.

As long as there’s enough clearance width and height wise and the weather’s decent, I don’t mind driving roads like this. It looks steep, but fairly smooth. At least right here :W

c.traveler2 wrote:

It’s when the road gets like this that I tend to not want to continue if it goes on very long. The grade isn’t the problem. Because of how top heavy I am, those big rocks poking out of the ground can make for a bouncy, rocking and rolling, miserable experience if you have to drive over many of them. Even if there’s no grade, the bouncing can get to be too much for me. I’ve been on a few that were bad enough to unload some of our cabinets unexpectedly, even though they have locking latches. That can be a mess.

c.traveler2 wrote:

:):)

kohldad wrote:
The question is if you will have more problems dragging the rear or getting high centered. That depends on the type of trais you are doing. I have the long bed and think the 18" longer wheel base is with the compromise. I have always had more close calls with dragging the rear of my 8' 6" camper than being high centered.

Thanks for your experience. I've never had to worry about dragging my rear end before....

stevenal wrote:
I have the BF 1500 jimh425 spoke of, and find it to be a nice compromise. A long bed super cab replaced the short bed crew cab, and gave us a tad more interior room with the same wheelbase. The new camper has a nice short overhang (ordered without the bumper/deck). Our last venture from the pavement took us on the Wolverine Trail and Burr Trail switchbacks in Utah. Not a five by any means. I don't believe a dually will fit the ruts of a two rut road very well. Uneven washouts that will tip the rig are where I look for another route.

Thanks for the recommendation. I've heard good things about Bigfoot! I will put them into my search box. Interesting idea to change out the supercab for crew cab and keep the long wheel base - I like it!

Geo*Boy wrote:
Corttt, checkout a Northstar pop up camper. It has a wet bath, cassette toilet and AC. Well built campers designed to go on SRW trucks.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've heard good things about Northstar and I really like the idea of a cassette toilet.

c.traveler2 wrote:

Cortttt wrote:
I have no experience at all with truck campers - am about to get one. I go "off-road" a lot by which I mean Forest Service/BLM roads. I've been looking at Northern Lite 8'11" and 9'6" models. The 8'11" requires a short bed and has a big overhang on the back while the 9'6" requires a long bed.

Trying to figure out which would be better "off-road"? An overhang that might scrape or a longer wheelbase with a shorter breakover angle and a larger turning radius?

I also wonder if having a long bed would have any effect on tippiness off road?

How "off road" are you wanting to go is the real question. Approach and departure angle of your rig will be of more importance than weight of your rig, the greater the angle the more off the beaten path one can take. If you choose a standard dually you'll find many of the dirt road will be too narrow for that type of truck.

In the Truck Camper Trip Report you'll many of us have go off the beaten path and pushed our rigs to the limits. Take a look at reports by jefe4x4, Whazzo and myself {c.traveler2}. These reports will give you a better insight on some of the rigs used and how "off road" you really want to go.
I do have many videos with other member of this forum you can check out.

Thanks! Have you lifted your vehicles much? And what kind of impact did that have on tippiness? Tippiness is the factor I know nothing about.

Grit dog wrote:
The difference in overhang between the 2 on short vs long bed is exactly the difference between the difference in the camper and truck bed dimensions. Or somewhere between 8"-13" depending on what brand of shortbed truck.

IMO, the rear overhang will generally not become an issue for length or breakover angle, before the terrain is arguably too rough for a pickup with 2 tons of high center of gravity load in the bed.
Unless you have some specific spatial limitations, and you have a blank slate for truck and camper, I'd say the longer the better. Every inch of space in a TC helps out IMO.

Thanks. I agree about the space. It's a pretty big consideration for us. The question is where does it begin to really affect moderate off roading.

Corttt, checkout a Northstar pop up camper. It has a wet bath, cassette toilet and AC. Well built campers designed to go on SRW trucks.

I have the BF 1500 jimh425 spoke of, and find it to be a nice compromise. A long bed super cab replaced the short bed crew cab, and gave us a tad more interior room with the same wheelbase. The new camper has a nice short overhang (ordered without the bumper/deck). Our last venture from the pavement took us on the Wolverine Trail and Burr Trail switchbacks in Utah. Not a five by any means. I don't believe a dually will fit the ruts of a two rut road very well. Uneven washouts that will tip the rig are where I look for another route.

Thanks cpt.

Hopefully not towing anything. If it was anything it would be a wee small trailer.

99% of the time we're boondocking on dispersed sites. I would hope we can make that size camper world on those kinds of trails. If not I would have to think of something else.

Like kohldad said, there will be compromises in your scenario too.
If you prioritize off-road-ability, then a shortbed supercab with a popup TC is probably the most capable combo.'
If you prioritize the size/comfort/capacities of a bigger heavier hard side camper, then you'll give up a little in wheelbase/stability/departure angle and off-road-ability.

Bottom line is "most" TCs aren't really designed or meant for serious off road and "most" folks aren't doing trails like the above pictures.
Appearances can be deceiving. Pics above, that camper is lighter and the owner likely had sufficient suspension mods to help considerably with stability/body roll. I've done plenty of off roading and I can say confidently I would not have taken our old Arctic Foxes on our mega cab srw truck on anything like that, intentionally. That trail pictures above is also not dually friendly.

Some serious first world decisions here, lol! Fun nonetheless!