Match truck and camper

We have a camper made for a short bed truck and have been very satisfied with the combination. Our truck is a crew cab 2500 and the camper was actually designed for 1500 series trucks. We chose a short bed because it fit our space requirements for parking at work and home.As many have said you do get more flexibility in the nunber of campers that fit an 8' bed 3500 but you know the parking space you have to work with. I would give careful consideration to the dry plus loaded weight of the camper for 2500 truck. The Lance you are considering might be a stretch for a 2500 truck, especially when fully loaded with your gear and occupants.

If you haven't bought the truck yet go with an F350 over the F250.

Our 2007 F350 SRW carries our fully loaded Outfitter Apex9 (3000+lbs) and still sits slightly tail high without any suspension mods.

I have had two short box campers and now a long box camper. It is about as long as they get. 11 foot 6". I so much like the bigger everything. It makes a huge difference. Especially if you plan to stay in it a lot of nights. But of course that is only my opinion. But I agree with the other poster who said if you don't have a truck yet and want to get into truck camping I would get a long box also. It leaves all your options open. Long and short box. I had a one of my short box campers on my long box truck and it worked great.

Assuming new truck and new camper.

Lance 855S shows a "wet weight" of 3084lbs. Assuming that means with full fresh tank and propane, but nothing else like food or your stuff.

That's an awful lot for an F250. A typical F250 has a rear axle rating of 6084lbs, limited by the tires, and weighs in the neighborhood of 2800-2900lbs empty. So with just the bare essentials, you will be exceeding your tire ratings right from the get-go.

At the very least you will need some sort of suspension add-ons, and bigger tires right off the lot. To me, it's ludicrous to throw away brand new tires off a brand new truck, when you can just get the truck with the right tires to begin with.

If you upgrade to a single rear wheel (SRW) F350, you will not need the tires at least, and may not need suspension add-ons.

The cab in and of itself shouldn't affect stability, but wheelbase might. Ergo, a longer cab will by nature increase wheelbase. From your description since a crew cab is out then it sounds as if a super cab with an 8' bed is also out of the question? An 8 foot bed with a Super Cab in a nice truck for almost any camper.

Are you buying the truck new? Regardless of your cab/ bed configuration... get an F350. JMHO.

I have a MH now, but I used a TC for years.

A lot of people use a short bed truck for hauling a camper because that's what they had and didn't want to put out the money to buy another truck. It sounds like you don't have either at the moment so I would strongly recommend you get a standard 8' bed truck with the longer camper to go in it.

I know you're used to the space on a boat, but I'd never go with the cramped space of a short bed TC. The one place it does make sense to me is using the short bed camper in a 8' bed. This gives you room for an extra fuel tank and generator in the front of the bed. Plus space for things like lawn chairs, the BBQ and so on.

Bill