Mounting a truck camper on a chassis truck.
I'd like to mount my truck camper on an F550 chassis truck. Have any of you already done such a thing? I was looking at possibly using a utility truck bed. I found one, but it is 9' long instead of 8'...
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Most pick-ups have a Cab to Axle (CA) of about 56" to maybe 58". Cab and Chassis trucks have standard CA of 60", 84", and then on up. The one you likely want for a truck camper is the 60" CA. This means that you will need a 9' body to put on the truck. Most TC are flat on the bottom. Some do drop down past the rear of a standard truck bed. My Fleetwood 11X was flat for 8' 5" then dropped down. I had an 8' 8" flatbed; I put 2 pressure treated 2x4s at the front of the bed with some rubber on them to act as a stop and keep the camper just right on the flat bed.
If you're going for a really big camper, 11' or 12', and it's flat on the bottom you may want to look into getting an 84" CA which will take an 11' flat bed. I suspect it would ride really nice with the axle set back further. However, you may have problems with the camper drain valves.
You can't use a typical stock utility body as very few campers will fit in one without modifications. A flatbed is the way to go. You can bolt on above and below bed storage boxes to fit your situation. I had 4 fold up rings installed in the flatbed on my truck. I used these to attach the tie-downs too. It worked great for 7 years over thousands of miles and multiple states.
Classy Chassis makes a custom aluminum truck camper bed; last time I priced one they were about $15,000. You can get an aluminum flatbed for maybe $6,000. If you have enough payload capacity (and with a class 5 truck you should) you can use a steel flatbed which are usually less expensive. After you get the camper on there you can put any storage boxes where they will fit.
The nice think about a C&C truck is the rear axle is usually only 93" wide so you can use a 93" wide bed. This will allow more jack clearance on the camper than a 96" wide pick-up dually bed.
If you're going for a really big camper, 11' or 12', and it's flat on the bottom you may want to look into getting an 84" CA which will take an 11' flat bed. I suspect it would ride really nice with the axle set back further. However, you may have problems with the camper drain valves.
You can't use a typical stock utility body as very few campers will fit in one without modifications. A flatbed is the way to go. You can bolt on above and below bed storage boxes to fit your situation. I had 4 fold up rings installed in the flatbed on my truck. I used these to attach the tie-downs too. It worked great for 7 years over thousands of miles and multiple states.
Classy Chassis makes a custom aluminum truck camper bed; last time I priced one they were about $15,000. You can get an aluminum flatbed for maybe $6,000. If you have enough payload capacity (and with a class 5 truck you should) you can use a steel flatbed which are usually less expensive. After you get the camper on there you can put any storage boxes where they will fit.
The nice think about a C&C truck is the rear axle is usually only 93" wide so you can use a 93" wide bed. This will allow more jack clearance on the camper than a 96" wide pick-up dually bed.
