SidecarFlip wrote:
Grit dog wrote:
Rust .....yuck! Sorry man.....
Any newer long bed 1 ton srw gasser will fit the bill nicely and the only thing you'll miss is the 4mpg or so better the old diesel gets.
Regarding the camper, hunting, snow, cold up north says hard side to me.
Not me. Hard side says limited access to me (been there did that) The places I go, a hard side would rip the top off in about 100 yards.
Forest canopy and tree limbs don't work well with a 12+ foot high camper.
I not so fondly remember the first (and only) trip to our northern Michigan property with the Lance in the bed. I spent a good part of one day with my pole trimmer, lopping off branches so I wouldn't rip off the ac unit or hole the roof. The big ones necessitated a chainsaw and me standing on the roof of a friends camper shell. Wasn't fun at all.
I worked my butt off for a day when I was supposed to be having a nice time in the woods...
I have a stream to ford as well and the bed is rocky. I remember the nice sound of stuff coming out of the cabinets and my wife's not so happy look....
Not a problem now. I drive right in. First trip in the spring necessitates some pruning shear work (so I don't scrape the camper sides with branches too much) but overhead clearance isn't an issue anymore and if I do have a low hanger, I can reach it easily because the overall height isn't that much. On my lifted 4" 350 SRW 4x4, my camper height is just at 8 feet to the top of the vent fan lid with the top down. If I had a stock height 1 ton (I run 35 x 12.5's), I'd be around 7 to 7 6.
No brainer for us. For us, a SS or no camper.
If you want to, shoot me an e-mail and I'll send you some pictures so you will have a good idea about where and what we do and camp at.
Don't have a clue how to post them on here but I have some nice 'woodsy' pictures of our camping. sales@flipmeisters.com is my addy.
SidecarFlip kindly sent me some pics and said it was okay to post them here. His truck and camper in action:
He mentioned the steps specifically: "Our big issue was getting in and out of the camper. My truck bed is 35” off the ground so the door of the camper is actually 38” up. I got a set of Torklift Revolution Glo-Sreps with their brackets and fabricated a custom mount to carry the steps (see pictures). I built that as a prototype for Torklift and Palomino. The Palomino factory is about 45 minutes from me." here's the pic:
