Older Lance on a new Ram

I loaded a 2000 Lance 820 on my 2014 RAM 3500. The camper touches the bed rails at the tailgate end. I put down a piece of 3/4" foam and had ample clearance. No problem with the cab area.

The person that purchased the lance 820 loaded it on a Ford F250. He had no problem with bed rail height but only had 3/4" cab clearance over his cab lights.

The tailgate narrowing happened in the late '80 to '90s. They were all 65" but shrank to about 60".
Chevy started it in '88 ('92 for the crew cabs) when their new body style replaced the old "square body".
With Ford, the '97s were the last of the wide style.
Dodge replaced their square trucks in 1994 when the big-rig styled Ram came out.

In general, campers built in 1988 or later are designed to fit the narrower tailgate trucks.
Older ones can be modified to fit, sometimes easily. You just need a few inches where it kicks out inside the bed behind the wheel well, if it does that at all. In my case, I had to section a piece of the shower enclosure and fiberglass it back together.

Height is easy, you just put something under it. I like using 4'x8' rigid foam insulation panels. They weigh almost nothing and you can glue them to the bottom of the camper and not have to think about them.

R. Walter wrote:
I have a 2003 Lance 815 that I plan to mount on a 2016 Ram 3500 diesel longbed SRW. For years I've carried it on a 1996 Dodge 3/4 ton Cummins.

Will the Lance fit on my new Ram? The Ram looks taller and a bit wider.

You'll have to measure you bed to cab height and compare to to your camper floor to overhead. My 2002 Lance 815 has been on 4 different trucks, 3 of them F 250 by the time I bought my 2007 F250 4x4 I had to build a 4" platform so the cab over could have enought clearance above the truck cab.

It will fit with almost no problem but will be a bit tighter than on the older truck. I'm carrying a 2004 Lance 815 on a 2015 Ram. They are both the same dimensions as the 2003 and 2016 you are planning on matching.

The only thing I found was the bed rails were a tad high on the new truck. The plastic bed rail caps just touched the camper at the very back. While it wasn't putting any real weight on the bed rail, it was enough that if you put a piece of paper on it before loading the camper, you couldn't pull it out. So I made a 3/4" platform (1x6 perimeter with 3/4" foam interior) but a 3/4" horse stall mat would have worked just as well. Load it up first and you may decide you don't even need anything.

I don't usually agree with Grit Dog, but in this case I'm in 100% agreement.

It is highly unlikely that someone else has your exact rig, or knows offhand if it fits.

You've got the truck, you've got the camper, and you've got nothing to lose at this point. All you need is a tape measure to figure out what you'll need to do to make it fit.

If the camper won't clear the cab, build a platform. The only other issue you may have is with the tailgate opening at the rear of the bed. On some brands they narrowed the tailgate opening and rounded the corners, so any "bump-outs" that you might have in the floor past the wheel wheels could interfere there.

Measuring tape?

measure the opening of your tailgate, the height of you bed rails and cab

I wanted a '96 Lance and it wouldn't fit my 2011 Chevy because the bed opening was too narrow - it needs to be at least 64" - I was told if I wanted a Lance it had to be a 2003 or newer - you might be in kuck

I also had to put 2x12s under a sheet of plywood so the '96 Skyline I bought would clear the bed rails