Redsky wrote:
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Unbelievable dumb comment. A hard sided camper is going to require less than 12 feet of clearance even with gear on top of the roof. All overpasses and bridges are a minimum of 13'6" above the ground. Go to any state website where they post areas with clearance problems to alert commercial truckers and see if you can find a single problem on a state highway or interstate. They don't exist.
Lots of cities streets, and roads off the state and Interstate system have clearance under 12'
If I stop for groceries on a trip or my wife or I want to use the toilet we do not want to have to raise the camper before we can go inside. We carry camera gear in the camper and we can stop at a pullout and get inside and grab what we want in minutes without having to first raise the camper. When we are done we head back onto the road without having to first lower the camper.
No problem accessing anything in my 2014 Palomino with the top down, including the toilet.
Talk about worries, with the popup we would be worrying about the crank mechanism breaking or worrying about leaving it up if we left the campsite for a hike or worrying about it up in bear country or worrying about leaving it up by accident and driving off with it raised.
Any mechanical device, including lift systems, are subject to failure, but the newer models are pretty reliable. If a bear really wants in, he will get in to any camper.
The one place where a popup helps is when going on offroad trails with no real road as such. Then the lower center of gravity is a definite asset. But that applies to less than 1% of the people who own and use a truck camper.Doesn't the lower center of gravity also affect handling characteristics of the vehicle for the better?
