Forum Discussion

wheel50's avatar
wheel50
Explorer
Aug 27, 2015

Pop up vs hard side loading

I am no stranger to RV's but a newbie to truck campers.

We recently bought a 1983 bigfoot 1400lbs to try out truck camping on our 1982 c20 2wd.

We were very unhappy with the loading and unloading on the old highjacker hydraulic jacks. When it's up in the air hight enough to load or unload the truck its really unstable.

We are looking at a 2016 Palomino 1500 2000lbs pop up with electric jacks. My question is will it be less unstable to load. I would guess the fact that its made for newer trucks and I still have 66 inches at the back of my bed having more wiggle room would make a bit of a difference with lest stress worrying about damaging jacks by jolting the camper in the wrong direction.

If it's still unstable when up high then I have been thinking of Stable lift after reading allot about it but stable lift is very expensive.

Any help help would be appreciated.

11 Replies

  • A new, lightweight camper with electric jacks is quite stable even if they are fully extended. I wouldn't worry - at all. Just make sure you load/unload on even (that is: not sloping) and firm ground.

    The camper will still wiggle a little. Sometimes that is an advantage if you need to make small adjustments (less than an inch) while lowering the camper into the truck bed. Our camper fits very tightly so I frequently need to do that.

    Obviously you wouldn't want to live in the camper off the truck with jacks fully extended and without further support.

    It is really easy. Take your time and don't sweat it.

    The Palomino campers are OK for the price but do not have the best reputation for quality. But I suppose you know that.