TC + extended hitch

bkenobi wrote:
I was thinking this morning that g I ng with an 8' might be easier all the way around until I remembered a couple details. Almost all campers seem to have some sort of bumper/porch/step setup and/or a valence extending past the truck bumper. Even when they don't, I have friends who clipped their jacks with the trailer and either dented the trailer or bent the jack. In both instances they pointed out they were looking at a hitch extension. Again, both were flush with the truck bumper, so that's really a best case setup. I'm not towing now, so I think I'll stick with the factory hitch and no extension. If/when I get to that point, I'll get the super hitch. I suppose I might get lucky and find one on CL between now and then!

I didn't read if you have a long bed but presume so from the discussion. Pursuant to your concerns above, yeah most campers have something that is lower than the truck bed, behind the bed.
That's one of the main reasons I looked at the short AF 860 models. Not being an AF salesman although, aside from being very heavy, both or my older ones have been solid and pretty much trouble free.
The older and some newer AFs don't have any overhang below the level of the truck bed which makes for a lot of vertical clearance for trailer hitches.
In a long bed truck you could plop an 860 or 811 model without the built in gen set and have virtually zero issues hookjng any trailer up using no hitch extension. Plus with the truck you have, the weight won't be a huge issue and the slide out will give it the room of a 9-10' non slide camper.
Like I said earlier, mine is in a short bed Dodge so it hangs over around 2.5' out the back and I've pulled multiple trailers with only a 12" solid bar hitch extension. I can't Jack knife a trailer into a tight spot with it, but can if I swap to a longer extension if I'm in a pinch.