TC and real off-roading
Who has taken a full-height TC down some nasty roads, or Jeep roads where the truck leans and is at the limits of tipping the camper off or something of the sort? I searched internet (never google)...
Forum Discussion
We 99% camp off road on our northern Michigan property, only accessable via a seasonal 2 track with 2 water crossings, off camber turns, steep grades on washboard and lots of forest everywhere.
I used to take my Lance in there and was always a royal PITA. low range on the transfer case in 4wd. Every spring on the first trip in, SOP was trimming the trees with a pole trimmer because of the height of the camper and the fact that it's in the forest (our property abuts a National Forest, mostly old growth hardwood. Always took a chainsaw along too. The Lance did ok except for the height issue. I loaded everything low, nothing in the upper cabinets that could come out. Was fine except the getting in and out hassle and you don't go fast on a 2 track unless you wan to shake the camper apart.
Got tired of the height issue and the width issue (because you have to trim for width as well as height) so we bought a pop up TC and sold the Lance. No more height issues and it's narrower than the Lance was so minimal side trimming too. It's not as 'camping friendly' as the Lance was but the pop up we have has a wet bath and everything else in it that the Lance had except the hard roof.
It's much lighter so it's easier to deal with off road but the big thing with us was again, the overall height of the Lance and to a lesser extent, the width.
From my experience I would never consider a hard topped TC for off road use. Been there, did that and it's a royal PITA.
Big campers can do limited off roading but have serious drawbacks.
Just my opinion from experience.
I used to take my Lance in there and was always a royal PITA. low range on the transfer case in 4wd. Every spring on the first trip in, SOP was trimming the trees with a pole trimmer because of the height of the camper and the fact that it's in the forest (our property abuts a National Forest, mostly old growth hardwood. Always took a chainsaw along too. The Lance did ok except for the height issue. I loaded everything low, nothing in the upper cabinets that could come out. Was fine except the getting in and out hassle and you don't go fast on a 2 track unless you wan to shake the camper apart.
Got tired of the height issue and the width issue (because you have to trim for width as well as height) so we bought a pop up TC and sold the Lance. No more height issues and it's narrower than the Lance was so minimal side trimming too. It's not as 'camping friendly' as the Lance was but the pop up we have has a wet bath and everything else in it that the Lance had except the hard roof.
It's much lighter so it's easier to deal with off road but the big thing with us was again, the overall height of the Lance and to a lesser extent, the width.
From my experience I would never consider a hard topped TC for off road use. Been there, did that and it's a royal PITA.
Big campers can do limited off roading but have serious drawbacks.
Just my opinion from experience.
