The shorter the center of gravity, the better right?

iwanttoretireearly wrote:
Thanks @nlol. Yeah I mean I preference is a long bed camper at heart with a long bed truck but I'm just afraid I won't be able to find a used long bed pickup truck if worst case scenario, my car breaks down for good and I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere. The appealing thing of these versatile campers is I can buy a cheap short or long bed and get out of there for the time being. I'll have to go to a dealership and actually see it loaded on short and long beds but from my understanding now, all the all-bed campers sit basically flush to the cab. On the short beds, they stick out a max of 3 feet. On the long beds, they're practically flush so ideally, there isn't any room for it to slide forward. As for the million other concerns you mentioned, you're right. I don't think there is a convenient answer to all of them.

Dude, gotta get the stranded in Death Valley during a zombie apocalypse scenario out of your head.
Go buy a nice long bed truck if that’s what you want, find a camper you like in your budget and go camping.
You do realize there are additions and modifications needed for the truck, correct?
Can’t really just slide er under a new truck and punch the skinny pedal and takeoff!
You’ll sleep much better with a newer low mile truck.

Lwiddis wrote:
Why not follow the manufacturer’s recommendations? Attempting to reinvent the wheel can get expensive.

I don’t usually agree with your pessimism and antagonism, but this response is spot on.

Thanks @nlol. Yeah I mean I preference is a long bed camper at heart with a long bed truck but I'm just afraid I won't be able to find a used long bed pickup truck if worst case scenario, my car breaks down for good and I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere. The appealing thing of these versatile campers is I can buy a cheap short or long bed and get out of there for the time being. I'll have to go to a dealership and actually see it loaded on short and long beds but from my understanding now, all the all-bed campers sit basically flush to the cab. On the short beds, they stick out a max of 3 feet. On the long beds, they're practically flush so ideally, there isn't any room for it to slide forward. As for the million other concerns you mentioned, you're right. I don't think there is a convenient answer to all of them.

I dunno, I looked at some of those short campers that can be placed in LB trucks. I came to the conclusion that sales people's goal is to sell you something - anything - now. And that they know little about campers and trucks. Certainly some exceptions out there but all I found were people with no TC experience and only 'feature' knowledge.

Theoretically, as long as the CG is in front of the rear wheels - doesn't have to be much - the truck should handle acceptably. I saw nothing but fit problems though in many cases where the salesman said, "Sure, you can put that in a LB truck, we do it all the time", you should say, "Show me.".

But you go look: What keeps the camper from sliding forward? What does the camper hit if it slides forward - rear tail lights? What special thing do you have to do to connect the electrics. When you go around a corner will the camper want to pivot in the truck bed? Are there any jacking problems? What are the tie-down problems? Look - look - look. It's best if you have your particular
truck there and at least visually walk through loading, tie-down, and unloading - better to actually do it.

They make campers for SB trucks because there are a heck of a lot of SB trucks these days. People buy Sb campers and use them, but take a hard look at the campers - at what you loose in a SB TC

In short, be very careful. It is easy to spend a lot of money learning what you wish you knew before you spent your money - in short, an expensive lesson.

@Lwiddis: there are several companies out there advertising campers that fit both short and long bed trucks and I am trying to wrap my head around it

Why not follow the manufacturer’s recommendations? Attempting to reinvent the wheel can get expensive.

Theoretically you can.
For example would you put 6' camper with 7' cabover on short bed pickup - that could overload front axle.
But such combos don't exist.
Coming to your actual question, there is no specific distance where placement of COG makes it bad or good. It is combination of weight.
On practical note - you simply need to weight rear axle to avoid overloading and then different track handle tall and long load differently.
My long camper has COG about 65" behind the cabin and Ford dually handles that just fine.

Just go with what the manufacturer suggests. If they say it is a short bed camper, it’s fine for short beds, etc.

In practice, it’s probably not going to matter that much unless the TC is much longer than the truck bed.