Trip Report: Christmas camping 2014
You may remember that last year we decided to forego visiting relatives and try camping over Christmas. It must have worked out because Sally was keen to do the same thing this year too. We selecte...
Forum Discussion
Thanks for the comments everyone. To answer a couple of points:
mikebreeze: The camper isn't designed for a Ford Ranger - it was probably designed for a short bed 3/4 ton pickup. Allegedly 1400lb dry weight, but I know with the modified roof etc. it is a lot heavier, but hopefully fully laden should be within the 2500lb payload of my truck. Note that this is an international specification of Ford Ranger (which only shares the name with the US product for marketing reasons), which although a bit smaller than a full-sized truck, are built to cover the whole compact, 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton range because outside the US there seem to be fewer graduations in pickup truck capacity, hence the payload. Regarding the internal space, you have to be aware that this model, being less than 8ft, does not have a bathroom - so it is quite spacious until you need the toilet!
Wheelholder: Being a small island with varied scenery does mean that within a long day of driving you can get almost anywhere and reach a lot of different scenery. But yes, where-as the regular roads in towns and cities, and regular highways are no problem, the scenic parts of the country are characterised by historic lanes whose width was probably determined by an ox-cart. We avoid these places in summer, when they are packed with tourist cars and people with class C motorhomes and touring trailers struggle down them (not down the narrowist ones of course). Actually the truck camper has worked out better than I would have expected on really narrow lanes, probably because they are almost all used by farm equipment which means our 7ft width is able to fit through the hole they have made. However, the big benefit is being a bit narrower at the axles and having good ground clearance.
Steve.
mikebreeze: The camper isn't designed for a Ford Ranger - it was probably designed for a short bed 3/4 ton pickup. Allegedly 1400lb dry weight, but I know with the modified roof etc. it is a lot heavier, but hopefully fully laden should be within the 2500lb payload of my truck. Note that this is an international specification of Ford Ranger (which only shares the name with the US product for marketing reasons), which although a bit smaller than a full-sized truck, are built to cover the whole compact, 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton range because outside the US there seem to be fewer graduations in pickup truck capacity, hence the payload. Regarding the internal space, you have to be aware that this model, being less than 8ft, does not have a bathroom - so it is quite spacious until you need the toilet!
Wheelholder: Being a small island with varied scenery does mean that within a long day of driving you can get almost anywhere and reach a lot of different scenery. But yes, where-as the regular roads in towns and cities, and regular highways are no problem, the scenic parts of the country are characterised by historic lanes whose width was probably determined by an ox-cart. We avoid these places in summer, when they are packed with tourist cars and people with class C motorhomes and touring trailers struggle down them (not down the narrowist ones of course). Actually the truck camper has worked out better than I would have expected on really narrow lanes, probably because they are almost all used by farm equipment which means our 7ft width is able to fit through the hole they have made. However, the big benefit is being a bit narrower at the axles and having good ground clearance.
Steve.
