Your truck camper experience is ?

I dont even own one. I just post here to antagonize the weight cops....lol

Got a late start but have 10 years experience. Over 40,000 miles and AL to west coast four times now with many smaller trips around the southeast. 240 nights in camper so far.

Bought our first camper in '71 on the back of a '68 Ford F250 Camper Special. It was a 9' without a bathroom Holiday. With our toddler son we went camping every other weekend either to the desert, mountains or ocean for 20 years. We pulled a boat or dirt bikes. After we shook that one to death we put a 12' older camper on it with all the amenities and used that to it's death around 2005 when I traded it for a case of beer. Still have the truck.

Ha, I used to use some metal 55-gallon drums.
One of my old ones had a toilet that swung out of the wall, and it was nothing more than a metal can with a toilet seat on it.
On my first dually, when I was a young screwball, I didn’t have and hadn’t heard of dually swing-out brackets. I took my outside duals off to back under and out from my camper every time. And I had to pull the axles to do that because of how the studs and lug nuts on that ‘67 Chevy were.

What I remember most about the old ‘60s and ‘70s campers is the jacks!
They were scary!
I had the ones that were a tripod, you guessed the center of gravity of the camper and set the jack there. Only two jacks, you were expected to balance it. There was just a piece of angle iron on the jack, you set it against the edge of the camper. There was a cable and crank to lift the camper.

I still have a pair and yes,they are scary..I marked my campers where the balance point was then carefully raised just high enough to clear the bed and would move one sawhorse out of the way at a time as I backed in..The nice thing about them is, you can push/twist the camper around a little bit for a more perfect one try load...With those tall sturdy sawhorses are your friend.

My first was a ‘69 Security 8’ on a ‘59 Chevy Apache 3600. That was a 3/4 ton. 3200s were half tons. It was a nightmare to drive.
Then followed a ‘67 Security 10’ on a ‘67 Chevy dually pickup. Custom made, Chevy didn’t sell dually pickups until ‘73.
Then a 10’ Western Wilderness on a ‘76 F150 4x4 with overload springs, Rancho 9000s, and a hot-fodder 428/4speed. I towed a boat behind.
That truck got a complete F250 chassis swap because it was too much for a half-ton, although I can’t help but mention that it was in fact handling it.
There were several others in between and several afterward.

What I remember most about the old ‘60s and ‘70s campers is the jacks!
They were scary!
I had the ones that were a tripod, you guessed the center of gravity of the camper and set the jack there. Only two jacks, you were expected to balance it. There was just a piece of angle iron on the jack, you set it against the edge of the camper. There was a cable and crank to lift the camper.

I had jacks that had square legs rather than tubular, perforated with about 1/2” holes. You had a bottle jack you stuck on the jack between some little brackets and pumped it up a few inches, put a pin through the holes in the camper jack legs, reset the bottle jack and did it again

Manual by hydraulic jacks were the lap of luxury!!

There were no holding tanks. The sinks just had a drain tube that dumped right overboard.

My first TC was on a 71 Ford Ranchero, it was made for it, and it came with the truck. Had a 6 gallon water tank, a pump faucet sink that drained out the back, a 2.5 cuft icebox, and a dinette that made into a bed. I was hooked from then on......

Bought my first pickup in 2003, a 2004 Ram/Cummins shortbed SRW. Went to the local RV dealer the next spring, and bought a used 2003 Travelite 890 SBRX truck camper. We traveled quite a bit over the next few years, and had to store the camper outside the whole time. Unfortunately, there were leaks around the front marker lights, and at the jack mounting plates. So I spent a good part of the spring of 2009 rebuilding (outside) the corners where the jacks mount and the nose of the camper.

Bought a new Ram/Cummins in 2008, and continued the adventures. Bought a longbed Ram/Cummins in 2011, thinking we would upgrade to a bigger camper. That never happened, but we enjoyed the extra space between the front of the truck bed and the front of the camper. We bought our current 2015 Ram/Cummins shortbed in 2015. Really missed the extra space, but glad to be driving the shorter truck.

Over the years we added lots of upgrades to the Travelite. Compressor fridge, two AGM batteries, 400W of solar, a 2000 watt inverter, Honda 2000W generator, 45 gallon gray water tank, R/T electric jacks, and lots of storage / efficiency improvements.

We haven't had anymore problems with leaks in the Travelite, but it's now stored in a heated pole barn year round. It only sees water when I wash it or rain when we're traveling. I spent lot's of time last year uncaulking, re caulking, and Eternabond taping the camper.

We've added so many options to make the camper the way we want it, I can't think of buying a different one and starting all over again.

We retired last year, and spent September & part of October traveling around the country. We live near Buffalo, NY, and traveled to Montana, Oregon, Northern California, Utah, Colorado, and back home.

Unfortunately, my wife broke her ankle a couple months ago, so the camper has been sitting while she's healing. Hopefully she will be getting around in time for us to get out a bit this fall.

We had one when I was a kid. Around 1975. A six pac camper on a Dodge sportsman pickup (single rear wheel). We routinely traveled with 2 adults and small dog up front and 3-6 kids and 2-4 mid-large dogs in the camper. Never had any trouble with it getting us where we wanted to go.

Started in 2006 with a 2005 Silverado 3500 SRW and a 2006 Northstar Arrow 8.5, figured if this RVing thing didn’t work out we would have a better chance of selling the truck and camper separately vs a class B or C. Then DW wanted more room and a couch, which she never sat on, so we bought an AF 25R TT. Had that a few years and then decide the AF 25R was a little too heavy for travel out West with, so we purchased an AF 22G, was a great TT. DW looked out at the TT one winter day and said to me “you know the TC is nice because we can go more places and everything is always with us”. Also no hitching and unhitching, no extra tires, wheel bearings and brakes to service or worry about. So we really considered a triple slide Host and a Ram 5500, looked at AF 990 and a GM dually, since I am not crazy about Chrysler products and the long steps out of the Host we ended up with our present rig. Nice to be back in a TC.