fitting 2001 Northern Lite on 2015 F350 Super Duty

You have to measure it very carefully and still confirm the fitment before final drop.
With my Fleetwood on Fords I had very low clearance at truck roof lights (supercab).
Lance has lower sides, so I had to manufacture 2" platform on top of bed mat, what adds about 1/2"

The guy that bought my old Lance has a 15 Superduty 4 door and we had to add a sheet of 3/4" plywood over the bed mat to get enough clearance between the cab marker lights and the bottom of the cabin over bed on the Lance. It was close without the plywood and just the mat, doable but very close (within 1"). The extra 3/4" was enough added clearance to allow for any cab / bed articulation without hitting the lights against the camper.

My feeling is close is good from a turbulence standpoint (a wide gap invites wind resistance but you do need some clearance. How much will be determined by your personal comfort zone.

Over the years I have played with the clearance over the cab. I have gone from 2 inches to 8 inches, with the same truck and TC. I know in theory it makes a difference in drag, MPG, and so on. But my real life experience suggest it made so little difference I could not tell by seat of the pants driving. I think I did get a few more bugs, but with 6+ inches of clearance they were much easier to wash off from the TC wall. It was also much easier to wash the roof of my truck and use the storage area in the bed of the truck.

My old set up with the 96 gave me about 4 to 5 inches, which was perfect since I still take my rig into "questionable" locations far from the tarmac.

I've been told (don't know if it's factual or not) that the newer trucks don't articulate as much (cab to bed movement in off camber situations) then older trucks. I do know my '97 F350 moves alot. Again, been told the frames are stiffer so articulation is less, consequently, cab roof to camper cabin over clearance can be less as well.

My Palomino has a gob of cab to cabin over clearance. so much, I'm considering some type of air dam between the cab roof and the camper. I have about 8" and that is with the camper sitting flat on the bed with nothing in between, which, is how I run it anyway. The Rhino Lined bed provides plenty of frictional grip on the bottom rails of the camper. Has never moved at all.

As I previously posted, my experience suggests the 8" makes no negative difference other than easier to clean the top of the truck and the cab wall of the TC.

The air dams can cause their own problems. Unfortunately they are never posted on the forum.

Wayne

Reddog1 wrote:
As I previously posted, my experience suggests the 8" makes no negative difference other than easier to clean the top of the truck and the cab wall of the TC.

The air dams can cause their own problems. Unfortunately they are never posted on the forum.

Wayne

It has been my experience there is a huge difference with and without a air deflector (not speaking about sleepy's air foil/brake). On my 2nd generation Dodge/Bigfoot camper combination I had a 5 in. gap between overhang and roof of truck. The wind noise was deafening, and terrible barrel noise effect coming from the 2nd gen Dodge roof as well. I unfortunately didn't take before and after decibel readings but it went from having to yell at my passenger and typically getting what or huh, it was annoying and stressful driving, with the addition of the air deflector this all changed to a normal volume voice being heard and being able to listen to radio.

All I did was add a 3.5 in. air deflector to the underside of the camper overhang. Now there is no difference in wind noise between camper on or off.

A minor side benefit is fewer bugs hitting the camper wall just behind the truck cab, the windshield of truck has also reduced bug hits by 70%.

Most truck/camper combination's are unique and will have vastly different results, fortunately my results were positive.

Reddog1 wrote:
As I previously posted, my experience suggests the 8" makes no negative difference other than easier to clean the top of the truck and the cab wall of the TC.

The air dams can cause their own problems. Unfortunately they are never posted on the forum.

Wayne

An air dam is something I'm considering for my outfit so this statement is of great interest. The gap from the clearance lights to the camper on my rig is only ~ 3-1/2". What kind of problems have you heard about?

Like bcbigfoot, I to have a 2nd generation Dodge/Bigfoot camper combination with a 5" to 6" gap between overhang and roof of truck. I had no noise issues in over 12 years of use. I is possible the difference in our rigs is why bcbigfoot had noise and I did not. My truck is a '96 Dodge 2500 Ext Cab long bed 2WD and my TC is a 11.5 foot 1500 Bigfoot. My TC is not as tall as the 2500 series which has a taller cab over and a basement. I can say, the 2nd gen Dodge trucks were notorious for air leaks at the top of the doors. Most of it, if not all, can be adjusted.

The main problems I have heard about is under the right circumstances, like entering or exiting exceptional steep driveways or similar conditions, the air dam will hit and damage the lights or roof of the cab. Not only is the initial mounting important, but over time the normal whipping action of the wind can break the dam loose from its mounting. The only damage I am aware of is to the mounting area of the TC and possibly scratches to the paint on the cab of the truck.

A thought to ponder. How close to the cab must you mount the air dam for it to be effective? The typical up and down movement on my TC cab over is probably 1" to 2". bcbigfoot appears happy with his, with no negative issues. I suggest you ask him for details on how he fabricated his, a new thread would be great. There is always members interested in "how tos".

Wayne

Reddog1 wrote:
Like bcbigfoot, I to have a 2nd generation Dodge/Bigfoot camper combination with a 5" to 6" gap between overhang and roof of truck. I had no noise issues in over 12 years of use. I is possible the difference in our rigs is why bcbigfoot had noise and I did not. My truck is a '96 Dodge 2500 Ext Cab long bed 2WD and my TC is a 11.5 foot 1500 Bigfoot. My TC is not as tall as the 2500 series which has a taller cab over and a basement. I can say, the 2nd gen Dodge trucks were notorious for air leaks at the top of the doors. Most of it, if not all, can be adjusted.

The main problems I have heard about is under the right circumstances, like entering or exiting exceptional steep driveways or similar conditions, the air dam will hit and damage the lights or roof of the cab. Not only is the initial mounting important, but over time the normal whipping action of the wind can break the dam loose from its mounting. The only damage I am aware of is to the mounting area of the TC and possibly scratches to the paint on the cab of the truck.

A thought to ponder. How close to the cab must you mount the air dam for it to be effective? The typical up and down movement on my TC cab over is probably 1" to 2". bcbigfoot appears happy with his, with no negative issues. I suggest you ask him for details on how he fabricated his, a new thread would be great. There is always members interested in "how tos".

Wayne

The length of the cabover may also be a factor, the air going up the windshield and being pinched between the truck and and cabover. My truck can get a little door wind noise but it requires a 40 mph side wind so this wasn't a factor in my noise issue.

I now have over 60000 miles with the deflector mounted, one trip to from British Columbia to Florida Keys via Texas, and another to Nova Scotia via Washington DC. Many of the miles have been secondary roads, not the best maintained but very few miles have been on rough gravel/dirt non-maintained roads. I have had 0 incidences of camper overhead to cab contact with the 1.5" clearance. The Dodge frames of this era were the stiffest and the Fords were the most flexible. I have placed 3/4 in plywood in the box and I removed the crappy 1/8". plastic bottom inspection panels and replace that with marine grade 5/8" plywood across the entire bottom of the camper. This has removed any beer canning effect in the truck box that the raised plastic inspection panels caused, the high points caused the camper to rock somewhat. The camper now feel solidly connected to the truck. This may be the reason why I can get away with only 1.5" clearance.

There is picture in my profile where the the air deflector can be seen.