My Guess is Design By Photoshop

burningman wrote:
Yep... I looked at some new diesel 4x4 crew cab duallies. And new campers.
And realized most buyers are extremely wealthy or spend an extremely inordinate amount of their budget on rapidly depreciating assets!

That's why we still have Red and the'ol S&S. I just can't justify spending that amount of cash, when there are alternatives for so much less. We may buy a used class C for the really big trips or maybe a 5er in the 30K range and keep the TC setup for the shorter trips.

Yep... I looked at some new diesel 4x4 crew cab duallies. And new campers.
And realized most buyers are extremely wealthy or spend an extremely inordinate amount of their budget on rapidly depreciating assets!

ticki2 wrote:
Back then it was a way to use the truck you already had to work with , just like TC' s . The market , and public have changed . Now folks are buying a $70,000 truck that does nothing more than haul a $50,000 camper .

You might want to update your pricing
$116,000 truck (+ tax)

$76,000 camper (+ tax)

Back then it was a way to use the truck you already had to work with , just like TC' s . The market , and public have changed . Now folks are buying a $70,000 truck that does nothing more than haul a $50,000 camper .

d3500ram wrote:
In my opinion, it really defeats the purpose and capability of a TC. It cannot go too far off the road on even slightly gnarly trails ... and what about doing a K-turn when the road ends.

If I needed that much room I would be looking at a smaller 5th wheel along with it limitations for camping in the bush.

In the early 1970s when these were built, I doubt a lot of folks were thinking about off-roading with them. These were meant to make a pickup into a large motorhome.

In my opinion, it really defeats the purpose and capability of a TC. It cannot go too far off the road on even slightly gnarly trails ... and what about doing a K-turn when the road ends.

If I needed that much room I would be looking at a smaller 5th wheel along with it limitations for camping in the bush.

Well, I don't see pivoting tags on the flyer, so hard to tell how it works.
When I know that air suspension gives lot of possibilities, like adjusting height on single side, but I can only imagine Flip taking one of those on his off-road trail and have the drive wheels spinning in the air when camper wheels keep truck rear axle off the ground ;)

I want one to restore... Always wanted a land yacht.

Kayteg1 wrote:
IMHO fact that the concept did not catch up with the market indicate too many problems with it.
When it is very appealing for owners of smaller truck, who could have big camper, I can only imagine how fast the tires wear out and how the tag affect turning radius.
I had bus conversion with liftable tag as even with small distance between main and tag axles, it did make heck of the difference in turning on solid pavement.
Also how the camper frame twisted v/s truck bed?
Lot of potential for mechanical issues and no word from actual owners.

I believe, much like the tag on the Born free, that these used a torsion spring in the support that allowed the tag wheels to pivot to match the turn of the vehicle and then would resume forward tracking as travel straightened out to keep from scrubbing the tires.

These campers had a special bumper/frame attachment point that would be installed on the truck that would tie it in structurally to the tag axle assembly.

On the Born free, the spring based suspension would be adjusted to the normal ride-height of the carrying truck when first setup, with the MotoVan, it looks like you could more easily adjust by using the air suspension to raise/lower the connection frame to line up with the attachment point on the truck and since each wheel is independent, it could be adjusted to match the camber of the ground it was detached on.

During the time these were sold, Motorhomes as we know them now, were a smaller share of the market and fairly expensive to own for a vehicle that couldn't be used for anything else most of the year.

Also, dually pickups were a bit of a rare duck, almost all camper haulers of the era were Bias ply single rear wheel rigs (Ford had a 16.5x12" super single for their F350s).

my thoughts were about the load and how the tag axle would react to uneven ground.

since its air bags for suspension, any travel in axle will lower or raise that axles ability to carry load.

I did not look too hard, but in the pictures I have seen it appears there is no rear tie downs? does this mean when the tag axle crosses a raise in the road (or truck axle goes into a dip in road) does the camper back rise in the bed?

and what happens when your truck goes over the crest in road type bump? as front steer axle starts down crest, and rear axle is on crest, tag axle will be hanging up in the air (I see this on dump trucks all the time as they back down my driveway at home). it really puts a load on the tires that remain on the ground.

but in defence of the designer, it was during a time when people using common sense instead of lawyers to cover for there mistake. The tag axle is probably only carrying 1000 lbs of weight (on level ground). Not quite enough enough to cause your rear axle tires to blow out when you lift tag axle off the road. it might work good for those that push the factory SRW bed to the max (instead of buying 19.5" tires).

But in today's world, I can see someone thinking "wow, I can put that 11' triple side camper in my 1500 with this system"