The worst rig you ever had

[burningman]

Having always had older campers for about 30 years, I've dealt with all sorts of screwy old jack types and flexy campers.
I'll start out with the worst truck/camper setup I ever had.
I was a dumb kid with a '67 Chevy 3/4 ton with dual rear wheels bolted on the back with some janky kit. The wheel studs would spin with the lug nuts when you tried to loosen or tighten them. The only way to get the wheels off was to unbolt the axles and slide the whole axle/brake drum/wheel pair out and hold the studs from behind with a socket. Then put it all back on the same way.
I had this old camper, no dually swing-out brackets, and to load or unload I had to remove the rear wheels, then bolt a single wheel back on, drive past the jacks, then repeat the whole process to put the wheels back on. The jacks themselves were made of square tube; you used a portable bottle jack that fit into a tab at the top and had a piece of steel rod welded to the bottom that poked into holes in the jack legs. You jacked it up a few holes, pinned it, then did it again until you got all four jacked up. Same to get it back down. Some of the holes were torn out and you had to be sure to skip them. The good holes were tearing...
It used to take about all day, and that's when I was barely 20 and full of energy.

Oh, and then you could barely drive because the extra dually wheels stuck out of the fenders and had hardly any clearance, and would scrape if you didn't CRAWL around every corner.

[silversand]

Jefe 4x4 wrote:
Worst camping rig ever was our 1981 Volkswagen Dasher Diesel wagon....

...ya know what they say about Volkswagen ownership? "If ya buy one, make absolutely sure you have a bumper-to-bumper warranty that will cover every second of your planned ownership, and not 1 minute less" :B

[Indy_Bob1]

While I've enjoyed every one of my various camping rigs ranging from an unknown brand of TC that was manufactured in 1958 through a few MHs and a TC or two I guess that first TC would be the worst of them. Siding was steel, walls were 1/4" birch plywood, seats were sprung and horsehair. Heavy. Truck was a '69 Chevy 1/2T. Pulled okay. Camper had an icebox that looked like a '50s refrigerator, and porta pot in a closet, and butane lights inside. No tanks, cold water city hookup to a sink that drained out the side. Lots of camping in it. Basically a hard sided tent. Got my orders for Germany and couldn't give it away. Ended up dumping it off the back at the county landfill.

One cool thing, though, it was made for pickups with much taller cabs so you could look over the roof of the Chevy through the front lower window. Kinda liked that.

Then there was the 72 Pace Arrow MH that, shortly after buying it, the roof peeled off at 60mph on I35. But that's a story for a different campfire...

[trail-explorer]

covered wagon wrote:

trail-explorer wrote:
Worst rig I ever had was a 2016 Subaru Outback. I owned it less than 5 weeks and put about 1100 miles on it. I was glad to see it go away.

Please educate me about what was wrong or happened with this car as we are Subaru people.

Nothing wrong with it at all. I just concluded cars aren't my thing so I sold it.

It was an awesome vehicle. My only complaint about it was the knob on the stereo was slick and not easy to grasp. The knob was a tad small too, so the slickness compounded the problem, LOL. The knob needs rubberized, like GM, Ford, Ram do on their knobs

[jefe_4x4]

Worst camping rig ever was our 1981 Volkswagen Dasher Diesel wagon. Remember this was around the 2nd run of gas rationing and scarcity. We bought it brand new and it lasted about 2 years. What were the woes? Starter went out and had to be replaced. Very expensive. The complete electrical system, primary and secondary went haywire. The thing with early mechanical injection diesels was they would run even if you had NO operating electrical system. After being stranded over and over, my Jeanie had enough and we drove it to the VW dealer and left it there. They essentially said it can't be fixed. With 18K miles It was out of warranty. This was the worst hit in resale ever for us. I believe we lost 80% of the original value in 2 years. It would still run, without any electrics, so I think we push started it (manual trans) to get to a Peugeot dealer and traded it in for a new 1983 Peugeot 505S Turbo Diesel. Ironic that of the 35 cars we've owned, the long gone Peugeot, even after 200K miles continues to be the best car. Quite a contrast.

[PUCampin]

My dad has had TCs since he and my mom split in '90. He is the king of the $500 camper. First one was a very basic 8ft put on his then 81 Dodge D250 custom. I learned to drive in this TC which had a 4spd NP435 and manual steering. Drove it up and down the San Bernardino mountains many times. The camper actually held up very well and we used it for several years. The camper did not survive when the truck was totaled. It looked ok but nothing lined up any more.

The worst TC my dad had was the one he got to put on his replacement truck, a 89 Chevy K2500 (did not know much about payload at the time, this was the low 7200lb GVWR with poor payload) He actually spent $2k and was a little too eager. It was a 8.5ft with a few more amenities and looked good on the surface. But is had so much wood rot underneath it was not even funny. He went back to the previous owner to talk about it and pick up an extra jack he was supposed to get and the people were gone, had moved out, house abandoned. Ouch. So he kept it for a while. We did make good memories, including a trip to Glacier with 6 of us in a supercab. With the 6 of us and the camper that poor truck was severely overloaded, but we didn't really know better. The cabover was coming apart, the right rear wing had separated on that trip. Eventually the camper literally disintegrated on the truck, he let a shop keep it for scrap and appliance parts if they could get it off.

Dad has had a couple other units since, but he refused to pay more than $500 after the really bad one. He uses them for a few years until it completely falls apart and then gets another.

[JumboJet]

1985 Lance 200 - Bought to "learn" the Truck Camper experience

1999 Lance 1030 - Upgrade based on what we learned from the 200

2007 Lance 1055 - Upgrade from the 1030, but the toilet arrangement bad. 1st on-board generator - nice.

2011 Lance 1050S - fits our needs.

I don't know if you see a pattern here, but they have all been good. The 2011 is the only one bought new.

[jimh406]

My worst rig was a first year 1994 Subaru Outback. After the second spin during that first Winter, I had enough. It also was pretty horrible in anything other than small amounts of fresh snow and the tires floated horribly otherwise. Maybe it's just that my expectations were higher for snowy weather for AWD. The AWD was essentially useless going down mtns. It was a good dry weather car.

I've only owned one TC, and it is my Host. It's been good enough. I still haven't found one I'd rather have. I liked it with my F350 SRW, but of course, the F450 handles it better.

As far as worst performing RV combination is concerned, that would be pulling a 24 ft high wall fiberglass trailer with an Ford Expedition. In theory, it was well under it's capacity, but with wind, it scared my wife to death.

[covered_wagon]

trail-explorer wrote:
Worst rig I ever had was a 2016 Subaru Outback. I owned it less than 5 weeks and put about 1100 miles on it. I was glad to see it go away.

Please educate me about what was wrong or happened with this car as we are Subaru people. Now have a 2010 Subaru Outback that is a terrific car so far with over a hundred thousand on it.

Is my gut feelings right then? That they aren't as good as they once were?

Thanks in advance.

[HoodCanalNorth]

1971 Week-n-der 11' I bought new. Started breaking apart in Mexico. Called the the dealer from San Diego. Had to put 2x6"s under the floor to get it back to Portland. On the way home the piece of metal under the cabover came loose and banged on the cab of the truck. Vacation was cut short. Dealer sent it back to Skyline who had a factory in McMinnville at that time. They said a series of wall studs had broken. They repaired it and no more problems

[trail-explorer]

Worst rig I ever had was a 2016 Subaru Outback. I owned it less than 5 weeks and put about 1100 miles on it. I was glad to see it go away.

[nomadictxn]

We are not talking old history here for me. I have owned 2 TCS and bought the first one in January of 2012. I had a bad experience as a child in a class c type rig. It was hot, the stepdad was drunk and mom and him fought the whole trip. To top it off, I got a major case of food poisoning. Tent camped on motorcycle trips in 80s, rarely camped in 90s and never in 2000s until relocating to Colorado in 09. Camping at a FS campground (tent) near Pikes Peak one weekend, miserably cold and uncomfortable, the owners of a 11 ft. Lance on a F 450, graciously showed DW and I the light. I eventually had every TC site bookmarked on computer and had walked the lot of every TC dealer in Colorado, building the dream of first TC. It came in January of 12 when a neighbor lady put her 91 F250, 84 Lance 300 and horse trailer down at the corner with a for sale sign. The camper had a bashed rear upper corner, diamond plating covering the ceiling, a disconnected and bypassed water heater but a working stove and fridge. The truck was a 351 powered, 5 spd., 3.55 axle survivor that probably did the job in Oklahoma when it was new but could barely crest a hill in Colorado at 40 mph. with the camper onboard. I often wondered how slow it was pulling the horse as well. I didn't buy the trailer. The truck was a testament to reliability as the ladies dozen year ownership included regular maintenance and it was trouble free for my 21 months of driving it.
That TC and truck combo became an escape pod during the Waldo Canyon Fire when we were forced to evacuate for a week and the place we watched the news on my wife's laptop trying to figure out if there was a house to return to. The same place that this man looked at a woman, 3 dogs and a cat and knew he was home with them wherever.
So, I am off topic OP. That was the best truck and camper I ever had. Thanks to you folks and all your experiences, I too love this TC lifestyle.

[lightning_drive]

RamTC wrote:
Sad to say it was my 2005 Artic Fox 990. Was a constant leaker at the cab over, factory repaired 3x and it still continued. No more filon for me.

Would love to hear more on this "leaker"
Where did it leak? Marker lights, window, Roof? I'm considering a somewhat older model and it has been back to the factory for cab over repair. NOT in Fla. :{) Would like to know where to look.

[SoCalDesertRid1]

I liked all my trucks and campers. One thing I will always avoid though are those deathtrap portable tripod jacks, that come in a set of 3, rather than 4. Those things are the dumps. That's the only time I ever dropped a camper, was with those stupid jacks. Never again.

[RamTC]

Sad to say it was my 2005 Artic Fox 990. Was a constant leaker at the cab over, factory repaired 3x and it still continued. No more filon for me.