Towing a travel trailer with a truck camper?

[texasdiver]

My wife and I are looking for ways to move up from our current popup camper to something more comfortable and all weather. Thing is, we are a family of 5 although the oldest is soon to leave for college so we really need to accommodate 4 for the next few years. My wife has been looking at big bunkhouse style 5th wheels. I'm more enamored with smaller truck campers and smaller fiberglass trailers like the Casita and Scamp, or even and Airstream, but they really aren't set up well for a family.

It occurs to me that the most versatile family camping rig might be a lightweight truck camper space for the kids (or even a large canopy with bed installed) towing a smaller trailer for the parents. When it's just me and my wife we can take one or the other campers, when it is the whole family we can take both.

Our preference is for more wilderness style camping in state and national parks and forest service type campgrounds so the big 5th wheels don't really fit into many of them anyway.

So is anyone else doing this sort of thing? Putting the kids on the truck to sleep and keeping a smaller trailer for the parents? Seems like the key would be to get an absolutely lightweight truck camper to reserve plenty of payload for the tongue weight of the trailer. So I'd probably want a truck camper that was just beds and storage, no heavy cabinetry or kitchen.

Am I on the right track? Any suggestions on models I should look at?

[texasdiver]

Right now we do a lot of summer camping in Texas and the southwest which makes tent camping pretty miserable without air. But we are planning to move back to the Northwest where we are from and would like to get back to doing a lot of camping along the Oregon coast where the wind and rain will make tent camping for the kids pretty miserable as well.

I was thinking that something like a this Four Wheel Shell Models where I just have a bed and maybe dinette table on the truck for the kids and use it for hauling gear such as a generator. then My wife and I can basically pick whatever smaller and lightweight trailer we want for ourselves.

The kids are 9, 12, and 17 but the 17 year old will soon be gone and the other two will soon be teenagers who will just want their space. So the truck camper shell option seems logical.

Obviously this would work better with a 3/4 ton truck with plenty of payload to hold both the camper and the trailer. But a truck camper in the 800 lb range paired with a trailer in the 800 lb range tongue weight should not exceed the payload for most 3/4 ton trucks. The key would be to make sure the camper does not extend past the truck bed and interfere with the hitch I think.

[kaydeejay]

A lot will depend on the remaining truck payload once you have a camper loaded.
You need 10-13% of the trailer weight on the hitch, which is a big chunk out of many truck payloads.
Added to which, with a camper on, you MAY need an extension to your tow bar in order to hook up a trailer. Use of an extension reduces your hitch capacity depending on how long an extension is needed.

[Campfire_Time]

I'd be considering a tent for the kids.