cancel
Showing results forย 
Search instead forย 
Did you mean:ย 

Truck camper on a flat bed

ridinpreacher
Explorer
Explorer
What are pros / cons of considering a nice flat bed dually; the flat beds that have the tool boxes mounted underneath the bed look like they could be very user friendly.
20 REPLIES 20

gbsb
Explorer
Explorer
I have a F450 Crew Cab Ford with a custom made Aluminum flatbed with diamond plate boxes under the bed and on top of the bed. I have a 990 Arctic Fox slide in camper installed and the rig works great

Dog_Folks
Explorer
Explorer
ridinpreacher wrote:
What are pros / cons of considering a nice flat bed dually; the flat beds that have the tool boxes mounted underneath the bed look like they could be very user friendly.


This was on here about a a week ago. You might have missed it.

Very cool looking one.

Flat Bed Truck Camper
Our Rig:
2005 Dodge 3500 - Dually- Cummins
2006 Outback 27 RSDS

We also have with us two rescue dogs. A Chihuahua mix & a Catahoula mix.

"I did not get to this advanced age because I am stupid."

Full time since June 2006

Sparky87k5
Explorer
Explorer
805gregg wrote:
Flat beds are above the tires, where regular beds put the camper between the tires, so with a flat bed your center of gravity will be about 1' higher, how about a service bed


I've been looking at doing this with a new CM built flatbed model SK that has the boxes (2) on each side built right into it. My measurements indicate an 8" rise in camper from a stock pick up box. I'm still undecided if the $4500 price plus the $1000 install costs are worth it.
2000 F350 Lariat LE V10 CC LB 4WD DRW
2005 Eagle Cap 850 Camper
1993 Robalo 2440 twin '07 Merc Optimax 150's
1978 Glasply 28' with twin 310hp V8's

ridinpreacher
Explorer
Explorer
805gregg I've thought about a good looking service bed. I am finding that the biggest issue is the height of the sidewalls vary a lot. I am supposing you have to find one with that has a side wall height near that of the normal bed.

KD4UPL
Explorer
Explorer
I've got an aluminum flatbed on my '05 Chevy dually. It's 8' wide and 8' 9" long. I've got aluminum tool boxes mounted on the top and the bottom. The whole thing was custom built so my camper would fit. I couldn't find any stock beds that would work. The front and rear corners of the bed had to be cut on an angle to accommodate the jacks.
I had it built without the headache rack since I don't need that. I have 4 rings installed in the floor that flip up; that's what I attach my happijack turnbuckles too.
The storage is great but carrying all that stuff adds weight too.
The bed cost me about $6,000 plus around another $1,000 for installation.
I'm not that impressed with the build quality but the company was willing to custom build it so I had to take what I could get. If I had to do it over again I would buy a higher quality bed and then have it modified.
I use my truck for work and it is much more useful with the flatbed and tool boxes. The bed was a business expense so that's mainly how I can justify the cost. If I was just doing it for RV purposes I don't know that I could justify spending $7,000 to get some storage boxes.

805gregg
Explorer
Explorer
Flat beds are above the tires, where regular beds put the camper between the tires, so with a flat bed your center of gravity will be about 1' higher, how about a service bed
2003 Dodge Quad Cab 3500 SRW LB Cummins diesel, Banks Six Gun, Banks exhaust, Mag hytec deep trans pan, and Diff cover. Buckstop bumper, Aerotanks 55gal tank, airbags, stableloads Bigwig stabilizer, 2003 Lance 1071 camper, solar and generator