truck camper or class c?
After years of dreaming, I'm planning on buying my first RV this year! I've looked at truck campers and class C's, and I'm torn between the two styles. As I've been evaluating them, I can see defini...
Forum Discussion
Here is my 2 cents for what it is worth..... I had a 26' class C on a ford E350 chassis for a dozen or so years and just went to a truck camper last weekend. The TC is a lance 855s sitting on a 2016 CCSB 4x4 gas F250.
For our first run we picked it up in Silverthorne and drove it to Ft. Collins for my son's science olympiad contest. From there we spent a night at Moraine Park before heading back home to Steamboat. Knowing I would be going over a pass or two before bringing it home I installed the hellwig bigwig swaybar, airbags, and homemade stableloads from splitting wedges and couldn't be happier with their performance.
For my use the TC is a huge improvement over the class C from a driving standpoint and I think that is pretty good test for a rig from an on road trip even though I only have one trip with it so far. I'm sure off road excursions will be slow and nothing too drastic as it is a lot of weight up high but still a lot more capable than our class C.
We needed some parts for the camper while in Ft. Collins and driving it around and parking was a breeze compared to the class C and not much different that just driving the truck alone. We also tow our ski boat so I can tell you a class C pulling a trailer and parking can be an interesting ordeal especially if you don't have a spotter in some places. I'm expecting the new rig to handle the boat with no problems and looking forward to hitting the lakes this summer. I'll also add that heading up to Moraine Park the wind was blowing the big flags straight out but the truck hardly noticed it and if it hadn't been for the flags and trees I wouldn't have known how hard it was blowing.... my class C would have been all over the road and a handful to drive on the interstate. Not sure how many times I told the wife I was glad I wasn't driving the old RV but it was a lot. Heading up the pass in the curves the driving was actually fun vs the class C which would have been stressful and a lot of pull overs to let people pass no matter how hard I was pushing it. Same with the way down and we kept up with traffic without feeling like we were anywhere close to the limits of handling or braking. We did pull over once to let some cars pass but at the bottom we were all at the same stop light so I wasn't slowing them down too much. As for space.... yeah.. you do give up some but with only having one motor to maintain, insure, and tag it was worth it to us. We are heading to Salt Lake City with it this weekend and would have never considered driving the class C that far for a short trip.
Everyone has different needs so get what works best for you. For us it is the TC but we won't be working out of it either and if we do it will be trade show stuff (I have a laser engraver and cnc router) like the trip to Salt Lake City for the North American Handbuilt Bicycle show (I engrave for Kent Eriksen for those who are into bikes).
Oh... and gas mileage. The old 460 drank gas and wind only made it worse. Going to Ft. Collins the wind wasn't bad so we pulled in with the trip meter reading 12.5mpg. With the strong head/side winds going home we ended up at 10.5 for the whole trip. The class C would have been low 5s at best and at a much slower pace.
For our first run we picked it up in Silverthorne and drove it to Ft. Collins for my son's science olympiad contest. From there we spent a night at Moraine Park before heading back home to Steamboat. Knowing I would be going over a pass or two before bringing it home I installed the hellwig bigwig swaybar, airbags, and homemade stableloads from splitting wedges and couldn't be happier with their performance.
For my use the TC is a huge improvement over the class C from a driving standpoint and I think that is pretty good test for a rig from an on road trip even though I only have one trip with it so far. I'm sure off road excursions will be slow and nothing too drastic as it is a lot of weight up high but still a lot more capable than our class C.
We needed some parts for the camper while in Ft. Collins and driving it around and parking was a breeze compared to the class C and not much different that just driving the truck alone. We also tow our ski boat so I can tell you a class C pulling a trailer and parking can be an interesting ordeal especially if you don't have a spotter in some places. I'm expecting the new rig to handle the boat with no problems and looking forward to hitting the lakes this summer. I'll also add that heading up to Moraine Park the wind was blowing the big flags straight out but the truck hardly noticed it and if it hadn't been for the flags and trees I wouldn't have known how hard it was blowing.... my class C would have been all over the road and a handful to drive on the interstate. Not sure how many times I told the wife I was glad I wasn't driving the old RV but it was a lot. Heading up the pass in the curves the driving was actually fun vs the class C which would have been stressful and a lot of pull overs to let people pass no matter how hard I was pushing it. Same with the way down and we kept up with traffic without feeling like we were anywhere close to the limits of handling or braking. We did pull over once to let some cars pass but at the bottom we were all at the same stop light so I wasn't slowing them down too much. As for space.... yeah.. you do give up some but with only having one motor to maintain, insure, and tag it was worth it to us. We are heading to Salt Lake City with it this weekend and would have never considered driving the class C that far for a short trip.
Everyone has different needs so get what works best for you. For us it is the TC but we won't be working out of it either and if we do it will be trade show stuff (I have a laser engraver and cnc router) like the trip to Salt Lake City for the North American Handbuilt Bicycle show (I engrave for Kent Eriksen for those who are into bikes).
Oh... and gas mileage. The old 460 drank gas and wind only made it worse. Going to Ft. Collins the wind wasn't bad so we pulled in with the trip meter reading 12.5mpg. With the strong head/side winds going home we ended up at 10.5 for the whole trip. The class C would have been low 5s at best and at a much slower pace.
