truck camper or class c?

[NatParkJunkie]

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 definite pros and cons to both, so this post is looking for some feedback from real world experiences from other owners.

about me: I'm an IT consultant, with the ability to work pretty much anywhere as long as I have a reliable internet connection (Verizon grandfathered unlimited data plan). It will be me traveling solo, with the dog. I finally talked my boss into letting me work remotely part-time. Boss made a contingency that I have to have a fixed location (slight bummer, but still moving in the right direction). So I'm planning on spending next winter down south in the general Phoenix area, and back home in Pennsylvania for the summer. The goal will be to establish a general home base at one or maybe two campgrounds somewhere around Phoenix, with the ability to take weekend trips wherever I can.

When vacationing, I love visiting state and national parks out west. I keep eyeballing truck campers as the perfect setup for visiting the parks. They're much more compact to drive around, and you have the ability to offload the camper to use the truck for touring the parks. My biggest concern is overall living space, since I'm still working 40+ hours a week, and also want some space for lounging and kicking up the feet at the end of the day when not visiting a park somewhere. As I've been looking at tuck campers, that leads me to the Lance 1172 that has a dinette/table/desk space for working, and a couch for relaxing.

Looking at the overall length of truck plus camper, I then start thinking I may as well get a 25-26 foot class C that has probably more living and working space with the same overall length. However then I need to tow a toad to get around. Both because when I'm set up working for the week, I won't want to move the camper to get some figurative milk, and I've visited enough national parks to know that I definitely don't want to drive around a class C for touring the parks on a weekend getaway.

Either way, I need to buy a truck camper and a 1 ton truck, or buy a class C and a new tow vehicle, because my car is not flat towable and I don't really want to deal with towing it on a trailer. I'm torn on both types of setups. I see pros and cons of both, neither of which is winning. Looking in the lightly used market, the initial purchase cost of both options seems roughly comparable to each other.
I'm leaning slightly more towards the truck camper route right now.
Does anyone have any advice? Have you switched from a truck camper to a class C or a class C to a truck camper and prefer one or the other? I would appreciate any thoughts or feedback before I start spending lots of money! 🙂

thanks!

[NatParkJunkie]

bka0721 wrote:

For me, I use a get around vehicle, motorcycles, for most of my traveling time. Boondocking my TC and going out exploring or running to the store. But a couple of years back I purchased a separate vehicle (Ford Ranger Truck) and installed it in a location

b

thanks bka0721
out of curiosity, why do you use a separate vehicle for running around instead of the truck that the camper sits on? ie: take the TC off the truck and leave it at the campsite.

[bobman]

i would by a 34-36 foot class A down in Arizona used from some old fart for little money and flat tow a jeep to explore the desert

Class C ' s are mostly at the limit of their suspensions and I've never been impressed with them

my second choice would be a pickup and a nice TT for months at a time

[bka0721]

Welcome to the Forum!

Don't hesitate in coming here and asking questions. You are getting some great suggestions and you are staying engaged with the posters, as well. That is good.

Using my personal experience, I would go with the Truck Camper and tow a flat towed vehicle, behind your TC. Once you get to a place and set up, you are in a different world than those moving every day or every couple of days. As well as packing up so as to go to get something from the store.

For comments that say you have the whole outdoors to use so the smallness of a TC does not matter might not understand when you are traveling in a TC for months at a time, and in all weather conditions, having a place to spread out indoors is invaluable.

For me, I use a get around vehicle, motorcycles, for most of my traveling time. Boondocking my TC and going out exploring or running to the store. But a couple of years back I purchased a separate vehicle (Ford Ranger Truck) and installed it in a location I spend my summers working in a National Park. That might be something you consider as an option too. Placing an inexpensive vehicle in Arizona and using it as your winter get around vehicle then using your TC for a base camp. Leave the non-flat towable vehicle in Pennsylvania, for the same reason, to use there during the summer.

As for saving money, hands down a travel trailer will be the least expensive in getting up and rolling with the available tow vehicle as your get around vehicle. Then when it happens for changing up when you are ready to change directions, by selling or trading up to a TC or larger TT or Class C.

Oh, yeah. Good choice in Verizon as I find that the best for connectivity in my travels, especially in remote areas of the West. When AT&T is available, this service is stronger. For that reason I have both.

Good luck!

b

[kohldad]

While you are towing with the TC/TT combo, you are only towing it to and from the west. With the TC, you have the ability to quickly leave to go 100 or 200 miles away for the weekend without towing anything. You wouldn't want to go sightseeing in the car for 200 miles and then have to come back to sleep. Plus, the TC would always be ready to travel while with the Class C, you would have to store a lot more stuff which I see would become enough of a hassle to prevent you from traveling some weekends.

You could also go with just the TC for a while to determine if it isn't big enough for you. Do just the TC for the first year and then hopefully convince the boss you can travel while you do your job. My wife and I have no problems going out for 4 weeks in my small 8' TC. There are also a number of folks who live full time in a TC.

Not saying this is the best option as that is a personal preference, just trying to give you some additional ways to think about it.

Good luck and remember those of us stuck to a desk in one location.

[NatParkJunkie]

I really appreciate everyone's feedback and suggestions! It looks like folks are pretty evenly divided between the two options (just like I am!)
Early on, I did think about the idea of a smaller TC for trips, plus a TT for living and working. I mostly ruled that out since it would mean needing to buy 3 things instead of 2. And because if I'm going to end up towing something, I may as well go the route of a class c and tow a little jeep behind it.
The TC are what initially caught my eye for their mobility, but I'm concerned about feeling cramped living in it for 3-4 months a year. I guess I have to decide what's more important to me: mobility or space.

[Tiger4x4RV]

My vote goes to the idea of a TT and a truck with a small TC or shell. Most versatility and living/working space for the money.

[finsruskw]

I went with a TC because I love my Longhorn Ram 3500!!

[coolmom42]

I like the idea of the small truck camper + trailer. The trailer will be much better for living and working in.

Go used on the truck, small + used on the truck camper, and moderate size on the trailer. On the trailer, you want a dinette for a place to work, and another place to sit, so you can relax away from your work space.

Your leisure spot doesn't have to be a sofa, it could be a recliner. A lot of floor plans have a bedroom divider wall with sofa on it, then dinette, a mid-kitchen, rear bath. You could replace that sofa with a comfy recliner.

You could start out with the truck camper, and take your time looking for the trailer. If you winter in AZ, there are lots of trailers of all types for sale there.

[burningman]

I think your situation has truck plus travel trailer written all over it.
I like truck campers and have had them most of my life but they get really small really quick for living in for any extended amount of time.
Storage is almost nothing in a camper.
With a trailer, you get WAY more space, plus you can put a canopy topper on your truck and have lots more room for your stuff.
It's easier to hitch up or drop a traile than loading a camper (unless you have a Stable-Lift camper lift) and you can just park that at the campground and have a real "house".
That's definitely what I'd do in your shoes.

[thedavidzoo]

When we looked at new 2015-2016 class Cs, we were profoundly disappointed with their insulation. I lifted the seat on a dinette that could change into a bed, and I could look straight down to the asphalt through a gap in the floor...Just something to think about if you are in temperature extremes. Also, framing, especially around windows, etc. was minimal or nonexistent. Not my idea of durable.

We went with a well-insulted TC.

[pastorbillv]

I have both and it sounds like you'd want a class C. In comparison, the cabover camper I have is WAY SMALLER and MUCH more cramped than the Class C! I didn't realize how much smaller it would feel like than the Class C (ours is 30').

Both fit easily into parks and campgrounds. Both drive easily.

I find the camper great for the very short, last-minute trips where I do more exploring and moving night-to-night around during the trip. The class C is better for longer trips and with less moving around. In the Class C, you tend to get stuff laying around everywhere that has to be secure before driving. But, it sure is nice for spreading out a lot more than the camper!

I'd suggest you rent a class C first. If you could rent a camper, do so too. The difference is immediately noticeable, but hard to describe!


Good luck!
Bill

[pcoplin]

If I were to use a camper for living in and just parking it a 2 different campgrounds with hookups, I would get a motorhome.

I have a truck camper because we travel the backwoods and always dry camp. Plus I tow to offroad areas and races. Nut would like a 4x4 diesel class C later to replace it.

[Reddog1]

I prefer the Truck and TC. A towed is a bonus. I lived in my 11.5 foot non slideout TC for four nights and three days a week for five years due to my job. Most of the time I stayed in the parking lot. I would go home on weekends.

I would drive my truck/TC shopping, to eat out on occasion and to go site seeing. My work place was in the San Francisco bay area, which has a lot of heavy traffic. I quickly adapted to driving and parking. The truck/TC was not as obvious in parking lots as a Class C. On occasion I would drive to other locations after work, just to kick back, cook dinner and change scenery. Later I would drive back to my work parking lot, which was free rent and I could walk to work. Sometimes I would flat tow my Samurai. This allowed me to tour places where truck/TC was awkward.

Wayne

[LamboDesigns]

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.

[ksg5000]

Class C is major step up from TC - the only downside is that your not going to take it on back trails like a TC but if your goal is to visit State/National parks then that's not much of a downside.