Heading out on the road in a couple of days, for our first long trip with our new to us truck camper (having previously owned and travelled extensively with a travel trailer). What is/was your biggest truck camper mistake?Hopefully, we can learn from other's mistakes. I'm feeling excited but a bit nervous about travelling with the truck camper as opposed to a travel trailer.Thanks!

I no longer own a truck camper...that was my biggest mistake, selling it.Calm down though. With your extensive experience with a travel trailer, I'd say your worries are none. If you use the campers jacks to stabilize when camped, as some do, don't forget to retract them before heading down the road.Enjoy your truck camper.ryoungI no longer own the truck and TC in my signature.

If you use the camper's jacks to level the rig make sure you remember to release/loosen the tie-downs. Then remember to reattach them properly before driving away.Don't forget the TC sits a LOT higher then your travel trailer did so watch your overhead clearances.

Always make sure that the front is higher when raising or lowering, you don't want to tip it forward.Biggest mistake buying a TC, much happier with a small 20' TT.

My most spectacular mistake so far was laying the propane igniter gun used to light the oven on the stovetop grill ... with one of the burners going. Kaboom! Gave me a good scare but luckily didn't do any serious damage. Of course you already know how to handle nearly every aspect of traveling with a truck camper after your years with a travel trailer. One thing I can thing of that is different is that truck camper rigs are taller than travel trailer rigs so you have to know your height and watch for anything you won't fit under.

Back when I had the big extended length camper several years ago, which the rear jacks hung low on, I hit a series of large road cones with the right rear jack in a construction zone. It didn't tear the jack off, but it did tear the lower mount out of the plywood and damage it, plus bend the jack a little.On the same camper, which was missing one of the roof vent covers, I had put a piece of plywood over the vent hole and a large rock on top of the plywood to keep the wind from blowing it off. Well, later on, I forgot about the plywood and the rock and I drove it down the road. When I got to where I was going, I remembered about it. I went on the roof to check it and both the rock and the plywood were gone. Hopefully someone behind me didn't get a large rock on their hood or through their windshield!Again, on the same camper, I had put a bicycle inside the camper in the main hallway, leaning against the counter. The bicycle moved while I was driving and turned on the gas control for the stove. When I got to where I was going, I opened the camper door and was about knocked out by the gas smell. Fortunately, nothing lit on fire. I learned then to shut off the propane tank while driving.Also on the same camper, when I was first bringing it home, I didn't have tie downs for it yet. I thought, I'm only going a short distance in town, I'll drive carefully and it will be fine. It was fine for most of the trip, until right before I to my neighborhood. Someone pulled out in front of me and I had to brake hard. The camper slammed forward and bent the front wall of the truck bed and dented the cab. Later on, I ended up having to unbolt the bed, lift it up and pull it back, remove the front bed wall, straighten it and then pound a pipe into the upper lip/channel, which was round and perfectly sized to fit a pipe into, to strengthen it, weld a piece of steel angle along the bottom where the bolts tore out, then put it all back together. I've never hauled a camper without tiedowns since then.

Your biggest truck camper mistake? | Good Sam Community

56 Replies

pcoplin
Explorer II
Jul 08, 2016
Mine was my first truck camper. It was an 89 Lance camper. I didnt know it has a much water damage as it did. Within 6 months, the wings fell apart, the paper peeled off the underside and blew off, tore a hold-down out, and when I took off the emergency hatch trim, black mold water poured all over the bed.

I stripped the appliances, dropped it off at the dump, and they pushed it into the garbage abyss...

It did solidify our love for the truck camper, and got us out 6 or 7 camping trips in the 6 months I had it. And taught me what to look for on the next one. a $2k lesson....
burningman
Explorer II
Jul 08, 2016
Uh, excuse me, what?
The camper, truck bed and frame's relationship to each other does not change when you inflate or deflate your airbags. Are you under the impression the airbags lift your truck bed off the frame?

The only thing that changes is the rear axle and springs in relation to the chassis.

Now, if you're trying your camper directly to your rear wheels, this is something to consider.
lakeside013104
Explorer
Jul 07, 2016
996Pilot wrote:
Cmprmn wrote:
If you have or plan to get airbags, air them up before you secure your tiedowns.

Oooooo! That's one I hadn't thought about. Mounts on the frame and camper in the bed that can be a BIG difference with airbags inflating.

New item on the checklist!

Opps.......check tie downs after deflating air bags...

Lakeside
BCSierra
Explorer
Jul 07, 2016
Forgot to lock the fridge then drove about 100 miles on some very curvy roads. Found an interesting concoction blended on the camper floor, bean salad, humus, etc smeared and mixed together in every corner. Worst thing was, the beer was warm.
GeoBoy
Explorer
Jul 04, 2016
996Pilot wrote:
Cmprmn wrote:
If you have or plan to get airbags, air them up before you secure your tiedowns.

Oooooo! That's one I hadn't thought about. Mounts on the frame and camper in the bed that can be a BIG difference with airbags inflating.

New item on the checklist!

Are you serious? The camper sits in the bed that is mounted to the truck frame. The air bags mount to the axle that is suspended from the frame. Wow!!
996Pilot
Explorer
Jul 04, 2016
Cmprmn wrote:
If you have or plan to get airbags, air them up before you secure your tiedowns.

Oooooo! That's one I hadn't thought about. Mounts on the frame and camper in the bed that can be a BIG difference with airbags inflating.

New item on the checklist!
Bob__B
Explorer
Jul 04, 2016
newk wrote:

I could go on and on

...like the time I drove the pickup to my insurance agent's office to turn in a claim (from backing my truck camper into my car) and smacked the overhang/sign on the front of his office. (One of my more embarrassing moments!)

A friend of mine once told me ..... I was looking up in the air and a bird pooped right in my mouth ..... I told him that if that had happened to me, I would never tell anyone about it ..... That is another one of those things ..:E LOL
newk
Explorer
Jul 04, 2016
Be sure to have proper tie-downs on your truck. For years I used the bed stake holes, but on long trips they'd often wobble just enough to loosen the chains a bit. Once, while driving in strong and gusty wind conditions on a thousand-mile trip, both of the driver's side tie-down chains got so loose that they detached. I came over a hill on I-35 in Iowa and glanced in my driver's side mirror to see the camper lifted up about two feet and still going! I slammed on the brakes and made a fairly hard right turn onto the shoulder and it settled back down. (Whew!) I drove the rest of my trip at about 30 mph and purchased a set of good, frame-mounted tie downs.

I could go on and on

...like the time I drove the pickup to my insurance agent's office to turn in a claim (from backing my truck camper into my car) and smacked the overhang/sign on the front of his office. (One of my more embarrassing moments!)

Or the time the refrigerator door came open enroute and a jar of pickles fell out and crashed onto the floor. (Pickle juice is STICKY!)

But I won't. ;)
clikrf8
Explorer
Jul 03, 2016
A few errors:
Need more Solar. Currently 140 watts but would like to add another 70 watts
Drove off with scissor steps attached
On a pop up, we forgot to undo one latch. Pop!
Didn't lock door securely and lost a few small items along a bumpy road.
Left vent up but no damage
d3500ram
Explorer III
Jun 30, 2016
Cmprmn wrote:
If you have or plan to get airbags, air them up before you secure your tiedowns.

This makes no difference- the relative height is the same whether aired up or not because the tie-down mounts and the bed on which the camper sits is the same in either position.