Good Article on the Importance of Correctly Matching Trucks to Truck Campers

[MG1912]

https://www.thedrive.com/news/31525...hows-why-you-should-never-overload-your-truck

I saw this article today and wanted to share it with my fellow truck camper enthusiasts.  It shows an extreme example of what can happen when you mismatch a truck and truck camper.  In this case, the person in question A) put a long-bed camper on a short-bed truck, and B) seriously overloaded the truck.

You can see what happened to this poor F-150, which probably has a payload capacity of 2,000 pounds.  According to the article, this particular model of truck camper weighs 2,800 pounds (dry).  That makes for a wet weight of 3,000 pounds or so.  Add gear, food, and people, and you're at 4,000 pounds or so.  That's overloading a half-ton truck by a full ton!

As you can see in the picture, at the very least, this guy destroyed his truck bed.  He may have frame damage.  And he's lucky because if he had actually taken this thing on the road, he may have had a tire blowout or a wheel break.  The jury-rigged strap around the cab over would be funny if it wasn't so sad when you think about the potential consequences.

 

[MG1912]

Oh, and something the article doesn't even mention, but which is very important, is the center of gravity of the camper and where it sits on the truck. A slide-in camper's center of gravity should always be in front of the rear wheel axle. It looks like this one is around where the tailgate goes on this F-150...

If this guy had gotten on the road -- and the bed/frame hadn't failed -- and he actually got to driving this rig, I can't imagine what the ride was like!

 

[highdesertranger]

someone needs to do a write up like this for vans. full build outs on 1/2 ton or mini vans, fully loaded they must be overweight. I wish people would post up some scale numbers. highdesertranger

 

[user 22017]

I was glad I saw this vid (below) when I picked up my camper in Minnesota. The bed area was hitting my cab lights so I had to raise the camper. The guys helping me wanted to use 4x4's. I remembered this vid & told them I wanted plywood.

His camper is too big, too:

 

[user 22017]

Oh, and something the article doesn't even mention, but which is very important, is the center of gravity of the camper and where it sits on the truck.  A slide-in camper's center of gravity should always be in front of the rear wheel axle.

Also, truck campers have arrows on the outside showing where the CoG is located. The guy who bought my Skamper showed me the arrow. I knew about the arrows, but never even looked for it. But, the skamper was light and a perfect fit in my bed.