"Living The Lance Life" - Part 4 of 4

Part 4 of "Living The Lance Life." Lance owner interviews and a Lance factory tour. Hosted by Lance Ambassador Brian Brawdy - Lance owner, explorer and adventurer. ©2008 LCMC. All rights reserved.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• RV
• Camper
• Truck Camper
• Lance

[supersnot4]

@cedartree696 my bed's bent too. Not from the camper though, Actually I really don't know why it's bent. I think it was like that when I bought it, but I don't really pay much attention to dings and dents in it. It's a beater. Makes a big pain when trying to get the camper in straight though. And squeaks like crazy against the cab, drives me insane haha.

[cedartree696]

@supersnot4 I ended up putting a rubber pad between camper and a spray-in bed liner to help keep it in place after it slid forward and bend the forward wall of my pickup bed. Currently I'm in the process of completely overhauling the rig & part of that will be to properly reinforce the tie-ins which, in the factory, were build completely inadequately.

[supersnot4]

@cedartree696 I use 4 tie straps going down to the frame with my camper, and 2 smaller ones going from the cabover down to the frame in front. It stays in the same exact spot in the bed, nice and firm. Yet somehow I see campers with the tie down kits shifting around like crazy. I agree that anything over an 8.5 foot camper in a 3/4 ton is too much. But pretty much any 1 ton, srw or dually, can handle pretty much any large camper with ease, as long as it has dual sway bars.

[cedartree696]

@supersnot4. My comment appears to apply to the vid 4/4 for some reason. The rig in video 4 looks like an F-450 ; a good rig for the camper it's hauling. But I don't see the rig I was originally referring to so we might not even be talking about the same rigs. But the SWR rig in video 3 of 4 bobbing & swaying through the sand; Looks fun but there's no way in hell anyone can pretend that thing isn't dangerously overloaded.

[cedartree696]

@supersnot4 Look at my original comment. Not all were overloaded. The SRW I was referring to was overloaded. Look at the ratings of the truck & look at the wet weight of those campers. I completely agree a big issue is the campers shifting around in the beds. I know this first hand and is how I found out my Arctic Fox was an overweighted POS; The tie down anchors are not properly reinforced and hitting the brakes will rip them out and bend the front of your pickup bed.

[cedartree696]

@supersnot4. Sounds like you have a great rig. But I'm not sure why you use the example of your F-250/camper combo, which is not overloaded, as part of a defense of those who are overloaded. (in your first comment) It makes no sense. It's like me claiming my morbidly obese friend isn't fat by pointing to my own, healthy weight.

[supersnot4]

@cedartree696 '88 Model 200. It's just an 8ft camper, no shower and just a porta potty, 3-way fridge, 4 burner stove/oven, 2 way sink, and 12 volt roof swamp cooler. I have a lift gate on my truck, which extends my bed by about 6 inches, so I can actually close the tailgate behind the camper. Makes a nice patio when open, and can be lowered to make a step.

[cedartree696]

@supersnot; Your Lance camper weighs only 1300 LBS!? Which one is it?

[supersnot4]

@cedartree696 either way, none of the trucks were close to overloaded, and were completely safe. The biggest threat with a camper is it coming off the bed (actually had this happen to a friend of mine on the freeway). Even exceeding the gvwr, most trucks are still perfectly safe with a camper. Though I would never actual overload my truck, unless I'm only driving down a short dirt road.

[supersnot4]

@cedartree696 Stating that my engine handles the camper just fine was only part of my comment, and I never said anything about raising my GVWR. My truck has a GVWR of 6,600lbs, which gives me a little over 2,000lbs of legal payload. Add about 150lbs for trailer tongue, 1300lbs wet weight of camper, and 600lbs of 2 people and gear, and I'm still legal. Without sway bars or suspension upgrades, it handles perfectly fine. I have a couple videos of it up on my channel.