Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Broken Pickup Camper

Oldidaho;
Good morning to you sir, I hope you're getting decent weather out in Michigan this morning and you're well.

Through a bunch of my working life I worked in a cabinet production shop that among other things supplied cabinet doors and furniture to various RV manufacturers up here. One of them was West Coast Leisure which was owned by the late Chris Epp and if I'm not wrong he also owned Eagle Cap back then too. They closed down operations up here in 2008 I want to say and Chris has been gone since 2013.

Anyways all that to say through work there and then when I managed a storage facility where we stored boats, classic and exotic autos and RV's, I learned a wee bit about some aspects of what's going on there.

That camper is 4917lb dry so they say. Then we add 66gal of fresh water, 41 gallons of black water, 41 gallons of grey water, 6 gallons of hot water, 60lb of propane and fill up with diesel to top it off right? If my math is correct, without the diesel we've added 1345lb so now we're at 6262lb on the back.

Somehow, that seems like a whole bunch more than even a dually can put onto the axle and behind it too for that matter.

We used to tell folks something like, "Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should"...

That's not a small light setup.

https://www.eaglecapcampers.com/eagle-cap-1165

I'm not sure what I'd recommend as a solution other than putting the camper and truck separately on a flat bed trailer and taking it home.

All the best to you this Christmas Season.

Dwayne

I'm calling bullsh1t on this one. Unless the frame was compromised by drilling holes it it for mounting that camper. The frames on modern trucks are boxed hydro-formed high strength steel. Truck is too new for corrosion to be a factor. I would bet that you could unbolt the bed on a modern 1 ton truck (Any brand), load the frame behind the rear axle enough to pick the front up off the ground without causing damage.

There's more to the story, or its photoshopped.

Last year we saw a new Ford F250 crew cab short box, single rear wheels with a huge 11 foot camper on it. The rear end was severely squatted and the front end elevated about a foot more than the rear. Older couple were just cruising down the highway. Probably couldn't drive at night with the headlights pointing to the sky.

Must have bought the camper from private owner, no camper dealer would have sold that setup.

If you look at the photo, it looks like the frame is still level, but the bed itself is canted.

I'm guessing the bed anchors gave way because of a rear heavy camper load...

Might be wrong though.

Well shît just look at it!!!!

It’s a foucking monstrosity…JFC get something with its own axel at that point.

When did Baja get paved roads with curb and gutter?

No factory dually has a short bed - only 8'.

Looks like bed floor (thin sheet metal) pulled over bolt heads.

Dang straight. Every time I think I want a camper of some sort, reality jumps up and slaps me in the head. I'd need a bigger pickup, (more money, more insurance, higher fuel bills) vs. sleeping in a real bed, with a decent bathroom I don't have to empty later.

Camper front tie-downs are still connected to the outriggers, which bolt to the frame.

Ouch.

That truck can haul that camper at any speed it chooses, up any grade it sees. Hit a sinkhole or a washout at speed, and look what happens. Not mexico, but I've seen truck-size holes on the Tok Cutoff where a guy might drop close to a foot, then hit the hole slope on the other end at speed.

Megacab shortbox duallys do exist, but I think that's a standard crewcab.