Slide in Campers

[IdahoElk]

For those with slide in campers can you give me the Pro's and Con's of owning one, how often does it get used and are you happy with it.
Thanks for any info.

 

[cbat]

Worst mistake I made was selling my slide in pop up camper. You can be very mobile with them and for that matter travel with it. Lots of options on the newer ones. I had 5 guys sleeping in mine at one time. It rained about 6 inches in 2 days while we were elk hunting and their campers all leaked and mine was the only dry spot. Plus you can pull any kind of bumper pull trailer you want to with the camper in the truck.

 

[wyosteve]

I've owned a number of them. Pro is that you can still tow a trailer with them. A number of cons for me. First is the fact you need to install some type of tie down system on your truck, so extra cost. Next, is they have to be raised fairly high to get on the truck and the higher they go, the more unstable they are, so don't want to be loading in the wind. They will increase your 'center of gravity' on the truck so need to pay attention on curves or strong crosswinds. They are pretty much most useable for one or two people. Sleeping over the cab is fine unless you have to get up several times during the night for 'pee' duty. When they're off the truck, you need to 'set' them on something sturdy if there's any significant wind as the jacks aren't designed for stiff cross winds. If you go with the pop up style, DO NOT go with an electric lift system. Had a Palomino with it that was the worst engineered piece of garbage I've ever seen.

The only time for me they'd be worth it is if I had a dedicated truck and the camper could stay on it pretty much all the time. Loading and unloading is not terrible, but can be nerve wracking at times. Just my .02 worth of experiences.

 

[Alpine4x4]

They're annoying to load if you have power jacks, they are an absolute pain in the ass without.

They're not stable. You need to bring cribbing to shore them up. If you leave it on your truck they suck to try and level and they definitely bounce a lot when you're in them.

You want one with a slide. Without they are basically just a hard sided tent with no room for anything.

If you get one with a slide check your payload, unless you're a one ton they will push you over legal payload. If your truck is a Ram made before 2013 you will need a dually to stay legal. My Arctic Fox 811s was 3600lbs dry and my 2012 3500 payload is 2600.

You'll want airbags. Its no fun without. Timbrens are not the same and only marginally help.

They're like any RV. They're generally made cheap and stuff goes wrong relatively often. That said Arctic Fox is solid and I would consider them to be the tops for slide ins followed by Lance.

If you plan on winter camping make sure the one you get has a winter package to keep the shitter and pipes from freezing (AF are all winter packaged I believe. Mine was) Also look for double pane windows, reduces the condensation inside.

 

[Dennis]

We have a Hallmark pop-up camper that slides in. Pro’s it quick and easy to setup. Has heater and toilet etc. Queen size bed is comfortable and big enough. Wife loves it. Easy to pull a trailer with side by side or four wheeler for more serious off road exploring. Larger windows allow good air flow. Limited wind profile while driving and reasonable storage. Seems well insulated in cold weather conditions in Colorado during mid November. With truck air bags movement / rocking isn’t an issue. Con’s taking it off and on isn’t hard but it takes time. Top gray is down while driving.

 

[IdahoElk]

Thanks for all the responses, I'm looking at a slide in so I can tow my boat also, Just my wife and I with two dogs.

 

[Weldor]

Sold mine after it tipped and shattered my hand. Otherwise had no problems through the years. Stablelift is the way to go in my book.

 

[Phaseolus]

My Wife and I have had truck campers for 25 years. We started with a pop up but having canvas sides has many drawbacks including wind flapping noise while trying to sleep and having to set them back up to dry when wet. We’ve had an Eagle Cap 950 on our diesel F250 srw for 15 years and love it. We have atv’s that we take with us so being able to tow a trailer is great. I spent years hooking up and unhooking implements while farming and taking a camper off the truck or putting it back on is no big deal. I built a big enough mancave/garage so it is stored inside which extends the life of caulked seams and the rest of the camper. Seams and other maintenance (on any type of rv, camper, or trailer) is absolutely necessary and a PIA, garaging it helps extend the maintenance intervals. We use ours around 70 days a year including driving it to the southern tip of Baja and will head to AK this coming summer. We live in the high desert of western Colorado and use it to escape summer heat by heading to nearby Grand Mesa and Uncompahgre Plateau. We retired 6 years ago so we use it more now. A biggest mistake that we made and other people commonly make is buying a slide in that is too heavy for the truck. The camper WILL weigh more than the sticker weight when you pack it with food, water, gear and other stuff. Having a Wife makes it a battle to not keep adding needless weight. Ours should have been on a Dually truck but adding 19.5 inch wheels and tires along with suspension adds like extra leaf springs and Timbren rubber coils help. We are over the GVWR so I worry about what would happen insurance wise if we ever were in an accident. We’ve driven 60,000 miles with our current setup. It’s really important to learn to make your own repairs and do your own maintenance. Rv quality of initial build is generally poor and I’ve had to fix a lot of things that were done poorly. Paying an RV store to do your maintenance will result in high $$ and low quality. I added 400 watts of solar to ours and we rarely need to use a generator which is a blessing, we try hard not to stay in any kind of campground so generating our own electricity quietly is important. It’s also nice to have the generator built in and running on propane. Our next truck is going to be an F450.

 

[Weldor]

Just remember if you a hitch extension you loose quite abit of capacity.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I got one from the 70s. On my job I moved daily and it made camping very convenient. The earlier ones had a propane heater without an electric thermastat. I've seen a number of the newer ones that ran the battery down.

They tend to make your pucker on outsloping roads and you will need a chainsaw on the western mountain roads.

I found the 1 ton pickup a necessity for the suspension system. 3/4 ton rigs with high velocity crosswinds are breathtaking/ butt puckering.

Over the years I found the storage and refridgerator very good for 1-2 at best. With more they tend to be very crowded.

With a camp, I would choose a couple tents over a camper.

 

[IdahoElk]

They're annoying to load if you have power jacks, they are an absolute pain in the ass without.

They're not stable. You need to bring cribbing to shore them up. If you leave it on your truck they suck to try and level and they definitely bounce a lot when you're in them.

You want one with a slide. Without they are basically just a hard sided tent with no room for anything.

If you get one with a slide check your payload, unless you're a one ton they will push you over legal payload. If your truck is a Ram made before 2013 you will need a dually to stay legal. My Arctic Fox 811s was 3600lbs dry and my 2012 3500 payload is 2600.

You'll want airbags. Its no fun without. Timbrens are not the same and only marginally help.

They're like any RV. They're generally made cheap and stuff goes wrong relatively often. That said Arctic Fox is solid and I would consider them to be the tops for slide ins followed by Lance.

If you plan on winter camping make sure the one you get has a winter package to keep the shitter and pipes from freezing (AF are all winter packaged I believe. Mine was) Also look for double pane windows, reduces the condensation inside.
View attachment 798244View attachment 798245

I was looking at the Palomino 1251 pop up (1800lbs) and putting it in a 06 F250

 

[Blockcaver]

I've got a Northern Lite 8-11 Cabover bought new in 2014 on a 2015 Ford F350 Powerstroke crew cab short bed bought new at the same time. We use it for fall bird hunting in BC, WA, MT, OR, NV. I also go to AZ for 4-6 weeks and bow hunt Coues deer every winter. It does get some spring and summer use for an occasional trip.

It has been hauled over 100,000 miles, been on and off the truck probably 50 times and is doing fine. We (wife and I) lived in it for 6 months while building our house. Had extra storage in the form of a sea can and cargo trailer. We set it on some heavy duty blocking for that event. But we'll take it off the truck and still use it on the electric Happy Jacks, lowered as close to the ground as possible. It is reasonably stable in the wind in the low position, and we never had a problem when it was stored off the truck for two winters on the jacks. Since the house build in 2016 the camper stays on the truck in the garage if not being used. We've probably got 400 or 500 days living in the camper. Love the 6 cu ft refrigerator freezer, furnace, "basement" storage and heated floor, 40 gallons of on board water, water heater, outside shower, stove and oven, the 60" x 80" queen bed, etc. The inside wet bath/toilet only get used as a storage area...too small and impractical in my opinion.

The unit is heavy!! "Lite" is part of the name only as it weighs over 2500#s with water and two batteries and two propane cylinders. I bought the heaviest suspension package Ford offered in 2015 without going to a dually. And it leaves me with 900#s of rated cargo capacity in addition to the camper.

Long campers that overhang the back of the truck make towing more complex. I use a straight 2-1/2" square tube extension to tow my light trailers, but a bigger cargo trailer needs a very heavy duty extension hitch system on the truck that is expensive.

Ours is nearly 12' tall on the truck and over 8' wide. This certainly limits where you want to take them. Watch out for overhanging limbs and don't take it thru a drive thru at the fast food joint. Both events cost me some $$ to get repaired, haha.

We like our big cab-over truck camper. Its easier to travel with than towing a trailer in my opinion, but has its drawbacks. Good luck with your choice!

I should add that the Northern Lite is a 4-season unit, with fiberglass clam-shell design and dual pane windows. It is a top quality unit made in Kelowna, BC and is in the same class as an Arctic Fox, but no slideout.

 

[Phaseolus]

Also, we bring a pole with saw on the end and limb loppers which helps with boondocking. I have felt the pain of lower hanging limbs just like Blockcaver has.

 

[Blockcaver]

Also, we bring a pole with saw on the end and limb loppers which helps with boondocking. I have felt the pain of lower hanging limbs just like Blockcaver has.

Now I carry a Fiskars 12' pole saw and lopper (collapses to 8') in the basement...once I learned my lesson the hard way!

 

[Beendare]

I hated the camper I had decades ago....PITA to drive with it, on the freeway (wind) on dirt roads- fuggetit....and no room in the thing.

 

[pacoalcracker]

Phaseolus.....I have a 2024 F450 crewcab and 8' box dually.....yeah, it won't be any problem with even the largest units with slide-outs and it will be very stable with the width of the dual rear wheels and that wide-track frontend which is 8" wider than the F250/F350. Turn radius is very tight too. Payload is 5000lbs but realistically it's 6500 (derated to keep it from CDL needs so it's pretty hard to overload it) The 19.5" wheels and 12ply tires helps and that 475HP 6.7 diesel won't have any problem carrying the largest units AND pulling whatever the heck you want behind it. You can also get the 500HP version too if you think you will need it...but, you won't. I hooked it up to a 14K rated 20' tilt-bed equipment trailer with a 10,000 lb Kubota SVL 75-3 trackloader on it and the rear suspension only squatted 1". Even pulling long steep hills with that weight was a nothing-burger. The F450 is an amazing truck. 16mpg around town and 22mpg on the highway and not much less loaded down. I have a motorhome but was thinking about a slide-in camper to travel the western states in and a possible trip to Alaska for a month or 2. Been retired almost 6 years.

 

[Justin Crossley]

I love my Arctic Fox 990. It's perfect for me and my wife or me and one other person when hunting.



I use a stabilizing system from Stablecamper. It greatly affects how much the camper moves when it's out of the truck. It's a great product.



As others have mentioned, a dually is the way to go, and I wouldn't run a camper without one.

 

[Alpine4x4]

Just remember if you a hitch extension you loose quite abit of capacity.

Yup. I have the Superhitch on my Ram and with the 48" double bar we are still max trailer load of 5000lbs. For a small ATV trailer it's fine though. It's around $1600 for the setup before install.

 

[jimh406]

I was looking at the Palomino 1251 pop up (1800lbs) and putting it in a 06 F250

Most TCs weigh quite a bit more than dry weight (usually listed) once you add water, batteries, propane, your stuff, tie downs and mounts, etc. Many people think that's anywhere from 500-1500 lbs depending on how much water it holds. Also, not all TCs include options in their weight. The tongue weight of the trailer also counts against your payload. Popups aren't that much lighter than the lightest hard sides although they are shorter loaded.

You may be over the payload even if you have the heavier rated tires/wheels. My bet is almost every rig in this thread is probably over their payload when loaded. It's up to you if that works for you or not, but I can tell you that adding a lot of weight will make stopping a lot slower. I'm not picking on TC owners since most RVs of all types are probably over their payload rating as well.

My TC is a 9 1/2 double slide that is very heavy even though it's one of the lightest on the market. It's nice when I get somewhere, but a bit like a motorhome otherwise. Most single slide models are also very heavy. You do have more floor space in slide models, but generally less storage available in a slide model since the space where the cabinets goes is where the structure for the slides is. If you just plan to cook a meal and sleep, any model should do fine. I don't think even a triple slide won't be big enough for a long stay.

I've had my current model going on 20 years. It was great for multi-day trips with 3 adults and 3 grandkids. A bit much for two of us.

For the most part, your travel time will go up. I feel like I load mine pretty quickly, but when all is said and done, it's probably close to 20 minutes to load/unload. Having one small enough to leave on virtually all of the time would be an advantage.

If you will mostly just sleep overnight in it, I'd consider a basic model like a Four Wheel Camper and if you haven't seen them, also look at Go Fast Campers.

 

[Marshfly]

Jim is exactly right. These dudes are heavy. I've had a Lance 855(non slide) and an ATC Cougar. The Lance was on a 1 ton SRW Ram with just under 4k of payload.Zero question I was right at that loaded for a trip. And dry that camper was supposedly less than 3k. That said, it was a phenomenal basecamp for the multi week fly fishing trips I used to do. I used the Torklift Stableloads and upgraded to tires rated at 4080# each. Drove fantastic on the road. Later model SRW 1 tons are worlds better than anything earlier. People that haven't hauled with them have zero clue how much better they are than even early 2000s dualies.
However, it would be terrible for hunting. Too much stuff, not enough room, where are you putting coolers?

For a couple that want's to camp and haul a boat? Perfect. Just be chill about what you bring.

And people, stop buying 3/4 ton trucks. 1 ton SRWs are the same money and ride the same but carry an additional 1000-1500# on the sticker. 3/4 tons make zero sense.