1968 F250 Camper Special
Regular 8' bed
C6 Auto Trans
390, etc
(I believe the Camper Special comes with sway bars.)

History: I bought the truck from the original owner 7 years ago. It now has 85,000 original miles, and looks good.

What size cabover is considered safe with the bed that I have? A few people--none of whom are truck owners--have mentioned that an 8' bed is probably limited in the lengths of cabover it can safely support. If so, what is safely doable?

Also, any hints people might have about things to look for (or watch out for) in the purchase of a cabover would be greatly appreciated, including descriptions of technical concerns and reviews of brands of cabovers. Are cabovers difficult to fit on these older trucks? I don't plan to take long trips, but probably would use it a few times a month for 50 to 60-mile trips of 1-2 days during the Spring and Summer.

Given my projected limited use, a cabover seems like a much more sensible (and affordable) prospect than a motorhome, as a motorhome would involve another vehicle purchase, additional insurance, more extensive storage, and its own mechanical expense.

I wouldn't feel comforable with a trailer, so I've limited myself to a cabover with this truck.

Anyway, it's obvious that I don't know much about these things, and would appreciate comments.

 

You have posted a hard to answer question. I put cabover camper in a Google search and was surprised at what I saw. There were cabover style campers for 3 wheel bicycles. I saw some that extended half way over the hood, 2-4 ft out the rear of the box, slideouts. Apparently they are pretty light weight now.

There were a few beds way back when longer than 8ft. but I suspect most will fit your truck. Have you thought about renting one to get a feel for what you might like?



John

 

An 8 foot bed is standard on a CS and always has been as far as I know. I think your truck should safely carry whatever you should choose to put on it and long as it's properly attached and not just set into the bed (as some folks do!) On my '72 CS I had an 11-1/2 foot camper:



It was an old unit, probably as old as the truck and certainly heavier than a modern unit would be. It carried it just fine though it did have the typical camper tendency to sway a bit. I wound up giving it to another forum member several years ago and he put it on his '76:



As you can clearly see in the last pic, the camper overhangs the back of the bed by a considerable amount. My '72 has a sliding rear bumper that can be extended out to compensated for this (or could have if the P/O hadn't welded it in the retracted position!) but my '68 doesn't have this option, so I would assume yours doesn't either.

Personally, I don't really like having such a big, heavy unit on the back of my truck, it really wasn't a lot of fun to drive that way. I would opt for the smallest unit that will fulfill your needs. The pop-up units are nice, they keep a low profile and you just raise them up when you set up camp. They're sort of like a combination of a camper and a tent trailer.

 

Any ideas as to what to add to the truck for purposes of stability?

 

The truck should be plenty stable enough. How stable are you? I'm sorry but reading your post you don't sound very comfortable with the idea.



John

 

"The truck should be plenty stable enough. How stable are you? [my italics and bold] I'm sorry but reading your post you don't sound very comfortable with the idea."


I searched other cabover threads on this and other forums, none of which addressed appropriate lengths of cabovers, in relation to the 8' bed. That is my main concern.
There seemed to be a lot of concern in the threads, however, about outfitting the truck: concerns about excessive sway, types of shocks, even ply-thickness of tires. Because I don't know anything about these things, I thought I would ask the question in the forum that has helped me considerably in the past. I simply want to do it responsibly. I don't want to endanger anyone or screw up a beautiful truck because I don't know what I'm doing.
If, however, my inquiry doesn't fit the stringent psychological standards of this forum (see quote at top), then please ignore my questions.

 

Some guys with lager over head campers added cowl shocks to the under side of the over hang part of the camper to help with it bouncing or recoil when asphalt became like a wash board like what heavy trucks do the road in some places. Those trucks that were fitted with a c/o the longer the camper the more of that white knuckle driving one goes through. Those old 6-8-ply bias tires had were less sway but did bump until warm up. Having a camper one seems to take along stuff they think they will need and never do use haft of it but it's there when needed.. I' make sure the radiator had been cleaned. Change all hoses belts and save the one ones. I placed my old one into the inside of the hood cut outs along the inner underside. Some hoods aren't cut tho!
I run a 180 thermostat with and a manual water temp gauge so you know how hot the motor really is as the dash Ga. you never know how accurate it is when it shows hot..
If it don't have a tranny cooler you should add one..
orich

 

Prolly not the best choice of words. We can't see your truck, but most 250s of that era would handle the camper box. Add the extras of the Camper Special, and you are increasing that.

Put 6,000 lbs in the bed you may not notice a big difference, put 4,000 lbs of super size camper that is effected by wind, continuing normal motions not seen or felt without one, & you have a different feeling.

Folks were using big hunking campers in those trucks when they were new 40+ years ago. You do seem to be approaching this like it is something new. I guess I feel the truck can handle it, but wonder if you can? My wife couldn't, bet you couldn't convince her to move one 30 down a straight level driveway with a hundred dollar bill.

If you are not comfortable with it turn it loose.



John

 

I just got one for my '69 f250 CS, and on the 1 hour drive home I was a little stressed about the wobbly ride home. It turned out that my tires were pretty low. After putting the proper air in the tires it has stopped the wobble and drives pretty good. I am replacing the rear shocks just because I have never replaced them (I chose KYB Monomax). Haven't installed them yet, so not sure if they will add anything to the camper situation.
Btw, my camper special rear springs don't sag at all and drives like it isn't carrying any load. And my camper is a '69 heavy weight.

 

It's not so much length, it's weight and the center of gravity of the rig. Lance campers in particular tend to be heavy, too. High CG makes the camper feel 'tippy'.

Max GVW minus actual truck weight with a full load of fuel will give you a ballpark figure as to how heavy of a camper you can carry.

Food for thought.

 

As, I remember when looking at c/o campers they were all between 1200-1450lbs. the six-pak was what I really like as being the lightest one's for an 8' footer. But if your tall like 6' then the beds are a little short for tall guys back yrs. ago to sleep laid out comfy so, I never got one. By the time your all loaded up with stuff, gas & water and last the family with bikes & the dog your pretty well at your max out a your Wt. limits. Also you'll want to make sure you have good tires. And a jack that you can get under the axles if your tire is flat with the rim sitting on the ground. Cause many people buy a Hyd. bottle jacks and they will not fit under the axle if your tire is flat. If you do get a flat, your tire will be trash. So if you didn't mess up the rim you just buy a BUY tire or run the risk with out a spare until you get home.yikes.
This why many carry 2 spares. carry one on the roof if you have a rear ladder & roof rack are nice, but end up with a lot of leaks if you don't use ss screws on the mounting brackets and use some good 25yr caulking over them. The roofs are not a place to walk around on okay. Its for more of your stuff. I had so many roof leaks when, I got mind, I removed the rack & latter but used walking boards to move around on the roof as not to damage any part of the roof tin. A big added bonus is to cover the top with the snow coating was what I last used to seal and reduce heat from the sun in warm weather if your out in the opening parking in the sun. Dual batteries are a must have thing if you don't like to worry about getting started the next day. and remember to take a dvd player to keep the kids & wife happy after your done dumping the (port a john) Gee the list goes on & on.. my 2cents
orich

 

I wore out 9' and an 11 1/2' campers in the 40+ years I've had my '68 Camper special. They don't come with sway bars and really need them if you want to be safe. They do come with levers that shorten the rear springs when a lot of weight is on the truck. The larger one needed extra springs so the lights weren't aimed at the sky. As orich said you need another battery just to run the camper and I installed a large amp alternator to keep the batteries charged. My camper weighed over 3000 lbs and needed the extra springs. I got them in a junk yard along with the u-bolts. If you're going to remove the camper when you're not using it, get air shocks instead of extra springs. Campers or motorhomes are necessary if you want to pull a trailer, boat, motorcycle, horse, etc. Since we moved to GA from CA we don't need a camper so I use it as a truck.

 

A couple of more things to add for safety. Tires should be at least D rated and as wide as will fit on the rear. I use 33x12.50x16.5 on the rear with the appropriate rims. I believe 285x70x16 or 295x70x16 are about the same size. I hope you have power steering and brakes on your truck, mine didn't come with power steering and I drove it that way for 20+ years before I found one at Pickapart and installed it. A smaller than 10' camper probably doesn't need extra springs or air shocks but they all need sway bars. Hellwig still makes them for our trucks.