Hey guy. Im thinking of putting some sort of shell onto my lifted F350. Its a 1997 F350 CC LB with a 9" lift on 37" x 12.5" 17" rims. I want a space in order to go camp in the back while visiting places. It will be towed on a trailer for long trips. I was thinking of one of those pop up slide in campers or a work style camper with a door.

I was thinking of maybe making my own sense I bought a steel lumber rack from a local junk yard. I might use that and add on to it. I just need enough room for 2 people (my girlfriend and I) can camp and have room for cooking and store food. Like those big Costco coolers full of food for a weekend trip.

This is my set up for camping right now.




These picture that follow are borrowed from online. These are some of the ideas Im thinking.







This is how Id be towing but probably sell that trailer and get a gooseneck. Thats not the lumber rack. This one is bolt together while the other one is welded, but kinda same setup.

 

Just so I understand, you're going to stick a camper on the black truck, trailer the black truck, then tow it with the white truck? Buy a travel trailer if you are going to go through that much trouble. Is there some reason you need two vehicles where ever you are going? Do they both need to be trucks. You can easily tow a car behind the truck with a camper.

 

Yeah I'm not understanding why you don't just drive the black truck? Either way.. If you go with a truck topper, get a raised roof style one. A long box with raised roof is going to be doable I think. I've tried g/f + dog + me camping in a 6.5' truck shell setup (not raised roof) for cooking/camping. It was cramped at best, but I don't think we had more than $200 into the setup if you don't include the topper/shell. The mobility was great, we could four wheel into just about anything then camp.

I just picked up an older FourWheel Camper, Grandby model (aluminum framed, light, built for some off road use) to renovate. I hate to send you away from FTE, but you should check out WanderTheWest.com & ExpeditionPortal.com forums. They're a wealth of info for ideas on just this type of thing. Most of what I've seen for campers on this site are for camp sites with hookups & graded gravel roads, you know 2500lb dry setups.. I get the impression you like to leave the established areas and explore, and you're not doing that with a lot of the campers on the market.

 

The black truck gets under 10mpg going high way speeds while the dually towing at 65ish gets about 15mpg. Also the black truck isn't as smooth as a ride as the dually. And the dually would be a rescue rig (if worst comes to worst). I try to plan for the worst and home for the best and anything in between Im ready for. Im planning on getting a cheap 25' gooseneck trailer.

 

I would sell the black truck and either get a slide in camper for the dually or get a pull along camper. There's no way I would be pulling a full size rig around. If you go the slide in camper route for your dually you could flat tow a Jeep or get a small car to tow dolly around if you wanted.

 

In my eyes, the right camper setup depends entirely on what you're trying to do. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Camp in remote places? Big slide in or travel trailer is useless. Go to a lake with a decent gravel road in? Big slide in or tt would be perfect. Camp in an easy to reach place, but explore by day? Flat tow a jeep or haul a dirt bike would work well, with a slide in the dually. You certainly have a lot of options.

Outlining your needs/wants of what you want to do first is crucial. My perfect setup is surely different from yours. Best you can do is see what other's do that have similar tastes, and go from there.

Do you have to travel hundreds of miles to camp? Under 10mpg isn't bad IMO if you're going 50 miles each way, but I hear you on driving 1000 mile trip like that.

 

How many people are you needing to sleep? You? You and the Misses? More than that? When I used to camp all the time I had my Blazer I had large totes for what I needed to stay dry and at night it would go on the roof rack while I slept in the back. But l, when trail riding it was inside.
​​​​​​​So I would go with a Bronco if you are camping single and just remove the rear seat. Shortish wheelbase and decent ground clearance.

 

I want to travel to different places and want a base camp and then go for a daily ride or weekend trip somewhere close to the base camp. Like go from NorCal to Calico (which is located in SoCal) and have a base camp location and maybe go on a day ride or spend the night out on the trail then come back. I will also be working for company that will have many properties that will be managed by me in different spread out. I wouldn't want to travel back and forth between home and these locations that can be 3-4 hours away. I would want to be able to stay in them for a few days then head home. Also I was thinking going on hunting trips eventually in different states. So the dually can tow all the equipment out and back and have the other rig to use around the areas. If I need more sleeping area because of brining people I can let them go camping in tents.

I can get a cheap slide in or a camper shell. The shell would be light enough to bring on the trail but the camper has more room. Slide in camper will probably have a bathroom but get worse fuel milage. Camper will light weight but be more crammed. I used to go camping all the time and figured out ways on how to do certain things.

Why sell the working rig and get 2-3 things(a slide in and a jeep and a trailer)? I already have many things. I didn't want to get into this. My family and I have about 14 vehicles including a boat, camping trailer, and car hauler. (Not dirt bikes or anything along that sort). I don't want to sell a working vehicle and buy something Id have to fix up and maybe brake on the trail with no help. I like what I like. I will never buy a car, only full size SUV and trucks for me.

 

I'm not quite sure where you think that crew cab long bed is going to take you when trail riding. Most trails I use won't fit that. The one's that do, are somewhat boring, well at least in a Jeep.

I do understand having the reliability and extra wheels when camping. I set up a base camp and go out for half or whole days, but always return to base camp at night.

Now I am interested in what people come up with when it comes to the long bed question for camping. Obviously with a goose neck, any camper you take would be on the trail truck. Which means if you want it for trails, a low profile (pop-up) style or shell is going to be the better choice. With 8 ft, you can easily fit a set of shelf style storage at the front of the bed, just going to be a pain to get it packed away, but nothing a second set of hands won't help with.
As for building a rack into a shell, my concern would be leaks and body flex on trails. I would think a pre built one would handle that much better. also, if you look at your rack, it may have the ability to adjust out, which means with some plates, that stick out side the bed rails, it would be able to mount around the outside of a cab height shell.

Good luck with your choice on bed coverage.

 

I was thinking trails like what "Dirt Every Day" show had done in their "Monster truck". It was a CC LB truck with small block engine but it had 54" tires on it. Im not sure if they had lifted it to nor but they had lots of cutting. I have friends that go to calico and asked for me to join. They go in mostly stock FJ's.

The lifted truck is CC LB with 7.5L that has been built up a bit. I can do a burnout with brand new AT tires. It has 10" custom lift (6" leaf spring and 4" reverse shackle kit). The truck is on 37"x12.5"x17" tires.







Ive done stupid things in vehicles that shouldn't have happened. I had accidentally (when I first started to wheel) took my Hummer H3 on a quad trail and did some interesting obstacles. I also had taken it to Hollister and did stuff that it shouldn't have been able to make. That thing sucked. I had to take out the traction control fuse and ABS fuse.


When I stand next to the truck, I can barely see over the hood. Im 5'10" tall.

 

You know, I guess you think that CCLB is capable of trail riding but you need to go to Hollister and follow some Jeeps around for the day. If you don't winch at least a dozen times, you were following n00bs.

The entry angle isn't bad, it's that exit angle that will get ya. those guys on "Dirt Every Day" didn't care if they killed that poor, abused OBS truck; it was a challenge for the show. I'm pretty sure the truck was junk by the end of the episode.

My truck isn't lifted but I have taken a few of the easier trails at Hollister. Still came back with scrapes on both bumpers, the skidplates, axles, you name it. I went through where a lifted truck had rolled at the far end of the site earlier in the day. I almost slid off the trail but I made it. Barely. Wouldn't have made it in a lifted rig. BTW, didn't touch the winch once that day.

I think you need a substantially smaller trail rig that can go on a bumper pull trailer and a regular cabover camper, either hard side or pop-up on the dually. I've been doing this since I was a young one, camping with the parents. My fifty years of experience is worth something if you're asking for opinions.

Mind you , this is just my personal opinion and you can take it for what it's worth to you.

 

"Trail riding" is what you make of it. A friend of mine had a blast trail riding in his stock crew cab long box dually Chevy. He didn't go over anything that I couldn't have done in 2WD in my Bronco, and he backed away from a lot of obstacles. But he used what he had and it was great.

As far as the trails that Dirt Every Day did with that lifted F-350 on 54s? Yeah, expect to do as much damage as they did to their truck (lots of bashed sheet metal). But that's not "trail riding." That's going out to see how ridiculous you can get. Nothing wrong with that if you've got the budget (or the disposable truck) for it. But it's not what anyone can do multiple times with an actual truck. Rock buggy? Well-built Bronco / Jeep? OK. But any truck using essentially stock drivetrain and sheetmetal can't survive the trails they did.

And to Brian, what you are proposing (trailering a camper/trail rig behind another truck) is WAY out there. Not that you shouldn't do it, but very few people trailer their camper, very few people use a long box crew cab for a trail rig, and very few people use their camper as their trail rig. Most would be looking to put a camper on the white truck and trailer a half-ton or smaller for the trail rig. Again, not to say that you're wrong to want to go against the flow, or to want to use the rigs you have. Just know that since you are marching to the beat of your own drum you won't have many people falling in step with you.



And to the original question of what type of camper, I've slept under a cab-high shell. You can do it, but especially with 2 people it's really cramped and not much fun. A shell that rises up higher than the cab would make it a little more tolerable, and would be the max I'd go for if trail riding is in the plans.

I have a light weight pop-up slide-in camper that is actually pretty good for camping with 2 people. Still no toilet or shower, but comfortable for sleeping and enough room to move around while getting dressed. But it's too wide for any significant trail riding.

Moving up to a standard slide-in camper can get you the toilet and shower, but now you're getting REALLY big for trails. And if you care about GVWR you'll be over-weight, even with a 1 ton. Very few slide-in campers these days at least are less than about 2500 lbs. Add full tanks, a couple of people, big tires on the truck, you're overloaded pretty quickly.

For what it's worth, here's a pic of my lightweight pop-up.

 

This was exactly what I was looking for. People with experience. I know that lifted rig wouldn't go on most trails. I wanted to see what people have done. I have 2 jeeps (both Grand Wagoners) and might be built up.

I would tow the lifted truck to desert/beach locations. Ive taken other vehicles that aren't as big to the mountains in social and did ok. The lifted truck will do much better. You can easily spend a weekend up there getting "lost".

 

So, it will still be pretty easy to overload your rig if you get crazy with equipment choices. I would look around for a pop-up (8' to 10') for your tow rig. They will be the lightest of the campers available. Go to a class 5 hitch (for safety) and set up a smaller trail rig, maybe a Grand Wagoneer for trails and use a bumper pull trailer to get that one to the site.

If you look around on CL, etc. you might find a pop-up with a Thetford cassette toilet. Probably the easiest to deal with, since you can pull the cassette tank and empty it in a regular toilet, if need be. Perfect for extended camping. A number of 8.5'+ pop-ups were meant to be used with the tailgate down, so no need to remove the gate to carry the camper.

My family has had Wagoneers and for the most part, they just need a SOA conversion and if need be, a part-time xfer case conversion to be a really nice trail rig. Don't forget they will need rock sliders to protect the door sills/rocker panels.

 

raystankewitz. Thank you for you input. This is why I started this thread. I thought of it when I saw my neighbors IDI diesel having a decent metal camper shell with a bed in it.

I have a aftermarket bumper. I went to a couple of trailer shops and asked what the rating was on the bumper and they said it was 10,000lb (so class V?) rating. I bought both of my jeeps for $0.01. They need new engines unfortunately. And Im going to need to rebuild my trailer.

The trailer is kinda POS. It has those double wide trailer axles and the tires keep going flat. And the brake wires keep getting ripped out. I need to upgrade it to something better. Im not sure if you can tell in the picture of my trailer.