[Rhodes22-list] New Tow Vehichle

[John Lock]

At 02:13 PM 8/2/2006 -0500, Slim wrote:
>For years I've been knocking around the idea of getting a pickup with a
>camper.  I've noticed they seen to have fallen from popularity as I see
>fewer and fewer of them on the road.  Why?  Has anyone out there ever had
>one?  If so, what did you like or dislike about it?

When I was a kid, my good friend's parents had one and we all packed 
off on vacation in it for a week one summer.

There were several issues that the adults struggled with along the way -

1) Space and weight.  Because of the limited form factor, things are 
shoe-horned in place.  And, since all the weight has to be carried on 
the same chassis, you needed a pretty beefy suspension and drive 
train.  Plus you had to be careful not to load it up with too much 
gear and/or people.

2) Park&Drive problems.  Planting the camper and jacking it up so you 
could drive the truck separately was a pain if you did it 
often.  Also, the camper wasn't terribly stable perched on its legs like that.

3) Wind loads - Since the high-profile camper is attached directly to 
the truck bed, side winds made driving pretty rough or downright 
scary.  There were times you just had to pull off the road and wait 
for the wind to die down.

HTH,

John

"AAAAA - American Association Against Acronym Abuse"