slide in camper

[Crazy Horse]

The "mismatched" system worked good for me. I would never rely on that rear bumper as a tie down point. Grab the corner of that bumper some time with your hand and watch it move back and forth. That bumper out there wasn't designed to have a camper pulling on it that way. Imagine a thousand pounds or more pulling on that corner. Try hitting a two foot frost heave at 40 plus miles an hour, it's only fun if you are set up the right way. On our trip we hit quite a few frostheaves hard due to not enough time to slow down coming through the Yukon and Alaska in the early spring; that's when the heaves are the worst, and the setup worked great. One 30 mile section between Kluane Lake and the Don Jack was so torn up we were down to 5 MPH at times. As I said if you use the right happyjack setup the right way, I believe a person won't have any problems with it.

 

[JohnMcIntyre]

Originally posted by Bill Stockard

The TorkLifts work just fine with bars that go the length of the cab(Check my signature)

Thanks to the TDR web site, I learned there was a frame mount tie down system avaliable.



Bill

Bill,



any chance of posting some pictures here on this thread to illustrate how the Torqlifts and sidebars coexist painlessly with each other?



Cheers!!

 

[Bill Stockard]

John Mc,



Yep... ... stand by. I should have some by this afternoon.



Bill

 

[JWhitcomb]

Texas Diesel, my experiance is if you don't think you want a slide out, don't let your wife get a look at one. Once my wife saw the extra room, there was no going back. After 7000 miles of use, traveling with two big dogs, she was right. Woe is me.

 

[MABurns]

Texas Diesel,

Has your wife been in the bathroom on a slide in? Luckily my wife likes to camp, but only in a 32 foot fifth wheel! In our slide-in we had to go out side to change our mind. Getting a bigger fifth wheel can also justify the dually!

 

[Gunny]

Of the two--slide-in or fifth wheel, the best way to go is to get both. I have a 34 ft 5er and a Bigfoot slide-in. The 5er is a hell of a lot easier to hook up takes about 5 min. you have tons of more room, and they pull like a dream with a CTD. The slide-in is a pain in the butt to load, you dont have any room, at least not for two people. And when you get to where you are going you do not have the use of your truck unless you pack every thing you just spent three hours unpacking. Having said that the slide-in will take you places that you would never get a 5er into, and when you get there it is better rhan a tent. The one thing you should really take a look at is the slide-out in a slide-in camper they almost double the room that you have to use, they are great. Right after i bought my camper I went over to J Whitcomb and Jim gave me a tour of his camper with a slide-out, damn it made a lot of difference. Which ever way you go the dually is the way to go, and besides they are way cool. Gunny

 

[JWhitcomb]

One thing I would like to add about campers. This may not be important to everyone but it was for me. A lot of campers have a tiny window that opens into the truck cab. If you want to pass thru anything of size, you have a difficult time. The reason it is important to me is my dogs need to get thru, they take up a lot of floor room in the camper. Gunny and David, I still like your Big Foot's a lot but I do like my slide. Do wish I had a basement like yours because snow boards and fishing rods are hard to stow inside.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Westin Bars & TorkLifts

John McIntyre,

 

[JWhitcomb]

Bill Stockard

How much lower from the floor of the cab are the tops of the Westin bars? I have been looking at trucks on the road and in parking lots and most that I see don't really hang low enough to be effective as a step. Best I see so far are the U shaped cast aluminum units, they have at least a six inch height difference from the cab floor. One other thing I notice is that some don't stick out far enough from the truck, no toe room. It looks like Westin does that OK. Thanks, Jim

 

[Bill Stockard]

Jim,



Our truck is a 2 wheel drive and sets closer to the ground than your 4x4. If you have a short legged wife(5'2") as I do, I don't think the Westins will help as much for entry since they are pretty close to the bottom of the cab. I had the steps you refer to on our previous '97 and they do give a better "in between" step than the bars. My size 11 foot fits on the bars pretty well getting in and out.



Bill

 

[JWhitcomb]

Bill, yup, she is 5'2" and makes a lot of comments about the height of my truck. Just a side comment about steps, my friends new Ford came with running boards and with less than 5000 miles they are bending from being stood on. One other thing my wife comments on is the lack of grab handle above her door. We have been on some nasty roads lately and she gets tossed around a bit. I need to do a search for the part numbers for a handle that were discussed awhile ago.

Jim

 

[VicR]

JWhitcombe,



I am 99% sure the P/N for the grab handle above the door is 5DZ39SL2. I am going to the dealer tomorrow to order one. I'll let you know if its different.



-Vic

 

[Bill Stockard]

Jim,



Yep, that grab handle was a casualty of DC cost cutting... like the black plastic rub strips on the truck bed, dual lighted vanity mirrors, black trim on the tailgate, etc. I had to put the '99 strips on our '00. At least I still got the grab handle--my wife would insist that I install one too had it not been there. The short gals like those "bucking straps" with the no-cling leather seats.



Bill

 

[dresslered]

Jim-

Did Buster come without one or both of the grab handles? Mine has them above the passenger door as well as on the passenger A-pillar. See ya at the next RR's.



Cheapskate DC!

 

[RobG]

I use the Torklift tiedowns on my truck with my Lance 1030 and love 'em! Also, another vote for Lance... great camper! Just be sure you get it with the winter package AND the storm windows. I didn't get the storm windows and will be paying Lance a pretty penny to upgrade my sliding windows to the torque style (which became standard in 2001) and add the storm windows.



Rob

 

[rrl989]

Add one more "Lance" vote from me, and another for the "Happijac" tiedowns.

 

[JWhitcomb]

David,

Nope, the few months diffrent in the build date between yours and mine mean that you got more stuff. See you at RR and be sure to bring a written note from home as to why you missed last time.