Hallmark

[NorthernMN]

The rear mounts can be quite simple. I use a piece of square tubing on each side just slid into the larger square tubing of the Reese style hitch. Once the chains are drawn up tight they cannot move.

One other thing, if the camper is a 2006 or older, watch for leaks around the roof. Hallmark had a problem and corrected it for the 2007s. I've got a used 2006 that has leaked and has now caused rot in the panels. Hallmark wants $7000 to fix it!! I think I'll do better scrapping it out.

 

[mudmony]

When looking at older hallmarks the quotes were not near that expense...but remember maintance is key to any rv, when stored in the elements things go to crap in a short period, never the less Northern sorry for your issues, dont understand your rear mounting, I do not want to use the rear stock brackets, the little exploring I have done, there is way to much body, frame flex to use the rear mounts, thinking more of a center mount on the bottom of the camper, then going to the hitch....besides that made a dolly to keep it in the garage....FYI dont buy Harbor Freight wheels, wanted to save $$$ and of course it ended up costing me,
otherwise love the construction of Hallmark, dont understand some design layouts, but will address later

 

[mudmony]

Forgot to mention, disappointed with true payload of Ford F250...very familiar with GVW, GCWR etc. with everything thing from GM 1500-4500, Ford 150-550 but
this truck weighed 7900lbs including full fuel, 35lbs airplane track tie downs, 40 lbs happi jac, 40lbs of tools and b.s.+ 240lbs me, leaves 2000lbs, how does Ford come up with 3000 lbs payload??? otherwise love the truck

 

[drodio]

@mudmony, I'd love to hear more about how you feel about your Hallmark after having it for a while. I'm considering an Outfitter vs. Hallmark and having a hard time choosing!

DROdio

 

[mudmony]

Sorry missed your post. Very happy so far, but to be fair I did not explore Outfitter other then the net. I found a used Guanella and jumped on it. My negative experience with RV's as always been water intrusion, from class A, class B, toy haulers etc. and when researching popups I knew the one thing I wanted was a 1 piece roof which Hallmark has had since 2008, I believe. Other items I liked, the abs overhead cabinets, access to wheel wells when mounted (perfect laundry shoot), cassette toilet, exterior styling, Marine snap in carpet, marine latches, heater, 1 piece sink/counter, insulted window coverings. The items that I do not like, more just complaints about the floor plan, sacrifices you make when buying used. The dinette is much to large (designed for someone to sleep), and table placement is akward, the aisle could be 4" wider easily, access to the 6v batteries is impossible when camper is mounted, mounting options to vehicle and overall weight. I cannot imagine anything less than a 3/4 ton for this specific camper, imho. We are heading to Death Valley for a week after Christmas and will post loaded weights.

 

[drodio]

Thanks for the info, @mudmony! Going to visit both of them next week.

 

[bob91yj]

We are heading to Death Valley for a week after Christmas and will post loaded weights.

Have a great trip, I'll be very interested in that trip report. I really overestimated the off road ability of my GMC/Sunlite camper set up. My camper is actually designed for a mini truck, so it's pretty light, around 950#'s empty if I remember correctly. My truck will get down a rough dirt road, but it's some pretty slow going for me.

locrwln has a set up comparable to mine, his seems to do exceptionally well, so maybe it's just me! I've basically got a couple of really poor dirt roads in Baja under my belt, and a couple of 15 mile jaunts through the desert to get to the Desert Rendezvous events. Soft/sandy roads are a piece of cake, throw in a few rocks/ruts and things get miserable for me in a hurry. We take the Jeep and tent camp when we are going to cover a lot of ground off road. The Jeep will take roads at 50mph plus that the truck goes through at 20mph.

Airing tires down to 30PSI, loaded HEAVY, improves things a bit, as does airing down my rear air bags to 10 psi or so, normally have between 35-50 psi depending on load. I think I can take the tires down another 5-10psi and still be ok, but haven't tried it yet. Rear shocks (probably Fox 2.0's with remotes) with more rebound damping in them to help with the bounce from the air bags and a rear sway bar are on my short list.

Good luck and have a blast in Death Valley!

 

[mudmony]

Thanks Bob. 10,560 lbs loaded for 5 days w/o occupants. great trip, but cold.17 degrees at Homestake. Marble canyon, Aguereberry, Titus, Harry Wade, Greenwater, Warm Springs and of course for my wife the typical, Mosiac, Dante, Zabriske, Golden, Rhyolite, Ballarat. 1100 miles total from San Diego. With the full load, kept tires at 50 psi & bags at 40, did not trust the stock tires at anything less. 20" rims with 34" stock Michelins is not the best, but no flats, pushed the tires to full pontential. Struggled with camper mounts, bent the rear mounts, camper moved around considerably, cant believe Hallmark is comfortable with their mounting system, truley my only complaint. Camper was warm, only ran heater at evenings and morning and at lowest setting, not needed at night. Looking forward to making adjustments to mounting, 17"or 18" rims with 35" and the next trip

 

[bob91yj]

We need to all get together and do a full size/camper run. I really want to test my truck/camper with some point to point overland travel. We're still fairly new to this whole thing. The groups I normally travel with on these type runs are fast movers/cover a lot of ground each day. I don't want to be "that guy" that holds the group up, a group of similar vehicles would be ideal.

Interesting that you left your tires and bags aired up, beginning to think that maybe it's just me being finicky/expecting too much in critiquing my set up.