How much off road can they handle?

[jnelson4x4taco]

Hello all, a few years ago I got away from the EXPO community when I sold my Tacoma for a turbo Subaru Forester. I was driving to downtown Denver and wanted a more "traffic friendly" vehicle. It was a sad day and a poor decision but thats behind me lol. Im happy to say that I will be getting into a truck again:wings::wings::wings:

With 2 dogs currently and kids on the horizon, my wife and I are looking for a truck setup that is a little more family friendly. My Tacoma was set up pretty well and even when towing my Coleman popup, it could tackle some pretty good trails. We are looking for a crew cab power stroke with a short bed and fitting it with some sort of hard side camper. My question is, how much off road capability do they have? It would be kept mostly stock but possibly a leveling kit and 285s. I know it will be vastly different from the Tacoma but my question is, "how much?" Any pictures you guys would want to share, showing your rigs off road would be great. As always, thanks for the help!!

-Jeff

 

[redthies]

I like the question. Can't wait to see the opinions. I will just say, get the lightest hard side you can find if you want to do more than fire roads!

 

[duneyeti9]

I tried it with a pop-up (Starcraft) and hard sided (Lance) camper on an F250 4x4 and was not satisfied with the outcome. Almost any camper will compress the suspension enough to leave almost no travel, making the ride unbearable and possible damaging to the camper. Airing down the tires is not an option with such a load. If I were to attempt it with a lighter camper I would shim the camper to fit snug into the bed limiting movement and loosen the tie downs to reduce the amount of stress.

 

[cnynrat]

We have a '99 F350 super cab/long bed with a Bigfoot C25-10.6 camper, which is a somewhat larger setup than you are thinking about. Our total rig weighs in right at about 10k pounds packed for a trip.

From time to time we do take it on dirt roads to reach remote campsites, but it's not the primary purpose of this rig for us. In general, the overall weight and high center of gravity of a typical hard sided camper will limit what you can do off-road. They can handle a reasonably well graded dirt road with few problems. They won't handle off camber situations very well at all. As noted above, you aren't going to have a lot of suspension flex left for articulation. We find washboard roads are passable, but slow going since it feels like the camper is going to vibrate apart if you run too fast. Another point to think about is the overall height can be a problem if you are in heavily forested terrain (I think ours is ~12.5' tall).

Something to consider is that if you get a camper with electric jacks they do come off the truck pretty easily, so if you are in base camping mode you can drop the camper and have the truck by itself to take on day trips. We do that frequently, and I don't find the truck itself to be very limiting off road other than the sheer size of it doesn't work on certain tight trails.

 

[goodtimes]

It all depends on where you want to go.

There are light weight options out there (such as FWC's new hard side) - but make no mistake, any slide-in camper is going to be pretty close to a full load for a 3/4 ton truck. They'll go down the paved road just fine, but will leave you wishing for more suspension when the road gets rough. Even my 3/4 ton Dodge with a FWC pop-up camper (advertised at 800 pounds) wallows around pretty bad in rough terrain - of course, fully loaded with water, food & gear, it's probably closer to 1300 pounds. Long travel air bags (Firestone makes a 10" travel bag that works great) will go a long way towards fixing that issue, but you'll have to remember that you're taking a really big, really heavy, vehicle off road (at least relative to a tacoma pulling a little camping trailer), so choose your route & drive accordingly. It ain't gonna ride like a well tuned rock buggy . . .

If you're looking at short bed trucks, be careful if you decide to put a 8' long camper (designed for a long bed truck) on it. They move the weight quite a ways back - putting much more of the load on the rear suspension. It can be done (I do it), but it certainly adds to the above problem.

Really, the biggest problem I've had is low hanging branches. Of course, I'm not going the same places that I used to take my TJ.

 

[Regcabguy]

My '07 stock 2500 Dodge CTD choked miserably with the weight of my Northstar. With the Dodge's Carli can custom design your suspension to handle the weight and leverage your camper will exert upon the frame. National Spring,Deaver and other's work wonders with the Ford's.

 

[jnelson4x4taco]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, that's about what I expected to hear but to get the feedback from folks who have been there was very valuable. My wife and I are still trying to figure out what fits best for us but are definitely leaning toward the super duty/camper idea. We have family in the Phoenix area and thought if we had a truck and camper, we could make the drive from Denver and hit some dirt along the way. We know that setup would limit us in a lot of ways but we would also gain a lot as far as convenience and amenities go. Witha little one in our future, I think the benefits outweigh the lack of offroad ability.

 

[jnelson4x4taco]

Not to stray too far from the thread but how much would the capability differ with a small bumper pull camper instead?

 

[FishPOET]

I typically don't take my truck and camper on a road I have not been on before in the Jeep. Like others have stated before it does OK on fire roads but not much else. Anything starting to get off camber scares the crap out of me. I can't imagine the nightmare that a truck and camper flop would be.

 

[jnelson4x4taco]

Maybe my eyes are fooling me but the first and last photos there look like more fire roads. That last pic looks like most trails I would be traveling; mostly dirt with a few rocky sections throughout. Thanks for the pics fishpoet!

 

[mudmony]

No off road capabilities, other the fire roads..ordered a new 2000 f250 extra cab powerstroke, just like fishpoet, silver and all, through a 9' Alpenlite on it with the kids and went to conquer the west..... no go, no bueno, and down right scary and trust me I will try anything and unfortunately I didnt listen to my peers

 

[tombodad]

I have a history in driving top-heavy wildland fire trucks (about 6k pounds high in the bed with a full tank) - sometimes in pretty nasty conditions. That being said, I am way more nervous with my truck and camper than I ever was with the fire trucks. Part of that may be the dually firetruck vs srw on my truck, but also the camper is just so darn tall. Flops side-to-side like crazy. The other aspect that not many have mentioned is the weight and sinking. Many times sand and dirt and snow that holds jeeps just fine, and may hold an unloaded diesel, are not gonna do well with an 11k lb truck/camper, especially SRW.

 

[LimaMikeMike]

Weight is not your friend. Look for a light narrow camper with not much rear overhang (FWC, Northstar Liberty or Freedom, Adventurer 80GS/SK, Lance 825/865) look at a pop up too takes weight away from up high.

Upgrade the suspension with quality bits, go slow and use common sense. A diesel fullsize truck is not the ideal offroader even unloaded anyway.

 

[Rovertrader]

This thread is a common question actually, and we are pondering the same issues but with two adults, and a 5&7yo. We have even considered a used Earth Roamer, but the cost and limitations are huge. I am close to trying a F350 drw as it is obviously oversized for serious trail work, thus gaining the stability from the drw vs. losing a tiny bit off road- though questionable as referenced above. Most all the brush trucks out this way use drw. Add a flatbed with an All Terrain Camper, which provides much more floor space, hence more layout options. They are light, and short when traveling.
Very frustrating situation, but the kids get scared on the more serious trails, the wife can certainly live without the hard core trails, and I would rather go more often even if less challenging.... Life is a compromise.

 

[jefe4x4]

Jeff,
This thread has been here a little while, but I thought I'd add my 2 pesetas. You already have the most important part in getting into a expo hardside: you're already an off-roader. I've learned over the years about things like:
purchase the lightest, and smallest full feature camper you can find. This is exactly what I got with the Lance Lite 165-S, 8'6" xcab. It is lighter than many pop up luxury campers. It is 4" less tall and 6" narrower than most so-called full size hard side campers and narrower than 1/2 the pop ups.
Get the most insulation you can for other-than-summer trips. this is the only thing I don't like about our Lance: not enough insulation. I have done some retrofitting of insulation.
loosen the tie-downs on rough roads.
install Lance centering brackets in the bed so the TC does not 'float' around. With these you CAN run the tie downs looser, off-road. If you get off-camber, with axles all twisted up, you will torque the frame and hence the bed and camper along with it and put tremendous torque on the tie downs. A lot of seasoned TC'ers miss this one and pull their eye bolts right out of the frame. Ouch.

Keep as much weight as possible down low in the truck and camper. Nothing on the roof. No AC. No canoes.

Carry drinking water in gallon jugs in a lower cabinet.
Whittle down the amount of stuff you carry. Every single time we go out we take less, to no detriment. Ah yes, there are only two seasoned/consenting adults to deal with and no pets, so space is not a problem.
I have been slowly working on the truck and camper to make it more off-road worthy and we have pushed the envelope pretty hard. I have found it will take a lot more side hilling than you would think. Maybe weight down low and my extra wide super singles on the back (33-15.50's on 12" wide wheels) giving a rear axle track within 4" inches of a set of dualies help with stability and weight carrying ability.

You probably want a winch. The rule of thumb is to get one with 1/2 again the pulling power as the weight of a loaded rig. Our rig weighs 10,300 loaded. Our winch is a 15,000 lb. Warn. Just remember, a winch is the 100% effort when you are stuck. After you've use the shovel, high lift jack, bottle jack, come-a-long, boards and brush, chains, the 100%-er is there, at the ready. Get a 30K lb. recovery strap, a few D rings, a piece of chain with slip hooks and a snatch block. Over my lifetime I've had maybe 400 sticks. Only one took more than 24 hours to self extract. Here is the front 'expo' bumper with homemade extra parts to repel large beasts:

I have worked on the suspension, adding 3" spacers on the front and adding another set of secondaries to the rear axle making the result more than a one ton, not in a legal sense, but in defacto carrying capacity. You can see the two thin and one thick springs above the main pack which only come into play when there is a load.

We've done some pretty wild things with this hardside: as long as I have camper clearance I'm good to go;
coming down a jeep road in the San Juan's, CO;

near the Racetrack in Death Valley:

more Death Valley:

Pinion Mt. jeep trail in Anza Borrego:

stuck in the sand in the Owens Valley:

In closing, I think it's kind of a Zen thing, where you "feel" every bump and contortion the TC feels. Thru experience you find out how far you can go.
Good luck in your quest.
regards, as always, jefe