On and Off?

[SameGuy]

I'm sure this has been asked a thousand times but here goes anyway. We are thinking about moving away from, or for different adventures, our teardrop to a FWC hawk popup. Currently we drop our teardrop at a campsite and take our Tundra or dirt bikes and 4 wheeler further into the wilderness. Wanting more of a 'camper' than our teardrop offers in amenities we are thinking about going with a uses FWC hawk or something much like it. There will be times that I think we will want to unload the Hawk at a basecamp and travel light and fast (and rough) in the Tundra. How long does it take and how big of a pain in the ***** is it to get the FWC in and out of the truck? Is that something one would do on a regular basis, or is it enough of a choir that people usually leave them mounted to the truck? We usually camp for a week at most, possible longer and sometimes just for a long weekend. Thanks in advance for any insight you can share.

 

[Cummins_expo]

I think for many of us choose Four Wheel because of the ability to explore with the camper on. You would have to carry some sort of stand to support the floor when off the camper if you wanted to use it as a base camp. I don't know about you but I already don't have enough room for gear plus a stand. Equally.. If your taking the Tundra out on rough enough journeys you run the risk of loosing your camper tansport I would suggest you go roack out with truck and camper and see if it really limits your advetures. But to answer your question.. Its just enough of a pain you will probably not want to deal with it unless your planning on staying put for an extend amount of time.

 

[NRVhawk]

Probably has been asked a lot, but I've never answered, so here's my perspective. It takes me about 45 minutes to load or unload my FWC camper. This includes removing or installing the tonneau cover and its guide rails on my truck, and also includes removing or installing the jack stands. My jack stands aren't motorized, so my wife and I use a couple of battery -powered drills with jack stand adapters; she raises or lowers one side while I do the other. This is all on a level paved driveway. If you're on rough or sloped ground, aligning truck to camper when loading could be a lot more challenging.

My truck is my daily driver, and I've been using it to haul building materials over the past year while I do a house remodel. As a result, the camper came off each time I finished a camping trip, which was about every three weeks on average. One guy on the WTW forum posted recently that he loads and unloads his camper about once a week; quite a few posters on the forum say that they leave the campers permanently on their truck.

One thing that you may want to look into if you plan to offload the camper at a base camp is that a lot of posters on the forum say that you should support the floor of the camper if you plan to enter it while it's off the truck (at least for the FWC campers). However, when I purchased mine, the dealer said that there's no problem entering the camper with the floor unsupported. And I did try it at the dealer's shop, with no apparent problems. However, when I have the camper unloaded at home, I support the floor with a plywood stand, for added insurance. When I'm camping, I always have the camper on the truck. It's quick and easy to break camp (a lot easier than off-loading the camper).

 

[Motafinga]

Although my truck is obviously limited with the camper in it's bed it's surprisingly capable for having a camper in it off road and can get into some pretty remote areas. For reasons mentioned already I wouldn't want to load and load it just to go wheeling. Besides that's what dirt bikes are for and they can go waaaay more places than even the most ************ truck could ever go.
We haul our bikes on hitch carriers front and rear so we don't have to deal with a trailer. If we get into an especially goaty trail, my lady will just lead on her bike and the truck is much less portly without her bike up front.

 

[mkish]

I don't know what your truck can handle weight-wise, but if you'd rather leave the camper at camp, you might as well one a little cushier that can be used off truck on the jacks. Can you handle something like a small Northstar? If you get electric jacks, you can get it on and off pretty quickly and no floor support required. But there is the weight...

 

[SameGuy]

I wasn't aware of the supporting the floor issue mentioned above. That in itself may necessitate leaving it on or possibly reinforcing the floor. My thought on taking it off at basecamp isn't that it can't handle the off roading we do, or that it would make the places we go harder to get to. It's more of a desire to get our camp set up, get unpacked and go off from there. When we go to our favorite spot, it is about 30 minutes from the pavement on a rough forrest service road. Stock 4x4's can handle it but very few do. From that camp it is about another 30 minutes to some lakes we like to fish and kayak at on much more technical roads, we need the truck to transport the kayaks for sure. Think twisting through tight trees through 3 foot deep mud and boulders the size of engine blocks. I'm sure we could get the Tundra up there with the camper on but it seems like once we are all unpacked, roof lifted, dishes out etc. we will not want to pack it up to go to the lakes and we don't want to camp up there. We would also not be taking our dirt bikes with this setup as our teardrop is the trailer we put them on currently and I'm not quite ready to build another offroad trailer just for the bikes. (although that would be sweet) A hitch mount for one of them is an interesting idea.

Sadly we are talking about a second gen. Tundra which as many of us have found out is sorely lacking in cargo capacity. I don't remember the numbers for mine off the top of my head but I know they are less than 1500lb. I have Air bags and a substantial lift and have loaded it quite a bit heavier than that but I don't want to attempt that with the places we like to go.

I guess there is no perfect setup for us, perhaps we just need to adjust our adventures to the rig we are using at the time.

I assume with a reinforced floor and electric jacks it could work, we spend at least 45 minutes setting up and tearing down now.

One last question: My truck has a 7 inch lift. I would assume one could rig up extensions that could come off easily on the jack legs to accommodate the height difference between the jacks and the lifted truck? Had anyone come up with a simple solution for this issue?

 

[Regcabguy]

With a 7" lift I would think any popup would negatively impact the handling of your truck.
My Northstar has strong floor construction but even their small model would be too heavy for your application.

 

[NikonRon]

One word here that will hinder your thinking, Turnbuckles. If you've dealt with a Four Wheel camper at all you'll know what I'm speaking of. Ron

 

[SameGuy]

7 inch lift sounds like a lot but it's not all monster truck tall and tippy. It's pretty well balanced off-road, even loaded to the gills. I don't think I'd go rock crawling with a camper in back but I don't really do that anyway.

Ron, can you fill me in on what you are referencing above in your turnbuckles statement?

 

[shellbackcva59]

I'm rebuilding a 79 FWC Grandby right now. Instead of a plain plywood floor, I built mine with 2x4's on edge to act as joist to support the floor, as I plan to remove my camper if overnighting for more than a night or two. I have electric jacks for it also. As I have done with previous truck campers, I have 4 aluminum screw jacks and a couple 2x6's. After pulling the truck out from under the camper, I lower it as much as possible. Then I set up the 4 screw jacks with the 2x6 on top and adjust them to level the camper. I usually have them set a foot or so off the front edge and the back edge of the camper. I also adjust the jacks to try and have the weight bearing between all 8 supports. If height in the bed isn't a concern, you could easily build a frame to go under the camper to support the floor. You wouldn't have to attach it permanently, just so it's there when needed. As far as tiedowns, I use Torklift Fastguns. They are spring loaded and absorb shock and movement without stressing the camper.

 

[NikonRon]

The Four Wheel campers are attached with turnbuckles and they are not very easy to get to. Plus once you get them set and tight you won't want to keep doing it. Ron

 

[mkish]

Have you thought much about a bigger trailer? If you're going to leave it at a campsite, might as well have some elbow room. A dinky standie trailer would still be pretty luxurious after a teardrop.

 

[SameGuy]

Thank you all for your input and questions answered. My better half and I have decided to move forward with a popup truck camper of some sort. Will probably go with a used one that needs a little refurb to save $ and with the idea that if it doesn't work out for us we can sell it without loosing our shirts.

MIKSH: W have looked high and low for a live in trailer camper that would meet our needs. One of the biggest requirements is that it has to be able to get to the places we like to go. Even a heavily modified small canned ham type trailer would be a major undertaking to get back to our favorite spots, which is why we went with the teardrop in the first place. We have tossed around the idea of building out and modifying a smaller cargo trailer for our needs, and that is still on the table for the future, but I think for now we are going to see how we like an in bed popup.