Matching a pickup to a demountable

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zildjian
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Re: Matching a pickup to a demountable

Post: # 14584Post zildjian
August 3rd, 2016, 7:14 am

Big Jim wrote:, It depends on how "off road" you want to go , I suspect a fair few 4x4 's have got stuck as it is tempting to go places beyond it's limits .
Good luck in your search.
4WD is often interpreted wrongly as "We can go anywhere on road tyres"
but its not a substitute for common sense and choosing your approach to conditions


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sabconsulting
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Re: Matching a pickup to a demountable

Post: # 14587Post sabconsulting
August 3rd, 2016, 2:39 pm

MrDTB wrote:I've now got a 2004 Northstar 700; I'm currently looking mainly at an old shape L200 to go under it, but am flirting with a U.S pick up such as a f150 or Dodge Dakota (but finding one at a good price is proving a challenge)
A few things to watch on US trucks:

Full size trucks like the Ford F150 are heavier than the smaller European trucks. Watch you don't end up short of payload weight because 3500kg minus the truck's unladen weight might not give as much as you want. Also watch taxation. If the payload is under about 1 metric ton (can't remember the exact numbers in kg) then it could be classed as a car, and if > 2001 that would mean being taxed based on emissions :shock:

Having said the above, you probably want to avoid having the truck registered at more than 3500kg gross weight. That could mean a whole lot of extra hassle and possible difficulty when wanting to travel around Europe.

Another thing. "half ton" trucks like the F150 might look big to us, but to Americans they are on the very light-duty end of the truck spectrum and are aimed at people who will use them as a car, but maybe tow their boat at weekends, not at people who will carry a ton of payload - hence the suspension is often tuned to be soft since the trucks tend to be used very lightly laden. I've been involved with the US RV.NET forum for about 6 years and have seen a lot of people have problems with half ton trucks, having to spend a lot of extra money on suspension upgrades to make the truck work.

Also watch the low official payloads on these half-ton trucks. Specify the older F150s wrongly when new (diesel, double-cab, 4x4) and you can end up with a door pillar sticker quoting a < 400kg payload :roll: This is probably because they assume 6 large adults are in the cab at the same time and you probably wouldn't exceed your GVWR in practice. But you might feel slightly vulnerable from a legal perspective if the door sticker said 400kg and you had an accident while carrying 1000kg payload.

On the plus side a gasoline US truck will for now probably be exempt from the low emission zones which are popping up around Europe. My truck complies with these zones, but is a later (2007) Euro-4 diesel.

Steve.
Image

MrDTB
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Re: Matching a pickup to a demountable

Post: # 14617Post MrDTB
August 5th, 2016, 7:41 am

That's definitely food for thought, I'll have to engage more her and less heart on this one I think. Thanks.

MancCamper
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Re: Matching a pickup to a demountable

Post: # 31209Post MancCamper
August 9th, 2021, 10:48 pm

sabconsulting wrote:
August 1st, 2016, 10:29 pm
If you really don't need 4 full size seats then a supercab or single cab pickup will mean less chance of having to spend money on suspension changes and will put less stress on the chassis because more of the camper is forward of the rear axle. Have a look at a few pictures of trucks with campers on and try to imagine where the centre of gravity of the camper is and where that point is in relation to the rear axle. Ideally the weight of the camper should be on or forward of the rear axle. If most of the camper seems to be hanging behind the rear axle then that is probably not a great match. Once you get your eye in you can spot those that look well matched regarding weight distribution.

(edited) here are some simple drawings illustrating different length campers and the trucks they belong on together with rough Centre of gravity vertical lines

Image Image Image

Image

As was mentioned above the Ford Rangers up to 2006 are effectively re-badged Mazdas. After 2006 they have much more powerful, but very complicated Ford engines. But when looking at adverts keep an eye on the power; early / lower spec ones had about 83 BHP and I wouldn't fancy carrying a camper on that; but later ones were around 109 BHP - though you are probably looking at around £3000 for one of those.

Once you have decided what size of truck you want you should check the dimensions of any camper you buy carefully against your truck. Old campers were designed for trucks that had lower cabs, so may need to be raised slightly to clear the truck cab.

Also look at the length - my camper sticks out about a foot from the end of the load bed and I probably wouldn't want anything that sticks out any further than that.

If the camper is not European-built (e.g. American) then check all the dimensions very carefully, e.g. width between wheel arches, width between tailgate, since it might have been designed for a full size US truck which will be wider than a European truck.

Steve.
Hi, long time lurker, first time poster...

The images here are really helpful, thank you, but as pickings are quite slim, we might be adding a king cab demountable onto a double cab truck, which appears to be regarded as a bit of a no no.

If we were to go ahead with it, we would definitely be upgrading the suspension with a minimum of air bags, but how bad would it really be to 'mismatch' like this? Are there any long term issues to watch for? Any road-legal issues?

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zildjian
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Re: Matching a pickup to a demountable

Post: # 31210Post zildjian
August 10th, 2021, 2:55 pm

Can (and has) been done, probably not a good idea,
going to be hard work on the truck, and air springs especially under those conditions are going to do their best at putting a single point of pressure on chassis rail directly above axle
and more so than they would with properly matched camper to truck.

Not what you want to hear I know & for what it's worth better to either wait for crewcab camper to turn up, or buy a king-cab truck if you've already found matching camper.

The relatively new campers bought by pension-fund generation haven't found their way onto used market here but they will,
average length of ownership is around Five years

MancCamper
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Re: Matching a pickup to a demountable

Post: # 31211Post MancCamper
August 10th, 2021, 5:28 pm

zildjian wrote:
August 10th, 2021, 2:55 pm
Can (and has) been done, probably not a good idea,
going to be hard work on the truck, and air springs especially under those conditions are going to do their best at putting a single point of pressure on chassis rail directly above axle
and more so than they would with properly matched camper to truck.

Not what you want to hear I know & for what it's worth better to either wait for crewcab camper to turn up, or buy a king-cab truck if you've already found matching camper.

The relatively new campers bought by pension-fund generation haven't found their way onto used market here but they will,
average length of ownership is around Five years
That's what we figured, thanks.

We think we will stick it out for a king cab and make do with slightly less cab space than we'd like in an ideal world, as we've found a great demountable.

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zildjian
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Re: Matching a pickup to a demountable

Post: # 31213Post zildjian
August 10th, 2021, 6:46 pm

Yes, sorry about that but inline with avoiding suggesting buying wrong equipment and having a bad experience it's probably best.

On plus side a king or extra cab really offer the best of both worlds
and you get a camper with more floor area than the crewcab variants,
Single cab give you very best weight distribution but no space and no campers available in any case now
as all disintegrated with age, king cab gives two people useful storage plus pair of seatlets with belts

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