Towing a car hauler (Jeep) with a slide-in camper

[Greg]

With the sale of our camp trailer, I'm looking to move to a slide-in camper. Looking at a pop-up, for less wind resistance. My main concern is having a camper that could possibly interfere with the trailer on tight turns. I have no interest in running a hitch extension, reducing the hitch capacity by half. I'm probably going to buy a shortbed camper, as both our current trucks are short beds.

Anyone have experience towing a rig with a slide-in?

The goal with a slide-in camper is to be able to tow and boondock camp when we go to Moab, Sand Hollow, Price, etc. I also want a slide-in camper so we can take trips to Baja, etc and have somewhere to stay, without needing to tow.

I have an old thread about using a camper, but was leaning towards a hard sided setup at that point.

I'm hoping to upgrade our tow rig soon, hopefully later this year. I'm considering buying a longbed truck, putting a flatbed tray on it and have plenty of room with the slide-in. I'm thinking about a 2003-2009 Dodge 2500 with a Cummins and a manual transmission, (I just don't trust the automatics behind the Cummins.) I'd really like to get the truck on 35-37's so it rides OK offroad (Baja dirt roads)... at least some high quality shocks, possibly some fancy Carli suspension and building longarms, if it goes that far. I'd really like to set the truck up with a small generator and extra water tanks using the space around the outside of the flatbed.

Anyway.... thats the plan!

 

[I Lean]

I do this regularly. But with a larger camper than you're planning, a long bed truck, and a dreaded hitch extension. 😁

 

[Greg]

I do this regularly. But with a larger camper than you're planning, a long bed truck, and a dreaded hitch extension. 😁

Interesting... towing a Cruiser? Any issues with tongue weight?

 

[jeeper]

Ive got a 4’ extension I’ve used in the past. Mine was just dirt bikes and whatnot though.
I used an equalizer, which helped with carrying the weight.

I’ve seen jeep trailers with extensions and large turnbuckles attached to the frames of the trucks.

 

[I Lean]

Interesting... towing a Cruiser? Any issues with tongue weight?

Usually a Cruiser these days. (was my TJ previously)
No issues with tongue weight so far, but it probably is excessive. I haven't weighed it....what I don't know can't hurt me.

 

[Greg]

Ive got a 4’ extension I’ve used in the past. Mine was just dirt bikes and whatnot though.
I used an equalizer, which helped with carrying the weight.

I’ve seen jeep trailers with extensions and large turnbuckles attached to the frames of the trucks.

That just sounds sketchy to me... and what I'd prefer to avoid.

 

[TRD270]

What a bummer, I JUST sold my northstar TC650 😭. Probably pretty close to what you’re after unless you want a pooper and a shower.

 

[Greg]

What a bummer, I JUST sold my northstar TC650 😭. Probably pretty close to what you’re after unless you want a pooper and a shower.

I do want a pooper and a shower, so no worries.

 

[TRD270]

I do want a pooper and a shower, so no worries.

Me as well as I’m probably going to be living in it couple weeks a month for 6+ months this year. Looking at grabbing a Northstar SC850, ironically the dealer is pretty close to you.

 

[Greg]

Me as well as I’m probably going to be living in it couple weeks a month for 6+ months this year. Looking at grabbing a Northstar SC850, ironically the dealer is pretty close to you.

I lived in this MiniLite for 8 days at a time for several months, it's not bad... especially with a pooper and shower.

Which dealer?

 

[TRD270]

Trailer World of Colorado

Trailer World of Colorado is an RV dealership offering sales, parts, and service to Henderson, CO and the surrounding area.

www.trailerworldofcolorado.com

Well it’s not that close, but way closer than it is to me 😂

 

[Pile of parts]

I’ve seen jeep trailers with extensions and large turnbuckles attached to the frames of the trucks.

This is more than likely what you've seen.
I'd trust it.

Towing Receiver Extension | SuperTruss | Torklift International

The SuperTruss Extension is available in eight lengths from 21 inches to 60 inches and works exclusively with our SuperHitch or SuperHitch Magnum. It's rated to

www.torklift.com

 

[Greg]

This is more than likely what you've seen.
I'd trust it.

Towing Receiver Extension | SuperTruss | Torklift International

The SuperTruss Extension is available in eight lengths from 21 inches to 60 inches and works exclusively with our SuperHitch or SuperHitch Magnum. It's rated to

www.torklift.com

That looks way better engineered than the hitch extensions I've seen on Amazon... 😬

 

[Tonkaman]

I would love a tray bed with a camper, I totally support this idea!

 

[jeeper]

This is more than likely what you've seen.
I'd trust it.

Towing Receiver Extension | SuperTruss | Torklift International

The SuperTruss Extension is available in eight lengths from 21 inches to 60 inches and works exclusively with our SuperHitch or SuperHitch Magnum. It's rated to

www.torklift.com

I’ve seen those, yes..

But I was more talking about redneck engineered stuff, pulled straight off a tractor implement type stuff.

 

[Mouse]

Working towards getting another truck camper for my F350 dually. Will also tow our car hauler trailer with the TJ or scrambler on board. Keeping the camper weight lower means no slide. I have upgraded the hitch to a class 5 Titan hitch, so if we need an extension, we have some added strength. Less extension is better.

We had a shortbed, extended cab F350 that we had a camper on and towed a 10,000 lb rated car hauler with a full size blazer about 15 years ago. The trailer had brakes on both axles (as does current trailer), so towing wasn't bad. We grossed out over 22,000 lbs fully loaded (blazer was 5000+).

Currently no camper as we are in the middle of building the new shop which includes space to store the new camper.

Truck camper with a trailer is a great way to go.

 

[Asbjorn]

This was my previous setup. The only point of interference was the rear jack leg and the trailer deck if I really got the truck/trailer in a jackknife situation (it never actually happened, but I did a mock jackknife in the culdesac to see what it looked like)

 

[Greg]

View attachment 155796
This was my previous setup. The only point of interference was the rear jack leg and the trailer deck if I really got the truck/trailer in a jackknife situation (it never actually happened, but I did a mock jackknife in the culdesac to see what it looked like)

That's really my biggest concern, I moved my jack back a few inches to clear the tailgate when I was rebuilding my trailer. It clears, but probably won't when turning. I suppose I could change it up again with a rotating jack... I'd rather do that than run a hitch extension.

 

[Asbjorn]

I’m right there with you, I don’t like the idea of running a hitch extender. Had I been really worried about contact, I could have removed the rear legs from the camper once it was loaded in the truck.

 

[glockman]

That's really my biggest concern, I moved my jack back a few inches to clear the tailgate when I was rebuilding my trailer. It clears, but probably won't when turning. I suppose I could change it up again with a rotating jack... I'd rather do that than run a hitch extension.

You could do a trailer jack like Hickey did on his jeep dolly. That thing is removable and super cool.