Long bed or Standard/short bed for a Northstar TC 800?

[sunvalleylaw]

Newby here with another newby question.

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This is my "new" camper. It is an 8 footer. Current owner carries it in a long bed Chevy. I have seen here and elsewhere that these can be carried in a short bed. I do not yet have a truck and will be shopping. I will likely get something used, a 250/2500/HD level as we want to tow our boat. And I will want a crew cab. So, thinking getting a short bed will improve my choices. I can add an extender on to tow the boat.

Will this work? Disadvantages? I will have to pull off those little wing things on the back. I do not think I will add the extra skirting you can order. The brake/tail lights should still be visible, and/or, I can add some magnetic LED ones if I need to.

Thoughts for me?

 

[RicoV]

Well, my initial thought is that a crew cab short bed might be a bit too short for the camper you have. My FWC Grandby is an 8-ft like your Northstar and has a ~16" overhang on the King Cab in the 6.5' bed. But I believe most crew cabs are in the ~5.5' bed range? If so, that's a whole lotta overhang. I believe you'll want to cuss, discuss, consider, and reconsider this disparity 'at length' before you dive in on any truck purchase.
Rico

 

[PackRat]

Go big or go home...

The 250/2500 with an 8' bed is the perfect mate for an 8' camper. Not sure how big the boat is, but you'll be able to find one of those trucks with a big engine with HP/torque to handle the loaded camper and a pretty hefty boat/trailer combo behind you. You also want a crew cab so even bigger chassis/cabs need bigger engines as well.

The ONLY advantage I can see to have short bed is if you will use the truck in a city environment for 9 months a year with the camper dismounted as a crew cab/8' bed truck will require a huge turning radius and be a drag to park if you use it as a daily driver.

You are doing this in the right order though....figure out the camper and the boat requirements and then find a truck that can handle all that plus all the stuff you will be carrying and the people/fuel/food/etc on board.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

@PackRat

The boat is a 20' Malibu Response LX Direct Drive ski boat. 2,450 dry weight before gas and gear. I don't carry tons of gear, and try to keep the fuel down to a half tank as the slalom wake is better. It holds 38 Gal. but I typically carry 10-16 and add more later. It is on a single axle trailer.

Here it is attached to our current camping rig. Our old Suburban. We have previously tent camped with the 'Burb. I am excited to have a bed. Makes getting up in the morning to ski that much easier!

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Go big or go home...

The 250/2500 with an 8' bed is the perfect mate for an 8' camper. Not sure how big the boat is, but you'll be able to find one of those trucks with a big engine with HP/torque to handle the loaded camper and a pretty hefty boat/trailer combo behind you. You also want a crew cab so even bigger chassis/cabs need bigger engines as well.

The ONLY advantage I can see to have short bed is if you will use the truck in a city environment for 9 months a year with the camper dismounted as a crew cab/8' bed truck will require a huge turning radius and be a drag to park if you use it as a daily driver.

You are doing this in the right order though....figure out the camper and the boat requirements and then find a truck that can handle all that plus all the stuff you will be carrying and the people/fuel/food/etc on board.

See above post for the boat. We live in Hailey, Idaho, and big trucks are fine. We do use our Suburban, and now will use a truck, for road trips home to Tacoma/Seattle, where we find parking the Suburban to be a challenge, when we go downtown to do tourist stuff. Though that was where I was raised, it is interesting to see how so many people drive Subarus, Beemrs, minis, VW's, Prius's, etc. Seems like there are a few trucks, but not too many big full sized Idaho type trucks. I would want to get a full 6' bed at least. As it would be a little nicer for that purpose, and nicer for my wife/kids to drive. But an 8'bed would be nice in other ways too.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

And to be clear, I meant the standard bed not a truly short short bed.

 

[2tallDA]

Newby here with another newby question.





This is my "new" camper. It is an 8 footer. Current owner carries it in a long bed Chevy. I have seen here and elsewhere that these can be carried in a short bed. I do not yet have a truck and will be shopping. I will likely get something used, a 250/2500/HD level as we want to tow our boat. And I will want a crew cab. So, thinking getting a short bed will improve my choices. I can add an extender on to tow the boat.

Will this work? Disadvantages? I will have to pull off those little wing things on the back. I do not think I will add the extra skirting you can order. The brake/tail lights should still be visible, and/or, I can add some magnetic LED ones if I need to.

Thoughts for me?

My friend has a Dodge crewcab/shortbed. Mounted is a Shortbed TC800 Northstar.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Well, my initial thought is that a crew cab short bed might be a bit too short for the camper you have. My FWC Grandby is an 8-ft like your Northstar and has a ~16" overhang on the King Cab in the 6.5' bed. But I believe most crew cabs are in the ~5.5' bed range? If so, that's a whole lotta overhang. I believe you'll want to cuss, discuss, consider, and reconsider this disparity 'at length' before you dive in on any truck purchase.
Rico

I meant to say standard bed, not truly "short", though it seems the terms have been shifting. Standard, +/- 6.5.

 

[Happyjax]

If you get the Ford F250 the standard bed is 6 3/4 feet so your overhang past your bumper (another 7") would be less that a foot.

I am looking at the same issue. Go supercab and 8ft bed vs crewcab and 63/4 ft bed. The crew cabs are much more prevalent and do provide a lot of storage. I can live with a foot overhang

 

[smlobx]

One other point to consider is that with the long bed you will get a larger fuel tank and therefore more range which is always a good thing!

 

[sunvalleylaw]

One other point to consider is that with the long bed you will get a larger fuel tank and therefore more range which is always a good thing!

after doing some newbie reading, I am tending toward a long box if I can find one, to keep the center of gravity more forward relative to the axle.