Not a Weekend Warrior

[dasadab]

When I bought my Four Wheel Camper Hawk about 6 months ago, I thought that I could load it on the truck for a quick overnight or weekend trip to the local mountains and unload it so that my truck could be daily driver. I had previously owned a trailer and a Class C motorhome.

The reality for me is that I have about 3/4" clearance on the rear of the camper and about 2" of clearance between the jacks and the truck (2015 Chevy Silverado 2500HD). I am a reasonably good "backer-up-per", but loading and unloading is a royal PITA. I have played with a laser alignment setup and super heavy duty single wheel casters on the jack ends. The Hawk sits in the garage on a fairly level and smooth pad. The casters helped somewhat, but it was far from and easy solution. The installation is somewhat more difficult because the drive way is on a sideways slope leading up to the garage pad. What I have found is that that it is just really hard to line up everything parallel and keep it parallel with such a reed thin margin of error. It takes a good 2 hours to load, including running around the truck with a power drill as I work to keep the jacks even as I raise them or lower them.

Next up is trying tri-casters... suggestion I got from another camper owner. They should allow for easier movement that the single wheel ones.
http://www.bondcaster.com/m_h_dollies.html

I guess that I am just disappointed that loading is so much more difficult than hitching a trailer. I don't want to go back to a trailer because I have no interested in their limitations.

I am now thinking of the camper as suitable for week or longer trips--too much work for an overnight or weekend trip.

 

[Cayuse]

My truck is my daily driver and the camper stays on all the time. I even left it on through the winter this year and managed to use it a couple of times.

I have thought about getting some extensions for the jack brackets to make it a bit easier to gain clearance along the sides of the truck when I'm taking it off but since it is such a rare occurrence not sure it would be worth it.

 

[craig333]

If you aren't actually using the bed to haul stuff, try leaving it on and driving around town. I rarely wished I had my bed free. Rides better with the camper on.

 

[takesiteasy]

When I bought my Four Wheel Camper Hawk about 6 months ago, I thought that I could load it on the truck for a quick overnight or weekend trip to the local mountains and unload it so that my truck could be daily driver. I had previously owned a trailer and a Class C motorhome.
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I have thought about getting some extensions for the jack brackets to make it a bit easier to gain clearance along the sides of the truck when I'm taking it off but since it is such a rare occurrence not sure it would be worth it.

Get 6" extension plates for your front jacks so you have more leeway when loading. It makes it much easier. You can probably buy 1/4" aluminum plate and make them yourself, or you can buy them from ATC or FWC. Then put a piece of masking tape down the centerline of your truck bed and a piece vertically centered on the front wall of the camper. You just need to keep the tape lines lined up as you back up. That's what I do. Piece of cake. I have a sloping driveway too.

Leaving the camper in as much as possible is also a good idea. Good luck.

 

[Ripperj]

If my camper lived in the garage I would get rid of the Jacks and make a hoist setup. The camper would rest on sawhorses or platform when not loading/unloading

 

[smlobx]

I'm leaving this Saturday to drive from VA to CO to pick up our Hallmark Everest and have been thinking about this as well.

Fortunately for me I have a shop bay to store the camper when I don't need it and the driveway is level with the bay so I should be able to back straight in (hopefully)!. My plan is to build a platform that is on swivel casters that is high enough that I'll only have to raise it an inch or two then be able to back the truck under it.

I think I'll use the tape idea as well...

 

[fuzzymarindave]

I'm going to,guess that it is the cross sloped or even warped driveway that is the main problem for you. Might consider a redesign of the driveway to be more on a plane.

 

[ckent323]

I would like a dolly & lift combination that allows me to store,move, raise/lower and load/unload the camper without help and with minimal risk of damaging my truck or the camper (or anything else).

My goal is to be able to load or unload the camper in under an hour since I use my truck a lot without the camper on it.

I sketched something up then went looking on the web to see if it already exists so that I do not have to engineer and build it.

Well, well, I found the Finkbeiner mobile lift:

http://www.finkbeiner-lifts.com/produkte/pkw-und-transporter/mobile-2-saeulen-hebebuehnen//fhb3000-03-ss-2300/?L=1&cHash=701fff526f66b8590117ae1f28537d88


I have not yet found price and availability of something like this here on the West Coast - yet. It looks like it may cost more than I want to spend but this looks pretty close to what I have in mind.