New-to-me Fleet Camper

[Chris R]

Hi everyone, I recently bought a Fleet camper to go on my 2006 F-150 so I could take some time and camp around the southwest and head up to Seattle and Vancouver in a few months. I've spent 5 nights in it so far (and will probably do another week before I head back to Las Vegas)

I built a temporary platform to be able to get it back home safely, but I was wondering if it would be safe to set the camper to the passenger side of the bed so I can put a bike rack on the drivers side bed rail? If that makes sense? I figure that it will mostly be just me driving, plus the water tank and kitchen would be on the drivers side, so it shouldn't be too off balance. I am planning on bolting the camper to the platform, and then bolting the platform to the bed.

And second, the icebox is cracked and I haven't read too many positive things about them on here, is removing it and just relying on an ice cooler (or later, a 12v fridge/cooler) a bad idea? I need to rebuild the kitchen cabinet anyway, it is pretty much trashed.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[SunMan]

And second, the icebox is cracked and I haven't read too many positive things about them on here, is removing it and just relying on an ice cooler (or later, a 12v fridge/cooler) a bad idea?


Pull it out, throw in a shelf and make it a pantry. You are better off with a cooler IMHO. Congrats on the new camper.

 

[longboardcr]

Nice Rig! Congrats.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Congrats on the new camper.


x2

And welcome to WTW!

 

[craig333]

Did you mean offsetting the camper a couple inches to one side? Shouldn't be a problem if thats what you meant.

 

[Chris R]

Thanks everyone. I already ripped the icebox out yesterday and got a cooler to fit in its space. I ended up doing some pretty decent offroading in Sedona, and I was really impressed by how the camper and the truck handled. There's no way I would have felt comfortable doing that with even a small hardside camper, which is what I was considering before I got this.

 

[Chris R]

Ended up building a platform that raised the camper off the bed 7 inches (in retrospect, about an inch too high - but it gives some good storage space) and moved the camper over to the passenger side of the truck. We extended and braced the angle iron on the front and back drivers side, and used rectangular aluminum tubing to mount a bike rack. So far so good, took it on a trip last week and it seemed pretty stable. I'll keep my eye on it, I'm concerned about the aluminum flexing, but it was free. I also moved the water tank up to the front corner along with the battery, the truck rides much better now (I'm guessing the new tires help a bit as well.)