ognend

Virginia

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mellow wrote: ognend wrote: the question is - can I open the slide while camper is on the truck with all the torklifts connecting the camper to my truck.
If you are level and nothing is blocking the slide from opening then yes, you want to be level so the gears for the slide don't work harder than they already have to. I always make sure to set my emergency brake as well when parked, just my OCD self. You will figure out if you want all the jacks down or just the back jacks or no jacks your first night, depends on how stable you want the camper while in it, only takes a few minutes to deploy them to just touch enough to take a bit of weight.
Also make sure you lock your truck and have your keys with you and have a backup plan for if something happens while in the camper, know your exits. This world is a crazy place and you need to prepare for such things.
Thank you! (yes, I concur about all the precautions and planning, we used to camp in a horse trailer with living quarters, I am one of those more paranoid types that tries to prepare for everything)
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JimK-NY

NY

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I never, ever take the camper off during a camping trip. First the fit is really tight, barely 1/4" clearance in the tailgate opening. Next I use the wheel well space. It is packed with paper goods, tools, extra boots, dirty clothes, etc.
Finally and most importantly, I really like having the camper with me at all times. I like having my own kitchen for hot meals, like using my own rest room facilities, and I have even been known to take a midday nap.
In years and many hundreds of nights of camping, I only put down the corner jacks once. That was during a hurricane with 50-60 mph winds. Think twice if you do put down the jacks. As a precaution, you might want to undo the tiedowns just in the rare case that you develop a flat tire.
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Grit dog

Black Diamond, WA

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Short answer, yes you can. You can do anything the camper features allow while it is in the truck. It’s designed more to be used IN the truck than out of it. However most campers function virtually the same out of the truck.
Sorry if we’re acting as if this is a strange question. But It is. Not as strange as the thread goin on the the Class C forum right now, but maybe I’m a little shell shocked from that one! Lol
And fwiw, I’ve never once found the slightest reason to even loosen the tie downs unless unloading.
Get the truck halfway level with a few boards or blocks and then use the rear jacks to adjust a tad more while taking up a bit of the weight to also stabilize the camper. (Which should feel relatively solid compared to some setups based on your truck, your camper AND having a trailer hooked.)
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notsobigjoe

southeast

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jimh406 wrote: If I'm level, I put the slide out. You can unlock the tiedowns to help level.
We almost never unload the TC while traveling.
Times two! You can also level with the orange leveling blocks, place them under your tires and drive on. they help a ton.
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Buzzcut1

Norcal

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as a fellow horseman and owner of a truck camper with a slide and having trailered my horses coast to coast doing the Horse Hotel route. I don't take the camper off the truck and I don't disconnect the trailer. I off load the horses get them bedded down watered and fed and muck the trailer and fill the water buckets before stuff can freeze over. Then I pull to where ever I am spending the night at the facility (usually where they have a electrical hook up for me) Level the truck, extend the rear jacks to just touching , extend the slides and call it good. Make sure you have your Coggins and Horse health Certificate or they will not allow you to off load your horse for the night. and make sure you enter all weigh and ag stations with signage that all vehicles hauling livestock must enter. have proof of horse ownership with you too.
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ognend

Virginia

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Buzzcut1 wrote: as a fellow horseman and owner of a truck camper with a slide and having trailered my horses coast to coast doing the Horse Hotel route. I don't take the camper off the truck and I don't disconnect the trailer. I off load the horses get them bedded down watered and fed and muck the trailer and fill the water buckets before stuff can freeze over. Then I pull to where ever I am spending the night at the facility (usually where they have a electrical hook up for me) Level the truck, extend the rear jacks to just touching , extend the slides and call it good. Make sure you have your Coggins and Horse health Certificate or they will not allow you to off load your horse for the night. and make sure you enter all weigh and ag stations with signage that all vehicles hauling livestock must enter. have proof of horse ownership with you too.
Thanks! Yeah, that was the gist of my post - I was NOT planning on offloading the camper on the single night stays but will definitely take it off for the 6 week stay in Big Bend
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ognend

Virginia

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JimK-NY wrote: I never, ever take the camper off during a camping trip. First the fit is really tight, barely 1/4" clearance in the tailgate opening. Next I use the wheel well space. It is packed with paper goods, tools, extra boots, dirty clothes, etc.
Finally and most importantly, I really like having the camper with me at all times. I like having my own kitchen for hot meals, like using my own rest room facilities, and I have even been known to take a midday nap.
In years and many hundreds of nights of camping, I only put down the corner jacks once. That was during a hurricane with 50-60 mph winds. Think twice if you do put down the jacks. As a precaution, you might want to undo the tiedowns just in the rare case that you develop a flat tire.
I am going to spend six weeks camping at the final destination. Why would I NOT take the camper off the truck? I need to go to town once a week to buy hay, groceries etc.,not to mention hauling horses to local trails for day trips etc. Why would I want to take the camper with me on every one of those trips when I don't have to? BTW, I have a flatbed (and no toolboxes) so taking the camper on and off is a pretty simple affair for me.
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ognend

Virginia

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notsobigjoe wrote: jimh406 wrote: If I'm level, I put the slide out. You can unlock the tiedowns to help level.
We almost never unload the TC while traveling.
Times two! You can also level with the orange leveling blocks, place them under your tires and drive on. they help a ton.
My original post said exactly that - that I do not want to unload camper each night while I am getting to the final destination. I also said that when I do get to the final destination, I will spend six weeks there so I do plan on taking the camper off - I need to buy groceries once a week, hay for the horses, haul to trails for day trips, there is no reason to lug a 4,000 lbs brick around on my back while going for a day trip, is there? Some of you guys sound like this is a religious conviction, not pragmatic stuff
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jimh406

Western MT

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ognend wrote: there is no reason to lug a 4,000 lbs brick around on my back while going for a day trip, is there?
There are lots of reasons to keep it on. Have a bathroom with you, charge the batteries, have a kitchen with you, have food with you, have your stuff with you, have your pets with you, take a nap, play cards, do crafts while your husband uses a spotting scope, etc.
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ognend

Virginia

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jimh406 wrote: ognend wrote: there is no reason to lug a 4,000 lbs brick around on my back while going for a day trip, is there?
There are lots of reasons to keep it on. Have a bathroom with you, charge the batteries, have a kitchen with you, have food with you, have your stuff with you, have your pets with you, take a nap, play cards, do crafts while your husband uses a spotting scope, etc.
I will admit English is not my first language so I am guessing my posts are very confusing to people. We are going to be staying with our horses in the desert in a camp that has horse corals etc. We need to go to town once a week to buy groceries, get hay. We also may go to town to have a cup of coffee, also planning on hauling our horses to local state and national park trails for day trips. What on earth would I need a camper for if I go out for coffee to a local coffee shop or if I go to get groceries in town or if I go to a local horse trail to ride all day? Waste of gas, more difficult to get around town/park/whatever, no need to carry my whole "mobile house" with me with all my belongings and leave it on some trailhead unattended while we are away riding our horses all day - all negatives in my mind. What is the gain? That I may need to go to the bathroom when I get back to the trailhead? That while I am in town, I may want to nap after shopping? I can do that when I get back to camp . This is not a boondocking situation in the middle of nowhere, we are going to be in a proper camp. Yes it is a remote area (Big Bend in SW Texas) but it is not somewhere where we will be in camp the whole time in the same spot and not leave it for something else. What am I missing here?
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