This will be my first camping trip with the new truck and camper. The truck is a 2016 f150 XLT standard cab 4x4. It has the 2.7 ecoboost, with the 6 speed transmission. The camper is a 2015 livinlite, camplite 6.8 truck camper. For this trip it was just me in
The truck, and the camper only had linens in it. All the supplies were loaded into the trailer along with the atv. The trailer is a v-nose 12โ triton aluminum dual axel trailer.
The truck: I left the house for the trip down to St. Joe ATV Park and everything felt fine. I had decided that I would only travel at 60 mph on the way down to see how everything would travel. I also did not use the cruise control very much this part of the trip. I turned the tow/haul on and locked out sixth gear. The first two hours of the trip went very good, and I had no problems. I decided to stop at the flying J to get some fuel and run the truck through the CAT scale. My weights are, steer axel 3480, drive axle 3760, and the trailer axle 1760. After that I drove the rest of the way to St. Joe and only had to stop for fuel once more. For the trip down I tried cruise at 65 mph, with and without cruise and 60 mph with and without cruise. I just looked at all my numbers and the mpg for the trip down was 13.1, and the trip back was 12.4. For the trip back, I only used the cruise and put it on 65 mph. I did show a 30 minute better time coming back than going down. The power of the truck is unbelievable. Going down and coming back the truck only went down to 4th gear a couple of times. Going up most hills the truck did not seem to struggle at all, even when it down shifted to 4th gear it only ran at 2500 rpm. For most of the trip the rpm stayed at 2100rpm. The ride was very comfortable. When I did have to stop I was never worried, and I never seemed to have to apply a lot of pressure to the brake pedal.
The camper: I have had a lot of truck campers and I figured this one would be much the same as the others. I was pleasantly surprised how much room I have in this camper. Granted the wife did not go this trip. She will be going down in two weeks and we will see how she likes the new camper. I really like having a bathroom in my camper. I have not had a truck camper with a bathroom, and this was one of the criteria that the wife gave me. That is how I was able to get another truck camper and not a travel trailer. She loves travel trailers because of the bathroom. She does not like to use the campground bathroom. That is one of the reasons I sold my last truck camper. Another thing that needs to be noted is that I did do the dining table mod that I stole from another member who has the same camper that I do. So a shout outโ thanks for the ideaโ, It works great, because it made a good camper great. The fridge and the AC worked like a charm. Both were very cold. I also tried with the camper on and off the truck. I slept with the camper hooked up on the truck then I unhooked it and it also did fine. With the camper off the truck I lowered it all the way down, and it was rock solid. We will see how it does in two weeks with the wife and two dogs. The only thing that I would like to add is a rear awning over the door, and maybe a big grab handle I see standard on the newer campers.
In two weeks I will be going down to St. Joe again, but this time I will be bringing my arctic cat 1000 atv, and the wifeโs wildcat trail SxS. This might get a little crowded with everything she wants to bring, but we will see. I am giving her two big totes to load everything in. I bet with all her stuff and the side by side, Iโll have another 1500lbs on the trailer. I will post another update when that trip is over.
2021 Ram 3500. Torque t285 toy hauler
