It was only a few years ago that  my wife & I were camping with a tent trailer.  Not a pop-up camper, mind you; but a small tent that folded down into a little trailer.  Well, during a particularly bad trip to Colorado one summer, after spending 4 solid days and nights in the rain, I had had enough of camping!  We cut the trip short and spent the remainder of the weekend researching motorhomes.  We ended up with a 31-foot Gulf Stream Class C with two slide-outs, built on a Ford E-450 chassis with a 7.3L Power Stroke.  As far as “livability” goes, it was awesome.  Very roomy, with a separate “master” bedroom, large living area, and spacious walk-through bath area.  But for the type of traveling and camping we did, it sucked.  The Power Stroke diesel (which, BTW is not the same engine that comes in the F-series trucks) was a dog.  I was constantly fighting dangerously high exhaust gas temperatures (EGTs).  In addition, much of our travels took us off road, for which this vehicle was not designed to do!  After only a few trips, there was evidence of stress cracks in the side of the coach.  And finally, it was just too dang big! 

The final straw came on a long weekend trip to Red River, NM.  Just north of Santa Fe, the engine simply died in the middle of an intersection during rush hour in Espanola!  We called our insurance company and got a tow to the nearest repair shop.  To make a long story short, it turned out that rodents had chewed through $400+ of wiring in the engine compartment.  Not more than a couple of days after we got it back from the shop, the rodents has rebuilt their nest on top of the engine again!  Between the insurance, and the maintenance, and the upkeep, and the repairs, and let's not forget the rodents, Susan (my wife) & I agreed to trade in the motorhome for a truck/camper combo.  Most of my Jeepin’ buddies have Lance campers, so we limited our search to that brand.  Going from a 31-foot Class C down to a Lance was going to be like a “Honey, I shrunk the Camper” movie, so we selected one of the largest ones available, the Model 1121 with the slide-out dinette.  Other than the fact that living area is smaller, these campers are pretty impressive!  Ours contains absolutely everything we had in the Class C and more: a 3600-watt propane generator, 3-way refrigerator, 3-burner range & oven, microwave oven, dry bath, central air & heat, space for a TV/VCR, a CD stereo, 40-gallon fresh water tank (more than the Class C held), separate black & gray holding tanks, rear & side awnings, and remote control electric jacks!  And believe it or not, there’s almost as much storage as our Class C had!  There are numerous advantages to the truck/camper combo.  I now have one less vehicle to insure and maintain.  The rodent problem in the engine is gone, cuz the camper has no engine.  And the Lance takes up way less parking space than the Class C!  As for the truck, it’ll haul or tow practically anything I would ever need to transport.  It serves multiple duties as my camper carrier, Jeep hauler, and daily driver.  And if at some time in the future we decide to purchase a nice 5^th wheel, all we’ll have to do is hitch it up and go!

Camper Mods:  Ah, yes . . . we are Jeepers . . . we must modify everything we own.  Actually, I haven’t really found too much that I want to do to the camper.  The Lance 1121 is just about perfect, in my opinion.  I've added a few things.  For example, just before I traded in our Class C, I removed the two 75-watt Siemens solar panels and my Trace Meter (TM500A).  The two panels fit very nicely on top of the Lance, on either side of the escape hatch above the bed.  The camper came “solar ready”, so all I had to do was to secure the panels to the roof and plug them into the receptacle next to the TV antenna.  I installed the charge controller out of the way under the galley sink.

The only “defect” I found in the camper so far, is that the slide-out interferes with the operation of the side awning.  In order to extend or retract the awning, the slide-out must be retracted.  When boondocking, that results in unnecessary battery consumption.  Also, with the slide-out extended, you lose about 18 inches of awning space.  So I plan to relocate the awning to the other side of the camper.  I purchased a second set of mounting brackets, so if I ever want to move it back, it'll be a snap.

Why I "Downsized" From a Class C Motorhome to a Truck Camper

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