Slide-on comments?

See the thread from yesterday 104977.
Basically too heavy for a Cruiser, minimum an Ftruck or similar.

As Pete has mentioned below, there is an earlier thread that covers a bit of detail for you.

Vikki and I purchased a new Palomino Real Lite Slide on in the US last year. It was mounted on an ex utility company F250 Super Duty we purchased at the auctions in Toronto. Ours was a pop top unit so was a good deal lighter and somewhat more streamlined than a hard top, cab-over bed model. Weight is a key concern and needs to be measured carefully in your decision.

We loved the camper and the prices in the US made it actually cheaper to buy one than hire one for our extended Holiday there. The appointment was good but they are made for the Americans idea of touring. Ours tends to be a little more interesting and rougher as far as roads and tracks go. Only weak spots were the finite size of the inside toilet and shower. I'm a big bloke and could not fit in it. (Make sure you have an outside shower, it's infinitely more useable) and also the table was a bit poor. Easily replaced with a better, swinging mounting system. It handled everything we threw at it well enough including the Dempster & the Top O' the World Highways and some back-country roads in Alaska and Canada.

I own a 2010 VDJ79 Toyota Cab Chassis (V8 diesel model). Standard suspension will be too soft for the slide on. You would need to ensure you upgrade the suspension pretty much straight away and this should allow you to up the GVM to the maximum allowable which I believe is 3920kgs. I’d also supplement this with a set of airbags for levelling purposes.

We considered importing ours back to Australia (and I still wish I had) but ours was a big unit (9 foot floor) meaning it jutted well over the back of the tray. This is not an enviable situation as it puts a lot more strain on the rear suspension.

Depending on your budget, another alternative is to undertake the mods I did to my ute in having the chassis extended as part of the GVM upgrade. It will add another few thousand to the cost but allows you to add up to 500mm into the chassis rails with additional strengthening and a GVM upgrade to suit. This would allow you to customise the tray by up to an addition 700 mm (added length plus 200 extra past the rear axle). The added chassis length will ensure a much better load scenario for your slide on and give you a ute tray that will be the envy of all your mates heh heh. It will also give you some flexibility on the size of your camper and this is important.

I don’t know where you are based but Multidrive Technology in Geelong did the work on my Car (Darryl is the go too man). They cut and stretch about 20 utes a week for emergency services as part of their GVM packages (200mm insert and a 400kg upgrade – fully engineered and certified with secondary compliance plate) so I simply asked them to insert the maximum their engineer was happy to certify.

I’ve covered this exercise in the first entries of my ute build blog so that should give you an idea of the process involved. Cost then was about $7K. Sounds a lot but that included a GVM upgrade which would cost up to $4K in the first place.

Creating the dream off roader



Hope that’s of help to you.

Regards

Mick

We did the changeover two years ago. 79 series Landcruiser diesel and a slide on. Same with us, we approached ARB and had the suspension improved as well as airbags. It is a must do with slideons.

It is a different way of travelling. I was over towing a 20ft off road caravan and wanted to get to the more remote areas as well as continue normal touring. The downside (I think) is that you lose the comfort etc of a caravan. I have improved our outside comfort by installing canopies and purchasing some good lightweight ground covers.
But so far we have survived and are quite happy with our lot.

I was also in the same situation as you with both car and caravan ageing rapidly.
Have a good look around at slideons as they are many and varied.
Regards
Jim

Would never own another slideon
Spent a fortune on suspension and was still a top heavy dog
Major issue couldn't carry sufficient gear and water
Slideon was an expensive painful sorry exercise as many slideon owners have found out and changed out to something more suitable

Hi Tangam1. We have a slide-on on a L/C 79 tray back. It is made by Active Campers in Woolgoolga and it is excellent. Obviously you will have much less space than the caravan, but everything is a compromise.
Our rig has been through the Kimberly, inc. Mitchell Falls (appalling road!); Hay Rv track; Simpson Desert from Poeppel Cnr to Birdsville; Innamincka and Coongie Lakes etc. Both vehicle and camper have survived with minimal problems. We are still able to carry 2 spare tyres with our set up and the L/C has 180L fuel standard. So most outback trips are covered.
It is very fast to set up (maybe 2 mins) and pack up (maybe 3 mins)- so going for a drive from a set camp is no problem (We don't take the legs when we travel). The dry weight is just under 500kg. Our camper has no toilet (does have outside shower), but Active Campers have an upmarket model with a very cleverly designed inside shower/toilet; and the unit is not much heavier than ours.
The vehicle has standard suspension but with airbags. When fully loaded for an outback trip, our vehicle is probably over the GVM; and suggestions from others to look into a GVM upgrade are well worth considering. The L/C is a truck to drive compared to our previous Hiluxes, but it sure is strong and very capable.
We have no connection with Active Campers - just very happy customers.
Hope this helps.
Rodger

We have a 79 series and have had two bronco slide ons. The first we bought new and it had so many problems that we sent it back for a full refund - thanks the the amazing customer service from the guy we bought it off. We missed the damn thing so much that 6 months later we bought another second hand one, which we have just sold after 12 months enjoyment.

The first one had the shower and toilet built in, the second had neither but we converted a cupboard to hold a porta potti. As previously stated the inside shower was inadequately sized for anyone slightly (or greatly) larger than medium.

Although we had the strongest springs available we found them pretty much flattening out with a medium load, although we did have two belly tanks under the tray of the cruiser - which aided water capacity when remotely camped, but at the same time added weight. I didn't want to fit air bags as I have read too many accounts of broken chassis caused by overloading and airbags.

As previously stated, loading/unloading is not as easy as made out. We also found that stuffing in the vinyl around the pop top when dropping the roof was a chore when the unit was on the vehicle - unavoidable if you leave the unit on the tray.

Hand crank legs were a PITA, even when using cordless drills (2 of which I burnt out). The electric legs on the second one were so much nicer to use.

Despite all the shortfalls, we loved getting away in the Cruiser/Bronco combination and only got rid of it when we realised that it just wouldn't be up for steep high country use or a Simpson desert crossing - too heavy, too easy to knock the legs off or damage them, and a lot of the internals made from compressed board and staples.

Hope this helps. Happy to answer any more questions.

Cheers,
Neil