Twin cab ute with slide on

Jerry, are you sure about 1.8m tray ?
Maybe if sticking out back a bit, my PK Ranger crew cab tub is around 1.5m long internal.
I think a space cab (aka extra cab etc) would be about 1.8m, maybe you meant that ?
If going dual cab, ensure you know the limits and stresses of the design, and lading the back up too much weigh at the rear (on top of off road stresses etc), there are many cases, including with slide ons, where chassis have bent . . . usually where someone has also installed and / or used airbags incorrectly.
If it is indeed a dual cab you are thinking of, I would shy away from extending chassis rails at all to to the rear to gain extra slide on room.

All the dual cab units available have little room for using a slide on camper.
The tray length is erroneous as it can be any length at all.
Unfortunately nearly all, and in some cases ALL the load, Triton the worst there, is behind the rear axle and so everything to do with load carrying is about the chassis integrity.
Unless used on smooth roads and rarely encountering any stress causing terrain, I wouldn't use a dual cab for that purpose.
Maybe a single cab but a dual cab no way.
A slideon weight usually maxes out the carrying ability stated by the manufacturer anyway and all that is well aft with a dual cab.
No amount of suspension mods can change that.
The nose up factor is something I don't think is good either. Lighter steering is not for me.

Regularly on this site ads section there is an earlier white dual cab completely broken in half. That should indicate the limitations I reckon.

A small towed caravan will give you plenty more options.

Hi Jerry.

Have a look at Trayon Campers.

We have a BT50 Freestyle cab with beefed up suspension and the standard Trayon on the back. What a great unit. We have had it for 8 years now and covered over 100,000 klm and not a single problem.
The slide on weighs only 390 kg. and the vehicle handles it with ease. Trayon also make a unit for dual cab vehicles. Have a look at their website.


Cheers, Mike

JD, To start with I would go for a run in the back seat of the lux and d-max and see if you think it has enough room or any trip over half an hour. The new utes have far greater chassis strengths than those proceeding them, which is a bonus.

Check out any problems with the new first generation lux as there are some including injectors, auto box and water entering the cab in shallow water. Maybe best to wait till the issues are sorted.

I took a lux for a run and it had plenty of sting but the only thing was it was empty and standard so added weight will take the edge off it when loaded or towing.

The biggest thing to consider with a slide on that is mounted on a dual cab, is the weight of the unit, some slide on manufacturers are lets say, a little untruthful about weights. You will want the lightest slide on available because you then have to add all the gear on it. It would also be best to add up the weight of your load and work out where it is going to be carried.

Get the vehicle specs for the front and rear axle loads and see if you can keep your weight under those with the loaded camper. You will most likely need a heavier suspension as the manufacturers like to put suspensions in that gives a good ride unloaded.

Do a lot of homework and all the best with your decision

Gerry

The Hilux or Dmax would be the way to go but putting a camper on the back of a twin cab or to a lesser degree a extra cab may be problematic .

There are problems with the chassis cracking .

There is plenty of info on the net about this issue .

The most sensible Ute would be a cab chassis ,for better weight distribution .

Cheers

Have been wondering about the issue of sleeping in the car and still carrying 4 people and so far the best new solution seems to be the NP300 Nissan navara King cab St .

Our Nissan patrol can take a double bed and this arrangement has been hard to beat.
The Navara second row seats are of course small but adequate for the rare time we have more than 2 people. They fold right out of the way meaning some camping stuff could normally sit there and be placed in the slide on for those odd times.
Took one for a test and the new 450nm engine really seemed to go and it handled quite well.

I wanted coil springs but this is only on the full dual cab.

4wd ability is very important to us, but also is the ease of getting into and out of the bed. Had I good look at the Navara tub and floor height and I think a custom slide on would be able to be made with significantly lower floor height than normal aftermarket stuff.

The basic car is able to take a tilt angle of up to 50 degrees which makes for a very stable base platform well ahead of some others.

It is not easy to put a slide on camper onto a dual cab without overloading the rear end. If I was to try doing that the first thing I would do is remove the tray and have a camper custom built that bolts directly to the chassis. It would be as light as possible and contain only the features I consider to be absolutely essential. All heavy items would be as far forward as possible.

Most professionally built campers are designed to cater for as wide a range of buyers as possible resulting in them having every conceivable feature and a weight that is through the roof.

The big problem with a dual cab is weight distribution. Get it wrong and the chassis is at risk as the others have already pointed out. The main reason for incorrect weight distribution is they are a five seat car and very few people have enough weight in those seats when they load the car up near its maximum.

There is no point in the manufacturer designing the car to carry no more than the weight of an average weight mum and dad with three primary school age children then five rugby forwards or five large tradesmen get into it. The cabin must be designed to carry the weight of five large adults and all the things like winter clothing, brief cases, books, camera bags, water bottles etc. that people put in the front with them. That means close to 500 kg up front before you start loading the rear if you want to fully load the car.

If you can't do that then you can't fully load it without overloading the rear end.

The chassis bending problem comes from leverage. The distance between the rear axle and the end of the tray is a lever. The further back you put each item, the more the leverage on the end of the chassis. If you push the end of the car down, the springs compress but the whole car tilts on the rear axle and the front goes up. If you install heavier springs or air bags, the car still tilts on the axle and the front still goes up.

That is what weight will do but the real killer is mass and the forces it generates when put into motion. Mass is the amount of material in something.

When you put a loaded slide on onto the tray, the back will go down a certain amount and the front will lift a little. Now imagine lifting the slide on about 200 mm above the tray and dropping it. It will hit with a hell of an impact that thumps the back down and throws the front up.

Its weight has not changed but the material in it has fallen, built up momentum, and has been brought to a sudden stop by the end of the car.

I have never heard of a chassis bending while the car is stationery but it all changes when the car moves. As wheels rise and fall, sometimes rapidly, in accordance with the road surface, whatever material is behind the rear axle is constantly being heaved up instantly or caught when it falls.

That is what bends chassis, particularly in off road conditions, and heavier springs, GVM upgrades or air bags can not stop it.

Here is a few bent chassis photos. BENT PHOTOS

One more point to consider is the off road carrying and towing capacity. The maximums specified are usually for good sealed roads only and should be reduced as conditions deteriorate. There are far too many variables for manufacturers to attempt to list loads for all conditions but they will usually advise you if you ask.

I have a Gecko Camper on a D-Max king/space cab. I go to very remote locations and usually very rough tracks. I did a lot of research and found out about all the possible problems, most of which are mentioned here before buying this setup.
This is what I did.
My Gecko Camper is actually designed for a single cab ute but I wanted the king/space cab. Because of where I go and the tracks I travel the whole rig had to be very robust. Talking with the guys at Gecko we came up with this solution, They custom made a very rigid steel framed tray with aluminium floor, side boxes, and very long under tray draw. This was then mounted to the chassis using GU engine mounts, the idea being to cushion any shocks to the chassis. The Camper was then bolted to the tray with high tensile bolts making the camper/tray combination very rigid and strong. I am very much against using over centre catches to attach a camper to the ute tray, they allow to much twisting, and in the event of a roll over are unlikely to hold.
I chose a D-Max for reliability, not as flash as some, but tried and proven. Had a GVM upgrade with the rear springs rated for a 800kg constant load. Last year did over 20,000 km's off-road including the CSR and are very happy with it. If someone pinched my setup I would replace it with exactly the same.
I do not know what other slide-on manufactures do, but Gecko make a slide-on specifically for a twin cab. What they do is cut 300mm out of the centre of the camper except for the bed part which then protrudes forward over the cab.
Very important is the thicknesss of the ute's chassis rails. They are not all the same and if you plan having a trayback camper get a ute with the thickest chassis rails.
I hope all this helps and PM me if you want any further info.
Chris

Have a look at these http://www.tommycampers.com.au/ , some of weight well forward

Our OKA motorhome has 2 seats (approved with seat belts) in the camper section.
That gets the camper much further forward and saves a pile of weight.
I would still start with a Landcruiser or something with even higher load capacity though.
Probably not a possibility with a slide-on though.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

Check out Jacksons slide on campers - has a variety of slide ons to suit various vehicles

Jerry,

speaking as a previous owner of an extra-cab Dmax fitted with a slide on, there are only two things to consider ; do not trust the manufacturer's quoted weight of the slide-on, and you MUST have the centre of balance of the slide-on as near as possible to directly over the rear axle.
Been there, cost me $6500 to have the chassis lengthened on a new vehicle to stop the chassis flex.

Phil