Newbie needing advice on slide on campers

Ang V

What vehicle are you going to put it on? Most important. Do you have a picture of it on the seller's vehicle?

You haven't said what your vehicle is, for a slideon that long you would really need a full size 2400 tray.

We owned a slide-on for 12 years. Initially t was on a Holden 1tonn tray top. We changed it to a Ford F350 because the Holden was overloaded.
Slide-ons have many compromises compared to an equivalent motorhome on the same vehicle and there needs to be a very good reason to choose one.
They are significantly heavier than a similar motorhome and they are higher and the weight is higher because water and waste tanks are above the chassis instead of below it.
They also have less storage space for the same reasons.
We rarely took the slide-on off the vehicle. It was simply too much trouble. And we preferred to be ready to hit the road at short notice, so we fixed it in place and that reduced our rego costs and made it easier to insure. No too many insurers want to insure a slide-on.
My advise is do not buy a slide-on, buy a motorhome.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

The two 120ah batteries and associated solar and charger PLUS the full water tank and pump is approaching half the stated weight. If it has a frame , shower bed and roof, I find it hard to believe the weight stated is near true. Be careful and check that. Others have mentioned size of tray etc. All good points made to take notice of.

That 1670mm overhang sounds rather large. I'm thinking bent chassis maybe.

Cheers
Jim

Thanks everyone so far for replying. I think I will give this one a miss even though it looks lovely there are too many variables in a custom made for a newbie I think. If anyone knows of someone selling a slide on camper on the sunshine coast with or without ute (want a 4x4 2008 or more Japanese ute like Mitsubishi automatic diesel single cab but with a centre or bench seat) please let me know. Open to recommendations on the ute and camper for that matter. Can only afford 25000 total
Thanks

I'm a newbie here. I don't know much about it. But I would like to know more. Don't hesitate to update me further.

Quote "needed to know if this is something that will be suitable as a self sufficient home"
Not possible in a slide-on camper.
Slide-on campers are *the* most dangerous piece of travel accomodation. They attempt to put rear sway bars, double shock absorbers, extra springs, air bags and all sort of other equipment to overcome the weight and sway on slide-on campers and none work. The amount of accidents with slide-on campers is way over represented. I know of two cases personally, sadly where one couple got killed and the other single lady amazingly walked away. I actually drove her vehicle for 28km's and thought what a nightmare and was an accident looking for a place to happen, and it did end up that way.
You can achieve what you want in a 16' to 17'6" tandem caravan and have the weight carrying capacity of the ute.

Ang V

I agree with Travelling's reply. Professionally built slide ones usually resemble a five star mobile hotel room. There is so much in them that they are very heavy and have broken far too many of the popular utes.

It is not the design of the ute that is the problem though. The slide on can be within the ute's weight limit but they often have far too much heavy material in them that is located too far back towards their rear end. This places too much downward pressure on the rear end of the chassis too far behind the axle.

The distance between the axle and the end of chassis is a lever. When the wheels fall into a hole in the road, the rear end of the car drops down and so does the material sitting on it. It then builds up momentum. A split second later the wheels rise up again and lift the chassis. The stress on the chassis increases enormously as it has to stop the falling material and heave it up instantly.

All utes are subjected to these stresses but they don't break when they are being used within their design limits. Far too many slide ones take them outside those limits. When that happens, all the aftermarket springs or air bags in the world are not going to stop the chassis from bending if it is over stressed.

If you really want a camping body on your car then do what my wife and I did. We removed the ute's tray and built a permanent body on the chassis. It is 2400 long, 1840 wide and 1 metre high. A section of the roof about half the floor area lifts straight up so we can stand up in it. The reason it is so low is so we can get it into our garage.

Entry is by a small 800 mm high side door. We have no trouble getting in through it even though we are both 74.

It weighs 220 kg empty. The aluminium tray that it replaced weighed 130 kg. The vast majority of the weight when loaded is forward of the axle. Across the rear end is a permanent double bed. It also contains a 40 litre fridge, a portable toilet and a shower can be set up inside it in a few minutes. It has very little weight behind the axle.

The car's suspension is stock standard.

So far it has taken us everywhere from mountain tracks to what is left of the Gunbarrel Highway west of Warburton plus many other places. We have just finished living in it for seven months while a new house was being built for us.

Put a lot more thought into what you want. Think about mass (The amount of material in something) instead of just weight which is just a measure of the pull of gravity. You can't buy a piece of weight.

Learn about weight distribution in cars, particularly dual cab utes. A major problem there is few owners realise their five seats are major load bearing areas designed to carry five average weight men. You can't have half that weight up front and the rest of the car's payload out the back and think everything is fine. Many do that then blame the car manufacturer because the rear end is sagging.

Don't forget about useful things for cooking food, I mean you may pack everything using the vacuum sealer and take with you small fry pan, it's different to eat only microwaved meal for a long time. As I understood you have enough place for that.
I wish you good luck.