Our latest adventure vehicle is pretty much completed! Sprocket is pleased to give you the grand tour:
We found a Lance 815—the smallest long bed camper Lance produced. The camper is just big enough to have a full “wet” bath (the kind where you shower over the toilet). Dry it only weighs 1750lbs. This smaller, simple camper doesn’t have an oven like the toyhauler but it does have a dinette where we can relax in the evenings.
Our truck is a 1999 Dodge Cummins 4×4 extended cab. We sold the original truck bed and bought an aluminum flatbed. (All via Craigslist, of course.) To match the flatbed, we added aluminum toolboxes. With the truck weighing nearly 7,000lbs empty, the weight savings from using aluminum combined with the relatively lightweight camper was important for keeping our load in an acceptable load range. (If you can call 9,500lbs lightweight!)
Having all the toolboxes gives us a place to keep all of the extras that you wouldn’t usually need for a weekend of camping but are indispensible when you need them while living on the road long term. With the toolboxes I feel like we even have more space than we did in the trailer since everything is put away in its place rather than having to be shuffled around periodically.
The extended cab works really well for us. It gives Sprocket a place to ride as well as storage for his food, F’s riding gear, our outdoor table and chairs, and a lot of rarely-used heavy tools under the rear seat.
Love your guys’ rig! Hope to see you all somewhere “out there”!
Hadn’t seen this post when we talked today. Like it!
Looks great! What kind of gas mileage do you get?
Pretty cool idea ……. wondering where your vehicle tail lights are.
What year is the Lance? It looks like the older 815 model that does not have separate rear lights.
We bolted on lights to the flat bed after these photos were taken
They were installed on the flat bed after photos were taken