Hello Dolly! Roll That Camper Around

On an RV forum several truck camper owners brought up problems they'd been facing with their rigs. One said his landlord wouldn't permit him to "off load" the camper and leave it parked in the parking lot--it had to be on wheels with no jacks down. Another couldn't get his camper into his rented storage unit and off the truck--probably not enough clearance up above. What's to do?

Several enterprising TC owners came to the rescue. Think in terms of a truck camper "dolly," a small, wheeled platform that allows the camper to be pushed around in small areas, with less "head room" required. For the guy with the pesky landlord, he could simply offload the camper from the pickup, slide the dolly underneath, then put the whole rig in his parking spot. For the guy with limited headroom, a similar answer.

What to use as a "dolly"? One possibility is a 4,000 pound capacity "utility wagon," from Northern Tool + Equipment. At about $500, you'd then need to add your own platform materials, but the wagon comes with frame and tires. Click here for more information. Other truck camper owners have built their own dolly systems, much like this one. In any event, be sure to take the width of your rig and its jack system into account to ensure you can get the completed dolly under the rig.

Ladder Rack Chair Storage on the Cheap

As truck camper folks, we have some of those unique challenges that face us that a lot of other RVers don't deal with: A whole less space to stow stuff. No basement storage is readily available to stuff the folding lawn chairs.

Being miles away from the nearest Camping World and in need of chair hanging fixtures, we hit the local hardware store. There we found a pair of utility hangers, designed to be screwed onto your garage wall, from which you could hang a ladder. Hmm, if you could hang a ladder on these racks, why not hang these racks on a ladder? We picked up four good size hose clamps along with the pair of ladder racks and headed back to the camper.

By fully opening the clamps we were able to clamp them over the hangers and the vertical shafts of the roof ladder. With the clamps cinched down, we had a completely serviceable rack for lawn chairs and our folding "patio table." Problem solved locally for less than $10.