Can A Truck Camper Be Loaded Without Jacks?

You just bought a camper for your pickup truck, though the one important aspect it was missing is the jacks – at first, you thought this wasn’t much of a problem, but as soon as you started to research the topic, you realized that loading the thing onto the bed may prove to be harder than you thought without them.

The solution to this issue is simple, you should get the jacks. But what if you’re stingy with the money, and want to save more and do without them?

Can be done, though not really feasible…

Moving the camper from the ground, off the supports and such is certainly possible without the use of the regular jacks, but don’t think this will actually be just as smooth.

You will still need to hoist the camper up, and this can only be done using a forklift, crane of some sorts.

And yes, there are humans out there who don’t care much about their own safety, let alone the campers’ itself and manage to not only load, but unload, store and do it all with just a pair of sawhorses, however i cannot advise you to even think of doing so as it’s plainly dangerous.

The only way i could tell you that employing an actual forklift to load the camper onto the vehicle is actually a good idea is if you would do that only once a season or so – if you are thinking of doing the same every weekend, you should certainly consider getting the proper jacks, because you are not going to end up spending less anyhow.

I know that this sounds like a crazy idea, but hey, there’s nothing much you can do without them, really. You could also go ahead and contact your local RV dealer and see if they can do this sort of thing, and that can turn out to be an even better way.

What jacks should i get?

In case i changed your mind, and you are ready to spend money wisely to make your camping life a ton easier, purchasing a quality set of camper jacks is all you need to get it done.

In short, mainly there are two types of jacks for this use: four corner and cable lifts.

I always advice on investing into the more permanent, four corner jack setup as it is safer to use, period. They don’t make the TC move that much when lifting, and that’s all we need for our own and camper’s longevity.

Cable jacks aren’t that bad of an idea too – they’re not as expensive and very portable, it’s just that i don’t really like that they aren’t actually fully bolted to the construction, that’s all.