August 1970 Consumer Reports 3/4 ton Custom Camper Comparison Test

[Alex V.]

Originally Posted by Coley

Yep.
I often run into people at show'n shines that go about how much better these vehicles were...and I always find myself at odds in my reply.
Truthfully, vehicles have never been better built, safer and more reliable than what is coming off the assembly lines today, truth be told.
However....the tipping point is that these older vehicles are like interesting mechanical art to me...and for that reason, should not be compared on a practical basis. Plus, they are just a lot of fun to have, own, drive and putz around with...which is something quite different than straight up transportation.
My two bits.

Coley

Ditto, except I contend new cars are engineered as MUCH more a closed system - less room to be used, repaired, or modified outside of exact replacement parts or full component replacement. Yes, they're light years better when they're new, but once aged and worn they're much easier classified as just plain "done" than an older rig.

[truckster]

So, what I got from the article is that you shouldn't use a Camper Special for road racing. OK, got it.

I wonder how their rating of BMWs for carrying campers went.

[factorystock]

Loading vehicles to the max and expecting them to perform like a car was the agenda in my opinion. They knew what the results were going to be, before the tests were even run. They had an axe to grind. Probably against the camper craze that was in full swing by 1970. Sure, there was a problem of overloaded vehicles, some pickup owners didn't know about GVW's, they just knew that they had a pickup with an 8' box. Some campers were just too dam heavy, never shoud have been sold and installed on typical pickups. Most people that read this article would come away thinking all camper pickups were unsafe at any speed. A reasonable test would be to run a more typical normal weight camper 2000lb vs. the very heavy not typical 3000lb camper on these 7500lb GVW vehicles, but that wouldn't have been dramatic enough for the editors of the magazine. They deliberately used the extreme situation of loading these pickups to the max GVW. ratings. They used the criteria for testing passengers cars and applied it to pickups loaded to the max. and came to the conclusion none of the pickups were satisfactory. About the 307 Chevy, that was the standard V8 for 3/4 ton Chevy pickups, that's what they chose. The standard V8 for 3/4 ton Ford pickups was the 360, that's what they chose. The 302 Ford V8 (about the same cubes as 307 Chevy) was not available in 3/4 ton Ford pickups, only available in 1/2 ton Ford pickups). Optional engines should have been ordered for better performance on all of the trucks.

[truckster]

Remember, too, that these are the same folks who staged the rollover tests to make sure the Suzuki Samurai would fail. They were successfully sued by Suzuki, but you have to wonder how many other of their tests were staged to meet a set agenda.

[tdangle]

Just came across a brochure I downloaded for a 70 pickup and there is a page with camper recommendations. Not what Consumer Reports say in their article. Also note the max camper weights listed. A long way from 3000+ that they used.

[Ken B]

I have been looking for a slide in camper for my C30 Longhorn for almost a year now. No luck yet. I don't think I will have any of the issues that they had in the test as I will be driving with care.... Thanks for Posting! Very interesting read.

[67swb72klb]

Yep the media was twisted even back then...
Cool articial thanks for posting

[Sicklajoie]

Originally Posted by Ken B

I have been looking for a slide in camper for my C30 Longhorn for almost a year now. No luck yet. I don't think I will have any of the issues that they had in the test as I will be driving with care.... Thanks for Posting! Very interesting read.

Ken, I can't get enough pics of your truck. Love it!!

[Coley]

Originally Posted by Ken B

I have been looking for a slide in camper for my C30 Longhorn for almost a year now. No luck yet. I don't think I will have any of the issues that they had in the test as I will be driving with care.... Thanks for Posting! Very interesting read.

Yep...no problem hauling with that given the 1 ton frame, HD suspensions etc.
The only challenge for the Longhorns is when the back 'extension' on the camper kicks down behind the tail lights. The 8'-6" box doesn't let the camper sit fully forward....although some (period) campers from that era were built exactly for the Longhorn....now that would be a cool addition to a nice truck like that.
Out of curiosity Ken...what is the GVW (plate) rating on a Longhorn? (8000lbs? or?.....I think the 3/4 ton regular jobs were 7500 lbs?)
...also, what kind of rear diff ration were in those trucks?

Nice truck, great colour!

Coley

[factorystock]

Its amazing how different each '67-'72 truck can look, just by the wheelbases, colors, moldings, mirrors, stance and wheels. This Longhorn looks really sharp and has the extra capacity to haul those heavy ones. Intesting note, most '69 C 30 longhorns were built with the wrong 10,000lb GVW plates ( the dual wheel rating). '70 C 30's longhorns got the correct max 9000lb plates. This photo shows where the ideal center of gravity should be, just ahead of rear axle.

[factorystock]

The solution to the overweight slide in campers ( built for 8' pickup beds ) before '73 was to install it on a 1 ton chassis with an 8' service body. In others words, if you must haul a house around, trade in your 3/4 ton for a 1 ton chassis cab, install the service body. The key was to order the big block with the automatic and you got the 4.10 ratio. IMO, Sicklajoie first post of thread is correct, this is why GM introduced the big dooley in '73.