Hello,
My wife and I are new to truck campers and have just purchased a 2014 RAM 3500 Heavy Duty Crew Cab Long Bed Dual Rear Wheels 6.4 Litre Hemi (30K miles) together with a 2014 Lance 992 with all the options offered that year (only 7 hours on generator) truck and camper are both like new, always stored inside, previous owners were meticulous. We have been searching for a truck and camper for quite a while and were more than overwhelmed at the prices for both, new was out of the question, so we were extremely lucky to find this combo at a very reasonable price. Anyone out there with similar truck and/or camper, or whatever, any advice would be welcome. I'm seventy years old and hope I'm not too old to learn.
Thanks,
JOHN

Wow, I am impressed. Most people your age are ready to start spending more time at home with the grand kids. I hope when I turn 70 my wife and I will be as motivated, healthy and as ambitious as you two apparently are. Congratulations on your physical well being as well as your very nice, well balanced truck camper combo. I am sure I am not the only one who would love to see some pictures.

I have no doubt that a man like yourself who starts this journey at 70 has more than enough ability to learn all you need to know. Buying a very well matched TC from a private party at the height of the rigs depreciation demonstrates your business savvy.

Having the luxury of the internet and becoming a member of a few truck camper sites will provide you with answers to all your up coming questions. I would suggest you get familiar with three sites to start with. I started with this one and have no complaints. I often recommend Truck Camper Adventure, Mike runs this site and offers plenty of advise for all who are interested, additionally, the site offers subjects that are not often discussed but are very important to understand. Since you now own a Lance I would think being a member of NATCOA would be a necessity. The reason is this site offers a special forum just for Lance owners. There is a great deal of information that you need to learn, I would suggest you buy a note book and start a journal. Having a reference will become very handy as your knowledge increases. Personally, knowing what I know now after two years I would take your time and get very familiar with your new toys before you venture out. Camping with a truck camper is different than other RV's. Confidently knowing how to remove your camper from your truck, level it, hook up water, sewer and power will be a good start. Even if you never plan to separate the rig it's good to know how to do it. Lucky for you, this rig sounds like it is well equipped with the good stuff, like Fast Guns. Learn what the proper tension is and how to adjust them, damage can occur if improperly installed. Those that take the time to learn and practice your camper skills at home will benefit greatly. Good luck

Wow, I am amazed, amazed that is in this day and age 70 is even cause for concern. I was still taking air conditioners up on the roofs of RVs by myself until age 60 and after that my wife worked with me until I closed my RV service at age 69 and I did that only so we would have time to travel.

So do I think you can do it at age 70? As far as I am concerned it is a given and learning to truck camp is no different than learning anything new. You read, you ask, you try, and hopefully along the way you make some mistakes cuz, in my opinion that is the way you learn.

Congrats on your new purchase. We are just finishing a remodel on our house (we do it, not having it done), and after that we should be nipping at your heels.

Freespool,

Thanks for the compliments, always welcome though seldom received, and for the good advice. All the grandchildren are pretty much grown and doing their own thing and scattered all over. I have studied the Lance owner's manual and gone through the loading and unloading procedure with the previous owners, and as stated before, they were extremely helpful and wanted to make sure we understood the procedure thoroughly and we spent about five hours with them and really appreciated their attention to detail in demonstrating all the functions but I know there is a lot more to learn. We also made two new very good friends who we certainly plan on seeing again. Thanks for the information on new links to visit and I did start a journal the day we purchased it and brought it home. There is a lot to know and I have searched a lot of web sites and read a lot of good information, learned from other's mistakes but certain i will make a few of my own if history is any indication of the furture.

Learning about the camper may be easier than learning how to attach a photo to this reply, I am trying.

John

PS RV TECH

I agree with you on the 70 issue, I still feel 35 in my mind, even if my body thinks it's a few years older, still walking 3 miles most days just to keep in shape.

Sorry about not being able to attach a photo, I tried the window to choose a file and it seemed to upload but i don't see the pic anywhere, any help is appreciated.

So glad to here the previous owners acted in such a responsible way. The two of you are way ahead of most folks that get into truck camping. I meant to mention that there is a process for posting pictures. I can't explain it to you but others can and will. I look forward to your pictures once you learn the process.

Posting a picture is easy, it takes much longer to explain than to actually do it.
You need to use a photo hosting site, such as Photobucket.
Sign up for an account at Photobucket, it is free.
Once signed up, click on upload and it it will take you to your hard drive. Select where your pictures are and click on the picture you want to post. Make sure your picture is resized to say 800x600 etc. Otherwise the picture will be to large and force people to scroll to see it.
After you click on the picture on your drive, it will be posted in Photobucket.
Click on the menu on the upper left of the picture, options will appear, click on IMG at the bottom and the picture will be copied(Windows 10), otherwise right click on IMG and select copy from the menu.
On this forum click on reply as usual. Right click, select paste and the IMG code will appear.
You won't see the picture until you hit add reply.
It sounds complicated, but only takes a few seconds.
Here is a picture of me 40 years ago getting ready to fall a 13' diameter Redwood.

Another picture of me 150' up the same tree.

Thet is either an 075 or an 090, not sure which. Looks like an 075 though. I have one in the shop. Don't use it much anymore but I start it a couple times a year just to listen to it. Sounds like a MX bike. I have a 14" long scar on my leg from 404 chipper.

It is an 075 with a 60" bar. I use an 090 with a 72" for the back cut and use a 42" bar to clean up the undercut.

Great saws. Mine is an ornament anymore but it's not for sale. I bought it new. Always wanted an 090G but never bought one. I really had no use for the 75 either. No huge wood up here in Michigan. Just bucked downed timber with it.

I used to let an uninitiated person try to start it. Starting a 75 and not using the compression release was always a treat to watch.

I bought a 028 in 63 that I still have and use all the time. On it's 2nd cylinder and piston. I like the old saws. No plastic. The new Stihl's are plastic and choked up bad. The noise police castrated them.

Bought an MS a couple years ago and had to take a dremel to the muffler to get it to run at all.... gutless.

Back to normal programming but thanks for the reply.

I tried to load a photo but photobucket and I are not getting along.

Rig photo, I hope, still trying to use photobucket.

OK, Folks, I'll quit trying to upload a photo until I find someone more computer savvy to help me.

I sent most of my pictures to Nobody (a poster on here. IO can ask him to post them for me if I want one posted. Which I don't. More fun to imagine.

I thought there was supposed to be a feature on this forum which allows a member to post a pic directly in a post from one's computer but it has never worked for me (I'm a member of several other sites that do allow me to do that??). I do have a photobucket account with several hundred pix & have no trouble posting pix here from my photobucket account? Here's one of my old '85 F250 diesel and the '95 Sun Lite Eagle camper that I wrecked the Saturday after T'giving 2015 (PhotoBucket) then a pic of my current rig hosted on TinyPic.com. PhotoBucket is much more user friendly than TinyPic...

You can stick a couple of mine in if you want to. I especially like the one in the field in the woods., the side shot....

Nobody... How well did the old style 3 jack systems work? They look to be a bit unstable to me....

Never experienced a set. My lance had 4 just like the Palomino has.

I was always kinda leery of them too. My '86 Skamper had 4 of the 'swing-up' type jacks & I was much more comfortable with them. I like the 4 corner crank jacks on the Sun Lite I have now much better...