Frage Tailgate

Hello
Is is it recommend to remove the tailgate of the pickup truck to mount the camper?

I am facing the problem, I have purchased a Skarosser / Nordstar 215cm floor lenght for the Indian Pickup Truck TATA Xenon Double Cab, 4x4. I cannot mount this camper without removing the tailgate. Please advice/suggest is it recommend to remove the tail gate to mount the Wohnkabine/truck camper, because the floor lenghth is 215cm. If I had purchased a 230Cm floor lenght. It was not necessary to remove the tailgate. As the tailgate has the obstruction with the Grey tank of the camper

Please advice

Thank you

Ramesh

Hi,

sounds like a fine truck and camper you got there! Tailgates are there to remove

There are some truck/camper combinations where it will be possible to leave the gate on. But that is, in my experience, the exception rather than the rule.

On our truck, the tailgate will come off without any tools. Check your manual for the procedure on your Tata.

If the tailgate has a plastic cover on the upper edge, it is recommended to stand it upside-down on that plastic edge. That way it won't be scratched.

And, we want to see pictures!

Best wishes,
Joerg

Hello Joerg

Thank you very much for your reply

Sorry I dont have the picture right now, I can post next week, as I am away from home now. I can remove the tail gate of the tata pickup , but it needs tools , circlips to be removed.

As this was the first Camper build by Skarosser with 215 floor lenght, self contained with cassette toilet and shower and AC/heating, I am yet to get reply from them to email. I thought someone from Wohnkabine forum will help me.

Thank you very much

Best Regards
Ramesh

Hi Ramesh,

indeed your manual ([url:gigajqtd]customercare.tatamotors.com/manual/xenon.pdf[/url]) doen't mention any procedure for tailgate removal

In our Chevy, you just need to lower it about 1/2, then you can pull it out on the passenger side first. The retainer wires can be easily unhooked, too.

But that's the fun in truck camping. Always new roads to explore

May I ask where you are located?

Best regards,
Joerg

Hi Joerg,

Yes, you are right, there is no procedure to remove the tailgate in tata pickup
I am live in Bangalore, India. This may be the first truck camper imported into India.
I planned to drive with camper in September from Bangalore to Leh( Kashmir), which is 3000kms one way, has the Altitute of above 5000m in near Leh in one of the mount pass.

Thank you

best Regards

Ramesh

Ah very nice! I have a number of colleagues in Bangalore (I work in IT).

That sounds like a very fun (and somewhat daring) trip. Send pictures to Skarosser, I am not sure if any of their campers has vantured so far

Their German importer (Nordstar) is within walking distance from my office in St. Ingbert / South-Western Germany.

Just be careful with that camper on your truck. It puts a lot of load on the rear axle. Especially with the long cab.

I am sure the whole community would love to see some pictures from your trip, once you are back

Best regards,
Joerg

Hi,

yes, as Joerg mentioned befor, the tailgate should be removed. This saves also some kilograms of load.In addition,it may be possible that the horizontal opened gate is 1 or 2 cm higher than the rest of the platform. If you then load the camper,it stand at the rear side only on the gate! This will definately damage the mechanics. The gate is not made for carrying high loads.
For removal of the gate,I need to loosen 4 screws, but it's not a big deal.

I would also be very intrested in some pictures of your combination!

Greetings, Holger

Hi Joerg,

Thank you, it is bit crazy to drive this truck camper in India, I just cleared the camper from the Indian customs on 28th July and drove home about 20 kms, from 29th onwards, I am in hardware installation in Hyderabad. I have no chance to do anything with this camper, until this weekend, when I am back home.

I did intract with the Nordstar dealer ( Mr. Steinfield) in Germany, but due to price, I could strike deal with him. I did visit last year Dusseldorf show and I wanted to purchase Tischer, but I could not get better pricing than Skarosser. Due to high Import Duty in India. I went in for Norstar Camper. I am with Skarosser build up.

Thanks for your advice. The reason for me to order 215cm floor lenght was to have less overhang and weight. I also mounted Air Suspension only for the rear wheel of this tata pickup. As there is no Air Suspension kit , readily available for TATA pickup. I did import, 3 different Firestone Air Springs from US. Finally, one the best suited was selected and it is working well. I have control for the air springs from Airlift wireless type, works well. I kept Airpressure about 1bar/15psi with the camper load.

Definetly, I will post some pictures of my truck camper, it very different traffic environment than europe in India. It is crazy traffic system in India

There are lot a people came to look and admire, this kind of camper, somewhere even asking, are you planning to sell this camper in India

As most people in India, dont have apportunity even to see a RV/ Caravan/ truck camper

This will create many awareness of the people of Bangalore/India

Thank you

best Regards

Ramesh

Hi Ramesh,

it sounds like you are well prepared for your trip.

I have personally seen the traffic in Mumbai (from the passenger seat) a couple of years ago, and I agree that it is indeed different (unless you are driving in Paris, where it seemed even worse). I suppose when you get out to the more rural areas it will be different yet again. I found your country very fascinating and I hope I will get the opportunity to go there again some day.

Your rig sounds quite capable of the task and I am sure you will have a very interesting and rewarding trip. Somehow poineering RV travel in India, right?

Please come back to the forum any time with any issues. And, of cours, pictures!

Best wishes,
Joerg

Hi Joerg,

Can you give some suggestions , on offroad drive with camper and also driving high mountain pass. Precautions to take, as there good amount of vehicle body roll when I drive with camper in India, as the road is not level.

Is four mounting bolt on the truck bed is enough to withstand bad road, with pot holes or is it necessary to have any additional tie down, like the American truck campers use.

Thank you

Best Regards
Ramesh

Hi Ramesh,
I hope we can get the attention of some of the other posters by keeping the thread active

Personally, I have no offroad experience I could share. Our truck is only 2 wheel drive, so I could not really dare to take it offroad.

What type of tiedowns do you have on the pickup bed? Are they bolted directly to the frame?

The tiedown hardware on the camper itself should be sufficient in all cases. I suppose the SKarosser / Nordstar campers are rugged, but not specifically designed for extensive offroad use. For that purpose there are the expedition-type campers (e.g. Excab).

The only advise I can personally give: Do not overtighten the tiedowns. Especially the front ones need some flexibility. Otherwise they can transfer unwanted high energy peaks to the camper structure when you go over uneven terrain. Of course the camper should not be able to move on the bed. But the tiedowns I use, for example, are spring-loaded to absorb some energy when needed.

The front tiedowns frequently take more load than the rear tiedowns, so the better materials / connection should be in the front.

These videos have been linked here before:
Video1
Video2
Video3
Video4

You can see that the truck camper is not as unstable as you might fear. Yet I would not want to try this out myself. And I really wouldn't want to see what it does to the camper...

So maybe one of the offroaders can give some advice?

Best regards
Joerg

edit: fixed strange links

Hi Ramesh,

my name is Robert. We have a Nissan Navara and a Nordstar 8L. We travel a lot in Romania.
The streets here a a little bit like offroad.
Some hints from me:
But a piece of rubber between the cabin and the cab, to minimize the movenents of the cabin
Also I propose to put all heavy parts as low as possible in the cabin, because of the balancing.
Fix all cabinet doors, because of the swinging all will move.
At last fix the things in your fridge, otherwise your beer cans might be damaged (it happened to us!)

Driving offroad with a cabin is not more difficult than without cabin. You have to reduce the speed more than usual and the car is more heavy. That´s all.

Hope I could give some ideas. I also would like to see some pictures

Have a nice trip

Robert

Well what Jörg showed in the videos, you should never drive like this if you want to keep your pickup and cabin for more than a year! Also I think they made the videos with an empty cabin, without any additional load.

So if you make it slowly and don't try to make too many kilometers a day,you will not have a problem.

I am wondering a bit about your Airspring: You wrote that you have 1bar in it with the camper loaded. This sounds not very much to me. The other guys here with Goldschmidt airsuspension run with 3 to 4.5bar. But maybe this is du to the different type. Maybe you can experiment, what fits best.

Dear All,

Thank you very much all your suggestions.

Best Regards

Ramesh