Garage for camper

[buster2]

Hi, all! I've got a question I'm sure someone can help me with-- I want to build a garage, and I want to be able to park the truck, with the camper in it. I'm going to be buying a Ford F350, and plan on purchasing a Lance camper (probably one of the 10ft. models. How much room do I need for that setup? What size door do I need on the garage? What dimensions should I be planning on? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[buster2]

Hi, all! I've got a question I'm sure someone can help me with-- I want to build a garage, and I want to be able to park the truck, with the camper in it. I'm going to be buying a Ford F350, and plan on purchasing a Lance camper (probably one of the 10ft. models. How much room do I need for that setup? What size door do I need on the garage? What dimensions should I be planning on? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[CyberVet65]

First of all....Welcome to the site!

I park my F350 dually crew cab in my garage. It fits through 10 foot door.
Height? Don't know.
Chet

[Lance-a-Lot]

My rig squeaks through a 10' wide door. The height of the door required will depend on which camper you purchase, if it has AC on the roof, and whether or not your truck is 4WD. The Lance "Max" series are taller than thier other models. My Lance 1121 with AC measures about 10'10" when on the truck.

[buster2]

Thanks for the replies, guys! It looks like I need a 10 x 12 door. The F350 DRW is what I'll be getting. How long is your rig, Lance-a-Lot? I want to have some room behind the camper, but I don't need much. Again, thanks for the help!

[CyberVet65]

My dually F350 is in a 30 foot bay with a two foot workbench in front of that. My Lance 1130 hangs off the back of the truck by 48 inches.
My garage is a 30x30. I would just leave the camper outside. I have for three years and no leaks or problems. Do what the Lance dealers do. Leave them on the lot.
But you could always get a carport to park the unit under. Or Wal-Mart for some poly tarps and bunjee cords. I have seen it done all those ways.
Chet

[Don and Sarah]

On building a garage for parking camper, besure to set the big door at least three feet from the side wall, and at least 12 foot wide. I did not do this and what a mistake. My door is only 8inches from the side wall and 10ft wide. I have to back the truck/camper in at an angle to get enought room from the wall for the slide to go out and I only have about 6 inches on each side when backing in. I went 14ft high but my building has a 16 ft ceiling so I can stand on my camper inside while on the truck if needed.

Following this advice you will need at least 18 ft wide and with the camper off the truck and the truck backed in under the over head bunk it takes about 38-40 feet in lenth to park them both and beable to walk around/between them. My camper on the truck is under 13ft (eleven to the roof line plus the A/C so around 12ft. The truck with the camper on total length is about 26 feet.

My building is 48x30, I went to sixteen so if I had to work on the ac or something on the roof I could stand up, stooped over a bit,and not have crawl around all the time, off the truck I can stand up straight.

[superduty]

I recently had a new home built and was going to add the 3rd car garage for the truck/camper. I measured my Lance 1030 on my F-350 ext. cab 4x4 and it was 11'5" tall so a 12' door should have done it. I figured I could always let the air out of the bags if I needed a few more inches. I wasn't worried about leaving the camper on the truck while in the garage so the length wasn't a big deal. Long story short I ended up not going with the 12' door(mainly from the builder's incompetence). Now my wife uses the 3rd car for her garage. The truck gets a spot in the main garage and I have one garage bay left over for projects

The Lance sits on the RV pad next to the garage and likes it very much!

Since hindsight is always best...I'm glad I didn't build a garage for the Lance. I like having a little bit more room in the main garage so I can tear into other projects and leave them spread out a while if need be.

[Lance-a-Lot]

[QUOTE] How long is your rig, Lance-a-Lot? [QUOTE]

The overall length of the crew cab F350 with camper loaded was about 26'. Good luck with the garage plans.

[buster2]

Thanks everyone for the replies! That was exactly the information I needed. Looks like the building is going to have to be a little larger than I had thought. Though, it's nice to know I could keep it parked outside without any problems, too. I'd like to have the option of having it inside, so I'll have to just bite the bullet, I guess. Thanks!

[Mick9064]

I have a Bigfoot 10.6 2500 on a Ford F350 4x4. It measures 11'8" tall. I don't think it would clear a 12 foot door. My garage door doesn't all the way with the electric door opener. Just something to think about. Good luck.

[ralbert]

Go ahead and build a nice size building. You will never be sorry for doing so. I had my 1995 945 under cover since new and it still looks new. The old building was 12x24x13. That was not big enough. Now I have a 30x45x14 with a 14x14 door in the front and a 14x14 door in the side. This building works great and it houses the Lance and a 32'5th wheel. Building should have been 55' long so i could leave the truck connected to the 5th. I did not want to cut down more trees so this is as good as it will get for me. Good luck.

[Bill S]

Nearly sixteen years ago, I built a 40' wide x 50' long x 16' high sidewall steel building with 3-12' wide x 14' high overhead doors, two in the end and one in the side for our RVs. The doors in the end are 6' from the corners which gives plenty of room for storage and workbenches along the wall inside. I built it that large for the 35' fifth wheel trailer we had at the time along with the '84 Lance camper, and a Ranger bass boat. Now that we don't own the fifth wheel anymore, we have room to park the Lance on the concrete floor with the truck in front of it without backing under the camper bedroom overhang. There is enough light coming through the skylights for the solar panel on the camper to keep the battery fully charged.

The building is insulated including the doors. I have a 100K BTU LPG unit heater controlled by a thermostat that keeps it warm in the winter. I keep the tempreature around 45 degrees in cold weather to keep things from freezing. I have a 250 gallon LPG tank for the heater and haven't needed to fill it but once in the last four years. I have been very pleased with the setup.

Bill

[Scooter]

You might want/have to unload your camper under your new "garage" and drive away. Probably 16 feet high would do it, but better jack it up to the unloading position and measure. Then add 2-3 feet.

I used to back in to our carport, just in case the truck would not start, so the camper could be unloaded and the tow truck driver has your front end handy for a tow or winch up to a flatbed.