What if you didn’t need to climb onto your camper roof to measure the height of your rig? Or what if you’re approaching low tree branches or utility wires and aren’t sure whether your rig will fit underneath? There’s a solution. An easy solution.
When you’re driving a truck camper rig, knowing your height matters.
There are countless situations where you need to know your rig’s exact height; bridges, tunnels, garage doors, service bays, and storage buildings, to name a few. Even when getting an oil change or vehicle inspection, knowing your rig height matters. Or you could be risking an air conditioner shroud or a roof vent getting scratched or worse.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called ahead and asked about the height of the garage door before getting our oil changed. Yes, we can take our camper off, but if we don’t have to, why would we?
What surprises me is how often a repair shop or storage facility doesn’t know the height of its own door. Well, the solution I’m about to share works for those places, too.
During a recent visit to Truck Camper Warehouse, a gentleman was picking up his brand new Ford F-350 and Northern Lite 9-6. When we approached him to say hello, his rig was being measured by Charlie, Sales from Truck Camper Warehouse, with a long orange stick.
“What are you doing, Charlie?”
“We measure every camper before it leaves our dealership, and then we put a sticker on the windshield so our customers know their rig’s height.”
Right away, we said, “When you’re done with that, can we use it?”
Our demo camper, a Rugged Mountain Granite Platinum, does not have a ladder, so we’ve been guesstimating its height. It’s the same floor plan as our camper, has a similar size basement, but has more of a gap between the cab and camper, so we knew it had to be a little taller than our 11’6” rig. Up until this point, we were estimating that the Granite Platinum was about 12’, but we didn’t know for sure.
Not knowing the exact height was not ideal, but we were mainly out west where the bridges are not an issue. Nearly everything out west is tall and under the legal road height of 13’6”.
Now that we’re in the east for the remainder of the summer, there are a lot of low bridges and tunnels, so we knew we needed to know our exact height.
After we had done a few social media videos, we asked Tsara Walsh, Sales at Truck Camper Warehouse, where she got it and whether we could borrow it to measure our rig.
“Of course you can borrow it! Ryan got it for me as a gift off Amazon. It was about $85.”
She also told me that some customers use it to measure tree limbs or garage door heights. It’s not just to measure your rig, but to measure the things your rig needs to go under.
Hmmm… the possibilities started racing through my mind: tree limbs on narrow forest roads, low-hanging utility wires, campground entrances, garage doors, fuel station canopies, car washes, service bays, and all the places where someone says, “Oh yeah, you’ll fit,” but doesn’t actually know the height.
Then, I thought of an instance when the orange stick could have saved us an embarrassing situation. When we were visiting friends in California, we backed out of their driveway and the service wires running from the street to their house. Snap! Had we known, we could have pointed our rig in the other direction.
The orange stick used by Truck Camper Warehouse is made by Vevor and is available on Amazon. When I searched, there are many height sticks from different brands ranging in height from 15-feet to 20-feet.
It folds up, which makes it really compact. It’s still longer than a typical tool, but small enough to fit in many truck cabs or exterior storage compartments. Or you could just keep it at home in your garage.
Left: Feet and inches are displayed and on the other side are meters and centimeters (right)
On the telescoping pole, there are feet and inches on one side, and centimeters and meters on the other. For our use, since we travel in the United States and Canada, both were needed.
To use the telescoping measuring stick, it’s really easy.
1. First, you unfold the stick by loosening the fastener and adjusting the mechanism to a 90-degree angle. Then you tighten the fastener back up again to lock it into place.
2. Once it’s at a 90-degree angle, you extend the telescoping pole until the first locking pin clicks into place. I discovered that the locking hole becomes visible when the measurement markings begin to get closer together.
Once the locking pin aligns with the hole (pictured above), the pole snaps securely into place. Then you keep extending until the telescoping stick is at about the height of your rig.
3. At this point, you find the highest point of your camper’s roof—most likely the air conditioner or a vent. However, if you carry a roof-mounted storage box, kayaks, or canoes, one of those items could be the highest point. For our demo camper, it’s the air conditioner.
4. From the ground, I couldn’t see the air conditioner, but I could feel where the stick was hitting it. Once you find the tallest point, gently rest the horizontal section of the stick on the highest point. Then, read the height in inches and centimeters.
5. Write down the height in both feet and inches and meters and centimeters on a sticker that you can post on your truck’s dash. Our demo rig is 11’10” and 3.6 meters.
Important Tip: Add a few inches/centimeters for clearance through bridges or tunnels. Even though our rig is 11’10” and 3.6 meters, we will keep in mind that roads might have been paved since the original sign was made, and the posted heights on the signs were not updated. This summer we will not be going under bridges or through tunnels if they are not 12’5″ and 3.8 meters, or more.
Ideally, your rig is measured on level ground. Always verify the highest point, including any aftermarket accessories mounted to the roof.
The stick is really simple to use. Once I got the hang of how the Vevor stick opened and closed, and telescoped into place, I wanted to keep measuring things.
An Alaskan camper mounted on a Ram truck also rolled into Truck Camper Warehouse, and I asked the owner if I could measure it. Later in the day, customers picked up their new Northern Lite, and I measured their rig, too.
Thank you to Truck Camper Warehouse for introducing us to this clever measuring tool, and for making sure every customer leaves knowing the exact height of their rig.
