Lance ‘Altimeter’ Project: A Truck for Adventure at Any Altitude
Lance’s latest vehicle project aims to highlight the versatility, capability, and all-season comforts of truck campers. Lance’s The Altimeter project vehicle is ready for adventure any time and anywhere.
Lance truck campers have been featured on a number of high-profile adventure builds over the past few years — most notably on the Hellwig Rulebreaker Titan XD build and Aaron Wirth’s overland RAM build.
The Altimeter project is the convergence of a slide-in Lance truck camper and a big Ford Super Duty truck. Of course, both the truck and camper have been modified and upgraded, and the brand added a matching souped-up side-by-side. Grayscale mountain landscape vinyl graphics tie all the elements together.
The Vehicles
The platform for this adventure vehicle build is a 2019 Ford F350 Platinum Super Duty 4×4 crew-cab short-bed truck. With single rear wheels and carrying a big truck camper, Hellwig sway bars and air springs are required to keep the truck handling right across all types of terrain.
Top-of-the-line Icon Vehicle Dynamics suspension ensures that the ride is smooth no matter how rough the trail becomes. This Super Duty has also been upgraded with Raceline Wheels, Maxxis off-road tires, KC lights, and a WARN winch and bumper. Those upgrades are the big ones, but there is a full host of smaller upgrades: Troklift, Sherptek, Scoshe, Maglite, Malo’o Rack, Yakima, and others.
Behind the truck is a wrapped-to-match 2019 Yamaha YXZ1000R side-by-side on a small utility trailer. This little off-road go-fast rig is the perfect runabout once you’ve set up camp with the big rig.
The Truck Camper
The Altimeter project vehicle sports the largest short-bed truck camper Lance offers. The 855s Lance Camper offers big features in a relatively compact camper.
Highlights include a big slide-out dinette, large wet bathroom, and a queen-size cab-over bed. The slide-out truly opens up the interior to easily accommodate up to four adults. It has seating for four and sleeping for four, with the large dinette that converts to a bed.
Expect all the creature comforts of home in this truck camper. Think hot water, AC, and heat. Lance also set up this rig to stay off the grid for extended periods of time. Big water and holding tanks combined with a large Battleborn lithium-ion battery system make off-grid camping on longer adventures possible.
The Lance 855s starts at about $40,000. The dry weight of this slide-in truck camper is about 3,000 pounds.
Promo Video
The Lance Altimeter video starts off with a really cheesy snowboarding segment — but it does get better from there. Above all, it gives you a bit of an idea of the lifestyle this type of truck camper RV can provide.
Surprisingly, Lance chose not to showcase much of the full-featured kitchen, massive interior seating area, and full bathroom in the video. All of those things are the real draws to a big truck camper like the Lance 855s.
Pay to Play
The F350 Super Duty Ford will set you back more than $65,000, plus upgrades. And the Lance 855s starts at $40,000 before options.
That means that you’ll be well over $100,000 into a home on wheels like this before hitting the open road. That big number doesn’t even include the $26,000-plus for the Yamaha side-by-side, trailer, and associated upgrades.
Hit the Road Less Traveled
This project started with the basic idea of Lance wanting to show the versatility and capability of the truck camper. The brand succeeds in its “adventure no matter the altitude” ethos by offering a fun, well-equipped home on wheels ready for adventures off the beaten path.
