Shipping a camper that is not on a truck: how m&a delivery works and the per mile math past 1,000

Jul 11, 2025 · 8:40 PM#1

first camper, so be nice. i have a 2016 F-250 SuperCab, 8 foot bed, the 6.2 gas. payload sticker says 3,120. i have been reading the buying board for a month and i am close to bidding on something.

the one i am watching is a 2020 nuCamp Cirrus 920 on the m&a listing, camper only, sitting at a lender yard outside Nashville. about 2,100 dry from what Cirrus says, which my truck can carry.

the problem is Nashville to Spokane. google says 2,050 miles. 1,000 miles ship free and every mile past that is 70 cents, so i get 1,050 times .70 = 735 dollars. is that how it actually works, or is there something else that shows up on the invoice? and does the 70 cents go by the road miles or the straight line on a map? straight line would be a lot less.

Jul 12, 2025 · 8:15 AM#2

mine came in under 1,000 so i never paid a mile, but the invoice showed the road miles anyway. M and A ran it off their own routing from the yard to my address, not a straight line, and the number was within 10 miles of what google gave me. it was a line on the invoice before i wired anything, so there was no surprise after.

a camper with no truck goes on a flatbed. mine was a hotshot with a gooseneck. the whole story is in my Northern Lite thread. the short version is be home when it shows up, and have a plan for where it sits on its jacks.

Jul 13, 2025 · 10:30 AM#3

do the other math too. you go get it yourself, that is 4,100 miles round trip in a 6.2 F-250. call it 12 mpg empty and less coming home loaded, so 350 gallons at 4 something a gallon, plus five or six nights of motels, plus a week off work. 735 to have somebody else do it is cheap. i would pay it and stay home.

Jul 16, 2025 · 7:45 PM#4

a 920 is a good first camper for that truck. you will want frame-mounted tie-downs on the F-250 before it gets there, and on a Cirrus the tie-down points sit in a different spot from a Lance, so measure from the camper once it shows up before you drill or order anything. if you end up with a camper on its jacks in your driveway and no tie-downs yet, Sandpoint is only about 75 miles from you.

Jul 24, 2025 · 9:00 PM#5

called the office instead of emailing. talked to a lady in Independence for maybe ten minutes. what i got:

the per mile is road miles off their routing, and it is printed on the invoice before you pay. figure around 14 days to the door in the US. i asked about Canada because we are 110 miles from the border and she said about 22 days up there. the 30 day money back applies if what shows up was materially misrepresented in the listing, so if the listing says no water damage and the floor is soft, that counts. if i just do not like the color, it does not.

put in 33,400 on the 920 last night. sealed, so now i wait and do not know anything until the email comes.

Sep 4, 2025 · 7:30 PM#6

did not get it. the m&a auction email said it went to another bidder, and like bend_or_camper said in his thread, you never see the winning number. lost by 50 bucks or by 5,000, no way of telling. kind of annoying.

the shipping math was the useful part anyway. next time i will know the delivery line before i bid instead of after. watching a couple of camper-only lots after labor day. if one gets close to Spokane, under 1,000 miles, i am going to bid more than i want to.