1996 Ford F250 camper- Long post...

Good morning all. This post is to make a few observations and ask a few questions that I think a lot of folks could benefit from. I have read everything I can here and appreciate the thoughts and experiences of all. Mostly all. Please do not preach.

My current rig:
1996 Ford F250 7.3L Powerstroke diesel, crew cab, 4wd with the weird Ford "short bed" which is 7 feet. I have Supersprings added onto my leaf springs. These are the only mod I've done for the suspension. Happi-Jac tie downs.

2006 Northstar 850SC, rear bumper, AC, roof racks, 100W solar panel attached to the racks, roof ladder, 1 group 29 battery, full bath, electric jacks and camper is always loaded with gear ready to load up up and pull out. Camper is made for SB with storage boxes and lights. It fits perfect on the 7 foot bed. 8 1/2 feet long and 7 feet wide.

The truck settles 2 1/2 inches on the driver's side and 2 3/8 inches on the passenger's side when loaded. The truck handles this great. No sway, etc.

So.... here are the numbers:
Sticker:
8800 gvwr
4600 front axle rating
6084 rear axle rating (btw these are the numbers on the recommended tires, hmmm)

truck with it's normal load of stuff including fuel and my fat ass but no camper:
7084 gross
4240 front
2840 rear

This means that, by the sticker, I only have 1716# to max GVWR but 3244 to rear axle rating. Hmmm... Did I mention I have used this set up (towing a 20 foot bassboat frequently) with out an issue and the rear only dips 2.5 inches?

Weight with the camper:
9840 gross....1040 over
4220 front... pretty good COG if you think about the front being 20# lighter with the camper on.
5620 rear which is 464 below max axle rating. That would be closer with the boat.

This means my camper weight as loaded is 2760 dry. Granted I have pots and pans, food, microwave, clothes, etc but that weight surprised me a little for a soft side. Hard sides weigh in the same area.

I am looking for a different camper this winter. No I am not buying a new truck. This truck has 600,000 miles left on her. I want a hard side camper. I'm a common sense kind of guy as opposed to a strict sticker guy so I asked my son about the weight ratings. He is a school trained diesel mechanic and he asked his mentors. The question: How much over the stated rating is the true failure weight? We know these things are rated way under for liability concerns. Their answer: "You will never reach that weight. The tires will wear a little faster at some point above the rating but no catastrophic failure. The axles? Never" Not with out flattening the truck.

So let's look for better tires and wheels. 19.5 right? They do not make them to fit this style Ford. At least I can not find them on line nor can my tire shop. He can find me an E rated tire with a 3400# rating as compared to the typical 3042. He also said the tires will not fail me even over weight. My current weight is 464 under and this 800 extra would give me 1264# of cushion tire wise currently. Cool.

So campers. Before I weighed it and talked to my son and the tire guy I had been looking strictly at 8 1/2 footers to stay fairly close to the current weight. Now I am thinking maybe a 9 or 9 1/2 footer. Maybe even a 10 footer. The COG is pretty much a hard line for me though. There are several Lances (915 and a 1025) with the same COG as my 850 so I know weight distribution should be basically the same. The posted weights for a 10'3" Lance 1025 is 2370 dry and basic w/o options. Adding 800 # for the options and my stuff is only 430# more than my 8 1/2 footer.

So my thoughts are.... An extra 430# or even 1000# should be fine. I may at that point add Stable Loads though. Keeping in mind the COG for handling. I compared my truck to the same year F350.That F350 has a GVWR of only 400# more. That's ridiculous.

My questions:
Who here has a similar truck and ratings and a larger camper? Considering all of the weight arguments someone has to.
What are they?
What are your numbers?
What are your experiences and thoughts about your set up?
Did you do anything extra for suspension mods after buying a larger camper?

Truck Campers

burningman
Explorer II
Nov 18, 2016
That rear axle is a 10.25 Sterling. No junkyard hunting for something else is needed, it's extremely stout.
Your truck is not gonna break.
VTLee
Explorer
Nov 18, 2016
I have a 97 F250 with the factory camper package that we bought new. We have a 9.5ft. Sunline camper that weighs 2400 dry, probably over 3000 wet. I just added upper stableloads as the factory rubber stops were getting worn. We only use the truck for camping and have 160K miles on it. The truck rides better and handles just as well with the camper on than with it off. Stay around 3000 to 3500 lbs. and you should be ok. You might want to add the upper stableloads as I experienced an improvement with them. It took some of the bounce out.
JoeChiOhki
Explorer II
Nov 18, 2016
bigfootford wrote:
JoeChiOhki wrote:
Might be worth doing a little junkyard diving like I did for a higher rated rear axle to give you a little extra wiggle room, it'll extend the service life of your bearings and their races. The added bonus of larger brakes didn't hurt either.

On the campers, the newer they are, the heavier they tend to be because of the extra features, filon (Its very heavy), slides etc....

Anything longer than the specialized short box 9' units is going to have too much overhang with a short bed truck.

When you get up towards the 9 1/2 - 10 ft range, you can safely plan on a dry weight of around 3000-3200lbs or somewhat close there in, and around 4000-4200 fully decked out with all your gear, full tanks etc....

The rear Axle rating for F250 around those years is:

Visteon web site it states 9750 lbs

The rear axle rating is limited on the SRW by the tire rating,
if you have 235/85 R16E's you have 3042 lbs x 2 = 6084
265/85 R16E's are 3415 x 2 = 6830
the dually tires would be 2778 x 4 = 11,112

The rating of the actual axle is 9750 lbs.

So there is quite a bit of margin for the actual axle itself..

Jim

Those Fords had a much bigger axle, my 3/4 ton had a D60 on it originally that I replaced with a D70HD off a motorhome chassis.
Artum_Snowbird
Explorer
Nov 17, 2016
As one with a F350, same engine... questions: With the 7 foot box, how much did that shorten the wheelbase compared to an 8 foot box? The point of this is, camper center of gravity and how that will affect your handling.

When I bought my 350 the previous owner had a 9.5 Bigfoot on it with airbags. He found it so stiff, he took the overload springs out and made it into a 250. I put a 4500 pound loaded camper on it with the overload springs back in and it just engaged the overload but I also added 19.5's too.

So your situation, you will want to try to find a camper with weight forward in it's construction. Often the fixed things like stoves and tables don't accumulate weight while travelling, but cupboards and fridges do. A wide camper at 100 inches doesn't need to be as long to have the same inside feeling as a camper that is only 90 inches wide.

Some good real information in the answers, but do not overdo it or it just won't feel easy to drive.
bigfootford
Nomad II
Nov 17, 2016
JoeChiOhki wrote:
Might be worth doing a little junkyard diving like I did for a higher rated rear axle to give you a little extra wiggle room, it'll extend the service life of your bearings and their races. The added bonus of larger brakes didn't hurt either.

On the campers, the newer they are, the heavier they tend to be because of the extra features, filon (Its very heavy), slides etc....

Anything longer than the specialized short box 9' units is going to have too much overhang with a short bed truck.

When you get up towards the 9 1/2 - 10 ft range, you can safely plan on a dry weight of around 3000-3200lbs or somewhat close there in, and around 4000-4200 fully decked out with all your gear, full tanks etc....

The rear Axle rating for F250 around those years is:

Visteon web site it states 9750 lbs

The rear axle rating is limited on the SRW by the tire rating,
if you have 235/85 R16E's you have 3042 lbs x 2 = 6084
265/85 R16E's are 3415 x 2 = 6830
the dually tires would be 2778 x 4 = 11,112

The rating of the actual axle is 9750 lbs.

So there is quite a bit of margin for the actual axle itself..

Jim
james65450
Explorer
Nov 17, 2016
I would not worry too much on that weight. For the 1996 F250 and F350 there were very few differences. The F350 had a Dana 60 front axle and the F250 have the Dana 50. The F250 actually has stiffer front springs. The other difference was the brakes. The F350 had hydraboost brakes where the F250 has vacuum assist.

I have a 1997 F250hd with a Vanguard 9.6 hard side. I don't know how much it weighs but ready to camp it only squats about 1.5 inches.

Sounds like your rear springs maybe a little weak. I would upgrade the rear springs or go with airbags.
JoeChiOhki
Explorer II
Nov 17, 2016
Might be worth doing a little junkyard diving like I did for a higher rated rear axle to give you a little extra wiggle room, it'll extend the service life of your bearings and their races. The added bonus of larger brakes didn't hurt either.

On the campers, the newer they are, the heavier they tend to be because of the extra features, filon (Its very heavy), slides etc....

Anything longer than the specialized short box 9' units is going to have too much overhang with a short bed truck.

When you get up towards the 9 1/2 - 10 ft range, you can safely plan on a dry weight of around 3000-3200lbs or somewhat close there in, and around 4000-4200 fully decked out with all your gear, full tanks etc....
bigfootford
Nomad II
Nov 17, 2016
I have a 94 f250 super cab 460 2wd... I put 19.5's on it... Vision rims.. So I do not see why you can not do the same.

Our weight with our LOADED 9.6 bigfoot camper and without is:

Unloaded:

F 3160
R 2680

Loaded:

F 3400 Dif: 240

R 6550 Diff 3870

19.5 tire spec 4500 x 2= 9000 lbs. My weight margin is over 2000 lbs for the rear.

To put 19.5's on the front you have to do a little removal of the front bumper for the tire to clear.

I have only Air bags on the rear. Running 40lbs each.

Almost 200,000 traveling with this camper on 2 ford f250 super cabs... 89 and 94.

My brakes work just fine with the camper on... Even towing 2000 lb trailer or towing a 2000 lb toad.. Samurai or 69 VW baja

Jim
jimh406
Explorer III
Nov 17, 2016
I don't know what you mean by similar truck, but I drove a SRW for over 8 years with a 9 1/2. If you are at the max axle rating, consider an axle upgrade which could also give you the possibility to go to 19.5s on the rear with more modern brakes. You might also be able to pickup a spring upgrade while you are at it.
jmtandem
Explorer II
Nov 17, 2016
What are your experiences and thoughts about your set up?
Did you do anything extra for suspension mods after buying a larger camper?

No preaching here, but you asked! When I purchased a 3500 dually Ram and put an 11 foot cabover on it I needed overload suspension bumpers and air bags to have 'just right' handling and I am picky about how it handles in the mountains and especially on roads with tight curves. Both the overload spring bumpers and the air bags worked. No comment on how much you might go over gross but for me 1000 pounds on a 12,200 pound gross vehicle weight truck would be near my comfort zone max since the brakes of the truck must stop the entire truck and cabover in deference to a fifth wheel or travel trailer that has it's own brakes.

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