I’m looking for real world experience. I just bought a 2017 srw 6.7 F350 diesel. A local guy has a 2003 lance 1171 with one slide I would like to buy. It’s 3700 lb dry weight. If it’s not glaringly obvious, I’ve never owned a truck camper. I keep finding conflicting info. The guy with the camper has used a 2008 6.4 diesel F350 to haul this camper. He has airbags, frame mounted tie downs etc. he says it can easily handle the load.My new truck is rated 11500 gvwr. I weighed it at a DOT scale at 8380lbs. The sticker inside my door panel says 3296lbs as max passenger and cargo load.Am I asking for more trouble than it’s worth, especially if I’d like to tow a trailer with a couple four wheelers on it? The ford dealer told me I didn’t need a duelly but now I’m wondering.Thanks for any insight you can provide.Cheers!Terry

I think you are asking for disaster. 1171 is the same size what 1161 I carry and the "wet weight" in my case is over 6000lb. To add to the trouble, the COG comes behind rear axle even I observe the heavy items loaded up front. Meaning you can expect adding in 6500-7000lb to the rear axle. Now go and check what are your ratings.

Dually for that beast. I have a 1055 with a door sticker of 3700. I run down the road at closer to 4500. On an SRW you can do it but not with stock tires and wheels. You will need 19.5 commercial wheels and tires (245/70R19.5 at a minimum) and beefed up suspension component. I ran that way for years. Nowadays I use a dually and it drives oh so much better with that load in the bed than my beefed up F350 SRW ever did

Taphillip wrote:I’m looking for real world experience. I just bought a 2017 srw 6.7 F350 diesel. A local guy has a 2003 lance 1171 with one slide I would like to buy. It’s 3700 lb dry weight. My new truck is rated 11500 gvwr. I weighed it at a DOT scale at 8380lbs. The sticker inside my door panel says 3296# as max passenger and cargo load.Am I asking for more trouble than it’s worth, especially if I’d like to tow a trailer with a couple four wheelers on it? The ford dealer told me I didn’t need a duelly but now I’m wondering.Thanks for any insight you can provide.Here’s a few items that come to mind. . .1.) You can forget about the “big Lance” on that little truck, however, if your F350 is a short-bed there are some really nice ‘smaller’ campers that can be put on it that are well within your payload.A Northstar Liberty comes to mind.2.) I found the following statement to be unpopular but VERY frequently true:Pretty much ALL truck campers are overloaded, it’s just that the dually trucks are slightly over loaded while the single rear wheel trucks are dangerously over loaded.3.) Sticker shock:Campers always weigh more that they really weigh.The VIN sticker on my camper says 2950 pounds but when loaded on my truck my local CAT Scale shows that it’s a LOT closer to 4000 Pounds! Just saying.4.) Whatever you decide my advice is to not go over your tire’s ratings, and (to stay out of jail) register your truck for what it actually weighs, not what someone else told you it weighs.The scale ticket below shows my “little” Arrow-U camper on my rather anemic RAM 3500 srw truck…My truck is registered at 12,300 pounds so as you can see, I’m getting mighty close at 11,940# I’d like to tow an enclosed tandem trailer for my toys but that would be looking for trouble. Honestly… I should have bought a short-frame F550 cab-chassis but meh… live and learn.Happy shopping and welcome!Ej

I bought a 2017 F350 with camper and snow plow package, gasser, SRW two months ago. I think my max is in the 4400's. I would not attempt it with my truck.I would look at Weight limit like a North Star 9.5 Igloo, Cirrus 920, Northernlite 10'2. Keep the dry weight under 3000 lbs you will like the handling better

2003 lance 1171 and 2017 Srw f350 am I asking for trouble?

49 Replies

skipbee
Explorer
Dec 25, 2017
This my experience not opinion. We have a 2005 Lance 1121 on a 2004 F-350 diesel 4X4 SRW crew cab LB. We added 19.5" H rated wheels and tires. and have traveled 100.000 miles from coast to coast and from Key West to Alaska with no problems. Weight is around the same maybe a little heavier when fully loaded. The airbags are very helpful leveling fore and aft and side to side. Replaced the tires at 70,000. Will do a second brake rebuild shortly.
burningman
Explorer II
Dec 16, 2017
Your camper is as wide as the rear fenders of a dually and your mirrors are wider.
I think people make too much artificial drama about how much wider duallies really are.
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Dec 13, 2017
jaycocreek wrote:
For years I had a Lance myself. I always hauled it on my vintage 1997 F350 4x4 diesel long bed. It was a 915 with no slide and it was heavy. Sticker said (Lance lies like a good politician) 2950 camper weight. It actually weighed 3500 empty (water and propane). Was I heavy, sure was and I knew it in every curve and every stop sign and traffic light. Loaded up with all out stuff, food, clothes, lawn chairs, fishing poles, coleman lantern and everything my wife likes including all her pots and pans, I bet I was pushing 4500-5000 pounds and thats no slide.

I have basically, the same camper(Lance 480/9.6ft)..The sticker on mine is like 2700? and loaded ready to camp completely full of everything with the wheel wells full of extra batteries and tools,it weighs in at roughly 3700 pounds.I run it on a '94 F-350 DRW..Rides like a champ with none of the sway that pickup campers give on most of the SRW units I have had them on.

I am split for an opinion for the opp..Years ago my buddies dad had a 10ft camper on his 1966 Chevy 1500 light duty truck.He used to borrow the truck and we would cruse around. It felt like it was going to tip over on every corner..I just new my friend would role that combo sooner or later being a young dumb kid..He never did..He never broke an axle/wheel bearings/shocks or anything to my surprise and his dad took it on some nasty roads camping..Infact,Myself personally,I have never seen any pickup suffer axle/wheel bearing/springs or shock failure due to carrying a truck camper and I have had and seen some Darwin candidates for it.

So from that experience and some others,I think the opp would be okay with that setup for the most part..Like I said,I am split in my thinking on it.

We all buy truck campers for different reasons..I bought a dually,not for carrying a huge heavy TC, but for stability on the windy mountain roads I travel and to pull a trailer full of whatever I take for a lengthy stay.

You are correct, we all buy different TC's for different reasons. I went lighter this time because I run off road and I wanted a lower vertical CG and overall transport height and I wanted to loose that sweaty palm driving experience on the freeway in the wind and when passing big trucks...and I did plus a dullay would not work for me anyway, too wide to negotiate the seasonal roads I frequent. I always take a pruning saw and loppers along (plus a chainsaw just to open tight roads up with. Some of the seasonal roads I've been down are extremely tight and my camper has many scratches on it from entoaching limbs and bushes but something I knew would happen anyway. Part of how and where I camp.
Kayteg1
Explorer II
Dec 13, 2017
Some people just can't handle the numbers or can't tell the difference between tire and axle.
Pass the popcorn Flip?
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Dec 13, 2017
I have my hot buttered popcorn handy... carry on....
Grit_dog
Navigator
Dec 13, 2017
^ Youre still not getting it.
A rear gawr of 7200lbs is limited by tires and/or gvw rating, subtracting a theoretical minimum on the front axle from the class 3 srw gvw mandated Max rating.
The axle and the rest of the truck with the right springs and tires/wheels will handle around 10klbs on the rear axle. (not in factory form, but without major modifications)

Buzzcut1, I believe Ford actually has 3 different rear ends under the 250, 350 and dually now, but nonetheless both the srw models still have 10,000lb axles, so you’re correct.

Now I still would not prefer 3tons plus on a srw.....if it really weighs that much.
Kayteg1
Explorer II
Dec 13, 2017
You missed OP posting
rear GAWR of 7230 @80 psi cold
Buzzcut1
Nomad II
Dec 13, 2017
Kayteg1 wrote:
in tires safety margin?
Don't think so.

let me clarify this for you. the F350 SRW and DRW use the same axle

with the same tires on each vehicle the SRW can carry 6500 of tire load on a 10k axle the DRWs tires (derated to 2800 for the DRW) can carry 9600 on a 10k axle.. so yes there is a big difference. now you could go with 245/70R19.5 and vision wheels and get yourself 9000 pounds of tire capacity (wheel limited) on an SRW
Kayteg1
Explorer II
Dec 13, 2017
in tires safety margin?
Don't think so.
Buzzcut1
Nomad II
Dec 13, 2017
Kayteg1 wrote:
Buzzcut1 wrote:
Actually in the case with the stock tires the real world capacity is the tire rating x2 minus weight of the unladen trucks cat scale rear axle number which is going to be less than the axle rating minus the truck weight. Don't overload the tires and wheels.

The tires on my 9900 lb axle are good for 11,840lb and I've never heard about Ford putting undersized tires on their axles.

you have a dually he has an SRW big difference