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

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The numbers you quoted don't work, let alone real world.
Lets pretend you could load camper with gear and liquids and stay under 4500#, you and co-pilot weigh less than 296# and you have not so much as a map inside cab-still 1500# over, minimum.
Thats a lot of pretending. I cannot imagine the salesman had clue to the weight your thinking about to not recommend DRW (sure dont want to drive into lot with it loaded expecting any warranty work.)

Maybe your 'friend' would let you drive his setup around the block,
if you want to go that route of making it work and what you'd end up with-but Im in agreement-camper way to big, truck too small- one needs to change. If this is a long term pursuit Id change truck.

“The ford dealer told me I didn’t need a...” lol

You are over 400 pounds dry on the TC alone and want to pull a trailer for toys....and your question is?

Depends on where you are hauling the unit to. Short trip to the local lake, no problem. Plans for over the road travel, you better swap for a dually.

I drive a 2016 F-350 6.7 diesel SRW. I loaded the Palomino TC on and about everything I thought I might need for a trip to Alaska for the summer. I stopped by the CAT scales and saw I was severely overloaded, GVWR and rear axle rating. My TC has a dry weight of 3000#. Actual weight loaded for Alaska, the TC weighed in at 5850#. Surprise, surprise.

I went home and started unloading STUFF. Went back to scales and then back home to unload some more stuff. All water tanks were empty for we left in cold weather from the northeast. All the weight was STUFF I thought I might need.

Ended up taking the trip to Alaska from Maine and back with STUFF that I needed only. Never missed anything and had a wonderful time not worrying about being over loaded or not having the STUFF I left at home.

I really believe the Lance is too much camper for your SRW F-350 for any long over the road trips. Keep the Lance, but swap for a dully. Keep the SRW, but buy a smaller TC.

You asked for experienced comments. I shared with you mine. Good luck and keep us posted on your decisions.

Lakeside

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

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

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

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.