96 F-250 diesel, campers under 2300?

Retired Dave wrote:
I have a 1996 Dodge 2500 6B Cummins, 2wd, with a manual transmission. I bought this truck new and have performed all minor and major service myself. It’s it great shape to this day.
However, a 3/4 ton truck has limitations. My GVWR is 8800 lbs with the front axle at 4400 lbs and the rear axle at 6084 lbs. My truck weighs 6453 lbs full of fuel with me in it on the landfill scale. Wife says I can’t weigh with her in it!
I bought a brand new Northstar 8.5 Adventurer in 2012 very nicely optioned. On the same landfill scale the truck/camper combination weighs 8789 lbs. This weight includes two full 20 lb propane bottles, full cassette flush tank, two group 27 Lifeline batteries, tie downs, etc. However, my 20 gallon water tank, grey water tank, black tank for the cassette, and hot water tank were completely empty. And, I had no supplies or food on board.
My point is I’m barely below my GVWR but that works for me because I travel very light.

Your truck has a Dana 80 rear end. It’s the same one the one ton duallies used (except it’s 2” narrower) and it’s the same one that Ford was putting under the F450 at the time.
It’s rated at 11,000 pounds.
Your limit is your tires, not the truck. Put heavier duty wheels and tires on it and it’s physically the same hardware as one that had a higher number on the door sticker.

And as mentioned earlier, factory gvwr stickers are not legal max numbers. If you are a worried about that take the sticker off.

There’s a huge misconception around here that 2500 and 3500 trucks are way more different than they really are, and that those payload sticker numbers are engineering limits on al the components. They aren’t, the most glaring example is the late model F350 and F450. Same GVWR. The F450 actually has a LOWER payload “rating”.
Some lost sounds even buy F350s rather than F450s, just because they think they’re doing the right thing to be safer with a heavy camper.