We have a 2005 HOST 9.5 Rainier camper on a 1999 F350 Superduty crew cab.
Host Camper says "lightest in it's class". ha.
Truck says "Ford Tough"... it is but not tough enough.
Took a 5,000 mile trip from the NW down to CA and up to Yosemite.. back down and up to Kings Canyon... back down and then way down to Death Valley... across Texas, then Michigan, eventually to Bismarck ND and then back to the NW.
Blew a tranny seal going up to Yosemite. Kinda fixed it and put an additional transmission cooler (in series) at the top of hwy 120 in Big Oak Flat, CA. And a completely new transmission in it when we got to Madera, CA.
Started out with brand new 16.5 E rated Big O tires. Blew out two of those.
Finally decided we better weigh our rig... In Bismarck ND.
Put on a pair of (rear only) 19.5 245/70R19.5 G 133/131 556040
Toyo M608Z with vision wheels but kept the 16.5 's on the front until we could afford G's there too. (we are 2 wheel drive). (there was a serious wait for those vision wheels we were lucky to get two.)
We were sagging a bit in Illinois... needed to repair the bracket holding the air bags and install additional leafs on our springs. Put on beefier air shocks too... Air bags were never meant to HOLD THE WEIGHT of the camper. they are only there to keep the camper from swaying too much...
That was in 2012. We came back and kinda just parked the truck. We went on a similar 5,000 mile trip in 2014 with new G tires on the front... but we went with a less stiff tire. I don't remember what it was. Got it from Les Swab here in the NW. It drove just fine. We had to put in a new heater core in Grand Junction, CO.
July 2012 – weighed in Bismarck
Driver (Left) Passenger (Right) Total Axle
Front 1,880 lbs Front 2,220 lbs Total Front 4,100 lbs
Rear 3,880 lbs Rear 4,040 lbs Total Rear 7,920 lbs
Total (Left) 5,760 lbs Total(Right) 6,260 lbs Total TC 12,020 lbs
So my truck (with the camper) weighs 12,020 lbs
That's with 3/4 tank of fuel ( Holds 38 gals appx)
and with 30 gals of fresh water on board. (Empty gray/black tanks).
***********************
Truck GAWR 4280 lbs
Truck Rear GAWR 6210 lbs
GWR 9900 lbs
and here is the 2012 post.. all 21 pages of it.
2012 Tire Saga
