emcvay wrote:
My thoughts...
Lots of talk about weights and what a truck will do and what they are rated at. This is an actual cat scale ticket for our 2010 F350 SRW Power Stroke 6.4l 4x4 long box crew cab and ArcticFox 990 ready to go camping with my wife and I both in the truck.
I could have dropped the BBQ since we didn't use it (and I figured we weren't going to) and a tool box I brought along that I didn't need but wanted, but I didn't.
So, here's the skinny: this truck is rated at 11,500lbs, weighs in at ~7900lbs without the tailgate and the camper says it weighs 3600lbs wet (ya, no). Capacity is theoretically 3600lbs (11.5k minus the truck). But you have to take into consideration things like food, cloths, personal items, yourself, your wife etc etc etc
Therefore, if what the sticker tells you is what you want to go by than you must get a DRW and move on. Best for payload would be a gas powered standard cab, 2WD dually.
However, if you do any research you will learn that the rear end is not rated by the manufacturer the same as Ford (Visteon says 9750lbs vs Ford's 7000lbs) which might cause someone to ponder why that is? If you continue on this path you'll learn Ford rates based on the axle, springs, shocks, tires and wheels etc and as such they rate to the 'lowest common denominator'. Makes sense really; you build a truck and rate it that way to prevent being sued. Sure the axle can take a lot more weight but you don't want to be sued if someone doesn't understand your payload rating if you say "this much if, and that much if and that much more IF" etc.
If you choose to think that way, setting aside all legal arguments, than a set of tires, perhaps wheels, springs or suspension upgrades etc and the SRW will handle the camper fine.
Some will claim brakes are the weak point but I don't buy that at all since the truck is rated to TOW 12,500lbs (with trailer brake) and 3500lbs without (so it stands to reason the brakes are designed to stop at least 15,000lbs).
And no one has ever actually produced an actual legal case in which someone was sued for being in an accident with an overweight SRW.
I am not advocating doing anything illegal nor am I saying you can get away with doing what I am doing or that it is safe or anything else (legal disclaimer here: I am not giving advise that you can use in court, I am only telling you what I believe).
What I'm saying is that there are some who will NEVER agree that you can go over the sticker no matter WHAT you do (I once posed this thought: if I removed the box and replaced it with a dually box and put in a dually rear end, breaks, shocks, springs etc, thereby making my truck a dually wouldn't that work and was told "no, the sticker still says"....to which I concluded there was no point with some people.
In my case we have Rancho 9000's, Stable Loads upper and lower, Firestone air bags, Hellwig Bigwig sway bar and Toyo Open Country RT's rated at 4080lbs per tire. The truck handles the big camper very well and we've put about 3000 miles on it so far.
Our travels have taken us all over with this setup (some without the Rancho's and Hellwig if you read the forums much) -- ignore the numbers and nights as these aren't accurate, it's just how I put the map together to show where we've been :D
Cheers and good luck with your decision but if I had to do it again I would probably have picked a dually myself. Even though I feel safe and fine as is and prefer an SRW for offroad use in the winter specially, I would still feel better with 4 tires on the back than two. But each to our own I say.
Looks to be squatting in the back end a bit.....
