Do I REALLY need a dually?

I've been driving dully's for many years now and do not have problems with parking spaces. But, I do have to plan it out a little, and make compromises. Unlike the family beetle VolksWagon, you can't park everywhere. Airport parking garages are one example. But parking on the ground is no problem.

My dully has never prevented me from going anywhere. But, I do have be a bit creative when parking, and willing to walk a little.

However, if you have a truck camper on the back of your truck, regardless dully or not, you'll never be parking in a high-rise parking garage anyway.

Edit:

Snow: I live in Central Indiana. We get snow. Not 6 feet at one time, but we still get it. Pop the truck into 4x4 and snow is no problem. Actually, because we live in the country, our car is too low to the ground to go through some of the snow we get sometimes. We use the truck almost exclusive when it snows because the drifts and such get so deep, the car would never make it. The truck is our life life in the winter! ... yes... all 6 tires and 4x4.

Flatbed Fred wrote:
I realize a dually will provide more stability ... but do I really NEED one?

It depends on the size/weight of the camper you want/get.

Find the camper that suits you, then get a truck to match.

Ask yourself why would you buy something that be marginal, spend money on modifications to still not be totally happy with it.
I am using my dually for carrying my 30 lb toolbox to small jobs. 6l diesel makes 16 mpg on highway at 70mph, v/s 14 mpg F3250 with 7.3 was making, so how much cheaper would be driving SRW?

Flatbed Fred wrote:
I don't plan to buy a camper with a slide out.
This will be my first camper and I want to keep things as simple as possible without going TOO small.

Things will not be if you get a truck needing a lot of modifications to haul the TC. That is not to say you will not need to modify a Duelly, but less likely.

Flatbed Fred wrote:
I realize a dually will provide more stability ... but do I really NEED one?

After several mods, I was comfortable with my SRW with my 4200 pound TC. That varies from one person to the next.

Flatbed Fred wrote:
I plan to drive all year for two years which will include Winter Camping. Those hips make parking more difficult and I'm not sure if they help or not in sand, mud, and snow. (I suppose they would...)

The "Hips" are the same with as most full size TCs with or without a slide.

I have read lots of arguments on duals on sand, mud, and snow. It has been years since I have had a dually, so I won't post on my experience with sand, mud, and snow.

Flatbed Fred wrote:
Then, there's the extra cost of tires Vs. the added safety should one rear tire blow while driving.

The cost of tires depends on the size of the TC in my opinion. My 4 19.5s on my SRW truck cost a little more than the 6 17" tires on my dually. This is ignoring the cost of my 19.5 wheels.

It could be argued there is more safety should one rear tire blow while driving. Personally, I have not had a blowout in over 40 years. Could happen though.

Flatbed Fred wrote:
So the heart of the question is...
Given I will not be hauling the heaviest camper, and I will not have a slide-out... do I really need a dually truck?

I really doubt you can answer that question until you get your TC. My next thought is are you willing to make mods on your truck to haul the TC. Only you know your comfort level in how your Truck/TC handles.

Like jimh425, I have hauled my TC on a SRW for many years (over 10). I put over 100,000 miles in various road conditions. I recently purchased a 4x4 DRW truck. I do not need 4x4 or DRW. Fact is, I do not need another truck. My new to me truck is very comfortable, relatively low miles with lots of small extras and with a price that allowed me to pay cash. Hopefully, I will not to do much in suspension upgrades. Time will tell.

Wayne

Actually in 2016, the F450 has LESS payload capacity than the F350 DRW. As per the Ford official brochure.

I guess that you will need to look at some campers and decide on the model that you want to buy. Then check the weight of the camper.

You mention living in it full time for a year. That means that you will need to take everything you will want with you for a year. That can mean 1,000 pounds of cargo in the truck, things like bicycles, clothes, cooking stuff, food for a week or so. Are you going to get a generator so that you can dry camp or run solar panels so you can dry camp silently? If you are moving around every 2-3 days, then the alternator will keep the battery full, but if you will be parking for a week at a time, then 200 watts of solar panels will help out, you will not need more than 1 battery (keeping weight down) and still have plenty of power to use in the daytime, with a full battery every night for use then.

SunElec.com had a 140 watt 12 volt panel on sale with a frame for only $229 a few weeks back. Add a 20 amp PWM controller, a couple of brackets, and some wire from Home Depot, you will have a decent solar system. The RV will consume 35 AH daily just to run the CO detector, propane leak detector, and refrigerator. This is about what one of my 120 watt solar panels will collect in 1 day.

As for extra tire cost, the skinny dually tires are a little less expensive to purchase, but will last many more miles as they carry less weight per tire. Usually the tire cost is not a issue with a dually owner. It has more to do with weight capacity.

Say you find a perfectly good camper layout and the overall weight is only 2,200 pounds. It probably will not have a refrigerator though. A SRW 3500 probably has 3,000 pounds of cargo rating, and will carry it, you and your stuff.

But a slightly larger camper with a refrigerator might be in the 2,500 or 2,700 pound range. How much water will you carry? That makes a huge difference too. I carry 100 gallons of fresh water in my 97 Bounder, and can dry camp 3 weeks at a time, taking daily showers. I save a huge amount on camping fees because I have 400 watts of solar power, and can watch TV with my direct TV antenna all day and night if I wanted to. Then spend 1 night in a campground where I can dump, recharge, and fill that fresh water tank again (800 pounds).

No I did not get 'great' mileage. I would get 7 MPG at 65 MPH, or 8 MPG once I switched to 91 octane, and slowed down to 55 MPH.

If you plan on living in it a year, you might also consider a smaller class C motorhome. They will have a full size shower, bed, larger refrigerator, and normally will come with a generator. This will all make living in it much more comfortable.

Check with your insurance agent. Insurance on a RV is probably pretty cheap, as they 'expect' them to not have many miles per year, and overall are pretty low cost as far as accidents are concerned. If you will be staying parked for a long time, say in a RV park for 4-6 weeks, you can also call the agent, tell them to stop the liability part of the insurance until you are traveling again.

So back to the truck. in 2004, the F-350 dually had about 12,000 GVWR, and could carry around 4,000 pounds. The 2004 F-350 was 9,900 GVWR, and could carry only about 1,500 pounds in a 4X4 diesel crewcab version, as the base curb weight was well over 7,800 pounds! In 2005, that improved a LOT. Ford went to 18" rims for the SRW and 17" for the dually, with much larger brakes. Now it is 14,000 pounds GVWR for the dually, and 11,500 for the diesel crewcab SRW. So you can carry around 4,000 pounds in a SRW after 2005. However I would not recommend the 2005 - 2010 Ford diesel to anyone. The V10 made lots of power, but mileage was not all that great, perhaps 10 MPG. And the gas version was much lighter curb weight.

So check the GVWR of the trucks that you are looking at. Check the curb weight too. This is the main factor that will decide dually or not. If you have a F-450 pickup, it will carry any camper that you desire, and still have the ability to tow another trailer with a 1,000 pound hitch weight. If you select a SRW with 3,800 pounds cargo rating, and decide that you want to tow a horse trailer, you might need to upgrade! But if you keep it light, you should be fine with just a camper and all your stuff inside.

Good luck,

Fred.

Those that have them will say an astonishing YES and those that don't will say it is up to you haha...

I would look into the possible future purchases down the road...

I like to follow MELLO MIKE from AZ who lives truck campers in the wild OFF-ROAD places...

I've always wanted to have one for my style of camping but the loss of precious storage places sort rules them out for me... I carry some serious supplies with my OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer with its 5x8 front deck with side rails and my truck super cab rear seat and bed area...

I would have to pull a small utility trailer behind my truck camper and probably would want to bring along a Wrangler Jeep as well...

I know how i would end up with me driving the truck Camper pulling a closed utility trailer and the wife would be following along driving the Jeep pulling another open type trailer...

Roy Ken

I would be comfortable with a camper weighing 2500-3000 lbs (dry weight) on a new SRW 350/3500 series truck. I would make sure my tires had the load rating to support that weight also.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.......I like the dually option for all of the above.....NO you don't need it.....But there are some advantages too.....Murphy's law seems to happen more than not....
Good Luck on whichever way you decide.....

Go pick out the camper then pick the truck. The problem is you may find a camper that is bigger than you planned. Btw, not all campers with slides are heavier than nonslide models. Obviously, lots of people have SRW trucks. I carried my same TC with a SRW for 8 years. I switched because I no longer needed a SRW. There are benefits and disadvantages of a SRW and a DRW.