Hauling a heavy camper and towing
We are working on leaving the 5th wheel business and entering the truck camper side. We have hit the lower 48 and parts of Canada. We are looking to spend the next 10 years, more in the boonies, plu...
Forum Discussion
Hemi Joel wrote:
You will love the 1165! I enjoy the comfort SO much, but it is a big, tall heavy lunker.
I have mine on a 93 dodge D350. I have a dana 80 rear axle swapped in with larger brakes, and extra leaves in the springs, plus air bags, Rancho 9000 shocks, and home made stable loads. The trans is beefed up, better tork converter, the motor has a bigger turbo, high capacity injectors, and 4" exhaust. It does very well, with just the camper, or with my 28 foot box trailer, except at high altitudes. Over about 3500 elevation, it runs out of power for upgrades into strong head winds. I think it needs more turbo. Maybe compounds.
I had the trailer built with a long tongue so I don't need a hitch extender, and use a weight distributing hitch. That transfers some of the tongue weight onto the front wheels. I don't do 10% tongue weight. I move the vehicle in the trailer to get about 400 to 500 lbs. on the tongue, and it works better.
You're not the only one with an older truck towing with a monster TC. I bet yours is heavier though being a triple slide. Mine is a single slide Lance 1131 and claims to be around 4700#. I absolutely love it.
Truck has bags, a Superhitch, Superhitch frame mounted tie downs, 4' hitch extension, and 454 with a Whipple blower. I've been nothing short of amazed at this old truck's capability out of the box and how it chugs in OD with such minimal mods. Here in CO at 6000' it only makes about 4# of boost but it gets it done. Being a crew cab it got the thickest frame of the GMT400 generation at 5/16". Based on my experience with this truck, I wouldn't hesitate to haul this way with any newer diesel truck as they're all beefier than what I have.
