Help me choose a slide out Truck Camper!

burningman wrote:
In certain model years, the F450 had a Dana 60 front axle and a Dana 80 rear.
Guess what a '97 Dodge 3500 has? Same thing.
The new trucks are not physically larger. Any stability improvement is a function of the springs, shocks and sway bars. There is no other black magic in the current trucks.
If he puts big springs, good shocks, and a big bar on that Dodge, it will haul that camper. And being a 12-Valve Cummins with zero electronics, it will keep doing it longer than any other. There are very good reasons people hang onto those trucks.
If you want bigger brakes, you don't have to buy a $70,000 new truck. The later and larger discs will bolt into that truck, people do it all the time. But the truth is the original ones in good shape and an exhaust brake will do the job fine.

My '97 Dodge 3500 dually being a 5 speed came with the Dana 80 rear & D 60 front yes.

From what I understand the automatic trans came with the D 70 rear.

But I wanted a stick vs the Automatic being I've seen a few F350's pulling heavy trailers & they started spitting all the tranny fluid out leaving you stuck!

I even drove a motor home with a Ford drive train spitting the trans fluid out on a steep hill & started a fire I fortunately was able to put out with only a slight burn on my arm.

So I figured a manual trans was a better option & then I learned it was factory matched with a D 80.

I do have the largest rear sway bar I could buy as a direct bolt on.
Air bags & stable loads & shocks with helper coils over them.

& was considering the upper stable loads as well.