New to Truck Camping

guidry wrote:
Unless you have already spent time in a truck camper you may be in for a rude awakening as to the tight space for two people. As mentioned above, rent one if you can for a trip or two before you invest in a purchase. A trailer (TT or 5th) would give you a lot more room and comfort. About the only camper I'd recommend for your truck would be a Northern Lite or similar TC. But, there are no slideouts and it will be tight in room. Good luck

:)

We never rented or even set foot in a truck camper before my wife bought our camper and truck. But she did a ton of research.

We got lucky, I guess.

Of course if we’re talking new trucks now, where gvws are all over the place compared to previous years, the coincidence they tires match rawr and gvw could be more true for some models.
But this is only hard to figure out for those who don’t know much about trucks.

bighatnohorse wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:

bighatnohorse wrote:


I assume that you're looking at the tag on the door frame?
The door frame tag weight limit is based on the load capacity of the tires...

When that might happen, I have never seen it.

Please don't digress into "taxable" babble - it doesn't apply.
Please spend some time at a truck dealership - you'll have to ditch the sales people first - and it will happen after your first three visits - and then look at the axles, the tires, the load ratings and see how they vary from truck-to-truck.
(Yes, it takes some homework.)

You, as will anyone, will begin to see how the GVWR and axle ratings are established by the truck manufacturer.
The real axle load ratings are established by the axle manufacturer - not the Ford/Chevy/Ram manufacturers - and never listed on the door frame.

You will see the same axles on different truck models - but the "axle rating" will vary - and it will always be dependent on the tire load rating.
Usually a few hundred pounds under the tire load rating will be the trucks GVWR and axle rating.

I agree, generally the “weak link” is tires/wheels, but you’re messed up like a soup sandwich stating that HD trucks Axle and gvw rating is Based on tires like that’s a fact.
Actually that is mostly a coincidence on srw 1 tons based on the “taxable” gvw. Not the case for 3/4 tons or duallys or 3/4 tons would be rated for much more and duallys as well.
Kayteg didn’t digress, you just don’t understand the whole story, like a lot of people.

Not to steer you away from what you have decided but just to give you another option... Over the weekend I was camped next to a Lakota gooseneck horse trailer with large living quarters. It had a very large slide and was being used as a camper without bringing along the horses. I would guess it may work with your current truck and then could be sold if you decided to change your setup. It was a long though; you would loose some manoeuvrability that would be had with a TC/bumper pull horse trailer.

If you only we're planning on hauling the camper, your truck would be fine for most campers available as evidenced by the thousands of single rear wheel trucks hauling campers on the highways today and the lack of news stories indicating that there are mass rollovers of said vehicles causing mayhem on the highways.

Yes, the fine details get into axle and tire ratings and staying under those is highly recommended. Trying to stay under the vehicles door tag weight will be an exercise in frustration and as others have noted, those door tags have more to do with taxes and registration fees than actual capacity.

However, it appears that hauling a horse trailer might also be in the works and that is a little different. Unless you are emotionally attached to the truck or financially limited, sell the truck and upgrade to a dually. What you want to do with towing horses and hauling a truck camper is doable on a single rear wheel but for me it always comes down to a tire blowout on the freeway. I feel much more comfortable driving down the freeway knowing I have the safety of a second tire should anything happen. Hauling animals in the trailer with significant emotional attachment is the tipping point in my calculations.

One suggestion though... If you are going to be hauling a horse trailer, consider having the tongue of the trailer modified so that it can be extended to meet the hitch of the truck with the camper on. I did this for my cargo trailer where I can extend the trailer tongue nearly four feet by just removing a pin and sliding the tongue out of the box frame. The advantage to this is that your don't need a super truss hitch which puts less bending moment stress on the frame of your truck, helps with ground clearance and sharp angle of attacks when hitting steep driveways and saves a lot of extra weight for not having a hitch extension.

DRW...

Safe is subjective. Truck rated capacities are subjective.
Take it from there.

Kayteg1 wrote:

bighatnohorse wrote:


I assume that you're looking at the tag on the door frame?
The door frame tag weight limit is based on the load capacity of the tires...

When that might happen, I have never seen it.

Please don't digress into "taxable" babble - it doesn't apply.
Please spend some time at a truck dealership - you'll have to ditch the sales people first - and it will happen after your first three visits - and then look at the axles, the tires, the load ratings and see how they vary from truck-to-truck.
(Yes, it takes some homework.)

You, as will anyone, will begin to see how the GVWR and axle ratings are established by the truck manufacturer.
The real axle load ratings are established by the axle manufacturer - not the Ford/Chevy/Ram manufacturers - and never listed on the door frame.

You will see the same axles on different truck models - but the "axle rating" will vary - and it will always be dependent on the tire load rating.
Usually a few hundred pounds under the tire load rating will be the trucks GVWR and axle rating.

ticki2 wrote:

cptqueeg wrote:
Couple questions on the topic.

Does each seating position deduct 150lbs(Ford) from the payload?

Where can you source 19.5" wheels and tires for SRW (other than Rickson)?

I'm planning on a pop-up TC on a SRW, but want to tow a 19' boat or utility trailer at times.

I'll try to answer your first question . The short answer is some of it . Some of the passenger weight is carried by the front axle , some by the rear . To know how much goes to each you would have to weight the truck with all seats filled and then with only driver and passenger . Subtract the difference on the rear axle weights and that's what you can add the the payload . It's actually a little more complicated than that but it's close enough .

Thanks, makes sense.

bighatnohorse wrote:


I assume that you're looking at the tag on the door frame?
The door frame tag weight limit is based on the load capacity of the tires...

When that might happen, I have never seen it.
Door sticker is TAXABLE rating and has very loose connection to truck ratings.
For example on my dually numbers are about.
Taxable cargo 5000lb.
Combined axle ratings give me 8000lb cargo
Combined tire ratings would give me 10,000lb cargo, but I rather stay with axle limit.
But once again, front axle capacity is not usable with TC, so it all comes to rear axle rating.