Hi! My husband and I recently decided that we wanted to skip our original plan to get a 5th wheel and instead look at truck campers. As we started looking around and exploring weights and options, we ended up a little confused....We have a 2019 SRW Diesel F350 8ft bed truck that we typically used to haul my 30ft horse trailer. Almost all of the TTs and 5th wheels we looked at we’re totally doable weight wise. Now looking at TCs we’re realizing we might not have enough truck to get us what we want. Enter the place of confusion.... our truck sticker says max weight for cargo and occupants is about 3100 pounds. Which knocks out a ton of TCs. But, when we go and look at everyone’s rigs or read about recommended truck specs from a TC manufacturer, it looks like people are using half ton trucks or 3/4 ton trucks for the TCs within our weight range. Help! What am I missing here?!?

Quite an interior square foot reduction from considering a 5er to a TC. I suggest renting a TC for a week to make sure.

You aren't missing anything. Truck manufacturers are required to state a maximum weight (in my case, diesel F350 SRW a gvwr 11,500). My truck weighs 8400 pounds so I have 3100 carrying capacity. I had to look long and hard at campers that I was comfortable with and ended up with a hard side Northstar Igloo 9.5. It weighs 2900 pounds with water and propane. Add another 500 pounds +/- for my "stuff" and I am 300-400 pounds over my GVWR and carrying capacity but under both front and rear axle ratings. I am comfortable at this level. Others are more adventuresome and go heavier. Tires are the weak element and I am also under my tire carrying capacity. A single rear wheel vehicle rules out most slideout campers at least for me. We are very happy with our hardside but others want more room and need (want) slides. The bigger you go, the more you need to think DRW instead of SRW. No matter how much you modify the truck to handle the weight you won't change the stickers. But lots of folks will go to 19.5" wheels, better tires and upgrade the suspension to carry heavier rigs. Shop around, go to Truck Camper Magazine for tips on matching trucks and campers and then go with the amount of "risk" you are comfortable with. And I am not the weight police, I just know what I am comfortable with. Welcome to our world.

(where's my popcorn?)You'll find that with very little searching of the Forum this topic comes up every few days or weeks. Look forward to a hotly debated topic.My perspective? While there are some very small and very light campers specifically designed for 1/2T trucks, most campers are designed for at least a 3/4T or 1T truck (or better: 45xx 55xx)The most important thing to consider is your tire ratings. In most cases %100 of the camper weight is going to be on the rear axle. Carrying more weight then your combined tire ratings are rated for is unsafe and not recommended.- Mark0.

You have 2 factors that are surprise for 1st time TC owner. I wish the explanation would be in stickies, but it is not, so here it comes again.1. TC have center gravity close to the rear axle, when 12' long can have COG even behind rear axle. That makes front axle weight capacity unusable, when most buyers want at least 10' long TC and those when loaded can easy exceed 4000lb load on rear axle.2. truck manufacturers usually label the truck with taxable weight, when US-brand trucks usually have much higher capacity. My F350 dually for example can have 7300lb cargo load on rear axle, yet label gives it about 5000 lb cargo capacity. Not too many truck buyers wants to pay taxes adequate to truck capacities and that creates the situation. So starting point before going camper shopping should be taking your truck to the scale and check how much rear axle shows. When you deduct the real weight from axle capacity, you have the REAL number what weight camper you can shop for. But do more homework. Campers weights are usually listed without options, so add the options and then 10% for errors. Also camper alone is not the only cargo you are going to have, so estimate weight of water you are willing to carry, beer and other stuff.

To repeat what was already said: the single rear tires limit the weight capacity of the rear axle. DRW has 2 x the tires = (almost) 2 x carrying capacity without any other changes.But no truck camper offers the space available in a fifth wheel. You need to find out what _you_ need when you travel.If you want a TC because you think that you can pull a trailer in addition to the camper, you need to be aware that the trailer puts additional load on the rear axle. But with a TC in the bed, you are already near (or even above) rawr, so there is little or no capacity left.Do not trust the stated weights of the TC manufacturers. A few are accurate, but many leave out a lot of optional items that you have on board. A TC is usually heavier than you anticipate, and only a scale will ever tell the true weight. Do not be optimistic about weights.The numbers are what they are and can be exceeded if you know what you are doing and are comfortable doing it. But then again, many prople have traded their SRW truck for a DRW and won't look back.

New to Truck Camping | Good Sam Community

33 Replies

mbloof
Explorer
Jul 19, 2020
(where's my popcorn?)

You'll find that with very little searching of the Forum this topic comes up every few days or weeks. Look forward to a hotly debated topic.

My perspective? While there are some very small and very light campers specifically designed for 1/2T trucks, most campers are designed for at least a 3/4T or 1T truck (or better: 45xx 55xx)

The most important thing to consider is your tire ratings. In most cases %100 of the camper weight is going to be on the rear axle. Carrying more weight then your combined tire ratings are rated for is unsafe and not recommended.

- Mark0.
sbryan
Explorer II
Jul 19, 2020
You aren't missing anything. Truck manufacturers are required to state a maximum weight (in my case, diesel F350 SRW a gvwr 11,500). My truck weighs 8400 pounds so I have 3100 carrying capacity. I had to look long and hard at campers that I was comfortable with and ended up with a hard side Northstar Igloo 9.5. It weighs 2900 pounds with water and propane. Add another 500 pounds +/- for my "stuff" and I am 300-400 pounds over my GVWR and carrying capacity but under both front and rear axle ratings. I am comfortable at this level. Others are more adventuresome and go heavier. Tires are the weak element and I am also under my tire carrying capacity. A single rear wheel vehicle rules out most slideout campers at least for me. We are very happy with our hardside but others want more room and need (want) slides. The bigger you go, the more you need to think DRW instead of SRW. No matter how much you modify the truck to handle the weight you won't change the stickers. But lots of folks will go to 19.5" wheels, better tires and upgrade the suspension to carry heavier rigs. Shop around, go to Truck Camper Magazine for tips on matching trucks and campers and then go with the amount of "risk" you are comfortable with. And I am not the weight police, I just know what I am comfortable with. Welcome to our world.
Lwiddis
Explorer II
Jul 19, 2020
Quite an interior square foot reduction from considering a 5er to a TC. I suggest renting a TC for a week to make sure.

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