Question of weight distribution

Sorry, a 10500 GVWR is really low. Sounded like a SRW. If you have 4 rear tires, that should hold it.

I have a dulley, the rear weight limit is 2778 pounds for each tire. The front is 3042 pounds each. That should handle the weight?

You'll need to upgrade the rear tires/wheels before the suspension. You'll need G rated 19.5s to get the capacity you need in the rear. That's about 2500-3000. Less if you can find them used.

I've been there and done that with my 9 1/2 Host. If you don't plan to carry anything at all including nominal water, it's possible. Still, a DRW would be better if you can live with a DRW the rest of the time. I couldn't when I had the SRW. That's why I had a SRW.

Thanks again for all the help. I had the truck weighed and even the dry weight puts me 500 pounds over the gvwr. Being conservative on what we put in the camper and beefing up the suspension I think we can make it work.

AF campers are heavy. My truck has a GVWR of 11200. My AF811 puts the truck over GVWR before I even pack the camper for a trip.

An AF 1150 on your truck will probably put the weight well over the GVWR

Having access to the same truck as you are asking about ('01 HO 6spd dually, along with 4wd). I scaled that truck at 14,500lbs with 2 people, ~85gal of diesel, and a heaping bed of road base. Had 6000lbs worth of material said the quarry scale.

The rear was squatting. There was some lean in the turns (truck has factory rear sway bar), and the rear was spongy/springy. To pack a 5k TC, something should be done to the rear suspension, airbags, overload spacers, timbrens, ect.

I wouldnt give it another thought...the probelm as i see it is simple...you will forget its thre till you hit a hard corner.

"but we didn't think we were really carrying much heavy additional stuff."

Sab, so you carry your stick home's kitchen sink with you also?

Remember that you will likely add a lot of weight to the stated dry-weight of the camper. We were shocked when we went to a weigh station and found that despite our little 1400 lb dry weight camper, our truck was actually carrying 2800 lbs (including us). OK, we have modified our camper, but we didn't think we were really carrying much heavy additional stuff.

Many people have previously suggested getting a truck weighted when empty, including the front and rear axle weights. We've had some surprises here where people have done that and found they had much less capacity remaining than the truck specification suggested. So visiting a weigh-station sounds like a good idea so you know where you really stand before you make a decision.

You labelled this post "Question of weight distribution". I imagine your 3500 DRW truck has a 8ft bed, so actual distribution of the weight is probably not too much of a problem. But it is a very good point to raise because this is a problem for people with much shorter load beds where the weight distribution can not only put too much load on the rear axle, but also stress the truck frame by having a centre of gravity behind the rear axle.

Good luck with your camper hunting.

Steve.

Check rear axle rating and tires ratings.
When you have 3000lb on rear axle and add 5000lb camper on it, you will be about 8000 lb in the rear.
I believe any dually suppose to be good here, but never hurts to double check.