Seeking advice on camper for my new truck

if you got a tear drop, you must know of Little Guy, so here is the pickup camper they make. http://www.truckcampermagazine.com/news/tcm-exclusive-2016-cirrus-800/

but its probably going to be too heavy.

I never thought a hard side camper would be a good option for my PW and would never exceed my gross axle weight rating. The ss-550 has dry weight of 1594 lbs which would leave 1500 lbs of room before I hit GAWR. But I may have found a way to get a FWC hawk shell late July. The FWC is built better and should make the weight police happy since it's dry weight is around 850 lbs. Also with the FWC I would most likely leave it on the truck full time where the ss-550 would have come off except for camping trips.

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Guestimate min of 2000# loaded on the Palomino, unless you pack real light.

A hard side camper on any 3/4 ton truck is going to be way beyond GVWR and not safe. The 1300 lb payload rating is there for a reason; the winch and all the cool little toys ate up the already too-low payload to begin with.

A 1 ton SRW is the absolute bare minimum for a hard side camper. My Lance 815 overloads my Ram 3500 even lightly loaded.

The only difference between 2014.5 up PW and standard 2500 for suspension is longer and softer coil springs and upgraded Bliston shocks. Worst case I could swap out springs for standard 2500 ones if airbags don't do the job. I don't plan to do any rock crawling just treks down some forest service roads to the out of the way camping spots. I also found that Daystar makes cradles for air bags so you don't lose any articulation. Before 2014 PW used leaf springs so I can hope I wouldn't have the same issue. I have a 9k tow rating so any TT I would want would work but really like the flexibility a TC brings.

d3500ram wrote:
A very knowledgeable and missed member who passed away a couple of years ago was DonCurley. You may want to see if you can read his posts about truck campers on Power Wagons. It is not a good fit.

When he bought it, he expressly made it known that he was going to use it for a truck camper and the salesman told him it would be fine. His excursion were off road on terrain that one might think a PW would be ideal. It was so bad (and i do not remember the exact stuff) but the dealer took the truck back and Don eventually bought a Q-cab, short bed 3500. He made the 3500 off road worthy for his style (winch, lights, etc...) with items and component similar to the "frills" offered by Dodge on the PW.

Not trying to discourage you, but Don was a great guy who lived the TC desert camping lifestyle. he also brought a lot to these forums. One of those was the no-so-good experience of a Power Wagon with a TC.

R.I.P Don Curley.

MN Ben wrote:


Dont forget about the torklifts to tie it all down.

Ben

HJ's you be a better choice in this case.

IIRC the PW has sway bars that disconnect for full articulation.
Frame mounted tie downs may not be the best choice for hard core off road travel...

Very true. A new generation of Dodge's have come out and PW's may be more compatible now.

To be fair, those posts from DonCurley about Power Wagons were from 2010. What was a valid concern in 2010 may not hold true now.

I used searchtempest.com and rvtrader.com to find the camper that was on my short list.

Dont forget about the torklifts to tie it all down.

Ben

A very knowledgeable and missed member who passed away a couple of years ago was DonCurley. You may want to see if you can read his posts about truck campers on Power Wagons. It is not a good fit.

When he bought it, he expressly made it known that he was going to use it for a truck camper and the salesman told him it would be fine. His excursion were off road on terrain that one might think a PW would be ideal. It was so bad (and i do not remember the exact stuff) but the dealer took the truck back and Don eventually bought a Q-cab, short bed 3500. He made the 3500 off road worthy for his style (winch, lights, etc...) with items and component similar to the "frills" offered by Dodge on the PW.

Not trying to discourage you, but Don was a great guy who lived the TC desert camping lifestyle. he also brought a lot to these forums. One of those was the no-so-good experience of a Power Wagon with a TC.

R.I.P Don Curley.