Truck camper weight

willardskillard wrote:
... But a wind storm in the Mountain passes this side of Bakersfield Humbled me some and made me swear to buy a Bigger truck. I Bought a 1995 12 valve extended Cab Dodge That's in very good condition. Do you guys think I should have to enhance the suspension any as light as my camper is? ...

A windstorm in any truck/TC can humble anyone. You can make mods to most rigs to make the windstorms less humbling.

It would only be guessing to say you should or should not enhance the suspension of your truck. The same truck can come from the factory with different suspension packages. Your truck may or may have existing overload springs, or anti-sway bar for example. Is your truck a dually or SRW? The tires can make a real difference in sway. To install airbags or not is an ongoing argument on the forum. When you load your TC, the back typically squats from 2 to 4 inches. If you consider nothing else, if your headlights were adjusted correctly before you loaded the TC, they will be pointing in the trees after loading the TC. The airbags allow you to raise the back up to be as level as it was without the TC.

I have a 1996 Dodge 2500, 12-valve, 2WD, SRW. I bought it at 75,000 miles and it now has about 250,000 miles. Most of the 175,000 miles I put on it are with my 11.5 foot Bigfoot TC. My truck weight is 6200, TC is 4200, for a total of 10400 pounds. I have added Airbags, anti-sway bar, adjustable shocks, Timbrins (front axle), and most importantly 19.5 tires and wheels. I added this stuff over time.

My suggestion is to load the TC. Decide what you would like to improve, do a little research and make the improvement. The tires would be the first thing I would look at, not just the load capacity, but the softness of the sidewall also. The anti-sway bar would be a big help in windstorms. Add overloads fine, add leafs to your springs, and you will have a much rougher ride without the TC.

Wayne