what to buy - truck wise

Need to pick out the TC first. And how many doors you need.

If you are buying new find the TC you like than find the truck that will carry the weight.

Over build the truck and you will never be sorry. A long bed truck will ultimately give you more options in the long run. Fitting the truck to a TC may or may not hamper your decisions to upgrade TC's in the future. I bought the biggest, heaviest duty truck that I could afford and then went camper shopping.

A long bed 3500 for sure. You really limit yourself with a short bed. Then you have to decide on a dual rear wheel or maybe a 4500. These rigs are heavy, when you get them loaded for travel. JMHO. Plus don't know if you are buying new but if not there were big improvements at least in the chevy's 2011 on. I think the fords too. JMHO

For a truck camper you want a long bed and a 3500 series. To get anything less is really really limiting your options. The real question is do you need a dually or not.
If you're thinking of a 2wd regular cab truck with a gas engine, 2 people, and an 8 or 9 foot camper then a SRW would likely be fine. If you want 4wd, diesel, 4 doors, hauling the kids, with a 11' camper with slides then get a dually if not a 4500 series.

Fords come in three different cab sizes and two different bed lengths resulting in six different wheelbases. Although I was very happy with my F250 extended cab short bed, it did limit which truck campers I could purchase. Our Arctic Fox 811 is very well built but we want additional features that a F250 short bed really could not handle well. I have since upgraded the truck to a Ram 5500 with 9' deck that can handle the largest TC or FW RV currently produced - When we bought the F250, we never considered these RV's as possibilities (our wants have changed).

I would not suggest the F450 pickup over the F350 for TC use since it actually has less payload available. If you need additional capacity look at the Class 4 or 5 chassis cabs as the next step. I don't suggest you run out and buy a Class 5 diesel, but I do suggest figuring out which RV suits you and scale the truck up enough to allow an upgrade in the future without having replace it. Having extra capacity to make changes or select a different RV in the future is much easier than having to replace TV and RV at the same time.

I am window -shopping for 2016 F350 dually and with all those listing errors it takes LOONG time.
Somehow supercabs are not available, so I would have to settle for crew cab.
Than you can buy base truck for $51k, or King Ranch for $74k.
Do I really care about moonroof and backup sensors having camper?
I plan to buy in January/February so hope dealers will stock more truck
So far in 700 miles radius I located 3 I would consider.
Have fun searching.

I think some people are answering this with what they would buy, but I think the best answer is determine what truck camper you want and right size the truck.

You could use a 550 DRW to haul a lightweight camper, but you'd also use a lot more fuel.

The Ford DRW should be available in all three cabs but only in the long bed. I prefer to order my trucks through fleet sales so I get exactly what want. I have been very happy with my choices so far and my unique selections has not hurt resale (if that is something that concerns you).

jimh425 wrote:
I think some people are answering this with what they would buy, but I think the best answer is determine what truck camper you want and right size the truck.

You could use a 550 DRW to haul a lightweight camper, but you'd also use a lot more fuel.

That is true if you compare the trucks with the same engine.
My 2007 F350 dually has about 15% better mpg than sold 2000 F250 with short bed.
I experienced it hard way, that if you plan to stay with truck campers for a while, you better start with dually.
450 is big overkill unless you haul 2 horses with you.