hauling capability

[noonenosthis1]

I have a 2015 F350 6.2 srw crew cab. I am thinking of truck slide in camper for long trips. How do I determine my truck's hauling capability?

[MFL]

Grit dog said: "Yeah, scary is relative. Some folks are scared to leave the house on a sunny day without an umbrella and galoshes. (You know who you are…)
And others have no problems with motor sports that involve a little danger and some also have the knowledge to know what is “scary” and what is “DANGEROUS.”
Depends where one is on that spectrum."



This is me coming back down, while my riding partners waited, due to avalanche danger. Another small group attempting to reach the top, also stopped and watched. Pic is from Lions head (Idaho). Only way to get up there was where you see my track farther out on the crusted cornices, that gave traction.

May have to zoom, but I'm the spec in upper part of photo.

Scary, dangerous, foolish...having enjoyed all sorts of motorsports, I guess I was on the high risk end of that spectrum.

Sorry...back to regular programming.

Jerry

[Grit_dog]

ksss wrote:
I would second the stability as a major concern as well. An example last week it was very windy here, coming back from Boise on I-84 the cross wind was brutal. I saw a pickup in the other lane coming toward me in what appeared to be about a 20 degree lean fighting the cross wind. As I passed it, it was an F something Superduty SRW crew cab, not the that brand probably mattered, it would have been the same regardless what brand I am sure. If that was the type of camper I wanted, I would probably make sure I was driving a DRW. Those slide in campers, especially the larger ones catch a lot wind, and have to be a little scary on uneven ground.

Yeah, scary is relative. Some folks are scared to leave the house on a sunny day without an umbrella and galoshes. (You know who you are…)
And others have no problems with motor sports that involve a little danger and some also have the knowledge to know what is “scary” and what is “DANGEROUS.”
Depends where one is on that spectrum.
First TC, first drive out of the literal gate was a 2 ton TC with a 7klb utility trailer behind it, family in the cab, dogs in the back of the trailer in crates, 3/4 ton with airbags only and a 2200 mile drive to AK with the frost heaves still swole up.
Scary? Meh, not after a couple hours. The rest of the week I would categorize as annoying and wished I’d had the time to get a sway bar on it too….
Ultimately took a few more weekend trips around the Great State before deciding to pony up for the extra shipping cost to get a sway bar up there.

[Groover]

ksss wrote:
I would second the stability as a major concern as well. An example last week it was very windy here, coming back from Boise on I-84 the cross wind was brutal. I saw a pickup in the other lane coming toward me in what appeared to be about a 20 degree lean fighting the cross wind. As I passed it, it was an F something Superduty SRW crew cab, not the that brand probably mattered, it would have been the same regardless what brand I am sure. If that was the type of camper I wanted, I would probably make sure I was driving a DRW. Those slide in campers, especially the larger ones catch a lot wind, and have to be a little scary on uneven ground.

I never had that issue with my 1991 F250 hauling one of the largest slide in campers available. But then I did have the camper package with a rear sway bar, optional overload springs generally saved for the F350 and a size larger tires in the rear. Also, trucks and campers have both gotten taller since then and catch more wind. The floor of my camper was on the bed of the pickup. The holding tanks were under the floor of the camper behind the rear bumper. You didn't want to drive it far with the grey water tank 3ft behind the rear bumper full.

[ksss]

I would second the stability as a major concern as well. An example last week it was very windy here, coming back from Boise on I-84 the cross wind was brutal. I saw a pickup in the other lane coming toward me in what appeared to be about a 20 degree lean fighting the cross wind. As I passed it, it was an F something Superduty SRW crew cab, not the that brand probably mattered, it would have been the same regardless what brand I am sure. If that was the type of camper I wanted, I would probably make sure I was driving a DRW. Those slide in campers, especially the larger ones catch a lot wind, and have to be a little scary on uneven ground.

[blt2ski]

Samsonsworld wrote:
Pretty much to the lb. Thanks for explaining that enigma.

Hence while ALL of us need to understand ratings vs actual abilities of our trucks. Tow ratings typically have been one 150 lb driver, lowest base interior. But the highest cost leather etc, you've lost 500-700 lbs of payload and tow/hauling capacity. Some cases, you may have made so you have no tow/haul capacity, if the occupants weigh what the payload is. I was that way with my two Astro/Safari vans with my 4 adult sized teenagers....1200-1300 lbs of 6 people.
The new tow reg recommendations are supposed to take into account people weight per seat belt as camper capacity has been since early 80's, maybe before then. This way you won't get a surprise when you have no payload to tow or haul.

Marty

[Samsonsworld]

Pretty much to the lb. Thanks for explaining that enigma.

[blt2ski]

Samsonsworld wrote:
My 2017 6.2l came with the camper package and the maximum camper weight was way under the payload rating. Never made sense to me but one of the many reasons I shied from a truck camper.

This is because the max camper weight assumes you will have # seatbelts times 150 lbs in the cab. 900 lbs if a crew cab will be removed from max payload. Some pickups like my 1500 get no camper ability, because after removing the 900 lbs for people, you in reality, can't carry a camper!

Marty

[Samsonsworld]

My 2017 6.2l came with the camper package and the maximum camper weight was way under the payload rating. Never made sense to me but one of the many reasons I shied from a truck camper.

[blt2ski]

To add to stir crazy.

Try figure out the lowest deno.inator on rear, most important.
You may have a literal axle componant to 9000 lds, brakes to 8500, springs to 6400, tires to 6000.
Nothing illegal about adding a leaf to spring pack upping them to say 7500-8000 lbs. Changing from a 3000 lb tire capacity to 3500-4000 lbs per tire....
Now you have an ~7500 lb RA capacity, an additional 1300-1400 lbs of payload. Assuming a bit less than the 1500 gross, as the springs, shocks, tires, potentially rims may add a few lbs to the truck.
In Wa st where I am, I also have to make sure I have enough paid for gross tonnage, sold in 2000 lb increments. If you run down the road between 6-8000lbs, as I do in my 1500, so in his GM 1500, another son in his Taco! We three have 8000 lb registrations. Door sticker, normal 1509/ half ton registration of 6000 lbs would put us potentially finable for being over weight.

Multiple issues to deal with, to make sure you safe, AND legal!

Marty

[StirCrazy]

noonenosthis1 wrote:
I have a 2015 F350 6.2 srw crew cab. I am thinking of truck slide in camper for long trips. How do I determine my truck's hauling capability?

What I do and others may disagree is figure out your true payloads. got through a weight scale that closed there, they leave the scales on. have a full tank of gas and you in the truck and nothing else. weight the front axles and the rear axles and write them down. then look on the door and see what your max axel capacity is for the rear and front axles and subtract your actual weights from your limits. that tells you how much you can load up each axel till you're at your limit. for camper weight I just go by the rear as some of the weight will be put on the front but not a lot.

[Groover]

You are concerned about the weight but the other concern is stability. The camper package includes stiffer rear springs and a rear swaybar. You may also benefit from aftermarket shocks. One of the best things that I did on my 1991 F250 was replace the factory shocks with Rancho 9000 shocks. Some people like Bilsteins. I have never compared the two so no opinion from me on that. Your truck is 25 years newer so it may have come with better shocks.

My truck empty was about 5,600lbs and rated gross was 8,800. My camper loaded was about 4,000lbs. It was 20'6" end to end with 4'6" past the rear bumper. That doesn't count people. I drove a little slower and was very careful on turns. In those days the brakes left some to be desired so I had to be careful with them. I also frequently pulled a 4,000lb boat behind the camper. I never had any issues with the truck but did have issues with the factory Michelin tires and some khumo's coming apart. No issues with Firestone tires. I did upgrade the rear tires from 235/85s to 265/75s when they became available for about an extra 800lbs of tire capacity.

Best wishes!

[Grit_dog]

Yup, bottom line is get the truck setup right and you can haul a good size TC like a AF 811 or 990 around for years and years reliably without a worry.

[vern_kelly]

As stated weigh both axels independently at CAT scales with at least a half tank or more of fuel on empty truck.

The rear axel will carry nearly all the load of a truck camper. >90%. If you have a dually you can carry just about anything. SRW config your limit will be the tire rating X2 for the rear axel.

Example: for my 98 Dodge 2500 Rear axel empty no tailgate is 2540lbs Tires are rated 3042 at 80 lbs. So max weight on rear axel not to exceed 6084. Axel is rated at 7000 so the tires are the limiting factor.

I weighed the truck again with camper loaded and rear axel was 5840. Good tires are a must and inflated properly. I run 80 in the rear and 50 in the front. Air bags can be used to level truck if needed. Advisable not to tailgate either! My truck is 25 years old and not broken yet!

[Grit_dog]

And OP, if you ever come back to this thread, take time to digest what I told you. Many people don’t understand it, as evidenced by some of the posts here and the cacophony of personal theories about cargo weight that pop up every time this fairly redundant question is answered.