60k Budget truck and camper

Oldtart wrote:

woodhog wrote:

Oldtart wrote:
Follow Up
Although not a done deal it's looking promising.
I originally was seeing myself becoming a full timer but not yet anyway.
Hence the package I'm close to closing is a 2010 AF 811 on a 2004 Ram 2500 HD gas hemi. 59 K miles on it
I know this is a heavy camper.
Seller says he's put a lot of suspension work in.
1 ton dually spring pack with overloads on as well as having two of the original leaves reshapped and inserted.
Goodyear air bags. Rancho 9000 adjustable ride shocks.
Rear anti sway bar
HD steering stabilizer
New front U-joints
New ball joint ends
New discs brakes




He has changed the truck into a one ton and added all the right things
for a 2004 Ram..Good luck

36K
Should know tonight
Again thanks for all the advice and welcome any opinions pro or con

So I passsed on this deal even though I really liked the camper.
It was just too squirley for me when I drove it.
I have no experience in driving a truck with a camper and maybe I would have gotten use to it but it felt light in the front to me and would get a good sway going on a pretty good straight hiway if you weren't being real careful.
My gut told me the cg was too far back and in spite of all the seller has done to improve handling it wasn't a good match. I just think it was too much camper for that truck.
Nice guy and he took a lot of time with me but I need to see what a different set up feels like.

The newer 1 ton HD trucks really carry that weight a lot better than older ones. All of the big three have improved their chassis in the past 10 years or so. My SRW 2015 Silverado 3500HD carries that camper fabulously (on the road). Pot-holed, off-camber, off-road driving is another story, but that's not what a 4,000+ lb camper is really intended for anyway. The rig is stable at any reasonable speed, through corners, and in high wind conditions. Pre-2011 GM HD trucks feel like overladen half tons by comparison. Even with serious suspension modifications, the frame is simply too flexible to carry the weight comfortably.

Dodge/Ram and Ford SD trucks have evolved in the same manner as their GM counterparts.

Don't even try to put that camper on a Ram 2500HD with coil springs, but a newer GM/Ford/Dodge 3500 class truck, even single rear wheel, should carry it nicely, perhaps with a Hellwig Big Wig and either Timbrens or Supersprings (I have really come to like the performance of Supersprings) installed.

The newer trucks also have substantially better brakes- which is pretty important when you're hauling around a couple of tons- and depending on your wheel size, your upgrades on an older-generation truck may be limited to ductile iron rotors and aggressive brake pads, which will still not approach the performance of the newer, larger rotors and improved mechanicals of newer calipers.