โDec-29-2022 07:09 PM
โJan-06-2023 08:02 AM
โJan-06-2023 07:32 AM
bucky wrote:
I'm thinking this guy just read this and other threads on the interweb.
TC for sale
โJan-06-2023 07:16 AM
FishOnOne wrote:Grit dog wrote:
No, mkirsch is just being a little dramatic or critical of some previous uninformed comments. Of which rvnet has no lack of.
The big takeaway from this whole thing is ratings are (sometimes) there for a real physical limitation reason. You know, something based on engineering principle and design. Other ratings are given similarly but with large factors of safety not explicitly mentioned. And yet others are in place for only regulatory reasons.
Thatโs why the old adage of โstick to the ratingsโ if you canโt understand or discern from the above is always the โsafeโ bet.
But sometimes โsafeโ or in many cases overly safe costs alot of unnecessary money. And if one can understand or get some good advice that is cheaper than spending cubic dollars to be โoverly safe.โ
In the case of this truck. This is the largest capacity rating on a given design (light duty pickup chassis). It seems obvious to me but should stand to reason to anyone with some knowledge that if the same thing is rated less here and more there, that the more rating has a lower factor of safety.
And this guy found out what that limit is for his frame!
On the upside like mkirsch has been ranting about , this failure totally supports the arguments that your not going to break that frame, springs or axle on your 2500 Ram (or whatever 3/4 ton) by exceeding the paltry regulatory based rating by a large margin.
Mkirsch is doing a disservice by trying to lump ALL comments into the same bucket.
Could be a manufacturing defect. We've already seen a recall from Ram that required rewelding the brackets on the front end of the frame and who knows if the steel used to make this frame met strength requirements.
โJan-06-2023 07:03 AM
bucky wrote:
I'm thinking this guy just read this and other threads on the interweb.
TC for sale
โJan-06-2023 02:51 AM
โJan-05-2023 01:48 PM
Bigfoot affair wrote:
IDK, I would suspect the frame to be the last thing to fail when over loaded. Tires/wheels first, then axle followed by springs etc. Had my 03 GMC 2500 overloaded with my Bigfoot camper and boat for many years with no failures.
More RAM frame failures Broken frames
โJan-05-2023 01:23 PM
โJan-05-2023 12:47 PM
Grit dog wrote:
No, mkirsch is just being a little dramatic or critical of some previous uninformed comments. Of which rvnet has no lack of.
The big takeaway from this whole thing is ratings are (sometimes) there for a real physical limitation reason. You know, something based on engineering principle and design. Other ratings are given similarly but with large factors of safety not explicitly mentioned. And yet others are in place for only regulatory reasons.
Thatโs why the old adage of โstick to the ratingsโ if you canโt understand or discern from the above is always the โsafeโ bet.
But sometimes โsafeโ or in many cases overly safe costs alot of unnecessary money. And if one can understand or get some good advice that is cheaper than spending cubic dollars to be โoverly safe.โ
In the case of this truck. This is the largest capacity rating on a given design (light duty pickup chassis). It seems obvious to me but should stand to reason to anyone with some knowledge that if the same thing is rated less here and more there, that the more rating has a lower factor of safety.
And this guy found out what that limit is for his frame!
On the upside like mkirsch has been ranting about , this failure totally supports the arguments that your not going to break that frame, springs or axle on your 2500 Ram (or whatever 3/4 ton) by exceeding the paltry regulatory based rating by a large margin.
Mkirsch is doing a disservice by trying to lump ALL comments into the same bucket.
โJan-04-2023 10:53 AM
โJan-04-2023 10:38 AM
mkirsch wrote:JimK-NY wrote:mkirsch wrote:
Now all of a sudden everybody's a weight police. "Oh he was 10lbs over GVWR! That's why his frame broke!"
Did you notice the post from someone with the same truck? CCC is 4738#. The owner of the broken truck had a camper with a base weight of 5000#. Water and propane bring that to 5500#. Accessories are not included. We can see solar, awnings and a roof rack. I can't see if there is an A/C unit or a generator neither are in the base weight. At a minimum the weight will be 6000#. That does not include the bikes or rack, tools, kitchen gear, food, bedding, air compressor and personal items very likely totally well over 1000#. Best guess is this unit was in the range of 7000-7500# or roughly 2500-3000# over the CCC. In addition there is clearly an issue with center of gravity.
Sadly beginners and often experienced truck camper users often fail to realize how heavy their rigs are.
"Conventional wisdom" on this forum is, NONE OF THAT MATTERS! Axle's rated for 11K! Nobody's ever broken a frame!
Telling someone they needed a 4500-5500 class truck to carry a camper like that got you ostracized as a worry wart, weight police, fun-hating SQUARE.
This thread just oozes with HYPOCRISY.
โJan-04-2023 07:56 AM
โJan-04-2023 05:48 AM
JimK-NY wrote:mkirsch wrote:
Now all of a sudden everybody's a weight police. "Oh he was 10lbs over GVWR! That's why his frame broke!"
Did you notice the post from someone with the same truck? CCC is 4738#. The owner of the broken truck had a camper with a base weight of 5000#. Water and propane bring that to 5500#. Accessories are not included. We can see solar, awnings and a roof rack. I can't see if there is an A/C unit or a generator neither are in the base weight. At a minimum the weight will be 6000#. That does not include the bikes or rack, tools, kitchen gear, food, bedding, air compressor and personal items very likely totally well over 1000#. Best guess is this unit was in the range of 7000-7500# or roughly 2500-3000# over the CCC. In addition there is clearly an issue with center of gravity.
Sadly beginners and often experienced truck camper users often fail to realize how heavy their rigs are.
โJan-03-2023 08:04 PM
jimh406 wrote:Groover wrote:
40 years ago many of the truck campers I saw had shock absorbers on the front of the cabover going down to the front fenders. The point of these was to absorb the frame damaging stresses that lead to fatigue and also control a bouncy ride.
If you read what Lance says about their shocks, they were to improve the ride. They made no claim that they helped with frame stress.
In any case, anything you can do to soften bumps/ride is probably good. When I bought my truck used, one particular bump on I-90 was pretty brutal. I installed Bilstein shocks and that bump wasn't very noticeable after that. I don't know how the stock shocks performed when new because I didn't own it then.
It's possible that the suspension added to the stresses on the frame. You can easily watch how much your TC moves when you hit bumps. Big movements compared to the same road without a TC are probably not a great thing.
While we are on suspension, I feel the right amount of air in airbags can also smooth out the ride, but nothing will smooth a very bumpy road other than slowing down.
โJan-03-2023 05:14 PM
โJan-03-2023 03:55 PM
jimh406 wrote:
I know many Class A owners never even think about being overloaded or checking their tire pressure. Amazing what you can learn talking to other RVers at campgrounds. ๐