Can't believe my payload is so low.

[JoshL]

I've decided I want to for sure and certain get a truck camper. I've been reading and researching for about two weeks now. Looking at what I want, the sizes, the weights. Plugging numbers into the weight calculator. Weighed my truck and blah blah.

It seems like my 2007.5 Chevy diesel 2500HD has a very low payload. 1468 lbs to be exact!I should've broken this truck years ago if that is in anyway accurate.

Just last week I hauled 2000 lbs of sack-crete in it. And for nearly 6 months I was hauling 2900 lbs of water in it about 2-3 times a week!

I'm just about to say heck with it all. :R

[bwlyon]

Another thing to pay close attention to is the fact that truck camper manufactures, listed weights can be way off, and actually weigh hundreds of pounds more than their sticker says they weigh. Prime example, found a 2015 Ram 3500 SRW, 4x4, megacab, gasser with 4069lbs of payload capacity. Thinking I’d hit the jackpot with this much capacity, I went and bought a camper that listed it’s dry weight of 3200 and change and wet weight of 3600 and change was a good match. While the truck handles the camper well, it’s true wet weight with gear, groceries, and clothes is 4900 lbs! I’m over GVWR and over on the rear axle, and over the rating of the tires. How much? GVWR 11400 GVW 13000. Rear axle rating 7000. Loaded 8700. Tires 3650 a piece. The tires is the major weak link for my set up followed by the rear axle rating. It’s my belief that most truck camper owners are over weight. There are some that are within their trucks specs, but not as many as some would have you believe. Unless you have put a camper on the scales to prove you’re not, you’re overweight!

[jimh406]

The question is do you want to ignore the sticker or not. From what everyone guesses, 2500s are derated to stay under the 10000 lb GVWR. For the most part, tires are the limiting factor on what you can carry in the rear on 2500 and 3500s. So, that’s (2 x tire capacity) - weight on rear.

Also, passenger vehicles tend to include the weight of the passengers in the calculation of what TC you can carry at 150 lbs for each seat being filled.

Still, if you want significant more ability to carry, you should upgrade your tires, or switch to a DRW. Upgrading the tires on a SRW won’t make it stop faster, but will significantly decrease the chance of a blowout.

Finally, search for other recent threads to get more ideas.