Heavy Truck Campers
With all the discussion about heavy truck campers and weights I thought the Truck Camper Magazine review of the Adventurer 116DS was timely:
Adventurer 116DS Review
The relevant comment is:
"According to Adventurer’s inside weight sticker, the 2014 Adventurer 116DS under review was 4,624 pounds. Let’s put that weight into Truck Camper Magazine’s wet weight equation and see where we end up.
Adventurer 116DS: dry weight (with options) 4,624 + 38 gallons fresh, 316.9 pounds + 6 gallon full hot water heater, 50 pounds + 2x 20-pound full propane tanks, 40 pounds + 2x batteries, 130 pounds + stuff, 500 pounds = 5,660.0 pounds.
In reality, 500 pounds is probably a little low for stuff weight on a camper this big. To be more realistic, I would add another 250 pounds for stuff putting the total at 5,910 pounds. While nearly 6,000 pounds is nothing to sneeze at, you can easily find long bed dually trucks with more than 6,000 pounds of payload; if you spec them right"
While normally I like his reviews and honesty about weights this was going a bit to far. Finding a 350/3500 with 6,000 pounds of payload for just the camper, not even considering the passengers and the stuff in the truck, is going to be far from "easy".
When I bought my truck I looked at the payload capacity of lots of trucks at dealers. It was very rare to find 6,000 lbs or the 6,500 pounds you probably need for this one. Forget diesels and the sunroof.
In Ford my 14,000 GVWR F350 gas in Lariat trim (which I had to special order because we couldn't find anything) had a door sticker of 6,230 pounds. Maybe I could carry this camper but it would be a push as just the three of us easily use up all the spare capacity. (No jokes about how much we weigh :)) To be safe you probably need to drop down to a XL or at least XLT if you want to be under GVWR. Maybe not a CC either.
These campers are really F550 (or F450's with 19.5 wheels) and equivalent territory and people need to be upfront about it.
I predict though we will be hearing from someone about how to make it ride better on their SRW one ton that the dealer told them could carry it. :)
Adventurer 116DS Review
The relevant comment is:
"According to Adventurer’s inside weight sticker, the 2014 Adventurer 116DS under review was 4,624 pounds. Let’s put that weight into Truck Camper Magazine’s wet weight equation and see where we end up.
Adventurer 116DS: dry weight (with options) 4,624 + 38 gallons fresh, 316.9 pounds + 6 gallon full hot water heater, 50 pounds + 2x 20-pound full propane tanks, 40 pounds + 2x batteries, 130 pounds + stuff, 500 pounds = 5,660.0 pounds.
In reality, 500 pounds is probably a little low for stuff weight on a camper this big. To be more realistic, I would add another 250 pounds for stuff putting the total at 5,910 pounds. While nearly 6,000 pounds is nothing to sneeze at, you can easily find long bed dually trucks with more than 6,000 pounds of payload; if you spec them right"
While normally I like his reviews and honesty about weights this was going a bit to far. Finding a 350/3500 with 6,000 pounds of payload for just the camper, not even considering the passengers and the stuff in the truck, is going to be far from "easy".
When I bought my truck I looked at the payload capacity of lots of trucks at dealers. It was very rare to find 6,000 lbs or the 6,500 pounds you probably need for this one. Forget diesels and the sunroof.
In Ford my 14,000 GVWR F350 gas in Lariat trim (which I had to special order because we couldn't find anything) had a door sticker of 6,230 pounds. Maybe I could carry this camper but it would be a push as just the three of us easily use up all the spare capacity. (No jokes about how much we weigh :)) To be safe you probably need to drop down to a XL or at least XLT if you want to be under GVWR. Maybe not a CC either.
These campers are really F550 (or F450's with 19.5 wheels) and equivalent territory and people need to be upfront about it.
I predict though we will be hearing from someone about how to make it ride better on their SRW one ton that the dealer told them could carry it. :)
