Looking at a Arctic Fox 811, anyone weigh theirs?

[pcoplin]

We currently have a 2001 Lance Lite 825. For races and wheeling I tow either a Racecar or Jeep. Wife is wanting a camper with a slide for the family.

A friend has a hardly used 2007 Arctic Fox 811, but I'm concerned with the weight. Dry weight says 3376 lbs. If It's like the Lance and their under estimating weight listings, I'm guessing it will be 1000 lbs over that at 4300 lbs.

The Lance Lite 825 lists at 2400 lbs, but mine weighs 3400 lbs loaded.

Anyone weigh their Arctic Fox 811? Thanks!

[SidecarFlip]

Always keep in mind that there are really 2 Cg's. The fore and aft Cg that builders acknowledge (and is adjustable by placement of heavier items like a genny or extra water containers in the camper and..

The little publicized or discussed vertical Cg which really impacts handling. It's the vertical Cg not the horizontal one that you need to be concerned about.

Lowering the vertical Cg by loading heavy items down low is as important and probably more so than fore and aft Cg.

[pcoplin]

Found this from a prior thread:

Here is the reply from Lance to my question on the issue.



"Doug, the only thing that changed is the way Lance measures it. Prior to 2011 the center of gravity was measured from the back of the truck, now it is measured from the front, It should come out about the same spot, but the new ones should be a little lighter with some of the new materials we are using.

Thank you for being a Lance customer.

Scott Almquist
Regional Sales Manager
Lance Camper Mfg Inc
719-332-7611"


Gonna have to get the tape out! If it's a lot more forward, I'll be happy. I can always load it up and go weigh it. He's a friend.

[pcoplin]

Grit dog wrote:

pcoplin wrote:
Thanks all for the replies.

So if I call it 4300 lbs (900 lbs more than my Lance), and if it carries like the Lance, with family it'll put my rear axle at roughly 7400 lbs. I'll be good to go with no trailer, but if I add the tongue weight I'll run at 600 lbs more at 8000 lbs. The tires I'm running are good to 8200 lbs.

That's a little too close to max for the longs trips I tow to. Bleh. Damned heavy are what these new ones are. 😞

If you're splitting hairs, then the 811/860 long bed CG will be about 18" fwd of your rear axle. I think there's a good change you'll see the front axle of the truck carrying maybe 4-500lbd of the camper weight.
The long bed 860s I have "show" CG just barely behind the rear axle centerline on my short bed Dodge. I've never weighed to verify, but it will definately carry a little better on a long bed. (And I don't personally have issue with how mine carries but like you, I'm not a big fan of the extra trailer tongue weight on top of camper weight.)

This is something I didn't think about. Looking at the Lance's CG it is 58 inches. I can't find the center of gravity of the 2007 AF811. It's not listed in the brochure, and I can't locate it on the Google. A 2016 AF811 says COG os 39 inch for a long bed.

I don't know if they are both measuring from the front or back of the bed. Can anyone tell me how Lance measured COG in 2001?

[SidecarFlip]

In my opinion (only) most all TC camper makers list their weights based on a bare bones, no options camper with no propane. batteries and no FW onboard and some like to err on the even lighter side, Lance comes to mind instantly.

That leads me to the presumption that quite a few pickup trucks with slide in campers are seriously (grossly) overweight.

I wonder what a fully opotioned out Host Mammoth weighs? lol Bet it's scary heavy.

[Bedlam]

The extra tongue weight of my 8000 lb trailer is what pushed me to 19.5" wheels. There were plenty of tire options to carry an AF811 on a SRW if I didn't tow, but I had to pack the camper and trailer carefully to stay under truck rear wheel capacity until going to a 4500 lb rated wheel. Neither set of wheels gave me trouble, but life was so much easier running on 19.5's instead of the previous 18's.

[Grit_dog]

pcoplin wrote:
Thanks all for the replies.

So if I call it 4300 lbs (900 lbs more than my Lance), and if it carries like the Lance, with family it'll put my rear axle at roughly 7400 lbs. I'll be good to go with no trailer, but if I add the tongue weight I'll run at 600 lbs more at 8000 lbs. The tires I'm running are good to 8200 lbs.

That's a little too close to max for the longs trips I tow to. Bleh. Damned heavy are what these new ones are. 😞

If you're splitting hairs, then the 811/860 long bed CG will be about 18" fwd of your rear axle. I think there's a good change you'll see the front axle of the truck carrying maybe 4-500lbd of the camper weight.
The long bed 860s I have "show" CG just barely behind the rear axle centerline on my short bed Dodge. I've never weighed to verify, but it will definately carry a little better on a long bed. (And I don't personally have issue with how mine carries but like you, I'm not a big fan of the extra trailer tongue weight on top of camper weight.)

[Grit_dog]

lonegunman wrote:
My AF865 is pretty much the same weight as the 811, I manage just fine with airbags,upper Stable Loads and Michelin 18" tires. We enjoyed a 3 week, 5,000 mile cross country adventure and several small weekend adventures and 10 days of deer hunting with zero issues.

Proper tire inflation and good set-up are fine, a few hundred pounds over GVWR is not the end of the world.

Lol, you'd be hard pressed to convince many or the members of this site that your above statement isn't just a disaster waiting to happen, insurance liablility and may even get you abducted by aliens if you do it too many times!
Btw, I agree with you.

[Powerdude]

Those composite propane cylinders are a really great idea for saving weight.

[lonegunman]

My AF865 is pretty much the same weight as the 811, I manage just fine with airbags,upper Stable Loads and Michelin 18" tires. We enjoyed a 3 week, 5,000 mile cross country adventure and several small weekend adventures and 10 days of deer hunting with zero issues.

Proper tire inflation and good set-up are fine, a few hundred pounds over GVWR is not the end of the world.

[bb_94401]

While duals make the truck footprint wider, it just means you break more branches and have scratches on the fenders when traveling on un-maintained or primitive FS dirt roads. A plus to duals on those roads is that when they have deep ruts, you can span the ruts and maneuver better to avoid the other obstacles on that type of road. Although your hubcaps will loosen up due to lateral flex of the tires, even when at 80 psi and in 4 Lo.

[pcoplin]

Yeah, I'm not going to do that. I use my truck for more than just hauling. Hunting, beach, towing into the desert, and snow driving are important to me. And 19.5s are terrible in those conditions.

I've considered converting mine to a dually, or getting a dually. But these also degrade off road capabilities enough that I've put it off.

[wcjeep]

I purchased 19.5" commercial tire/rims to compensate for the AF 811.

[pcoplin]

Thanks all for the replies.

So if I call it 4300 lbs (900 lbs more than my Lance), and if it carries like the Lance, with family it'll put my rear axle at roughly 7400 lbs. I'll be good to go with no trailer, but if I add the tongue weight I'll run at 600 lbs more at 8000 lbs. The tires I'm running are good to 8200 lbs.

That's a little too close to max for the longs trips I tow to. Bleh. Damned heavy are what these new ones are. 😞

[rider997]

pcoplin wrote:
We currently have a 2001 Lance Lite 825. For races and wheeling I tow either a Racecar or Jeep. Wife is wanting a camper with a slide for the family.

A friend has a hardly used 2007 Arctic Fox 811, but I'm concerned with the weight. Dry weight says 3376 lbs. If It's like the Lance and their under estimating weight listings, I'm guessing it will be 1000 lbs over that at 4300 lbs.

The Lance Lite 825 lists at 2400 lbs, but mine weighs 3400 lbs loaded.

Anyone weigh their Arctic Fox 811? Thanks!

4180lbs (on a CAT Scale) with a full 50 gallons of water (and a full 6 gallons in the water heater), two batteries, two full 30lb propane tanks, air conditioner, generator, microwave, awning, and everything else that comes in the "Fox Value Package".

I removed the microwave, generator, and air conditioner, as well as replacing the massive but heavy propane cylinders with 18lb composite cylinders to give me some actual payload capacity for Stuff.

I should note that in this configuration, the camper put 140 lbs onto my front axle; the rest was on the rear. Moving water from the fresh water tank to the waste tanks moves weight back.

Removing the heavy Onan generator, which is in the wing at the very back of the camper, helped pivot quite a bit of weight (proportionally) to the front.