More noob questions

[fred_garvin]

Greetings all,

I recently purchased a 2002 ford 4x4 f 250 super duty with dual bilstiens with struts in the front and airlift bags and bilstiens out back. The truck has some lift to it. I will be hauling a 1999 Hallmark Hamilton hardside (discontinued) at about 2500 plus lbs. It has new BFG's mud terrains, D rated on aliminum wheels. Screw type turn buckles are part of the purchase that will attach to the torklift system.
1- should the spring kit be purchased to use with the buckles? How should one determine the correct tension?

2- How would one determine if the sway bar will be required with the higher c of g? Drive without, then buy and see if there is a difference?

3- Air pressure suggestions?

More questions to follow, but this should get me in the right direction.

Thanks. I hope to contribute to this forum in thr future.

[fred_garvin]

More fuel for the fire:

The Hamilton form Hallmark is discontinued. I asked the current owner to call and find out the empty weight. They told him about 2400lbs dry.I could not read the number on the placard because it was sort of worn away. What I did see I think was in kgs. I will call myself and get an answer.
Truck wt. with me (183lbs.) and a full tank- 6750
Front axle- 4400lbs.
rear axle-6040lbs.
GVW-8800lbs.
Max tire load- 3986 at 80psi.

Sounds like 80psi will be required because of the weight.

Thanks for the response. I will post more latter.

[Sparky87k5]

When I first bought my 05 Eagle Cap 850 non-slide I carried it on my 04 F250 4x4 extended cab shortbox with a 1.5" lift, Billstein shocks and 35" tires. Camper weighed 2900 empty and 36-3700 loaded. I had airbags installed and it seemed OK at best. After a 7000 mile trip around the country over 7 weeks I sold the truck and bought a 2000 F350 4x4 DRW long box and have never looked back.

[twodownzero]

whizbang wrote:
The weight of the camper is the thing. My 2003 F350 was crushed by a 2900# dry weight camper. Fully loaded, the camper, gear and passengers weighed 4000#.

I ended up with a 11,400 pound truck/camper combo. My GVWR was 10,000.

Yes, I had air bags, Rancho 9000's, a sway bar, and 19.5 tires. It drove like******and I wouldn't do it again.

My current camper is right at the Trucks GVWR. It drives great. Find out what the camper weighs and take your truck to a scale and post the results.

Yep. That's why I have a 2100 lb camper with my SRW 1 ton...and even then I'm on the ragged edge.

If I had it to do all over again, I would get a DRW truck right out of the gate.

[whizbang]

duplicate... ooops.

[whizbang]

The weight of the camper is the thing. My 2003 F350 was crushed by a 2900# dry weight camper. Fully loaded, the camper, gear and passengers weighed 4000#.

I ended up with a 11,400 pound truck/camper combo. My GVWR was 10,000.

Yes, I had air bags, Rancho 9000's, a sway bar, and 19.5 tires. It drove like******and I wouldn't do it again.

My current camper is right at the Trucks GVWR. It drives great. Find out what the camper weighs and take your truck to a scale and post the results.

[twodownzero]

You really should strongly consider replacing your tires with E rated tires. A 2500 lb camper is going to significantly overload your GVWR and while the D rated tires may be within the limit on the sidewall to support loading your truck to its GVWR, they only take 65 PSI. I think a bit of reading around here would find that nobody here would take off down the road fully loaded with only 65 PSI in their tires if the tires would take 80.

A 3/4 or 1 ton truck should only have E rated tires installed. I don't know why tire manufacturers even bother to make D rated tires in the sizes that are common for 3/4 and 1 ton trucks. D rated tires are fine for a 1/2 ton hauling a pop up camper. They really don't have any place on a 3/4 or 1 ton truck.

For the record, I have a single wheel 1 ton and it's pretty unlikely that I could succeed in loading a 2500 lb camper on it, taking the gf and dogs, and loading all of my stuff in it and not overloading it (it has approximately 2800 lbs of payload remaining with a full tank of diesel). A 3/4 ton truck has 1100 lbs less capacity than a 1 ton SRW of the same year. That's not to say that the numbers on the door are everything, but keep in mind that your camper is heavy enough that you're going to be overloaded by quite a ways before you even put anything in your camper.

I don't think the lift is really a big deal unless your truck is lifted really high, so I wouldn't worry about that. The air bags will help with leveling it as well (because your back springs are going to be maxed out, especially if you don't have overloads). Tires, however, are a very big deal. The good news is that if your truck will take 16s, there are a ton of E rated 16" tires that will take ~3400 lbs IIRC.

[tonymull]

The problem with a lifted truck is that your jacks have to be cranked up higher to load and unload the camper. That won't change with a hardside vs popup. There are jack extenders but most of us get nervous as the jacks go up and up. Not sure if that is just mental or not.

[fred_garvin]

Thanks for the quick response. I forgot to ask about air bag pressures (use enough to keep it level?) and opinions on carring a hard side on a lifted truck. Since I have not picked it up yet, I am still open to considering a pop up in it's place even taking into consideration the pro's and con's of both. A safer driving expirence should trump the advantages of a hard side. I am open to suggestions. Thanks

[Bedlam]

Take the truck to scales to see what your front and rear axle weights are once you load up the camper and add water. At that point you will see whether the current tires can the load and will be able to get an idea of ideal pressure based on loading charts available from your tire manufacturer.

I would hold off on suspension changes until you get a chance to drive it loaded and give us some feedback.

[exhaustipated]

Just as 805gregg says, drive it first and see if you need any adjustments. I doubt if you'll have to do much of anything.

[805gregg]

Drive it first then adjust as needed