Need Advice

If you are over manufacturer’s specs you are courting danger. Being “level” is great but you’re over by a bunch. Lighter camper.

The scales don't lie!
I had the same problem on a previous TC. I upgraded my rims and tires, Drove on the paved smooth highway and was ruthless in leaving 'gear' at home.
Also it may not sit well with your insurers if you were in an incident and you were almost 1005 overloaded

You found out what many have said on here thousands of times, those factory weight labels are not even close to accurate for an actual built weight (1,280 lbs right?). It's probably closer to 1,800 lbs before you added anything inside. Your 150 series truck tires are probably WAY overloaded too. A 250 is really needed.

I’m sure someone has, but based on your post, you are almost double the payload of your truck.. If you are planning on only doing one trip, maybe you’ll be lucky just like the person who drove from Michigan to Yellowstone and back.

As far as can’t afford a F250 goes, there are large variations in prices of diesel vs gasoline. I’m not sure you can afford the wreck by leaving the rig you have. Also, consider a F350. You can go all of the way back to early 2000 and have a very capable gasoline proper sized truck.

The biggest danger you have is tires. They will be fine until they fail. Next, are your brakes. Since you are double the recommended payload, I don’t think it would be unusual for other components to fail as well.

Finally, you are severely limited in what you can carry with you being already way over payload. It doesn’t sound like fun to me.

A couple of things to consider. The vast majority of hardside truck camper carrying SRW trucks you see on the road are over their gvwr. Also, many axles are rated based on the tire/wheel package they originaly came with. The same axle may have a higher gawr on a different truck. You never want to exceed the maximum payload rating of any tire.

BradW wrote:
A couple of things to consider. The vast majority of truck camper carrying SRW trucks you see on the road are over their gvwr. Also, many axles are rated based on the tire/wheel package they originaly came with. The same axle may have a higher gawr on a different truck. You never want to exceed the maximum payload rating of any tire.

This ^^^^^hedging a little on GVWR, not the best idea, going over the RAWR even worse, but going well over tire/wheel ratings, not acceptable!

Jerry

My neighbor has a 2019 GM 1500, with a pop up top, truck camper on it. Loaded, he is likely over some ratings. Here it comes...he also hooks his heavy boat, with tandem axle trailer on truck receiver, and drives 120 miles, up/down hills to the river. Yup, two summers now, works great! :)

Jerry

If I had a half ton truck and wanted a truck camper, I would be looking at a pop up tc, not a hardside.

The first mistake people make is using the camper's dry weight to determine if the vehicle is enough to tow or carry a camper.

ALWAYS use the GVWR of the camper. You may end up with less actual weight, but you won't be overweight.

Years ago, my aunt's then husband overloaded the year axle of their station wagon with firewood. The axle broke on the way home and he was in the hospital lucky to be alive.

Is it worth the risk to "be lucky"?

toedtoes wrote:
The first mistake people make is using the camper's dry weight to determine if the vehicle is enough to tow or carry a camper.

ALWAYS use the GVWR of the camper. You may end up with less actual weight, but you won't be overweight.

Years ago, my aunt's then husband overloaded the year axle of their station wagon with firewood. The axle broke on the way home and he was in the hospital lucky to be alive.

Is it worth the risk to "be lucky"?

Truck campers don't have wheels or a GVWR only the truck that carries them does. They only thing a truck camper has in a MFG weight sticker (before options and gear) listed)