Need Advice

[Originalwingman]

I purchased a 2010 F150 SuperCrew, that calculated to a payload of 1800 lbs.

I purchased a 2018 Travel Lite truck camper that was labeled at 1280 lbs.

I installed the Timken suspension enhancement system because the truck sagged when bringing the camper home.

With the camper and truck fully loaded with my wife, myself, full tank of gas, and all my gear, the truck is perfectly level front to back. No sagging, and seems to handle fine driving.

Now I’m scared because the Cat Scales show that my rear axle is overloaded by 1,140 lbs, and the gross vehicle weight is overloaded by 1,400 lbs.

Has anyone else been traveling with this high of a overloaded vehicle and been ok?

The guy I bought the camper from had the same truck as me and traveled from Michigan to Yellowstone and back without problems.

I need suggestions and help because I can not afford a F250.

Thank you

[BradW]

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

[MFL]

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

[MFL]

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

[BradW]

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.

[jimh406]

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.

[MORSNOW]

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.

[cooldavidt]

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

[Lwiddis]

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