New to truck camper world

[getpower1]

Hi all. I just purchased and picked up my truck camper and first rv. Have a strong interest in diesel trucks and I'm a truck driver by trade. I've been lurking here for years and decided to join up. I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions as things pop up in use of this thing. I've had the truck for about a year and I am in love with it. It's a 1997 diesel with a 5-speed and 4x4. Looked for it for a long time to end up with a nice example of what I wanted. I also have an '06 dodge short bed with the diesel.

Camper is a 1994 Caribou. Needs a bath for sure. It's dirty because of the dirt that blows around in the area of where I bought it. Bigger than I wanted for the truck. Was originally looking for an 8' Lance. My friend's elderly neighbor had this for sale because he could no longer drive. He used virtually the same truck to haul it, though his had an auto. Wasn't until after I carefully looked it over and paid him that we got it onto the truck and the first thing I thought was "man, thins thing is huge!"

The two hour drive home was okay. I had previously had a rubber bed mat, and since the gentleman had the same truck, I took his home made camper mounts off his truck and installed them onto mine. Consisted of two separate front mounts bolted to the frame and the inner metal of the bed on each side, and a rear cross bar that goes all the way across with tubes that slide in and pin in with chains. The rear bar is basically clamped to the receiver hitch in two places. I may change both of these mounts at a later time, but the work very well and the camper didn't move an inch, even in heavy wind. The truck was never all over the road or out of control, but there were times when I would hit a hole or series of them on the bad highway I was on and the camper seemed to make the truck moves side to side a lot. This seemed to be quickly fixed by letting off from the go pedal for a second and I would be back into full control. I have ordered a set of airbags and they will be here in a couple of days. After this stuff, I won't very quickly have money to do anything else to the truck, so I hope airbags give me back some stability. I'd like to attribute any problems that I did have due to not being used to a very top heavy load on my pickup, but I know that may not be the end of this.

Hope the photos come through and are sized correctly

Edit, having trouble posting photos from my iPad through photobucket. Will try again tomorrow.

[getpower1]

So, airbags arrived last night. Took the camper off the truck and installed them. They are AirLift brand. Seemed like a good value and the reviews were good. Nice clean setup. I've always got some kind of compressor with me, so I wasn't worried about onboard air. I routed the lines so that the Schrader valves were inside the fuel fill cap. Left one for the left side of the truck and right one for the right. Looks good. Figured that would be the best mounting option too because one, they are right next to each other, and two, I won't be able to get to where the license plate is with the camper on (which was where airlift suggested to mount them.

Obviously haven't gotten the camper back on the truck yet and probably won't for a few weeks. But we did the install at a buddies house and I aired them up to about 30 psi each for the break in and leak tests. Drove it home that way and now with the bags inflated to that much it rides like a dump truck. I've been sick lately so that gave me a headache. Again, no experience with any of this, but the airbags may solve my problem. Will check in once I know to let you all know.

We try to work fast around here, lol.

[zcookiemonstar]

Your truck is almost 20 years old and you springs probably are too. You said it had a big gooseneck hitch in it so you may not know what kind of load was on it most of it's life. I would start at a good spring shop. I think you are going to want to ad at least one leaf to each side before you start adding aftermarket suspension items. From your pics it looks like your front end may be going up when the camper is on it. If you can't get to a scale at least measure the wheel well opening above the front tire with and with out the camper to see if it is going up or down this can have a big effect on your handling.

I have a 2001 ram 2500 ext cab 2wd gas truck. With the stock suspension my truck did not sag as much as yours. My camper weighs 2540 lbs. I do have the camper pkg with the overload spring but when it is just sitting it does not touch. I guess my point is when comparing to mine your springs are either very worn or your camper is a lot heavier than mine I am guessing a little of both.

[Bedlam]

I came home to wind storms and darkness from work today. While all my neighbors are in the dark, I'm watching the news on TV and eating dinner in a warm TC.

[Driftwood132]

X2, sway bar and spring mod or air bags and it will seem all worth it. Have fun with the camper . "grab and go" for the weekend!
Welcome to the forum

[Bedlam]

Once you get things tuned in, those worries will be gone. Remember, now you a portable disaster preparedness shelter that you can keep stocked and keep your family safe. When there are no disasters, you have fun get-away that's ready to go for a weekend at a moments notice.

[getpower1]

Thanks so far all...

I'm going through the buyers remorse right now. Just hope I use the thing enough to make it worth the hassle of storing it and dealing with all of this. I know that once we start camping this winter that it will all come to light. Especially when we get back and literally all we have to do is grab our clothes bags and park the truck for a couple of days and not having to rush to store a trailer to get it off the street and out of the way, not having to unload the whole truck of camping stuff before we can relax...get to sleep in the warmth and not have to worry about heat or rain or packing wet tents up because it's just too wet to stay.

That list could go on and on. I've justified the purchase, now I just have to get over my own mind having bought it already.

[Rbertalotto]

When I had my truck camper I installed air bags, Rancho 9000 shocks, Timberens, etc...The absolute best improvement to the stability was the installation of a Big Wig sway bar in the rear. Dodge Heavy Duty 2500 diesel......Made the truck stop all "wiggling" and now it handles like a Porsche!

[Downwindtracke1]

I think that model of truck might have had a camper special option, which is a thicker sway bar, it's worth checking under trucks at the pick-a-part. Stable Loads are just thicker bump stops, you can work something out without much of an out lay.

Campers of that vintage had 12volt converters designed to work the lights, fridge, pump and heater. None of which required clean power. The converter in my '98 Adventurer only puts out a steady battery boiling 5amps as a charger, so I'm installing a switch . I'm also adding second battery in the truck bed ahead of the wheel well.

Looks good

[getpower1]

True about the tires.

Theoretically speaking, I think when I was rocking that what was happening is the ears on the frame were bouncing on and off of the hard rubber stops which would quickly transfer the load to the other side. Then this kept happening until I let off the throttle and it would settle down and straighten up immediately. Again, theoretically speaking, if I get the truck leveled up and off of the bump stops, this wouldn't happen.

Where this theory can go south is in the case where the bump stops may have been giving me some sort of simulated overload stability. Food for thought.

[mkirsch]

getpower1 wrote:
Edit: forgot to address this. Tires are 10 ply rated for 3750 lbs each at 80psi. So I believe I'm well within the limits of the tires and also with the Dana 80 rear axle.

Excellent. You can still get home with the frame down on the bump stops, but you can't get home if your tires are flat.

Judging by the pictures, no wonder you got to rocking and rolling sometimes.

[woodhog]

The best handling mod we made to our 2004.5 Dodge 3500 was the rear sway
bar.
Then the stable loads.

You can probably easily make that truck a 1 ton 3500 by adding
the helper springs, some years the frame holes were already in them.

On our truck the only difference between 3500 and 2500 was the rear helper springs. Then they stuck the 3500 badge on them..

[Bedlam]

The good news is that your tires and axle will handle the load safely. Now you just need some suspension work to keep it level and reduce sway.

I prefer using springs to suspend the load and bags to do fine adjustment. The airbags on pickups are nothing like the larger equipment models you are used to. If you use these smaller bags with too much pressure, your truck will wallow in all directions.

[getpower1]

Beautiful, thanks. I do believe that I will need some help other than the bags. I haven't taken a confirmed look, but I think it's safe to say that I don't believe my truck has a rear sway bar or overloads on it.

I'll look into the paint. The latches are a little brittle also. I have a feeling they will be hard to replace. These things all sure look sun faded.

[harley4275]

Once you get the sag figured out,look into timbrens or stabilloads if you have leaf springs. Then grab a can of Krylon white spray paint to freshen up the yellowed fridge cover. did mine and made it look great.