Ordering F-350 7.3 CCLB SRW - how big of camper can I get?

[BeMurda]

My wife and I want to order a single rear wheel 1 ton truck for the primary purpose of truck camping with our 2 year old boy - and we hope we can have a second living child. We are looking to use it for both weekend and longer trips. We live in Northern Canada and the truck will be our second vehicle when the camper is not being used (we will probably leave the camper on over summer and off in the winter except if we drive south). Only one of us will commute which means it's not an everyday car to drive. We would like to stick to single rear wheel based on our conversations. We have never owned a truck before.

Here is the build I have made to try to get max payload with 11,900 GVWR which I think will be above 4,400lbs:

F-350 SuperCrew 4x4 8’ bed Lariat with the following options:
-7.3L gas
-4.30 gears
-Lariat UItimate Package
-Snow Plow / Camper Package
-Skid Plates - Transfer Case and Fuel Tank
-400 Amp dual alternator w/ dual batteries
-LED Roof Clearance Lights


We'd like as much space as possible in a truck camper for a decent used price given the small child and desire to have another. I found a 2010 Lance 950S with a dry weight of 3120lbs. It seems pretty ideal, another option would be an Adventurer 901SB or a used Wolf Creek.

What weight camper could I get with this build? Any advice? Thank you.

[jimh406]

3 tons wrote:
Be advised that this should bring up another important topic - How to jack up the truck and change a rear tire with a heavy loaded camper in the bed…I found that the jack was worthless…

There are multiple solutions. 1. Use the TC jacks to jack up the TC after you undo the tie downs. 2. Buy a larger bottle jack. I carry a 12 ton. The large ones aren't that much more.

I haven't personally had a flat in decades. It seems keeping good quality tires on a vehicle helps. The last time I was driving a forest service road, and they thought it was a good idea to put slicing rocks down as a road base. It went right through the sidewall of my B rated tires. The rocks looked a lot like heads for tomahawks. 😉

It's one of the reasons why I wanted a F450. The tire sidewalls are much heavier duty. YMMV.

[3_tons]

StirCrazy wrote:

mellow wrote:
If you want, I could have my wife call yours and have her relate the story of what happened when our rear tire blew out on our SRW with the camper on the back. Either A. she will want the DRW or B. she will not want a TC.

weird when I blew the rear tire, I had to keep driving a mile, slowly pull over to a safe area and change it.. were back on the road 30 min after I pulled over..

Be advised that this should bring up another important topic - How to jack up the truck and change a rear tire with a heavy loaded camper in the bed…I found that the jack was worthless…

3 tons

[wjlapier]

mellow wrote:
If you want, I could have my wife call yours and have her relate the story of what happened when our rear tire blew out on our SRW with the camper on the back. Either A. she will want the DRW or B. she will not want a TC.

We load 6 8ft railroad ties in the bed for winter. Recently I purchased KO2’s so now this Dually sticks to the road—knock on wood…;)

We’ve been using the railroad ties since we owned a ‘15 GMC 3500 SRW LB.

[BeMurda]

I made the bed length decision quickly. Maximum payload, fuel tank and flexibility.
Order date 12/12/2022
Job 1 / Priority code 10

F-350 Lariat Crew Cab Long Box
Carbonized Grey / Black Onyx
7.3L
4.30 gears
Lariat Ultimate
Camper/Snowplow
FX4
Clearance Lights
Dual Battery / Alternator
Max Recline Seats
???????

[StirCrazy]

mellow wrote:
If you want, I could have my wife call yours and have her relate the story of what happened when our rear tire blew out on our SRW with the camper on the back. Either A. she will want the DRW or B. she will not want a TC.

weird when I blew the rear tire, I had to keep driving a mile, slowly pull over to a safe area and change it.. were back on the road 30 min after I pulled over..

[StirCrazy]

BeMurda wrote:
Update: after much discussion, my wife vetoed dually after I brought one home and parked it on our driveway. Now I am looking at SRW long vs short box. I know long box has bigger gas tank and more camper options, but some campers in the lower weight ranges are built specifically for short box. I lean long box but I need to think further and decide.

I would go long box. All I ever had was shortboxs and my newest truck is a long box, I would never go back. there are lots of light weight campers that fit in a long box, you may not get a generator, but thats not a bad thing to me. if you buying a newer truck you should have a gvrw thats higher than mine and I would have no problem hauling a 3600 lb dry camper in mine. the one I am looking at upgrading to is used by a rv rental company on a SRW truck and they have more regulations and such it is 3500lbs ish. I guess a lot depends on how much junk you put in the camper also.. I only put about 250lbs of junk and clothes, far from the 5-600lbs most people take. My 5th wheel is for the junk.

[jimh406]

Fwiw, my wife didn't want a DRW. She didn't like the looks of one which I agree. It would only have worked for me if I had two vehicles since I couldn't daily drive a DRW where I worked. She also drives the TC. After driving the SRW with TC "once", she said she'd prefer I drive.

However, with the F450 DRW, she takes the TC on multi-hour road trips to swim meets with daughter and her girls. It took one panic stop due to a dumb driver, to take her admiration of the F450 to the next level. Obviously, it's more stable which she noticed immediately even as a passenger.

She also appreciates not really having limits on how many things to bring with us. I explained what we were trading off with a SRW. We had it 8 1/2 years that way. It is doable as long as you realize you need to bring less and not max out water, etc.

Just make sure your wife understands the tradeoffs.

[cptqueeg]

Grit dog wrote:

unforeseen wrote:
Update: after much discussion, my wife vetoed dually after I brought one home and parked it on our driveway. Now I am looking at SRW long vs short box. I know long box has bigger gas tank and more camper options, but some campers in the lower weight ranges are built specifically for short box. I lean long box but I need to think further and decide.

Well, that will dishearten the members who don't believe in multiple considerations at play when choosing a vehicle...lol.

FWIW, there are plenty of shortbed capable full featured hard side "larger" campers. 2 of the 3 you mentioned in the first post are designed to be used on short beds.
That's the next stage of considerations. LB vs SB + and -.

In the roughly 2 years I've been on rv.net it's been pounded in that 3/4 and 1T are about equally capable (a distinction w/out a difference) and 1T SRW is almost as capable as DRW wrt payload. Message received.

Real world includes anticipating the next step or stage, even if unforeseen at the moment. OP, like every one of us, gets into an RV and finds out their real wants and needs. My rec was based on weights, and I'm not ignoring the fact that SRW is capable of hauling a heavy TC, but OP doesn't need the truck to be a daily driver, apparently lives in the middle of nowhere, apparently doesn't have any experience w heavily laden pu's, and is likely to decide he needs a fifth wheel, when they have more kids, wife doesn't like the TC, etc, etc. Having a DRW now eliminates the possibility of having to get another truck forever. BUT the wife controls 1/2 the money and 100% of something else, therefore she must be obeyed. LOL

OP should have parked the DRW off the driveway so her eyes had time to adjust before having that "monster" DWR right in her face.

Now all that said I'd rather have the long wheel base, especially if there is no slide(s).

[terrybk]

Grit dog wrote:
@terrybk, I don’t believe steel wheels (speaking OE vs OE) are rated any higher or stronger than aluminum wheels. Nor do I have a reason to believe that they are weaker.
Fwiw, the 1000s of work trucks I’ve been around for the last 35 years that get the absolute snot beat out of them traditionally were steel wheels as they’re usually base model trucks. Never seen a rim failure yet.

GM said the ratings weren’t high enough on the aluminum wheels they were putting on the 2500 in 2005. Maybe that guy was wrong. According to my docs, aluminum wheels weren’t offered in 2005 on the 3500.

Who knows!

[mellow]

If you want, I could have my wife call yours and have her relate the story of what happened when our rear tire blew out on our SRW with the camper on the back. Either A. she will want the DRW or B. she will not want a TC.

[BeMurda]

mellow wrote:
You gotta admit though, while driving that dually (you dont say which) you felt like you could haul just about anything.....

Actually I spun out on the turn out of the dealership because 2wd was on and it is snowy here and the truck was on A/T tires. Lol.

4wd helped but it didn't feel as planted as my sedan with winter tires, naturally.

[Grit_dog]

BeMurda wrote:

It looks like max Cargo weight per Ford's page will be about 3600lbs vs 3900lbs (I subtracted 100lbs from each for Lariat options) for short box vs long box. The extra cargo capacity of the long box maybe should just point me in that direction. But the short box would be nicer day to day. Either way we won't drive it around town unless we have no choice since only one of us commutes and we have a 2023 Honda Odyssey for that.

That's just the funny math with respect to GVWR. Real world, 2 identical trucks, 1 SB 1 LB have the same everything excpet a longer or shorter frame and different fuel capacity options.

[mellow]

You gotta admit though, while driving that dually (you dont say which) you felt like you could haul just about anything.....

[BeMurda]

Grit dog wrote:

BeMurda wrote:
Update: after much discussion, my wife vetoed dually after I brought one home and parked it on our driveway. Now I am looking at SRW long vs short box. I know long box has bigger gas tank and more camper options, but some campers in the lower weight ranges are built specifically for short box. I lean long box but I need to think further and decide.

Well, that will dishearten the members who don't believe in multiple considerations at play when choosing a vehicle...lol.

FWIW, there are plenty of shortbed capable full featured hard side "larger" campers. 2 of the 3 you mentioned in the first post are designed to be used on short beds.
That's the next stage of considerations. LB vs SB + and -.

It looks like max Cargo weight per Ford's page will be about 3600lbs vs 3900lbs (I subtracted 100lbs from each for Lariat options) for short box vs long box. The extra cargo capacity of the long box maybe should just point me in that direction. But the short box would be nicer day to day. Either way we won't drive it around town unless we have no choice since only one of us commutes and we have a 2023 Honda Odyssey for that.

[Grit_dog]

BeMurda wrote:
Update: after much discussion, my wife vetoed dually after I brought one home and parked it on our driveway. Now I am looking at SRW long vs short box. I know long box has bigger gas tank and more camper options, but some campers in the lower weight ranges are built specifically for short box. I lean long box but I need to think further and decide.

Well, that will dishearten the members who don't believe in multiple considerations at play when choosing a vehicle...lol.

FWIW, there are plenty of shortbed capable full featured hard side "larger" campers. 2 of the 3 you mentioned in the first post are designed to be used on short beds.
That's the next stage of considerations. LB vs SB + and -.