Planning Upgrade

[unpaulie]

Looking at Lance 855s campers as my Lance 650 lacks some storage and tank capacity. I am also going to have to get a bigger truck but would like to stay with single rear wheel. Can anyone share there setup with a single rear wheel.

TIA.

[burningman]

You don’t “need” a dually to haul a camper. However, they work better and safer, and don’t need 19.5s.
Plus, a rear flat doesn’t immediately stop you. That’s why we don’t run those super-singles on the big-trucks at work.

[Grit_dog]

^ You don't have to wonder how the F load LT tires are. They're no heavier than comparable E load tires, just a bit different size. Mostly fat tires that didn't have as high of load index in E load.
Actually the similar height and narrower E tires are rated a bit higher than fatter F loads. Still LT tires not med duty.
19.5s are still stiffer than the F tires.

[Cabman_850]

Good to hear, especially with the 295 tires you are running. Wish I had the money to test Method wheels with F rated Toyo tires to see the difference between those and my current setup. (19.5 Toyo/Vision wheels).I had a Wolf Creek camper before my current one and ran 295's and there was a lot of sway. I now have the 19.5 G rated Toyo M920 tires with the 5k Airlift bags and there is a noticeable difference in the sway, (much less) I drove with our old truck camper and the 19.5's for a 1000 miles to trade in for our current camper and there was no sway at all with the lighter camper, VERY little with the new Arctic Fox.

[otrfun]

Cabman 850 wrote:
. . . I now get a big kick out of people who say you need a DRW to haul a 4500lb. camper. I have 2,500 miles on a SRW with 19.5's and I can tell you that so far it is a dream to drive, but haven't been in 40 mph winds just yet, so maybe I will be proven wrong.

Back in mid-May, we were driving west on I40, between Needles and Barstow. Winds were a steady 25-30 mph, with gusts over 50 mph. We were driving a '16 Ram 3500 SRW (Air Lift 5000 bags, Roadmaster sway bar, LT295/70/18 Michelins) with a NL 8-11 on-board. Occasionally the wind gusts were forceful enough to momentarily pop the upper part of my door away from the weatherstipping. There was also some distinct, momentary rocking during the higher wind gusts, but it required very little steering correction. Bottom line, I was pleasantly surprised how stable everything was.

[Cabman_850]

EricCO wrote:

Cabman 850 wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:

19.5 conversion will not come without price tag.

I have 2,500 miles on a SRW with 19.5's and I can tell you that so far it is a dream to drive, but haven't been in 40 mph winds just yet, so maybe I will be proven wrong.

I've pulled over twice this year due to thunderstorms making it feel like I was being pushed off the road and/or my wheels were coming off the ground.

So you may be a little like me, ...there is no bad weather, just poor clothing... and tire choices! Just got back from Platoro Reservoir.

[EricCO]

Cabman 850 wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:

19.5 conversion will not come without price tag.

I have 2,500 miles on a SRW with 19.5's and I can tell you that so far it is a dream to drive, but haven't been in 40 mph winds just yet, so maybe I will be proven wrong.

I've pulled over twice this year due to thunderstorms making it feel like I was being pushed off the road and/or my wheels were coming off the ground.

[Grit_dog]

My setup is in my signature line and it's as heavy or heavier than a 855 S.
It works as do the thousands of others out there.
Many on here will tell you that you need a dually no matter what and that they love driving them thru the Starbucks drive thru no problemo.

[Cabman_850]

Kayteg1 wrote:

19.5 conversion will not come without price tag.

This is very true for a daily driver, especially if you drive back roads without the weight of the camper, you will get beat to death.
I now get a big kick out of people who say you need a DRW to haul a 4500lb. camper. I have 2,500 miles on a SRW with 19.5's and I can tell you that so far it is a dream to drive, but haven't been in 40 mph winds just yet, so maybe I will be proven wrong.

[jimh406]

Not exactly the way parking a SRW works. Because with a SRW, you can cheat to one side of the space. You also can back in. Also many times at an end space, you can open the door just fine. Reality is that a DRW wouldn’t have worked for me where I had to park the SRW. Later, even a SRW wouldn’t fit due to length, so I bought a car and traded the SRW on a DRW. So, even a SRW has limitations.

[burningman]

I daily drive my dually pickup.
I agree, length is generally the issue rather than width, your mirrors are already wider than the dually fenders anyway.
If that’s the only thing stopping you from getting the truck that’s by far best suited to carrying bigger campers, I’d say don’t worry about that it’s pretty much a non-issue.
If it won’t fit in a space, you probably weren’t gonna be able to get your doors open and get out of a SRW anyway.

[jimh406]

I carried my double slide 9 1/2 ft camper on a 2006 SRW Ford Supercab. I watched how much water I carried and kept the weight of the extra items that I carried as low as possible. Since 2005 or so, SRW Fords have had payloads of over 4000 lbs.

I added Vision 19.5s for extra tire load capacity, Rancho 9000s, air bags, and Energy Suspension bump stops to engage the overloads after using the air bags to level the camper. It handled the 3571 dry weight camper pretty well.

Of course, my F450 DRW handles it better and I no longer have to worry about carrying a full tank of water. We also can carry whatever we want.

Normal guidance applies though, find the TC and then decide what truck you need to haul it. You should be able to carry most 8 ft - 8 1/2 ft TCs pretty well on a SRW as long as you understand your limitations.

[Kayteg1]

Per my experience there is minimal penalty for driving dually v/s SRW.
My dually empty mpg go over 17 mpg at freeway speeds, but the short drives on 35 mph highways usually show mpg in 30's.
Highest penalty is parking at crowded parking spot, but usually length is bigger penalty than width.
So why limit your vacations camping experience for minimal gain on daily driving?
19.5 conversion will not come without price tag.

[unpaulie]

SRW because it is also my daily driver.

[Kayteg1]

You are planning to get new truck and new, bigger TC, yet you want SRW ? :S