Question for the guy's with duallies and big campers

[husky390]

This is purely subjective but eventually I want to upgrade from an F250 with a pop up camper to a hard sided camper. Something similar to an Arctic Fox 1150.

For you guy's with campers that size and duallies, how much body sway do you feel when driving down the road?

Do any of you haul that size camper with a gas engine?

Do any of you tow?

[jimh406]

Bedlam wrote:
is this a sign a I need a DRW?

Only if you were doing > 70 mph. 😉

[Bedlam]

is this a sign a I need a DRW?

[jimh406]

JumboJet wrote:
My new to me DRW (I am now an instant DRW expert BTW - thanks Sleepy) does a great job. The DRW does the job I purchased it for when I hook up the gooseneck and tow my Case 450B dozer.

Obviously, your new expertise invalidates your previous experience with SRWs. Just forget it. 😉

[JumboJet]

I saw a person pulling a light weight 18-20' camper trailer the other day with a DRW. I said to myself that some camper dealer told him he needed that dually to pull that camper!

A 3500 SRW with proper equipment can carry some rather large TCs safely. How would I know - I did it for 8 years and thousands of miles.

My new to me DRW (I am now an instant DRW expert BTW - thanks Sleepy) does a great job. The DRW does the job I purchased it for when I hook up the gooseneck and tow my Case 450B dozer.

[work2fish]

thejustin wrote:
I read some of these posts and just shake my head. People talking about 75-80+ mph with their camper.

Sparky87k5 wrote:
I too shake my head at the thought of doing 80mph hauling a camper.:h

sleepy wrote:
All it takes is 76 mph to have Hurricane Force Winds on the front of our truck campers

Who said anything about 75-80?

I'm driving 90mph with an SRW and low profile popup, on a straight road through a Colorado hurricane. It's not like it is an 1161 being hauled by a big heavy dually or something similarly unsafe like that...:p

[3_tons]

sleepy wrote:



It's a funny thing... just a year or so ago you'd have a guy saying no one needs a dually... then after he gets one he becomes an instant expert...

Good luck,

Sleepy

Yep, Pretty comical, especially after such stern contrarian admonishments! But glad to see now, a true believer and yet another redeeming testimonial for DRW :)!!.... I'm not to suggest that everyone requires a DRW, but the empirical 'hands on' difference is by no means imaginary...

Best Regards,

3 tons

[campn4walleye]

Our TC weighs about 4600 lbs wet. We tow an 18.5 ft boat. We have very little sway unless it's windy. We are toying with the idea of adding Torklift stable loads.

We're not sure if the sway is bad enough to worry over or if it's just normal movement. This is only our 3rd TC season and we're always learning. Our truck as you can see in our sig is diesel. We have plenty of power for the load.

DH never goes above 60mph and usually keeps it at 55. We travel many rural roads and that's the limit here anyway. We average about 12 mpg when loaded with TC and boat. We use a Torklift Superhitch for the boat as our TC extends beyond the back of the truck.

[jimh406]

I just have to wonder why some people try so hard to prove there is only one answer, and more importantly, there is only one question. It is good for some entertainment value from time to time. 😉

[CAJW]

The AF996 loaded on the rig in my signature works like a charm. We can handle mountain turns at the posted speeds without any white knuckle handling characteristics. The Hellwig Big Wig sway bar was a great help and towing up steep grades with a 14' trailer still yields about 11-12 mpg. Custom built camper guides bolted to the bed keep the 996 where it's supposed to be. Out on the open road cruising about 65 will give us around 14-15 and crosswinds haven't been an issue.

[sleepy]

Sparky87k5 wrote:

thejustin wrote:
I read some of these posts and just shake my head. People talking about 75-80+ mph with their camper.

I couldn't imagine why anyone would try hauling a camper on the back of a pick up truck and exceed 70mph. The stress imposed on the tie downs and attachment points would be very high and the possibility of creating a situation that could have far reaching affects would be high as well. I too shake my head at the thought of doing 80mph hauling a camper.:h

Now driving 80-100mph in my Volvo or BMW makes perfect sense to me.;)

A note to Mr OP and Mr Sparky...

One of our intellegent members, Silversand, made a statement to me that most of us never think about.

All it takes is 76 mph to have Hurricane Force Winds on the front of our truck campers

We have all seen pictures of hurricane damage to property and some of us have been in one. My family and I had Hurricane Agnus hit us at Maderia Beach, FL in about 1972 (Between Clearwater and St Pete) we moved inland to Temple Terrace and had the back side pass over us again, We were in our home made cabover truck camper. That was Mr Toads wild ride... a lot worse than Disney.

As Silversand pointed out to me.. my truck camper has more than 70,000 miles on it so a lot of other peoples do too. I normally drive at 58 to 60 mph... well below the 76 mph Hurrican forces hitting our frontal area...

... that is unless we are driving into a strong wind.... adding that wind speed to our truck speed gets the impact above 76 mph.

Another thing... roads and highways all over North America are in pretty rough shape... who hasn't hit bad potholes and pacement breaks?

Of course we hit a bird occasionally... at high speed they can punch a hole or at least crack the campers skin.

Is it any wonder that we wear out our camper bodies? Vibrate out screws, lose a vent cover or at least crack them...

Over the last 44 years I have slowed down... my camper and truck are lasting longer (at least over many more miles) and my 15.1 mpg makes me proud.

==================

As far as getting a truck for your camper:

Buy the camper first. Then you'll know what you need to haul it.
Then buy the truck you need to haul it. You won't have to spend $5000 on special wheels, tires, chips, sway bars,etc... you won't be adding their weight, and the extra maintaince.

I do have a large TC... we picked it out. We knew that our 3/4 ton Chev wouldn't make it home with it loaded.

Lance wouldn't sell the 1191 or the 1181 to anyone without a 1 ton dually.

After carefully evaluating the possible trucks: We knew that I wanted trouble free... the Duramax/Allison didn't need a trouble prone chip. The GMC duallys didn't need oversized wheels or tires. We spent the money others were spending getting a truck beefed up enough to haul their campers on a nice crewcab with heated leather seats.

The Lance struts took care of porporsing and wind sway... the one ton suspension took car of cornering.

I ordered the truck with one modification... Air Bags, to balance the load a little here and there if the waste tasnks or something caused an imbalance... turns our... I could have don without them too.

It's a funny thing... just a year or so ago you'd have a guy saying no one needs a dually... then after he gets one he becomes an instant expert. It has taken me 44 years to get this far and I'm happy with my choices. thanks to moving slow and getting unbiased advice from a lot of people that have a lot or real world experience..

My only advice to you.... choose the truck camper before you buy a truck... trade off your old truck instead of trying to make a super truck out of somthing less (the weakest point always is!)

Good luck,

Sleepy

[jimh406]

I'm not sure why 70 is a limit. It depends on the rig. There are some combos that are unstable at 60.

[Harleybullet]

Ram dually diesel with 1150 AF......no sway and drives better with the camper then without. MPG anywhere from 11 to 15.5 depending on speed and terrain... go for it.

Dave

[rickeoni]

Driving that fast makes the fuel gauge needle move at warp speed as well.

[husky390]

I wish I could get up to 70mph in my current rig. 🙂

[Sparky87k5]

thejustin wrote:
I read some of these posts and just shake my head. People talking about 75-80+ mph with their camper.

I couldn't imagine why anyone would try hauling a camper on the back of a pick up truck and exceed 70mph. The stress imposed on the tie downs and attachment points would be very high and the possibility of creating a situation that could have far reaching affects would be high as well. I too shake my head at the thought of doing 80mph hauling a camper.:h

Now driving 80-100mph in my Volvo or BMW makes perfect sense to me.;)