Question: too much camper - too little truck

[kenkorona]

Hi folks:
Totally new to campers and truck campers. I replaced my 2007 Tundra with a F350 SRW Shortbed 7.3gas. The camper I bought is an Eagle Cap 811 made by Adventurer.

I live in Maine and bought the camper in Phoenix. Drove there to pick it up and continue for 30 days of camping out west.

It was 7000 miles and 30 days of white knuckle ride. So I'm wondering if anyone else has this combination and if so what their experience is. Should I put on other mods to the suspension to improve the ride and if so what will give the most improvement.

The ride issues are 1) hitting a small dip in the road it bounces so much I'm concerned the camper will become airborne, 2) the tipping left and right especially when cornering feels like I'm going to end up on my side, and 3) the rear is very sagged from the weight so steering is not as responsive as I'd like and my headlights are tilted up so much all the oncoming traffic thinks my Highbeams are on. Having never driven this kind of thing before I'm wondering whether I'm just being wimpy about it all and I just need to get used to it.

My wife can sense the stress in me while I'm driving and she's already suggesting we need to get a smaller camper. Of course I'm wondering whether we need to get a bigger truck. But I'm really hoping that getting some mods to the truck suspension will make the ride tolerable. I'm OK with spending $ for the improvements but want to avoid doing so if it won't make enough improvement.

Any advice?
Ken

[burningman]

The OP also mentioned getting a better truck, and NOTHING you add onto or do to a single rear wheel truck will ever make it drive with a camper on it like a dually will.
That’s a HEAVY camper, and it’s on the wrong truck.
Shortbeds never handle as well as long beds either… their center of gravity never works out as well.

[Bedlam]

My F250 ran H rated tires and rims to give me sufficient rating for the TC and trailer hitched up. There are options, but first thing is to get actual loaded axle weights.

[Supercharged111]

I recently learned about F rated tires, didn't know they were a thing. Could try that as well.

[Grit_dog]

Some of y’all should go back and read the OPs post. This truck is new or almost new, unless he somehow found an “old” 2020 F350 gasser with high miles!

Now just need the OP to participate in the discussion and not get skeered off by the weight police. His camper IS at the upper end of what should be hauled on a srw truck and it won’t behave well without some suspension mods.

[kohldad]

First, load it up like you would for a trip and take it for to the scales. If the axles/tires aren't overloaded, then you can put some mods to it.

Bouncing is caused by warn shocks and heavy rear. Upgrade the shocks and look into some airbags.

Leaning can be lessened by adding a heavy rear sway bar. Depending on the age of the truck, it may not even have one. Make sure your tires are E-rated and inflated to max pressure.

Or you can get a very sweet fine handling unit by upgrading to a dually as has been mentioned.

[Oregun]

Make sure you are not overweight on your tires on the rear axle. Check your tire rating vs the actual weight on that axle. Our F-350 weighs about 7500lbs fully loaded on the rear. Our camper weighs about the same as yours except we have a long bed. We added 19.5 wheels/tires , upper and lower torklifts, rancho 9000 shocks to make it ride better.
We also have the camper package sway bar.

[notsobigjoe]

Supercharged111 wrote:

notsobigjoe wrote:

deserteagle56 wrote:

kenkorona wrote:
Hi folks:
It was 7000 miles and 30 days of white knuckle ride. So I'm wondering if anyone else has this combination and if so what their experience is. Should I put on other mods to the suspension to improve the ride and if so what will give the most improvement.
Any advice?
Ken

I'm sure a lot of other people will chime in here with help. But I had the same experience, only with a long bed truck. Talk about excitement, wait till you experience a blowout on a rear tire with all that weight way up high!

My solution - I bit the bullet and went to a dually pickup. TOTALLY different experience. So much more stable, even with strong crosswinds and freeway speeds. I'm back to being relaxed while driving.

Dually all the way! Mine has a Belltech anti sway bar front and rear, Timbren GMRCK35MA Suspension Enhancement System, Gabriel 43163 Rear Load Carrier an it is rock solid. About $1000 and I installed them. Took me a long time to figure it out but my 1181 loaded is 5000lbs on a Chevy 1996 c3500. My only risk are the cheap Walmart tires but there next... Saving up for some heavy duty Michelins.



I have taken this rig everywhere there is to go on the east coast.

Good to see another GMT400 still hauling a big old camper! I'm jealous as that front Belltech bar is 2wd only.

OP does your leaf pack have the upper overload spring(s)? I know on some older 350 trucks that was optional.

I believe it did before the previous owner lowered it for car shows. At one time it was in show condition but I fixed that...LOL I put an extra leaf spring in the rear to offset the upper springs, it pushes the rear up. In other words I believe it does what the upper springs would have done. It's a big setup but I've had it for so long that I just decided to go all out and spend the money and do it right. As stated above the absolute only sway I have on that vehicle is tires, I'm gonna change that hopefully soon. I'm also taking the booth out sometime and putting some theater seating in it's place. I bought a small Home A/C to mount over the door to run when were sitting at the table I'm hoping it will take care of some of the god awful noise from that thing on the roof. Many many upgrades over the years.

[silverbullet555]

I'm not an expert, but when I put our camper on our SRW short bed truck, I also installed a sway bar followed by helper springs. I already had new Bilstein shocks and tires in Load Range E.

My camper isn't as heavy as yours. If you are looking to keep your truck, get hooked up with Hellwig and install some suspension help as well as new shocks. See how it rides then.

If you want to get a new truck, perhaps a dually, but then I'd also go long bed at the same time.

[Supercharged111]

notsobigjoe wrote:

deserteagle56 wrote:

kenkorona wrote:
Hi folks:
It was 7000 miles and 30 days of white knuckle ride. So I'm wondering if anyone else has this combination and if so what their experience is. Should I put on other mods to the suspension to improve the ride and if so what will give the most improvement.
Any advice?
Ken

I'm sure a lot of other people will chime in here with help. But I had the same experience, only with a long bed truck. Talk about excitement, wait till you experience a blowout on a rear tire with all that weight way up high!

My solution - I bit the bullet and went to a dually pickup. TOTALLY different experience. So much more stable, even with strong crosswinds and freeway speeds. I'm back to being relaxed while driving.

Dually all the way! Mine has a Belltech anti sway bar front and rear, Timbren GMRCK35MA Suspension Enhancement System, Gabriel 43163 Rear Load Carrier an it is rock solid. About $1000 and I installed them. Took me a long time to figure it out but my 1181 loaded is 5000lbs on a Chevy 1996 c3500. My only risk are the cheap Walmart tires but there next... Saving up for some heavy duty Michelins.



I have taken this rig everywhere there is to go on the east coast.

Good to see another GMT400 still hauling a big old camper! I'm jealous as that front Belltech bar is 2wd only.

OP does your leaf pack have the upper overload spring(s)? I know on some older 350 trucks that was optional.

[Buzzcut1]

Alot of the sway is from tire sidewall flex due to a heavy camper on a SRW. I finally went to 19.5 commercial tires on Vision Heavy Hauler wheels and that did the trick. Eventually I got my wife to admit that the Dually I originally wanted was the way to go so now we run a F350 dually

[JimK-NY]

The Eagle Cap is a heavy camper for its length. Depending on accessories, the wet weight, before you add any personal items, could easily be over 4000#. Personal items will almost certainly add another 1000# minimum.

First step is to weigh the rig. As mentioned, you might need to upgrade shocks, but don't count on using HD shocks to fix and overloaded truck. You will need to stiffen the suspension. I have a Ram so I cannot tell you the best fixes for a Ford. Timbrens were all I needed but my rig is much lighter. I would suggest looking at SuperSprings. The cost is not too bad and they will make a huge difference.

[KD4UPL]

First how old are you shocks? Are they the factory originals? Factory shocks are basically **** when new and worse than that in a few years. If you don't have fairly new heavy duty shocks like Bilstein, KYB MonoMax, or Ranch then put some on quick.
What tires are you running? Factory size load range E I hope. The larger the tires the higher the center of gravity and the more sidewall there is to flex. Also, how much air pressure are you running. You likely need to be at max pressure for those tires with that load which should be 80 psi. If you weight the truck, get axle weights, and then consult a tire load inflation chart it may say that 80 psi is too much but I doubt it.
If the truck is lifted or has oversize tires that is likely contributing to your problem.
How do you drive? It's a big heavy truck, not a car. Travel the speed limit or slightly below. Take the yellow speed signs at corners seriously. Take turns and corners slowly. If your trying to drive it like an empty Tundra that's part of your problem as well.

[notsobigjoe]

deserteagle56 wrote:

kenkorona wrote:
Hi folks:
It was 7000 miles and 30 days of white knuckle ride. So I'm wondering if anyone else has this combination and if so what their experience is. Should I put on other mods to the suspension to improve the ride and if so what will give the most improvement.
Any advice?
Ken

I'm sure a lot of other people will chime in here with help. But I had the same experience, only with a long bed truck. Talk about excitement, wait till you experience a blowout on a rear tire with all that weight way up high!

My solution - I bit the bullet and went to a dually pickup. TOTALLY different experience. So much more stable, even with strong crosswinds and freeway speeds. I'm back to being relaxed while driving.

Dually all the way! Mine has a Belltech anti sway bar front and rear, Timbren GMRCK35MA Suspension Enhancement System, Gabriel 43163 Rear Load Carrier an it is rock solid. About $1000 and I installed them. Took me a long time to figure it out but my 1181 loaded is 5000lbs on a Chevy 1996 c3500. My only risk are the cheap Walmart tires but there next... Saving up for some heavy duty Michelins.



I have taken this rig everywhere there is to go on the east coast.

[Grit_dog]

Only took 2 posts to get to “you need a dually”. Lol.
OP if you haven’t done anything to counteract that size camper on a srw truck, as capable as that truck is, it’s going to handle poorly. Both in suspension compression and body roll. Although it’s not that horrible. You’re just not used to it.
Install a heavy rear sway bar and upper and/or lower stable loads, if the rear suspension sag is acceptable where it’s at now. If it’s sagging too much, it’s a combo of stable loads and/or airbags.
Stable loads don’t increase suspension capacity, they engage the overload springs sooner which “might” be all you need. Bags will increase the suspension capacity but be bouncier if you’re not into the overloads some after you air up.

Since you have little experience with hauling heavy loads or suspensions it appears, the concept of what does what and how, is a long winded explanation.
Advice is find someone qualified to explain it to you in person.
Also know that it will never handle like an empty truck. You will still get some body roll and more rebound.

[deserteagle56]

kenkorona wrote:
Hi folks:
It was 7000 miles and 30 days of white knuckle ride. So I'm wondering if anyone else has this combination and if so what their experience is. Should I put on other mods to the suspension to improve the ride and if so what will give the most improvement.
Any advice?
Ken

I'm sure a lot of other people will chime in here with help. But I had the same experience, only with a long bed truck. Talk about excitement, wait till you experience a blowout on a rear tire with all that weight way up high!

My solution - I bit the bullet and went to a dually pickup. TOTALLY different experience. So much more stable, even with strong crosswinds and freeway speeds. I'm back to being relaxed while driving.