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

[Grit_dog]

cptqueeg wrote:

kenkorona wrote:
The truck is rated for a 4400# payload. Considering I removed a 100# tailgate that gives me a 4500# payload. The camper is supposed to be about 3400# with a full fresh water tank. So I'm guessing, fully loaded we're close to the limit, maybe a little over when the gray and black tanks are full.

Your description in the first post suggests that the actual weight is not anywhere close to the actual payload.

If you were speaking from actual experience and not piling on as weight cop #19 in this thread, you could easily surmise that the OPs first post suggests exactly that. He nailed the handling characteristics of a 2+ ton TC on a stock srw truck pretty much to a tee.
It will handle way different with the mods he’s installing.
But thanks for playing….

[n0arp]

specta wrote:

n0arp wrote:

I found a DIY livestock scale kit online for $229 (aascales.com, I believe?) and bolted it all to a 14x16x3/4" plate of aluminum.

That is awesome. Never a question and you can weigh it any time you want.

I love being able to take my time and get corner weights of everything (camper, truck, truck+camper, fifth wheel axles, fifth wheel pin, Jeep, friend's rigs, etc) and be able to better balance everything. I don't feel comfortable taking much time at CAT scales, when truckers who need them to make a living are waiting - so I just run across them in a hurry, get loaded front/rear/trailer only, and move on to free them up.

[specta]

n0arp wrote:

I found a DIY livestock scale kit online for $229 (aascales.com, I believe?) and bolted it all to a 14x16x3/4" plate of aluminum.

That is awesome. Never a question and you can weigh it any time you want.

[n0arp]

specta wrote:

n0arp wrote:

specta wrote:
I had the truck, bought the camper.
Weighted the truck on a Cat Scale just a few blocks from where I bought the camper.
Weighed it again after loading the camper.
Weighed it again after it was fully loaded with everything.
Weighed it again with my trailer and ATV and extra other stuff.
I weighed it on a DOT weigh station scale Friday morning after spending 4 days 3 nights in it prior to draining black or gray tanks.
Yep, its heavy. :B

I know exactly what my rig weighs, as I built a $300 wheel scale that weighs up to 20K and have confirmed with CAT.
I don't openly discuss the weight of my TC setup, because I'm over factory ratings and that can get heated.
It handles way better and predictably than it did the day I brought it home (when it was much lighter, and under the factory ratings) so I don't consider it an issue.

Home scales would be awesome.
And yes, there are too many "police" here in the forum. 😉

I found a DIY livestock scale kit online for $229 (aascales.com, I believe?) and bolted it all to a 14x16x3/4" plate of aluminum.

[specta]

n0arp wrote:

specta wrote:
I had the truck, bought the camper.
Weighted the truck on a Cat Scale just a few blocks from where I bought the camper.
Weighed it again after loading the camper.
Weighed it again after it was fully loaded with everything.
Weighed it again with my trailer and ATV and extra other stuff.
I weighed it on a DOT weigh station scale Friday morning after spending 4 days 3 nights in it prior to draining black or gray tanks.
Yep, its heavy. :B

I know exactly what my rig weighs, as I built a $300 wheel scale that weighs up to 20K and have confirmed with CAT.
I don't openly discuss the weight of my TC setup, because I'm over factory ratings and that can get heated.
It handles way better and predictably than it did the day I brought it home (when it was much lighter, and under the factory ratings) so I don't consider it an issue.

Home scales would be awesome.
I have to rely on cat scales and weigh stations.

And yes, there are too many "police" here in the forum. 😉

Here in Utah there are Loves fueling station all over the place and they all have Cat Scales and its only $11 to weigh my rig. Money well spent in my opinion.

[n0arp]

specta wrote:
I had the truck, bought the camper.
Weighted the truck on a Cat Scale just a few blocks from where I bought the camper.
Weighed it again after loading the camper.
Weighed it again after it was fully loaded with everything.
Weighed it again with my trailer and ATV and extra other stuff.
I weighed it on a DOT weigh station scale Friday morning after spending 4 days 3 nights in it prior to draining black or gray tanks.
Yep, its heavy. :B

I know exactly what my rig weighs, as I built a $300 wheel scale that weighs up to 20K and have confirmed with CAT.
I don't openly discuss the weight of my TC setup, because I'm over factory ratings and that can get heated.
It handles way better and predictably than it did the day I brought it home (when it was much lighter, and under the factory ratings) so I don't consider it an issue.

[Grit_dog]

kenkorona wrote:
Suppose you refill the fresh but don't empty the black and gray?

Your truck won’t automatically break at 200, 500 or even 1000lbs over capacity.
It may handle a little different. You might feel it or you might have to try hard to notice.

[specta]

I had the truck, bought the camper.
Weighted the truck on a Cat Scale just a few blocks from where I bought the camper.
Weighed it again after loading the camper.
Weighed it again after it was fully loaded with everything.
Weighed it again with my trailer and ATV and extra other stuff.
I weighed it on a DOT weigh station scale Friday morning after spending 4 days 3 nights in it prior to draining black or gray tanks.
Yep, its heavy. :B

[cptqueeg]

kenkorona wrote:
The truck is rated for a 4400# payload. Considering I removed a 100# tailgate that gives me a 4500# payload. The camper is supposed to be about 3400# with a full fresh water tank. So I'm guessing, fully loaded we're close to the limit, maybe a little over when the gray and black tanks are full.

Your description in the first post suggests that the actual weight is not anywhere close to the actual payload.

[JimK-NY]

kenkorona wrote:
The truck is rated for a 4400# payload. Considering I removed a 100# tailgate that gives me a 4500# payload. The camper is supposed to be about 3400# with a full fresh water tank. So I'm guessing, fully loaded we're close to the limit, maybe a little over when the gray and black tanks are full.

That sounds very familiar. When I got my truck and camper, I started with the manufacturer's sticker weight for my camper. I did a thorough job of estimating the weight of everything we would carry and decided I was within the tire load ratings.

Finally I weighed the unit and found out I was way over. It seems the manufacturer had not included the two AGM batteries or solar panels. It appears my estimates for other stuff were also too low.

Forget about the weight of the tailgate. You probably made that up with Torqlifts, fastguns and a bed mat.

[kenkorona]

Suppose you refill the fresh but don't empty the black and gray?

[S_Davis]

One thing I will say is don’t try and use the truck unloaded with those 3500lb helpers unless you have a kidney donor lined up. I ran a set of those for a couple years until I replaced the truck.

[specta]

kenkorona wrote:
maybe a little over when the gray and black tanks are full.

Isn't that just the water from the FW tank?

[kenkorona]

The truck is rated for a 4400# payload. Considering I removed a 100# tailgate that gives me a 4500# payload. The camper is supposed to be about 3400# with a full fresh water tank. So I'm guessing, fully loaded we're close to the limit, maybe a little over when the gray and black tanks are full.