"Slide in truck camper not recommended for this truck"

[Royals_Fan]

So digging through my owners manual of my 1997 F-250 HD I found a paper that said not recommended for truck camper???? Anyone know wht thats all about?

[WVbassmistress]

We got the "truck camper option" with our F250. The more I think about it, it was just to get the "certificate" as a legal protection (not sure if for them or me)

[mkirsch]

It's a 1997 truck. Well out of warranty. Put whatever you want in the bed.

It says "not recommended," which is not an absolute term in legalese. Even if the truck were brand spanking new putting a camper on it wouldn't affect the warranty.

That truck will easily handle 2500lbs in the bed all day every day, which puts you in a pretty nice 8-9' hardside camper with all the basics for civilized life.

[towpro]

Wayne, would love to see that link if you ever find it.
PS: my Dodge is also an 8' bed.

[Royals_Fan]

Tamnative wrote:
More info would be nice,as 2wd,4wd ,diesel ,gas weight of camper that you want to carry. I had a 97 F-250 4x4 diesel excab that I put a Lance 835 on and it carried it great. Stopped great,drove around curvy mountain roads great, had plenty of power on the grades and was a great overall truck.I only sold it because I needed a Bigger truck. It never would have occured to me that it was not recommended to haul a camper. I used to haul pallets of cement with that truck all day,I think that is about 3500 lbs.?

.......Its a reg cab gasser long bed.

[Reddog1]

Has nothing to do with payload capacity. It has to do with center of gravity. It is my understanding, and I may be corrected, the manufactures base the center of gravity on a 8-foot TC. They give no consideration for TCs manufactured for a six foot bed.

I usually do not post something like this without a link to a source. I thought I bookmarked the site, but I cannot find it. I stumbled across a list of Dodge trucks from Dodge that showed which trucks were and were not recommended for TCs. I saw no truck bed less than 8-feet with approval of a TC. I am willing to bet, this is also true of Ford and GM.


Wayne

[Tamnative]

More info would be nice,as 2wd,4wd ,diesel ,gas weight of camper that you want to carry. I had a 97 F-250 4x4 diesel excab that I put a Lance 835 on and it carried it great. Stopped great,drove around curvy mountain roads great, had plenty of power on the grades and was a great overall truck.I only sold it because I needed a Bigger truck. It never would have occured to me that it was not recommended to haul a camper. I used to haul pallets of cement with that truck all day,I think that is about 3500 lbs.?

[trail-explorer]

kknowlton wrote:
Probably has to do with payload capacity of the truck.

Yep.

[campn4walleye]

When taking delivery of our new 3500 DRW, I was looking it over while DH was chatting with the dealer, I found that exact statement in the glove box.

Everything went on hold until I conferred with this forum. After all, the reason for the DRW was to haul a heavy TC.

It was suggested that the paper was CYA for the auto companies. We tried to get info from Dodge, to no avail.

It did create some excitement as we were trading a perfectly wonderful 3500 SRW for a DRW for the purpose of hauling the TC.

We too have the snow plow pkg. They don't want you plowing with a TC on. Who does this?

[towpro]

my 2015 Ram 3500 dually, 14K GVW 4x4 came with that same slip of paper.
before I bought it I checked the Ram body builders site and it said my truck is good for almost 5K lbs camper.

others here think it has something to do with the snow plow package (which is a skid plate?)

Even though "its not recommended", it works perfect with my little Wolf Creek. couple more weeks I will have the camper loaded again to see how the Big Wig works out :).

I take that "not recommended" as not a warning about certain destruction or warranty expiring action if I carry a camper, just that they "are not recommending I put a camper in it"

[JumboJet]

With the proper equipment it will haul about any 8' truck camper made.

[Old-Biscuit]

Doesn't have the payload for a slide in camper.
Doesn't have the front/rear spring capacity for slide in camper
Doesn't have the proper center-of-gravity data

And no Slide-in camper certification

[kknowlton]

Probably has to do with payload capacity of the truck.