Recommended camper for 2500 truck

ticki2 wrote:

spacedoutbob wrote:
A friend of mine has a 2008 Lance 825 on his 2007 Dodge Quad Cab. His truck has the 6 speed also, he gets about 22 mpg pulling the camper. Check into that setup.

Bob in Calif.

That's incredible , 22mpg loaded . What the heck does he get empty ?

Instead of filling up he probably has to drain out some excess fuel after driving awhile without a camper!


:B

Recommendation for a camper on a 2 series short bed truck? That's easy: any of the campers designed for and recommended for a 1 series short bed truck.
jefe

I like the 825 a lot. I would upgrade your tires if you don't already have high enough rated ones. Try Torklift stableloads to start. Go to a sway bar next if needed.

OP/ Don & Carolyn: Did you get the PM I sent you?

You asked us to let you know how we liked the Lance 825. We looked at it at a local dealer. We loved it. A few other campers on the Buyers Guide list look great from their web sites.

Our major problem is that the door sticker on the truck says 2041 pounds, so we would definitely have to make some modifications to the truck, such as better springs, before we can consider a camper.

Let us know how you liked that 825 . A Wolf Creek might work for you or maybe a North Star. Those are all really nice and reasonably light.

twodownzero wrote:

bcbouy wrote:
how conservative of a weight rating as opposed to the actual safe load capability do you guys think the truck manufacturers recommend? 20% ? more? less? you know they leave themselves wiggle room.

They actually don't leave themselves any because the engineering factor is calculated into the rating on the tires.

Agree. Tire rating but more importantly wheel rating also.

bcbouy wrote:
how conservative of a weight rating as opposed to the actual safe load capability do you guys think the truck manufacturers recommend? 20% ? more? less? you know they leave themselves wiggle room.

They actually don't leave themselves any because the engineering factor is calculated into the rating on the tires.

how conservative of a weight rating as opposed to the actual safe load capability do you guys think the truck manufacturers recommend? 20% ? more? less? you know they leave themselves wiggle room.

wintersun wrote:

NautiqueFamily wrote:
Look on the door sill of the driver's side....

There resides the capacity sticker. On it, you will see the payload capacity for your particular truck. There is some debate whether that is max or you can fudge it some with wheels, etc.....

The bottomline is stay in the range of what that sticker says - NOT the dealer at the truck place nor the camper place.... they are notoriously wrong with payload capacities and safety regarding overloading.

Start with the capacity on the door sill..........

Sorry but this is garbage. All the truck manufacturers calculate a payload figure based on how the truck is configured when it left the factory and based on the weakest link. The weakest link is always the tires which can be easily replaced, followed by the leaf springs which can be upgraded even more easily.

The manufacturers also subtract 160 lbs. per passenger seat from the payload. Look at the payload ratings for the same truck with a regular cab and one with a crew cab and you will find that the crew cab itself adds 200 lbs. of weight by the payload rating is reduced by far more, to compensate for the "passengers".

All 2500 trucks built today have rear axles and wheel bearings rated for over 9,000 lbs. and the rear of the truck is less than 3500 lbs. so the maximum load that can be carried (without swapping out axles) is 5500 lbs. and this may require going to new tires or adding Supersprings but this is not a big deal or even all the expensive.

I upgraded the factory springs on my 2500 truck with Supersprings for $450 and for another $500 I replaced the factory tires rated at 3195@80 PSI (or 6390 lbs. in total) with ones rated at 3750@80 PSI.

Stock truck and every seat in the cab filled with a passenger then go by the manufacturers' payload ratings. But there is no reason not to spend $1000 and gain 1000 lbs. or more in payload capacity.

Thousands of people have been doing this with their pickup trucks for at least half a century but there are still many individuals who remain ignorant and think that you cannot modify a vehicle after it has left the factory.

View my profile... Truck with mods. 1998 Lance 990 legend 11' 6" model dry weight of 3400 lbs. Wet 3900 to 4000 lbs. Over 9,000 trouble free smooth riding miles. Enough said.