Reg cab long bed vs extended cab long bed?

[stevem94080]

Hi all,
I have been hauling a 2001 Lance 10 foot cabover camper on my 2001 chevy 2500hd 4x4 duramax ext cab longbed for 13 years.
Truck and camper are still in great condition and the truck handles the weight of the camper just fine.
I'm looking to buy a new truck just because my truck is 20 years old.
I am looking at 2021 chevy 3500hd srw 4x4 reg cab truck.
Question is, will the reg cab with the shorter wheelbase handle the mass of the camper as well as the ext cab longbed ?

Thanks,SM.

[JRscooby]

jimh425 wrote:
Yes, a shorter wheelbase truck will carry a TC as well as a longer wheelbase truck. It will have the affect of moving weight closer to the front wheels. How much weight that actually makes it to the front wheels depends on the TC.
.

Anybody that has spent any time in the trucking industry will tell you that a longer wheelbase will let you have a higher GVW, without overloading the rear axles.

Kayteg1 wrote:
I know Spectra that you drive mostly in the parks, but making a line on the picture, from where driver head is and under the front cabover- it makes about 30 degrees.
Meaning when you are at street light hanging 15' high, you need to back up about 50' to see it. That is safety concern.

Back in the '50s you could buy a plastic prism to mount on the dash if you had a low sun-visor. Had one on the dash of my '67 Pete. If you got so it was past the visor edge light line you could tell the color.

[Kayteg1]

I know Spectra that you drive mostly in the parks, but making a line on the picture, from where driver head is and under the front cabover- it makes about 30 degrees.
Meaning when you are at street light hanging 15' high, you need to back up about 50' to see it. That is safety concern.

[specta]

Works great for me.
Regular cabs with 8' beds are soo much more maneuverable in parking lots and making u-turns.

If I bought a new truck today it would be just what I have.
And I have zero interest in a dually.

[kohldad]

It's been a long time, but we carried an '70 Franklin 11' TC on our 69 Dodge reg cab power wagon. The truck was wrecked and we replaced the frame/body with a 76 Dodge Club cab truck. All the suspension, axles, and driveline were moved from the 69 to the 76. So the only difference was the wheelbase and a couple hundred pounds of the truck. The first time we carried the TC on a trip, my father was surprised at how much better the longer wheel base carried the camper. There was a lot less porposing when going down the road and over railroad tracks. The '69 wasn't bad in the least bit, but the extra 18" in wheel base was a very noticeable difference.

[stevem94080]

Thank you all for the replies.
SM

[jimh406]

deserteagle56 wrote:
Not sure I understand what is going on here. A SRW truck with a camper mounted on it is close to the same width as a dually anyway. Most campers stick way out past the bed of the truck. At least my last two campers did. My current Bigfoot is pretty much the same width as the dually fenders on my Dodge. Is your camper really narrow and is the same width as the truck?

With my SRW, I had some of the same experiences. My TC could overhang the sidewalk when I parked or drove down roads as long as the TC was higher than the obstacle. But, he may be simply leaving the TC off when parked at home and leave it at a storage lot.

I kept my SRW for so long because it was may DD to work where I lived, and almost none of our spaces were wide enough for a DRW. Likewise, that’s why I had a SuperCab instead of a CrewCab. Shorter was better in a larger city.

[deserteagle56]

stevem94080 wrote:

hedgehopper wrote:

stevem94080 wrote:
Thanks, dual rear wheel will not work for me though.

I'm curious. Why not?

I have just enough space to park a srw truck and another vehicle in my driveway (san fran bay area track house)..A DRW truck would not allow me to park 2 vehicles in my driveway.. srw truck has done just fine for several years.

Not sure I understand what is going on here. A SRW truck with a camper mounted on it is close to the same width as a dually anyway. Most campers stick way out past the bed of the truck. At least my last two campers did. My current Bigfoot is pretty much the same width as the dually fenders on my Dodge. Is your camper really narrow and is the same width as the truck?

[Grit_dog]

When will the weight cop vultures and psycho analysts actually get a grip and stop the rhetoric? My guess is never, and y’all sound like television evangelists preaching the same over and over whether someone asked or not.

OP literally said he likes how his 20 year old 3/4 ton handles the camper. So that part is not up for discussion. He didn’t ask what kind of truck everyone would recommend.
He!!, for the weight cops, he’s actually upgrading payload rating ALOT with his new consideration. Probably 100% increase in cargo load rating.
Congrats in advance on a new truck OP and Merry Christmas! Just like the gmc Christmas commercial....You’ll LOVE it!

[MarkTwain]

stevem94080 wrote:

hedgehopper wrote:

stevem94080 wrote:
Thanks, dual rear wheel will not work for me though.

I'm curious. Why not?

I have just enough space to park a srw truck and another vehicle in my driveway (san fran bay area track house)..A DRW truck would not allow me to park 2 vehicles in my driveway.. srw truck has done just fine for several years.

If financially doable, park your truck/camper in a storage facility. It will also provide greater security for your rig.

[deltabravo]

joerg68 wrote:
The available storage space in a regular cab is very, very limited.
Anything that you currently store in the back seat area while traveling will need to go elsewhere.

This is a very good point to consider. Reg cab truck will be cramped on a trip.
I'm a solo traveler and had a crew cab truck. More cab space is very beneficial.

There was a popular truck camper Youtuber that traveled full time in his reg cab Chevy truck and AF 990. I saw many times how he was annoyed with the lack of space in his regular cab truck.

The other thing about a reg cab truck is the overhang being way out over the cab and hood of the truck. It blocks visibility of traffic lights, etc.

[KD4UPL]

I carried my 4000 pound 11' Fleetwood on an '07 Chevy 3500 SRW reg cab for a couple years. I had no problems but it really wasn't enough truck; I was right at the limit of my rear tire capacity. I carried about 4,300 on the front axle and 6,800 on the rear axle.
As mentioned the radio antenna hit the bottom of the cab-over part. I wrapped the end of the antenna with white electrical tape so it didn't mark up the fiberglass and just let it touch. It's kind of hard to see a stop light if you're the first vehicle in line but that's not really that big a deal.
Also, Chevy narrowed their tailgate opening with the 2007.5 body change. I had to load my camper hard against the passenger side wheel well to get it to fit thru the tailgate opening.
After 3 years I put this same camper on a 2005 Chevy crew cab dually. It has way less bounce and sway on that truck. I attribute that to the dual rear wheels more than the longer wheelbase. It just didn't feel as top heavy or "tippy" on the dually.

[AidenJ]

I carried a 10 ft Lance for years on a reg. cab Chevy srw long bed. I traded the Lance for a Northern Lite (10') same truck. No problems with either set up. When it came time to trade the Chevy I didn't want to deal with the curved opening at the tailgate, and I wanted a 3500/350 to be closer to legal weight. I now have the truck in my signature. Still over weight! I have nothing against duallies I have driven them commercially for years, just don't see a whole lot of difference handling wise.

[joerg68]

The available storage space in a regular cab is very, very limited.
Anything that you currently store in the back seat area while traveling will need to go elsewhere.
We had a single cab truck for a long time, and this was our main reason to move to an extended cab.
If you don't need a 4x4, an RWD truck will be lighter (more payload capacity), cheaper, and somewhat closer to the ground. Also much harder to sell when you need to get rid of it again. All imho.

[stevem94080]

hedgehopper wrote:

stevem94080 wrote:
Thanks, dual rear wheel will not work for me though.

I'm curious. Why not?

I have just enough space to park a srw truck and another vehicle in my driveway (san fran bay area track house)..A DRW truck would not allow me to park 2 vehicles in my driveway.. srw truck has done just fine for several years.

[hedgehopper]

stevem94080 wrote:
Thanks, dual rear wheel will not work for me though.

I'm curious. Why not?