Weight ?

[treeplanter]

Ford f250 diesel. Air bags, 4wd, auto tranny. 3500 lbs slide in. Is this going to be overload.?

[lonegunman]

Depends on the year of your truck. A camper package equipped F-250 in 2011 was basically an F-350. Camper package gets you the heaviest spring set-up which is an F-350 suspension and a heavy duty alternator. I added airbags and upper stable loads to bring in the rear helper spring earlier.

Would a brand new $75,000 F-350 Lariat, dually be better? Heck yes. Can you enjoy life with a few mods on your F-250,,,,,,,,,yes. I just spent three weeks touring the country in my F-250 with ZERO problems,,,,,,,,,,,,,again.

[emcvay]

DarkSkySeeker wrote:
I almost bought an F250 to carry a Lance. While driving back from the test drive to the dealership, my girlfriend found a single sheet of paper in the glove box. It read, "this truck is not intended for use with a slide-in camper". The salesman said that is just rhetoric from the Ford attorneys. We walked.

They put those in trucks set up for 5th wheel towing too....even Dually's LOL

Have that in my new Dually but on the same page it then tells you how to load and set up the camper 😉

[specta]

ajriding wrote:
Over the limit like most all of us. Welcome to the club.

I resemble that statement. 😄

[Bedlam]

If you buy a Ford with the snow plow package, they have that disclaimer. If you a Ram with a Mega Cab, that is also the case. It does not mean that a camper cannot be carried, but it does mean there will be differences in how and what camper is carried. Rather than making those distinctions, they prefer you buy a truck that has fewer limitations.

[DarkSkySeeker]

I almost bought an F250 to carry a Lance. While driving back from the test drive to the dealership, my girlfriend found a single sheet of paper in the glove box. It read, "this truck is not intended for use with a slide-in camper". The salesman said that is just rhetoric from the Ford attorneys. We walked.

[Kayteg1]

GeoBoy wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:
I was carrying up to 4300 lb of gravel on my F250, but I always shovel most of it behind the cabin.
If you do the same with your TC, I see no problem. 😉

Gravel? I think the COG on a TC is slightly different.

NOW you are getting the point :@

[Siletzspey]

I have a 2015 F350 with camper package and 18" E tires, and run 3400-lbs with 9'6" NL camper wet and 4100-lbs total-total. From a "how does it feel going down the road" perspective, it does fairly well with just lower stableloads, and next week I hope a sway-bar upgrade will ace off any uneasiness I have about "feel". The remaining challenge however is that my tires and rims are at 96% of rated capacity, and GVWR at 102% of rated capacity. Come next year I will tackle tire +/- rim upgrades. THE POINT BEING, I run a light camper on a good F350, and am still having to do many upgrades.

[ajriding]

Over the limit like most all of us. Welcome to the club.
I agree that you will add 1,000 lbs at least when loaded. Some camper manufacturers do not consider the weight of propane, water or even "extras"like AC units, so tend to lie about the weight in order to make a sale to half-ton and 3/4-ton owners.

Trucks mostly handle it just fine.

If you just plan a few short trips (under two hrs one way) then don't worry about it. If you are planning thousands of miles then tires and bearings will see an increased amount of wear.

Slow stars and stops reduce stress, and do anything that will reduce stress to the chassis.
Buy the expensive brake pads, never the cheap ones. Exhaust brakes are wonderful if a diesel.

Careful about air bags. If they are mounted inside from where the springs are then this can make the camper tend to wobble and sway more easily. I imagine most bags are this way.
Adjust the bags to just get truck level, never to get it back to the pre-loaded rear height. Trucks are made to be rear-high when unloaded since they are made for hauling loads. Let it drop a little so not to have the bags carry too much of the sprung weight.

[Bedlam]

I carried a 4000 lb camper on a F250 but had spent money on upgrades to make it safe and handle well (11,500 lbs at the scales). Between camper tie downs, suspension and wheels, expect to spend $3000-4000 if you want to go this route. Some people will prefer to go with a lighter camper or replace the truck rather than upgrade their current one, but that is your decision.

My upgrades were more extensive since I also towed an 8000 lb trailer behind my camper which resulted in a 12,500 lb GVW and 19,500 lb GCW. I put 10,000 miles a year on this combination for three years before deciding on a bigger camper which required a bigger truck. For two years I carried the smaller camper on the bigger truck towing the same trailer and can tell you that there was little difference in handling but ride comfort actually dropped - The new truck needed more weight to make the suspension compliant even though it was stock and unmodified.

[GeoBoy]

Kayteg1 wrote:
I was carrying up to 4300 lb of gravel on my F250, but I always shovel most of it behind the cabin.
If you do the same with your TC, I see no problem. 😉

Gravel? I think the COG on a TC is slightly different.

[emcvay]

And a 3500lbs camper is really a 4500lbs camper. Always add that 1000 lbs to get close to reality.

[treeplanter]

Thanks for the replies. Have got some thinking to do.

[Old-Biscuit]

What year F250?
What is RAWR?
How much weight on rear axle before adding camper?
What is MAX Load Rating at MAX PSI of Tires (on sidewall)?

[PNW_Steve]

jimh425 wrote:
3500 will be over the GVWR by quite a lot. Can it carry it? Maybe. What are your tires rated for and how much does your truck weigh in the rear?

I have to agree.

My biggest concern would be tires. It is pretty straightforward.

I run 4 x load range F 14 ply's on my 3500 and would not think twice about 3500#.

I run load range D on my 2500 and would never consider loading it that heavy.