By NOT trusting the advertised sticker of total weight posted on the camper....
Sticker showed my camper weight with full water and full propane : 1740 lb
I was like "great, perfect for my 70 Ford Truck - should work well weightwise"
Bought the camper shell in 2008 and loaded it on the truck and drove it to work on the company truck scale....
Math showed 1920 lbs with NO water and NO propane.
Bottom line - Fleetwood and other manufacturers lie about weight.
Already 320 lbs overweight on front axle, both fuel tanks full - cabover front empty with only a 3 lb mattress.
Rear axle fine as 200 lbs under max weight fully loaded, however gross GVWR was 600 lbs over.....still made it work though.
Thanks to RV dot Net members here doing research before joining the forum guided me to recommendations that were posted upon beefing up the suspension and installing other custom equipment and strong sidewall truck tires to make the rig real sturdy and safe for what I have....$3900 later on all upgrades with entire new front end I have made it work for 9 years now but still overweight (which does not change) although the truck handles safe like it isn't overweight at all nor looks overweight - just have to watch out for the potential portable weight police in BC with their random checks I keep hearing about that I have never come across them.
Still looking for a reliable older Ford dually rig with more weight rating capacity (one that I can fix if it ever strands) as I always have carried extra new parts for my 70 truck and tools (200 lbs total) travelling in the far north.
