Wolf Creek on a F350

[johndeerefarmer]

I have a 17 F350 SRW with the camper package on order. I am looking at the WC 840 or 850 mainly due to its lighter weight and shorter height. I will be pulling a Polaris Ranger behind it on a 12' trailer

My questions are:

How stable are SRW truck campers in the wind? Across west TX and Colorado the winds can be pretty strong.
How fast do you or can you drive with a TC?
Just pulling the Ranger I will drive 5 over the speed limit which means 80 mph at some spots.
If I drive the entire 700 miles at 60mph it would take about 12 hours. If I drive it at 70 mph it will take 10 hours. That is a big difference.

Thanks

[towpro]

GeoBoy wrote:
I have a Coleman Mach 9.2, and it works great if you have some shade. If you are out in direct sunlight it will have to work hard to keep it comfortable. The Honda 2000i handles it nicely.

I have the same camper and AC,

First about the camper load. I think I run up to 3500lbs loaded.
On my 2006 3500 Dodge 2wd SRW I was just below the tire capacity on teh rear (3200 lbs). I also tow a 7x14 trailer with water in the front (extra water for camper). I was rigth at the safety numbers on truck. I was due for a new truck so I bougth a dually. personal preference.

On both old and new trucks I added a "big wig" rear sway bar, this sway bar is a whole lot bigger than a stock sway bar if your truck even had one stock (neither of my truck has a rear one stock).

A sway bar is a big chunk of steel that is a torsion bar type spring. It is attached to the rear axle AND the frame on both sides.
In order for the body to sway from side to side, it has to TWIST this bar. When you start to role the body, the body is pushing down the sway bar on one side, than the sway bar transfers that load and also pushing down on the opposite spring as well as a little twisting. This shares the moving weight to the other wheel.
I hear others talk about more springs for sway control? I disagree, All the other devices do is add more spring to each side, they do nothing to transfer or share the load from one side to the other as the body tries to role on the suspension.
Yes this "extra spring" can make it feel like the sway is less, but the G forces of a "sway movement" is still being applying X lbs to that one side, and its not getting shared to other side through sway bar.

Plus the sway bar is one of the cheaper modifications.

Mach 9.2AC:

we have sat in open ground at Outer Banks of NC (beach) in direct sun, 98 deg, very high humidify, Mach 9.2 never had to come off low fan. same location in our past 5ers we suffered with AC's that only dripped the temps 15 deg from outside temps. This AC in the WC you can set it to 70 deg if you want and it will still cycle even on low fan at 98 deg outside full sun. Yes the bathroom gets warm with that big skylight but coach still stays cool.

I seem to recall reading that the 9.2 makes the same amount of cooling on both high and low fan, but low fan is quieter inside.
somewhere I read that the 11.? actually draws less power than the 9.2?

This AC is little louder outside than a normal camper AC because of the low profile and they use a bigger fan to move air across the outside coils.
inside its a little louder than a ducted AC because the fan is right there as apposed to blowing into a duct which acts like a big muffler.

in the WC with the Mach AC, the AC has a thermostat on the roof controls. When temp setting is meet the compressor motor shuts off but the fan continues to blow.
I (and several others here) have switch to a thermostat on the wall that cuts the AC power to the AC when temps are meet, thus both the compressor AND the fan shut off.

When running Air conditioner on Generator, first I switch my outlets over to DC invertor (this is so my Satellite receiver don't reboot every time AC starts), I turn off AC charger breaker (I charge with solar also), and make sure refreg and hot water are on gas. Than i can run the generator on ECO mode and it will still start both compressor and fan the same time on AC.

[GeoBoy]

The fan isn't super quiet, but it is a fan. Air delivery to the bed area is very good and is adjustable.

[johndeerefarmer]

GeoBoy wrote:
I have a Coleman Mach 9.2, and it works great if you have some shade. If you are out in direct sunlight it will have to work hard to keep it comfortable. The Honda 2000i handles it nicely.

Thanks. How quiet is the unit? Is there good airflow to the bed?

[GeoBoy]

I have a Coleman Mach 9.2, and it works great if you have some shade. If you are out in direct sunlight it will have to work hard to keep it comfortable. The Honda 2000i handles it nicely.

[johndeerefarmer]

What size air conditioners in your campers? How do they work at high temperatures? I would like to use the Coleman 9k unit and a Honda generator

Thanks for the informative answers so far!

[MORSNOW]

johndeerefarmer wrote:
I have a 17 F350 SRW with the camper package on order. I am looking at the WC 840 or 850 mainly due to its lighter weight and shorter height. I will be pulling a Polaris Ranger behind it on a 12' trailer

My questions are:

How stable are SRW truck campers in the wind? Across west TX and Colorado the winds can be pretty strong.
How fast do you or can you drive with a TC?
Just pulling the Ranger I will drive 5 over the speed limit which means 80 mph at some spots.
If I drive the entire 700 miles at 60mph it would take about 12 hours. If I drive it at 70 mph it will take 10 hours. That is a big difference.

Thanks

I have a GMC2500HD with a WC850 and almost always have a 16' trailer with ATV's or our Wolverine SxS on it, so a similar setup as what you plan on doing.

1. How stable are SRW truck campers in the wind? Installing lower StableLoads gave me great stability. Use your factory suspension, no need for airbags or extra springs with the WC loaded weight on your F350.

2. How fast do you or can you drive with a TC? As fast as you feel comfortable. Your trailer tires are usually the weak link, but I don't know what you have for a trailer and tires.

A Wolf Creek is quite a bit lower as the floor is still between the wheel-wells. An Arctic Fox's floor sits over the wheel-wells. The roof is also lower, you can see the difference if you look at the cabover area from the exterior. You shouldn't have any issues with your F350 and a WC, but a heavier stabilizer bar seems to be a very popular Ford upgrade and as I said before, lower StableLoads will help a lot.

[GeoBoy]

A Northstar TC is non-basement, 6" narrower for off-roading and a very well built TC.

[Ranger_Tim]

There are several reasons to drop your speed, not the least of which is safety. I see truck campers towing trailers here in Idaho every day as I work for the state highway department mostly on I-15. I get to push campers off the road into a big pile with a Cat 950 loader while the owners watch. This is heartbreaking to say the least. Most of these folks have one thing in common -- SPEED! Many overestimate their ability to control the truck/camper/trailer combination when combined with wind or sudden traffic stops. Be careful you don't become a statistic.

My 2016 Wolf Creek 840 weighs in at about 3000+ lbs fully loaded and results in my 2006 F350 SRW diesel weighing around 11,200 lbs., just under the 11,500 limit. The truck empty is 7800. It has the camper package. I added upper and lower stableloads to handle the extra load and have no need for any other suspension mod. It handles wind well, but there are times when I have hit 40-50+ mph gusts traveling across the high desert when I was glad I had Torklift tie-downs. It rocks the rig and sometimes surprises me, but it is controlled better when I am towing my 5X8 cargo trailer with ATV inside. Something about the towing weight makes the whole rig ride more stable, don't know why. Even mellows the bumps and bouncing a lot. It also handles wind better when the tanks are full.

My mileage varies widely due to wind resistance and truck speed. Unloaded I can see 17-21 mpg. Fully loaded I can get 12-14 mpg at 65mph, if the wind is behind me I can get 14.5. Increase speed to 70 and I get 11. Keep in mind my 6.0 motor is very economical and is in top shape -- I don't run any tunes on it. I don't drive faster than 70, so call me grandpa! The truck pulls Galena Summit near Sun Valley at 50 mph with TC and trailer without breaking a sweat, and would do it at higher speed if I wanted to kill any chance at saving fuel. Galena is 8900 ft. and very steep. My temps stay around 220-225 on that hill but would be higher if I stomped on it of course.

I plan on keeping my rig many years. I have 160K on the truck and can't afford a new one, so I tend to have very conservative driving habits. If you want to drive 80 that is your right and I support it. Doesn't mean I would recommend it. Especially after seeing this past summer's accidents. Traffic just seems to be getting crazier every day.

[TxGearhead]

I drove from Liberty Texas to Maryland to pick up the 2008 Bigfoot. Ram 2016 Cummins 3500 crew cab SRW. No issues coming back home. Less stressfull than pulling our Montana 5th wheel. I got 15-16 mpg compared to 10-12 with the 5th. Bigfoot is 2800 dry. Fairly high...6 inch basement. Probably 3700 packed and ready to go.
Back about 1982 I had a cabover that way overloaded a F250 with a 300 six cylinder. I didnt know what a CAT scale was. Now that was handful in the Rockies.

[Tom_Anderson]

johndeerefarmer wrote:
I have a 17 F350 SRW with the camper package on order. I am looking at the WC 840 or 850 mainly due to its lighter weight and shorter height. I will be pulling a Polaris Ranger behind it on a 12' trailer

My questions are:

How stable are SRW truck campers in the wind? Across west TX and Colorado the winds can be pretty strong.
How fast do you or can you drive with a TC?
Just pulling the Ranger I will drive 5 over the speed limit which means 80 mph at some spots.
If I drive the entire 700 miles at 60mph it would take about 12 hours. If I drive it at 70 mph it will take 10 hours. That is a big difference.

Thanks

I have driven my lifted SRW F-250 with my Wolf Creek 850 across the country in pretty much every imaginable weather condition (wind, rain, snow, etc.) and never had any problem with handling. I have airbags and a Big Wig sway bar, but no Stable Loads or any other suspension mods. I have no trouble maintaining 80MPH with my V-10 and 4.30 gears, but it definitely sucks the gas at that speed. Most of the time, I keep it around 70 when I'm not towing or 55-60 when I am.

[Vinsil]

The truck will handle either WC OR AF just fine.

Plan on 5 mpg at those speeds. Make sure your tires are up to the task and add suspension mods to your comfort level and enjoy.

I went with the WC myself. I didn't see what the extra 10 k bought for me with the AF, although they are very nice!

Mine keeps me warm in sub 30 degree weather and is tolerable without AC in 90+ with just the fantastic fan exchanging the air at night.

[Buzzcut1]

johndeerefarmer wrote:

lonegunman wrote:
I drove my AF865 across North Dakota and Montana this summer on a very windy day. It rocked a bit, but otherwise no problem at all. Hopefully, your 2017 truck is a diesel. I have a 2011 F-250 with a diesel and the hundreds of pounds of extra torque are awesome, especially compared to a gasser. Increasing your speed from 70 to 80mph should kill your mileage.

There is no problem towing a trailer, but emergency stopping with a TC loaded and a trailer might be all but impossible from 80mph. That being said, I could easily bump up to 80-85 to pass a slow camper or texter even fully loaded.

I added upper Stable Loads this year, they are great with one exception. They hit the overload even with the camper off the truck and make it ride like a tank. I'm considering taking mine off and grinding them down a tad so they stay off the spring when the camper is off the truck.

I traveled over 6K miles this summer with zero issues in an SRW truck that was loaded. I passed hundreds of other TC drivers doing the same thing. A dually might be more stable but an SRW truck is not unstable by any means.

A truck camper and a fishing boat/atv trailer are very common in my area.

Yes, a diesel. I sold my 15 SD diesel and bought a F150 ecoboost- major mistake so back to a 1 ton diesel. So the Stable loads basically are taller bump stops than the factory?

The upper stable loads are just that. The lower stableloads really make more of a difference in handling sway and squat in my opinion

[johndeerefarmer]

lonegunman wrote:
I drove my AF865 across North Dakota and Montana this summer on a very windy day. It rocked a bit, but otherwise no problem at all. Hopefully, your 2017 truck is a diesel. I have a 2011 F-250 with a diesel and the hundreds of pounds of extra torque are awesome, especially compared to a gasser. Increasing your speed from 70 to 80mph should kill your mileage.

There is no problem towing a trailer, but emergency stopping with a TC loaded and a trailer might be all but impossible from 80mph. That being said, I could easily bump up to 80-85 to pass a slow camper or texter even fully loaded.

I added upper Stable Loads this year, they are great with one exception. They hit the overload even with the camper off the truck and make it ride like a tank. I'm considering taking mine off and grinding them down a tad so they stay off the spring when the camper is off the truck.

I traveled over 6K miles this summer with zero issues in an SRW truck that was loaded. I passed hundreds of other TC drivers doing the same thing. A dually might be more stable but an SRW truck is not unstable by any means.

A truck camper and a fishing boat/atv trailer are very common in my area.

Yes, a diesel. I sold my 15 SD diesel and bought a F150 ecoboost- major mistake so back to a 1 ton diesel. So the Stable loads basically are taller bump stops than the factory?

[Bedlam]

finsruskw wrote:
Why would you order a "camper Pkg" on a tonner W/O going to a dually?
Makes no sense to me at all.

The Ford Camper Package gives you higher rated front coils and a rear stabilizer bar on the F350 (front stabilizer bars are standard on all SuperDuty's). The F250 gets the same plus the F350 rear overload springs.