short bed with a long camper

[notsobigjoe]

I down sized some time ago from my chevy dually and my lance 1181 and bought a small travel trailer. I have a Ram 1500 4.7, 355 rear end with a tow package and tow and haul feature.  Air bags, heavy duty springs, pretty much a 2500 wannabe. I'm looking at a 2016 Eureka cowboy style camper but it is a 7.5 footer and I have a 6 foot bed. Can anyone share some experiences they have had with a similar rig as far as towing with the tailgate down, launching a boat with camper attached and all around handling of truck, camper and boat. I am well within my towing weight so that is not an issue.  The camper weighs 700 pounds. My pontoon is 3000 pounds.  Thanks in advance, Joe

[StirCrazy]

I am going to say no its not a good match due to the center of gravity alone.  on a short bed that will be well behind your rear axel.  

[Grit_dog]

Well that’s quite some clairvoyance considering the OP still hasn’t said which length bed he has and with virtually no info available on the defunct camper brand, we have no idea where the cog is, or how much it would affect the handling of the truck. 
But by your conclusion, ALL these 10-12’ long TCs on 8’ beds are just horrible. Yet they’ve been making them for decades and continue to, without issue. 
However, the OP isn’t really interested in providing enough info to get actual succinct advice so there’s that. 

[Grit_dog]

Regarding tailgate down. If the bottom of the camper is flat (it is for the model you referenced) , tailgate down is no problemo. 
Camper can’t sit on tailgate at all is another TC wives tale in a lot of scenarios. 
Launching boat w camper? 
Well you didn’t say if 4wd. But if it’s not, 4wd, it’ll get up a ramp better with the camper in back than an empty truck bed all other things equal. 
Not sure what the question is here really. 

[Grit_dog]

Where to start.  
First, yes regardless of the pertinent info that you didn’t provide, a 700lb camper will be just fine. Period. No questions asked. 
How much it will really weigh is in question though. Which you ought to know as an ex TC owner. 
On to specifics. 
Year of truck is most important to start with, literally. As the description you provided could be a 3rd gen with leafs or a 4th gen with coils. 
Coils basically suck for truck campers but if light enough like the Cowboy camper, may not be prohibitively bad. coils with air bags, even worse. However heavy duty coils are available. 
Next, no such thing as a 6’ bed. It’s either 5.5 ish or 6.4 ish. Unless you have a 3rd gen in which case it’s the 6.4 whatever.  The latter being preferable. 
Also, it is nowhere near a “3/4 ton wanna be”. Regardless of which gen truck, although a 3rd gen with leafs again would be better. 
You can figure out the differences. But the reality is the only thing that’s similar is the body and interior. The chassis is good for about half of what a 3/4 ton is good for. 
Onto the boat. Again left off the most important info. Tongue weight. However most pontoons are light ish tongue weight so what’s yours?  1000lbs in the bed and 300lbs on a short hitch extension (maybe, since you don’t say if it’ll work with no extension, but a tape measure and some basic measurements would tell you)  is not horrible for either model truck you might have. And actually the boat will help stabilize the body roll so the truck drives less like a boat….actually.
That’s about all I can think of for basic consideration and parameters. 
Your axle capacity will be fine. Tires might not be. You didn’t say aboot that. But those are easily changed. 

Back to the short answer, I can approximate pretty easily what that combo will feel like and tow like and if it is an old leafer rear end truck, I’d do it without thinking twice. 
If it’s a 5.5’ coil spring truck, I’d think harder about it. And either bed with coils, I’d slap some heavy duty coils in it. 
Hope this helps. 

Hey are you the dude who had the OBS dually with the goofy studebaker lookin front clip?  

[MORSNOW]

At least you're looking at a good camper made for a light duty truck, but being a long bed camper it may have a COG behind your rear axle.  And then to add your pontoon is really going to overload the rear axle/tires of your truck with the front end handling being really poor. 

[Grit_dog]

As much as the 4.7 is a lightweight and not great engine, can’t just surmise that it’ll float down the road with not enough weight on the front axle. 
(Although possible for sure.). It’s still hard to wrap my head around the concept that take a couple hundred lbs off the front and it is dangerous. Maybe because it’s not. Unless egregiously unloaded.