Truck camper and towing

[Hemisport]

Good morning,
I have a 2012 ram 3500 mega cab srw. I am looking at either a northern lite 8.11 or an arctic fox 865 both units 2023. I’m looking for advice on tow setups. Manufacturers don’t seem to list the overhang the campers have and I want to to my Nautique behind me. Tongue weight is about 350 boat and trailer probably 6200 lbs. anyone have any advice as to a good setup.

[mkirsch]

Grit dog wrote:
^If it’s a v nose boat or v nose trailer. OP didn’t say.

OP said it was a "Nautique" which even if you don't want to bother googling it, combined with the stated 350lb tongue weight and 6200lb trailer weight, safe to assume it's a boat.

Frankly I'm surprised there was no finger-wagging over the ~5% tongue weight.

[srschang]

To Grit Dog's point about the hitch extension not needing to extend all the way to the back of the camper, here's my setup. The Northstar 12STC camper has 4' of overhang behind my truck bed. The hitch extension is 34" long. It works fine, but if the trailer is 45 degrees or so from straight with the truck & camper, and the trailer is uphill of the truck & camper, the gravel guard on the trailer will scrape paint off the rear jack. I've had to repaint a couple times. And it is a bit of a pain to hook and unhook the trailer.

[deltabravo]

I tow all the time when I have the camper on the truck.
I use a Torklift Superhitch and Supertruss extension. I've been using them since 2009.

[Grit_dog]

^If it’s a v nose boat or v nose trailer. OP didn’t say.
I could get by 18” of hitch extension with a v nose but not with a pickle fork nose boat, or I couldn’t get the trailer 90deg from the camper without hitting.
And yes the tongue being under the camper a bit was fine, no vertical clearance issues. Just turning.
To Bedlams point though, the sled trailer (v nose but short tongue length and fixed jack) wouldn’t work even with a 24” extension. His old truck having an ~5” longer truck bed than a short bed Dodge and the extra extension would have been equivalent to ~32” extension on the dodge, same camper length and style.

Although I may just be making this all up according to jimh, lol.
On another note, not sure why it’s so hard for someone like him, who has arguably read most of my posts for like 10 years now, to believe.
Regarding being “overloaded”, he is 100% correct. Technically by the sticker and anything less than 4000 lb rated tires, he is overloaded. In a rv.net type of way. Real world, that truck is fine for what he’s doing. Not ideal, but fine.
And again, even though I could be reciting an elaborate ruse, the combo handled better with the boats or other trailers with respect to body roll (short srw truck) and appears to get the same or nearly the same fuel mileage with or without the trailer. 10’ tall boat drafting a 12’ tall camper basically negated the towing penalty.

[mkirsch]

Hemisport wrote:
Yes it does have the 2”.
However after measuring the northern light 8.11 it is roughly 59” from my rear receiver to the rear of the landing on the camper. Which means I would need a torkllify super hitch with a 48” truss system. Even after all that my hitch ball will still be slightly under the rear deck which is not a deal killer as long as I can still turn ok. The other down side is apparently the 48” is only good for 4000lbs unless you use weight distribution. Not sure if that can be done on a boat trailer as they are not a v frame tongue.

The ball can be significantly under the camper and it be no problem. In fact closer is better as it reduces weight transfer off the front end. Just depends on what's sticking up on the tongue.

Turning is your only concern but with what is basically a sharp v-nosed trailer, the boat can be quite close to the camper and still won't contact unless you back up and jackknife it severely.

[3_tons]

Bedlam, That’s a sage point, I missed that his truck was a short bed…

3 tons

[Bedlam]

My Ford short bed needed a 28" extension to tow my enclosed trailer behind my Arctic Fox 811.

[3_tons]

notsobigjoe wrote:

3 tons wrote:
The Reese 48” requires a 2.5” receiver, apparently the OP has a 2.0”….In this case add a Curt direct bolt on hitch having a 2.5” receiver…Having said that, 48” sounds longer than necessary considering your camper’s overhang, but either way the Curt hitch 2.5” hitch is commercial rated and much stronger than the factory hitch, and it doesn’t affect the factory hitch..

3 tons

Will a standard receiver support the extra length, weight and bounce?

Well, looking at the AF site and the 865, it doesn’t appear that there’s a whole lot of rear overhang to me (now on our second camper), thus my guess would be (after you add the ball mount…) most likely a 14” (e.g. pin to pin, excluding ball mount…) extension, or at the most say an 18” is all...I’m not all too familiar with your year Ram, but as I recall the factory 2” hitch on my 07 dually was good for about 1200# tongue weight (check your manual for specs), but exponentially less when using an extension (say, 350# @ 14” = what??)…Because of this, a Curt 2.5” direct bolt-on hitch seems better suited…

However, be a skeptic when looking at manufacturer’s so called dry weights, which typically do not include things like water weight (nor, 6gal in water heater) or LPG weight, battery weight, any options, tools, clothing or groceries, in fact one manufacturer even considered jacks an option…

3 tons

[jimh406]

Grit dog wrote:
The truck will drive better with the boat hooked up compared to just the camper…..
But it’s good to start the paranoia and weird “solutions” early on in the thread!

Of course, there is no way for you to know if it will drive better or not, but feel free to pretend that you know for sure. Oh, and while you are at it, might as well say he can get by with a a 1500. 😉

Fwiw, I didn’t say he needed a DRW. I said might. I’m sure you tow thousands of miles with a shortbed and 6200 lb boat, so that makes you an expert. 😉 Oh wait, have you ever towed a boat of any type?

Everyone gets to decide if they think it will work or not. Responsible people tell the newbies that they might need a DRW. You don’t have to like it, but there is a reason why so many people buy them. You aren’t enlightened to discourage it.

It’s up to the OP what he/she chooses to do.

[Grit_dog]

^Refer to my post above. It worked fine on our 07 Dodge 2500 factory hitch with about the same loads and about 2’ max of hitch extension. I wasnt comfortable going heavier or longer extension than that, though.

[notsobigjoe]

3 tons wrote:
The Reese 48” requires a 2.5” receiver, apparently the OP has a 2.0”….In this case add a Curt direct bolt on hitch having a 2.5” receiver…Having said that, 48” sounds longer than necessary considering your camper’s overhang, but either way the Curt hitch 2.5” hitch is commercial rated and much stronger than the factory hitch, and it doesn’t affect the factory hitch..

3 tons

Will a standard receiver support the extra length, weight and bounce?

[3_tons]

The Reese 48” requires a 2.5” receiver, apparently the OP has a 2.0”….In this case add a Curt direct bolt on hitch having a 2.5” receiver…Having said that, 48” sounds longer than necessary considering your camper’s overhang, but either way the Curt hitch 2.5” hitch is commercial rated and much stronger than the factory hitch, and it doesn’t affect the factory hitch..

3 tons

[notsobigjoe]

KD4UPL wrote:
That's weird, my 48" super truss is good for 6,000 pounds without WDH. I'll sell it.
WDH and surge grakes do not work well together. How does an 9' camper hang over 4'? Is this a truck with a 5' bed?

It's gotta be a short bed. My 1181 only extends 4 feet from the rear of the Tow beast from Reese. My Reese extension is exactly 48 inches and reaches almost flush with the back step of the camper. The only thing that sticks out is the ball. Actually I'm not really sure of the exact length of the extension because it is 48 inches and then the part that slips inside and gets pinned. 54 maybe? I don't remember

[Grit_dog]

Hemisport wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
Wait yours is a ‘12 so it has a 2” receiver still I believe.

Yes it does have the 2”.
However after measuring the northern light 8.11 it is roughly 59” from my rear receiver to the rear of the landing on the camper. Which means I would need a torkllify super hitch with a 48” truss system. Even after all that my hitch ball will still be slightly under the rear deck which is not a deal killer as long as I can still turn ok. The other down side is apparently the 48” is only good for 4000lbs unless you use weight distribution. Not sure if that can be done on a boat trailer as they are not a v frame tongue.

I think you may find it doesn’t need to be that long. Both the campers you’re considering are the same length or a shade shorter than our old camper. But the style of the boat and trailer and length of the trailer tongue could also require more hitch extension.
Ideally I’d have rather had at least 30” of hitch extension but I made it work.
If this is going to be a long term setup it may make sense to just get a big receiver and the super truss. That’s the easy button, albeit kind of spendy.

[KD4UPL]

That's weird, my 48" super truss is good for 6,000 pounds without WDH. I'll sell it.
WDH and surge grakes do not work well together. How does an 9' camper hang over 4'? Is this a truck with a 5' bed?