bwlyon
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Re: When do you upgrade
Based on your budget and the truck you currently own, you are going to be hard pressed to find a camper large enough to do what you want it to do within the capabilities of your truck. To do everything you are looking for no less than an 855 Lance, or an 811 Arctic Fox Camper is in order. These are both short Bed campers with a single slide. To safely handle these campers and tow a boat they will need to sitting on a 1 ton dually, and there is only one manufacturer that builds a shortbed dually, Ram Megacab. You will need to really open up your wallet if you are serious about upgrading! Truck camping with all the amenities and roominess isn’t cheap.377Views0likes0CommentsRe: New F350 owner seeks TC information
The quick and clean way to figure out how much camper you can put on your truck is figure out rear axle weight capacity, and tire capacity. Then go to a cat scale and weigh your truck with a full tank of fuel. Subtract the rear axle weight from the rear axle capacity, and subtract rear axle weight from tire capacity. Whichever is less is your actual payload capacity as a truck camper will not put but a few extra pounds on the steer axle if any at all. Example: rear axle weighs 3300, capacity is 6600, 3300 from 6600 = 3300 payload. Now go find a camper that weighs 2300lbs. The reason is you need to allow 1000 lbs for water, propane, gear, food and clothes. Trust me it all adds up!438Views0likes0CommentsRe: SRW 3500 Dodge work with a Arctic Fox 811
I have a similar set up. S85RS Ascent camper on our 2015, 6.4 gasser Megacab 3500 SRW. Just like the Arctic Fox 811, the ascent is a SB camper with a slide, and it is heavy just shy of 5K fully wet and ready to camp. Now the 811 is a few hundred pounds lighter though, but only a few hundred fully wet and ready to go. You are going to be over every where with the exception of the steer axle. The 811 like my camper really needs to be under a dually. Like you we get by with the SRW, but our next truck will be a dually. Our weight fully loaded and ready to go is as follows. 13000lbs GRoss weight. With 8700lbs on the rear axle. That’s 1600lbs over GVWR, 1700lbs over rear axle capacity, 1300lbs over tire weight rating for the pair of rear tires.577Views0likes0CommentsRe: 6.6 Ram
The 8speed is the same regardless of SRW or DRW. MPG difference will be 2-4 mpg less than a diesel, .5-1 mpg less SRW vs DRW. We have a 2015 3500 SRW and get 12-14 empty and 8-10 with camper and we don’t baby the truck. Average last 2, 5000 mile trips with camper was 9.4mpg. If all you do is haul a camper and occasionally tow something, there is no way you can make a diesel pencil itself out money wise. We have been looking for a dually and have found several with the diesel we like, but at the end of the day we don’t want the additional costs associated with the diesel, no matter how cool they are or how effortlessly they haul/tow. As has been stated, if you already own a diesel and it hasn’t got a 100000 miles on it, and is giving you no troubles keep it. On the other hand, if you just want to get a new truck, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a 6.4 Ram or a new 7.3 powered Ford. Good Luck.358Views0likes0CommentsRe: Newbie questions
I think the previous owner was a bit of an extremely cautious type person. We have an aluminum framed Chalet camper with a slide and never has it crossed our mind to brace the slide when it is out, or the cab over when the camper is off the truck. We sleep in the overhead with the camper off the truck and have the slide out as well. As far as using blocks under the camper to store it, we let the weight of the camper rest on the jacks. With that said there is nothing wrong with using concrete blocks and resting the camper on the blocks with just a little pressure on the jacks.440Views0likes0CommentsRe: What truck are you using?
Nothing less than a 1 ton dually will do for a triple slide host camper. If you’re looking for maximum payload a gas engine with a standard cab is the ticket, but a crew cab gasser will get you to 6k of payload. Even with a gasser you may be a little over 14k fully wet and ready to roll, consider yourself informed. As stated before a triple slide host will weigh in at around 6k with all the goodies, full water, propane, food and drink, clothes, and gear.273Views0likes0Comments
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Prefer to camp in a travel trailer? You're not alone.Jul 01, 202544,041 Posts
