mjedlin66
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96 F-250 diesel, campers under 2300?
First time poster. I grew up camping out of a truck camper. Back then my parents hauled a camper and 3 kids on a 1970s F-150!! Knowing what I know now, they were way overloaded, and so are probably half of the truck campers on the road. My truck is a 96 F-250 4x4 standard cab, long bed, 5-speed manual with the 7.3L powerstroke. GVWR from sticker is 8600 lbs. E-rated tires. I weighed the truck empty with both fuel tanks full and me sitting in the seat, 6300 lbs. So that means I've got 2300 lbs of payload left. At first I thought 2300 lbs was pretty good. Then I started looking at what campers weigh. Holy ****! If I'm not mistaken, the only difference between a 96 F-250 Diesel and a 96 F-350 diesel is the front axle. An axle swap would weigh an extra 100 lbs, but the GVWR on the F-350 is 9000 lbs, so I would gain 300 lbs of payload. I would rather swap my front axle than buy a different truck. Trouble is, that doesn't change the legal GVWR. The problem with getting a different truck is that I want to stay with the mid-90s 7.3L diesel. And buying a 25 year old truck, even one in good shape, is a risky ordeal. It took me quite a while of fixing small things on this F-250 to get it just right and trustworthy. And if that's not enough, I also would like to tow my boat with the camper installed. My tongue weight is only like 300 lbs. But still, that's weight that has to come off the camper. So I'm looking at light campers. So called "half-ton" campers. Truckcampermagazine is a GREAT website, and so is this forum. The only "new" camper I can find that looks feasible is the Adventurer 80RB, with a dry weight of 1762 lbs + options. I also have a lead on a 2004 Eagle Cap 800 lite, which has a brochure dry weight of 1990 lbs. Are there any others out there that are under 2000 lbs dry? Preferably a model that has been around for 10 years so I'm not shopping in the 30k budget range. Maybe I should be looking at pop-up campers? Thanks Matt4.7KViews0likes19Comments
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