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I am new to the truck camper family and I have a question what maybe someone answered already.
We own a 2014 Ram 3500 6.4L crew cap, SRW, long bed
GVWR is 11400 lbs. Payload is 4500 lbs.
I went to the scale and got 4000 lbs. for the front axle and 3000 lbs. for the rear axle.
The camper weight is 4300 lbs.
We found the TC weight calculator and when I put my numbers in I got
that the truck and camper weight is below GVWR, the payload is below the sticker 4500 lbs.,
but the rear axle is 330 lbs. above load rating (7000 lbs.)
My question, is that true that the whole camper weight is sitting on the rear axle and almost no weight is transferred to the front axle?
Thanks for reading and your response.
FrankSo your load rating for your tires is 3750lbs each? If so, then I would look at getting tires with a higher capacity. You could always not fill up your water tank to help. Did you weigh the camper while on the truck? I think you would get some weight on the front. With the CG in front of the axle, you still get some weight on the front.
In these weight discussions you can try to juggle weights around, but the scale tells the tale. For some TCs you get very little to almost no transfer the front. There is just nothing about weights that can be assumed. You can choose to accept the scale weights or not, but the do reflect the actual weight.
I would expect to be overweight with this combination on a SRW.
Steve and Andra
2012 F350 6.2 gasser SRW LB
Fab Fours front and rear in case we run into a rhino
2019 Northstar Laredo SCHere is the crazy thing about weights, something I started in a long thread on IRV2. We all focus on the weights. We discuss them, argue about them, and essentially just jibber jabber about them because none of us can say where the manufacturer’s numbers come from. You can’t go by the manufacturer’s published specs so you don’t even know what your payload will be until you check the sticker in your truck.
So you bump up the tires and wheels, certainly a reasonable intervention, but did it make you safer? Who the heck knows? I have axles that total 13,000 pounds, tires that go well beyond that. Ditto wheels and tires. My sticker says I have a gross of 11,000 and a payload of 3,820. If you want to use the published specs, you have to subtract all the options. My published is 4,200.
So I start out with 3,820, then subtract my weight and that of my wife and our cat (185, 150, 9 :)), a total of 344 pounds. That leaves 3,476 pounds for the TC and everything that goes with it including the bed mat, the tie downs, the turn buckles, etc. Add in the conventional wisdom 800-1,000 pounds for the camper above the published TC dry weight and you can see it is not hard to exceed the sticker when loading a SRW
I am not arguing for or against anyone or anything. Just pointing out how lacking in transparency this rating system is. My honest bet it unless you go absolutely and completely bat crap crazy with your load nothing will break. I do think you might accelerate component wear somewhat and depending on your center of gravity and overall height, you might get some squirrely handling, but that is about it.
Being a betting man, I would bet the majority of TCs are running overweight on one number or another yet we don’t hear about breakage, spectacular accidents, lawsuits, or any of the things we all warn about. Where the heck are they?
Just my thoughts and opinions (Disclaimer: I run within all my sticker ratings). Let the flames begin!
Steve and Andra
2012 F350 6.2 gasser SRW LB
Fab Fours front and rear in case we run into a rhino
2019 Northstar Laredo SCI would rather be way below my weight limits. I have 4800lbs per my door sticker, but when I weighed it myself, it was over 5000lbs. I don’t want a camper that heavy. I was dead set on getting a hard side camper, but changed my mind and leaning towards a pop up. I would rather be under 2000lbs and save my brakes and suspension from wear.
Like you said, most are over and have had no problems. For me, as long as you are not over the tire rating, you should be fine.
On RV.net, the weight police always chime in.
To take things one step further, I would contend using a 3/4 ton truck as your hauler, it borders on the impossible to stay within your weight ratings with anything other than a pop-up and even most one ton SRWs will struggle to stay with their numbers for anything other than the lightest hard sides (depending on how they are optioned).
The problem in matching truck to camper is two-fold. Truck manufacturers do everything they can to make the payload look as big as possible and TC manufacturers do everything they can to make their campers look as light as possible on paper. But both say not to exceed the weight ratings for your specific truck.
Here’s an example. Right now I am looking to replace my Hallmark Ute XL with a hardside. I know from my CAT slip sitting in the truck with my wife and a full tank of fuel our F350 SRW XLT weighs 7,640. That weight includes the Fab Four bumpers front and rear along with bed rails for our fifth wheel. Basically the truck is about as empty as it is going to be before we start adding the camper and accessories.
Subtract our scale weight from the GVWR on our sticker, 11,000 pounds, and we have a remaining payload of 3,360 pounds. Next consider a Northstar Laredo with a base weight of 2,090 pounds. Options and the stuff to fasten it on our truck brings the dry weight to 2,438 pounds. Add the conventional wisdom 800-1,000 pounds for the wet weight ready to roll and we are knocking on the door of our max GVWR. A Wolf Creek 850 optioned the same way would be about the same, but it is easy to see that only the smallest of hard sides would squeak in under the numbers and if we had a 3/4 ton we may not be able to make the cut, depending on how it was optioned. If you read the Wolf Creek brochure, you will find it says dual rear wheel trucks are recommended although reviewers seem to overlook that sentence in the not so fine print.
So what I have found is truck buyers and TC camper buyers focus on base weights for TCs and maximum payloads for their trucks and a whole lot of smoke and fog covering reality. If you haven’t weighed your truck, you can be way off the mark.
Just my thoughts
Steve and Andra
2012 F350 6.2 gasser SRW LB
Fab Fours front and rear in case we run into a rhino
2019 Northstar Laredo SCToday I spoke to a Dodge mechanic and got some interesting news.
He said he cannot put anything in writing than nobody wants to take an opinion on that.
(Truck manufacture and Camper manufacture)
He said that the most truck campers are engineered, that 33% of the camper weight sits on the front axle. Some are closer to 30% some to 36%.The only way to figure that out:
You have to weigh the truck, the camper and then the combination.
Maybe someone has done that already I would like to get some numbers.
Thank you.First of all he is wrong. Search the Internet and you will find entries noting wide variation in front axle loading from none at all to a good bit. Think about where the center of gravity of the camper is in comparison to the axles and then the wide variations in options and how the camper is loaded.
I have done exactly what you ask. Here my weights from my CAT scale tickets.
F350 with driver and shotgun Fully loaded ready to head West with camper
Front axle 4,440 Front axle 4,740
Rear axle 3,200 Rear axle 6,080
Total 7,640 Total 10,820
As you can see, ready to roll, I am just squeaking in under my 11,000 GVWR and actually am over the 6,000 rear axle weight (carrying less water I can hit it). This is with a pop-up camper that has a base weight of 1,643 pounds dry weight according to the manufacturer’s website.The loaded weights include an ice chest behind the front seat, a few tools, and odds and end, so the TC by itself did not even account for the entire 300 pound change. Plus I have
30 gallons of water right at my front wall and i have moved my two AGM batteries from behind the rear axle to against the front wall of my camper. If it were not for those changes plus what was in my cab, I bet my front axle weight would not have changed or changed very little.I am sure others have done the same thing and found theirs is much different than mine. I am curious where your mechanic got his numbers. Are they weighing truck campers now at Dodge dealerships? The reason I ask is I am finding, despite all the posts in the truck camper forums on weight, darn few folks seem able to produce real world numbers from CAT scales.
My two cents
Steve and Andra
2012 F350 6.2 gasser SRW LB
Fab Fours front and rear in case we run into a rhino
2019 Northstar Laredo SC
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