Truck camper length

Wondering if anyone has hauled a truck camper longer then 8ft in a 6ft box??

I have a Ford F250 and wonder if somehow I can stick a 10ft'r in er

Every truck camper I've owned you had to remove the tailgate to haul. So your talking a 4' overhang? Time for bigger truck or smaller camper.

camoman said:

Wondering if anyone has hauled a truck camper longer then 8ft in a 6ft box??

I have a Ford F250 and wonder if somehow I can stick a 10ft'r in er

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I looked into truck campers for awhile and I think you would be hard-pressed to find a 10 footer that wouldn't cause the tires on your SRW 250 to explode!

Not only are those things naturally heavy the manufacturers tend to lie through their teeth and understate their dry weight.

TooMuchBoost said:

I looked into truck campers for awhile and I think you would be hard-pressed to find a 10 footer that wouldn't cause the tires on your SRW 250 to explode!

Not only are those things naturally heavy the manufacturers tend to lie through their teeth and understate their dry weight.

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I second that comment.
a friend of mime has a '04 F250 CC 4X4 with a Lance slide-in. it hung out about a foot past the bed. For s&g I drove it over to the local truck scale. 11.3k wet. No usual crap involved with camping loaded either.......I'd say he's a little over.

its the center of gravity that you gotta worry about. That long of a camper in a 6' box would take so much weight off your front wheels, you'd be hard pressed to steer.

camoman said:

Wondering if anyone has hauled a truck camper longer then 8ft in a 6ft box??

I have a Ford F250 and wonder if somehow I can stick a 10ft'r in er

Click to expand...

Would have answered sooner, but I just joined. I haul a 11ft 6in camper (see signature). It's been a learning experience for 10 years. If I were to start over, I'd go with a shorter one...maybe 9 ft. on my 8 ft. bed. Main reason is the overhang causes you to go through major gyrations to put in a reasonable hitch extension. This makes camper removal a pain, so much so that I never remove the camper unless I need to work on it. Fuggedabout using the truck for dual purposes. If you have a shorter camper, it's easier. If you go with a longer camper, you also need to worry about the center of gravity of the camper in combination with the shortbed truck. That camper c.g. is going to be two feet to the rear of where it would be on a standard 8 foot bed. That means dangerously high loads on the rear axle. Add 50% to the camper weight to get an idea of the traveling weight on the rear axle. I wouldn't haul any camper without duallies for that reason. Some get by with standard cab trucks and shorter campers, but the crew cab will cause you to make some of the mods you can see in my sig. I'm not done...still want some 19.5 wheels and tires. Just can't afford new ones. I have not noticed any problems with the front end being too light to steer.

You really have to watch campers I have a feeling you will have power steering. You may even have problems where the truck will see saw on the rear axle and if one of your rear brakes grab a little better than the other it may steer your truck.

My neighbours down the road have a real nice camper its a 2004 10.5-11 foot model with a slideout. The camper place said their 98 3500 4x4 Dodge Cummins dually could carry it which it can but its heavy and heavier than what they were told.

As meantioned camper manufactures or dealers really don't tell the truth on the weight of the campers.

I see allot of campers over the summer and the poor P/U truck under it struggling and the brakes hot enough to cook up some eggs.

Its not worth the risk ya I know you only carry the camper a few times a year but it only takes one accident which can happen at any time to make your life a little miserable.

Here is my experiance. there are a lot fo short box guys with appropriate campers for thier size box. they do make em. Ive also seen a lot fo 3/4 tons hauling truck campers. Now with that said. I haul a 9'-6" '04 citation on a 350 swr. it weighs 3300 lbs dry with nothing in it. I pull a trailer sometimes, but I load for low toung weight. On a 1 ton, life sux without air bags and I doubled the overloads (cheaped out). Life sux more w/o good shocks. The 1 ton sway ars are prolly adiquate if I went to bags and shocks, but it can get some good sway goin. The pucker factor obviously has more to do with your comfort level.

Yes anything that hangs over more than a foot REQUIRES a hitch extension. if your trailer has a good load on it, a superhitch (or equivilant) is the only way to get it done. NOW. I would say that maybe 60-70% (prolly more on a short box) of the camper weight is on the rear wheels. Add your toung weight also.
Your going to need air bags, good shocks, super hitch, awsome tires and brake upgraes along with sway bar upgrades at that weight. Oh, all that and you still dont have a truck rated for that weight.

How do you get around that? 7' camper thats REAL light (2000 lbs) with all the truck mods i listed above. Cary your stuff in the trailer. Theres lots of horror stories about ppl dieing due to an overloaded truck. The outcomes are ugly for EVERYONE.

Most camper/truck dealer/ accessorie guys will sell you whatever you want though.

Oh and now for the drawbacks of doolys. swing out jack brakets, lower gvw extra tire cost, I think thier astetically challanged. Pros? added stability, but you CAN add stability to a swr.

bct said:

Oh and now for the drawbacks of doolys. swing out jack brakets, lower gvw extra tire cost.....

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Can you cite examples of a 1-ton DRW truck having a lower GVWR than an equivalent 1-ton SRW truck?

Rusty

Hauling a 10' slidein is no problem with a SRW.

See these examples of my '77 (all wood construction, no aluminum studs in this baby) model Tojas in my SRW 350. Tires didn't explode and weren't even close to being overloaded.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/101919602/125307755sASkOt

http://community.webshots.com/photo/101919602/125307908rqyWBv

Truck campers are nice, but keep them proportional to the truck. The higher CG can overpower a truck easily. When I went to Glamis last year. I had a 8' camper in my bed and was allowed to close the tailgate with it in the bed. My truck is on the right with the enclosed trailer and Scott's (bct) truck and camper is on the left side of the picture. I wouldn't even think twice about if a 10' camper could be hauled in short box truck. Not only would you cause trouble for the truck, but that's 4' literally hanging over the edge of the bed. This would stress the camper itself as nothing is supporting the camper itself like the bed would do.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/223341047/223341347NQuNVq

A bunch of years ago, I had a willys Jeep pickup, 8ft bed with a 12ft El Dorado camper. Truck had the weight rating for it, but the rear axel was more forward than most trucks so i had to have a removable tag axel rigged for it to keep from doing wheelies. Biggest problem was the thing was so top heavy it never felt comfortable.It was so big that taking it off the truck was just too much work to be able to use the bed.
i got a trailer and couldn't get rid of that thing fast enough

Ok I have a 8.5" Jayco camper and haul it on my 1 Ton with no issues. It doesn't squat the truck one bit, in fact I often forget it's even back there, as you can't tell until you hit a grade. I load it up pretty heavy too, with food, water, supplies, firewood, etc.. I don't know the weight of my camper loaded, as I've never weighed it, but I am positive a 3/4 ton could easily haul my camper. I don't think a 10' camper would 'explode' the tires on any 3/4 or 1 ton truck, as you should be running 'load range E' tires anyhow. If you have any squatting issues, they make airbags.



OK disregard my reply... I didn't see he mentioned 6' box.. nevermind, yeah i wouldn't try that with an F250

I've been lookin for truck camper ideas too. I really want a pop up truck camper. Alot lighter so I can go on trails up in the mountains. What brands do you guys recommend?? I've been researching all of the brands out there but want some personal eperience feed back.

RustyJC said:

Can you cite examples of a 1-ton DRW truck having a lower GVWR than an equivalent 1-ton SRW truck?

Rusty

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I think what he meant is since the dually is heavier legally you have less capacity left over for your load. Retarded? yes but thats what we get when the people who make the laws have no idea what they are doing