Frank_EP
Fountain Valley, CA
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Joined: 01/30/2004
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You will be overweight some. Tires/rims will be problematic.
Consider the stopping problem, too. When I put together my
trailer I went to 8-bolt axles on the trailer specifically so
I could run big disk brakes. Do the same! Run the 8-bolt
torsion axles with Kodiak 13" disk brakes. Stopping well never
be a problem if you do that. If you switch to 8-bolt axles
on the trailer, just take the 4 rims/tires off your truck and
put them on your trailer.
There is a place in Orange that specializes in this sort of
re-axle issue. It is near Angles Stadium, and directly next to
Orangeland.
2003 Lance 1071 maxed out plus 200 watts PV, accumulator and bottle opener
2004 Chevy 2500HD Duramax 167", Hellwig, Reese Titan, Reese Front, LineX, AirLift, bed mat, Rancho9000, Rickson 19.5" Eliminators with Mich 225/70 XDE M/S
KF6JGX; 5W on Yaesu FT530
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gtkato
Aurora, CO
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Joined: 01/15/2005
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PJ has the correct technical answers. Another discussion is that of liability if, or when an accident might occur. Will your insurance company find any liability or negligence if you are 'Over Weight'?
It is a shame that RV Truck Camper mfg. do NOT post the 'AS IS DELIVERED' weight (Northern Light scale weighs every camper just before putting on the delivery truck). Hallmark weighs their campers on 4 Leg Scales and is accurate within 2 lbs! A lot of TC are over capicity and have had no problems (especially 3/4 ton trucks)
The 19.5" wheel and "H" rated tires will help. You may want to check out Overload springs, Super springs, Air Bags, Sway bar, Timbren bump stops, Rancho 9000XL shocks. $50 grand for a New 1 ton dually is probably not one of your first choices. Obviously cheaper to buy a lighter weight camper. I really think the RV Industry does the consumer a disservice buy NOT posting the real delivered weight with all options and accesories. Lance is not the only guilty mfg.
Your weight is what it is, and you cannot change your Axle rating no matter what you do, but you can add and modify your truck to make it safer.
FlyFishn
2005 Dodge HD CTD w/Vision 19.5" Wheels & Michelin XDE tires, Rancho 9000 XL, Hellwig, Timbren, Air Bags, Super Hitch
2008 Hallmark XS with Carbon Fiber roof, Tork Lifts w/Fastguns, Honda 2000 iU, Solar
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Steve_in_29
29 Palms (SEMPER FI), CA 92277
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Joined: 01/08/2004
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juschuman wrote:What i'm wondering is, why would lance make a camper for a shortbed HD truck like ours that grossly overloads our truck which is, a pretty heavy duty truck? Your truck isn't as heavy duty as you think, which is something MOST 3/4 ton owners are surprised to find out. Just because the F250 is rated to "bumper tow" the same as the F350 doesn't mean it can "carry" as much. IIRC your truck only had a load capacity of approx 1400lbs. An F350 SRW of that vintage had approx 1000lbs more capacity. Ford upped the capacities in 2005 with the F250s getting almost as much as the previous F350s had. While the F350 SRW went to approx 4000lbs of capacity. So there are shortbed trucks with the required capacity, it's just that Lance isn't as forth coming as they should be about "WHICH" shortbed trucks are ok to carry their unit. The 2008 F350SRW CC/SB/4x4 with the diesel is rated at 11400lbs GVWR.
Quote:I know we need to upgrade the wheels/tires, but I can't see us upgrading to a dually. Then we run into the issue of having a shortbed camper on a longbed truck. Then we'll need a new camper. When does it end!!? Ford makes a shortbed dually so there is no need to switch campers.
2007 F350,SC,LB,4x4,6.0/Auto,35" tires,16.5 Warn,Buckstop bumpers
2007 Outfitter Apex9.5,270W solar,SolarBoost2000e,2 H2K's,2KW inverter,2 20lb LP on slide out tray,4 Lifeline AGM bats,Tundra fridge
95 Bounder 28' ClassA sold
91 Jamboree 21' ClassC sold
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Mooney
Santa Barbara, Ca
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Joined: 09/10/2002
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juschuman wrote:
What i'm wondering is, why would lance make a camper for a shortbed HD truck like ours that grossly overloads our truck which is, a pretty heavy duty truck?
I'll try and take a stab at this one.
The GVWR starts out at one number that represents how big your glass is. Now add 4x4,diesel engine, auto trans, skid plates, tow package, heavy duty springs and other options at the factory level. Now you get the truck and add the Super Hitch, extension and . . . well you get the point. Now the glass full can handle 8800 pounds. However when you take the truck down to the scales you find your truck without the camper is now close to 6,500 pounds, maybe more. That gives you a usable load of just over 2,000 pounds and certainly limiting your choices of fully contained campers.
To add insult to injury you just plopped another 500+ pounds of trailer hitch weight.
I really don't think you can blame Lance, the maker of your horse trailer or even that well built, stout but very heavy Superhitch. Most likely you simply have to point the finger at your changing needs and the fact you have outgrown that truck.
I am certain this isn't what you wanted to hear, but I think you probably knew it when making the original post.
Good news is there are screaming deals out there right now. Bad news is the demand for your used truck may be your biggest challenge.
'08 Ford F550, Lariat, Link Air Suspension, Roll-A-Long Conversion, Twin Turbo 6.4, TorkLifts, SuperHitch, "Monster Duty Truckasaurus"
'09 Host Everest
.
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juschuman
Pasadena, CA
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Joined: 05/09/2008
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Thanks for the replies. Yep, I am extremely dissapointed. I put all this energy and money into a rig that basically, is unsafe to drive, and it seems my options to make it safe are to... well, scrap it and start over.
I don't neccessarily blame Lance, but I must say I feel duped. Here we visited a Lance dealership who tried to even talk us into a HEAVIER model with slideouts, knowing exactly what type of truck we had. Then we buy our camper and the 2000 Lance catalog that comes with it even shows OUR TRUCK with OUR CAMPER with a 3-horse bumperpull horse trailer. Makes a beginner like me think "no problem, look honey, everyone says it's ok they even show someone with our same setup!" just to find out we're morons and we didn't do our homework. Now I'm sitting on a $30,000 truck (That is now probably worth under $10,000) with about $2,500 worth of camper mods on it, and an $8,500 camper that I can't even use even WITHOUT the trailer which was the whole reason we WENT with a TC in the first place. Ugh, I feel sick.
Stick a fork in me, I'm about done.
But thanks so much for all the info. I don't want to take any risks for the sake of me and mine and others out there on the road. Better to have found this out now rather than later.
2004 F350 DRW Shortbox Crewcab - Stable Loads - 2000 Lance 820 - Torklift Superhitch w/Supertruss - Torklifts w/Fastguns - 1988 Circle J 2-Horse BP Straight Load
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LameExcuse
Renton, WA
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Joined: 09/04/2007
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I think by now you are fully aware that your rig will not safely support the weight you intend to carry. However, I do not and would not expect you to go out a buy and new truck and camper. Realistically, I think the best you can do is the best you can do.
The biggest thing is to get off those "D" rated tires.
If it were my setup. I would get some "E" rated tires with the highest load rating you can find. I personally use Goodyear Silent Armor Pro Series "E". They are rated at 3750 in your tire size (if I looked it up right). I don't know if you are using the stock wheels but as long as you dont have some of those cheap steel wheels I wouldn't worry about them. I would look at litening the load as much as possible (reduce the amount of water weight, take out anything you can live without). Get a weight transferring hitch system to get some of that 550 pounds off the ball and back onto the trailer. Other than that just be safe and slow.
Because you are aware of the weight issue, you will probably safer than other guys out there who are under weight.
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Steve_in_29
29 Palms (SEMPER FI), CA 92277
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Joined: 01/08/2004
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Raften wrote:.....On a side note, trailer tires are always suspect, especially tires made by Carlisle, keep a close eye on them while traveling. I would suggest a Radio Shack IR therometer so you can walk around the truck and trailer at each stop and look for a tire or bearing that is getting hotter than the others. That's a great idea. It could really prevent a more serious issue down the road.
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Steve_in_29
29 Palms (SEMPER FI), CA 92277
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Joined: 01/08/2004
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With the realities of the truck market now a days it isn't realistic to expect you to eat all that money so you will need to crutch the truck you have.
If you don't want to pony up for the 19.5's ($4Kish) then check to see if the ALL STEEL (belts/plys) tires available from Michelin and Goodyear come in a size to fit your truck. These are aimed at rigs that are running at max weight all the time and are designed to deal with the heat/stress much better then regular load range E tires which have steel-belts/polyester-plys. Off hand I don't know if your wheels are the same as what was offered on the F350SRW that year but they most likely are and are rated the same so a tire upgrade is possible without needing new rims.
I would also recommend visiting a spring shop to get new rear leaves made up as well as upgrading your brakes.
As noted a weight distribution hitch will help shift some of the weight off the rear to the front.
All this will cost even more money but it will be less then the hit you would take on a trade-in.
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juschuman
Pasadena, CA
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Joined: 05/09/2008
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LameExcuse wrote:I think by now you are fully aware that your rig will not safely support the weight you intend to carry. However, I do not and would not expect you to go out a buy and new truck and camper. Realistically, I think the best you can do is the best you can do.
The biggest thing is to get off those "D" rated tires.
If it were my setup. I would get some "E" rated tires with the highest load rating you can find. I personally use Goodyear Silent Armor Pro Series "E". They are rated at 3750 in your tire size (if I looked it up right). I don't know if you are using the stock wheels but as long as you dont have some of those cheap steel wheels I wouldn't worry about them. I would look at litening the load as much as possible (reduce the amount of water weight, take out anything you can live without). Get a weight transferring hitch system to get some of that 550 pounds off the ball and back onto the trailer. Other than that just be safe and slow.
Because you are aware of the weight issue, you will probably safer than other guys out there who are under weight.
Yes, at the very least I would have to spring for tires and wheels to handle the weight.
The trailer has it's own brakes, but I could upgrade those. I could also work on getting a banks brake or heavier duty brakes on the truck.
I'm not sure how much weight a distributing hitch would cut out of the tongue weight but that would help too...
I could upgrade to heavier duty springs and maybe spring for the air bags too.
The weak link then I suppose would be the axle - If I am understanding all of this correctly.
We're not looking at going out for months, I would estimate doing about 5-8 weekend trips per year (mostly within 5-10 hour drives) and no off-road driving.
I could also bring it in for more frequent maintenance on the areas mentioned earlier and learn what areas to inspect while traveling.
I dunno. Then again, maybe it would just be easier to spring for a used DRW...
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canuck 1
alberta
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Joined: 03/04/2005
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Give me a break people, the rear axle on that truck is rated for around 10000 pounds... the tires are the weak link, brakes are the same as the 1 ton truck. GVW really does not apply to non commercial vehicles
Fix the tires and enjoy
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