Hi, I have been a member for a while, but don't post very often. I have had this idea for a while and am getting closer to making it a reality. We have a 2002 F-350, CC, Dually, 4x4, with an 8 foot box. Not that it is important, but the truck has a 7.3 PS, six speed stick, and 4:10 gears. We tow a 22 foot sport boat that weighs about 5K on the trailer loaded with gear and fuel. When we are not boating, we tow a 24 foot enclosed race car trailer that we haul a vintiage show car in to shows. The RC trailer and car will gross 6K with tools and gear. Neither one is much of a load for this truck. We would like to purchase a slide in truck camper, and still be able to tow either of the trailers. One option is to buy a 8 to 9 foot TC with little to no overhang. Campers that size are limited for size and options. There are a lot of nice campers that are 10.6 to 12 foot in length, making a four foot overhang. Those units make a truck tail heavy and can cause handling issues. There are HD hitches available with extensions that will allow one to tow behind, however the amount of weight generated between the camper overhang and the tongue of the trailer will just exacerbate the tail heavy issue. My thought is to build a platform out of steel that fits from the front of the bed with an overhang matching the overhand of the camper. The unit will attach to my gooseneck hitch for strength, and three points on the rear of the truck through three tube style class III hitch tubes. It will also be bolted through the bed on the four corners for added stability. The trailer hitch extention will be intigrated and stablized into the platform but directly connected to the reciever on the rear of the truck. Underneath the platform will be a set of wheels mounted on an axle with passive steering and adjustable air bags for springs. The axle will have electric brakes for additional stopping power. This addition tag axle will not increase the GVWR of my truck, but will provide additional stability and balance the load better increasing the weight on the front axle of the truck The camper will sit on top of the platfiorm and be secured to the truck through traditional frame mounted tie downs. When the camper is not on the truck, the platform and tag axle will be removed from the truck and stored. I will probably fit some removable jacks to the front of the platform that stradles the truck body to lift the front up so that the truck can be driven out from under it. The air bags can be inflated to lift the rear up to clear the truck bed for loading and unloading. Right now I am in the planning phase of this project, as I am currently undergoing chemo and radiation for prostate cancer. However by the end of the year this treatment should be completed and I have a good prognosis. I want to have a working plan for this to be a winter project. One concern is the added weight of this contraption. Please feel free to add any insights or ideas. Thanks, Charles

 

First off, a camper more than 10.6 will probably put you over wt on the rear. As I scaled in at 6700lbs on the rear axle with a 10.6 camper with 3/4 tank of fuel , 142ltrs of water ,60lbs of propane and gear. So as you can see there is not much more room for a larger camper if you plan on adding some tongue wt. I see you have dually but you are not going to have a lot more room unless you get a lite camper. I also tow a 23ft boat so I am right there on max wt. She still pulls fine but I like to stay legal in case something goes bad. You really need to buy a hitch ext. I had one custom made involving 3 2" square tubes off the receiver. I will post pics if interested .
Roy

 

Ba-da-bing:

http://www.tiny1.net/truck.htm

 

Charles! I am sure someone else will chime in here but I would think a good set of airbags would be cheaper and easier to install. Hope yer feelin better !

Smokie

 

that is cool. I wonder how tricky that would be to back up.

 

One draw back to that is that any camper with much of an overhang will hit the nose of the trailer if you turn sharp.

 

Of all the ones that ive seen, if it were my money, this is the one that i would get...

The Automated Safety Hitch | Trailer Hitch | Gooseneck Horse Trailers | 5th Wheel RVs | Flatbed Goosenecks | Fifth Wheel

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuaLVkMRz_EThis is one company that builds a tag unit. CM Haulmore. On my unit the framework will sit in the bed of the truck and extend to the rear of the camper, effectively making the truck bed longer. With passive steering there will be no binding when turning sharp. They tag axle will unload some of the weight on the rear truck axle, shift weight towards the front axle, which on a large TC are always unloaded to some degree. The pivot point of the trailer hitch will be placed outside of the rear bumper of the TC, which will give plenty of clearance when turning. Air adjustable will allow the unit to be custom tuned to support enough weight without supporting too much of the weight.

 

You want tandem axles? Ba-Da-BLING:

 

http://sanantonio.semesh.com/a,38,14...ia-.htmAnother truck camper with a tag axle. The Born Free unit was 20 feet long, had a steel framework/chassis that had a tag axle mounted underneath it. It must have been tough to make a U turn?

 

http://www.bashfamily.org/photo_albu...l.0.htmlBetter pics of a Born Free.

 

http://www.trailertoad.com/id77.htmlHere is another contraption.

 

In IA I can buy a 18 ton license for my f350, they don't seem to care about GVRW but go by legal licensed load per axle. Don't know how other states licensing work.

 

My truck has an 11,500 GVW. NC requires weighted tags on all trucks, even ones for personal use. The tags are only available for even numbers, so I had the choice of a 10K tag, or a 12K tag. Of course the rig has a 12K tag, however if I am stopped for a suspected overload, it goes back to the 11,500 GVW and weight on each axle. I am not sure how they would count a tag axle?

 

Spartan Chassis