I just bought an Artic Fox Camper 990, it weighs in at a whoping 3600 lbs with propane full. The GAWR on the rear axle of my '03 F350 Crew SRW is 6830 lbs. this puts me 70 lbs over my GAWR. The front axle GAWR is 5200 for a total GAWR of 12,030 lbs. I also employ a set of Firestone Airbags.

I had the camper for about 3 days prior to going on a camping trip with it. The truck hauled well. The tires held up well. I checked them every 100 miles, they did not seem to heat up at all except on the way back when the outside temp was well over 100 degrees. The airbags helped alot, keeping the truck level and stable.

My problem is obvious...... TOOOOO HEAVY. I feel like the dealer duped me into buying this unit. I expressed my concerns about the weight and he even had me talk to one of his technicians whom stated that it would be fine to haul this heavy camper. Turns out when I finnaly get home with all of the literature, Northwood advises that any camper over 9 feet should be hauled on a DRW truck.

I know what you are all thinking.... Dumb @#$%.... I am usually very thorough in my research about anything I buy. But I got caught up in the moment.. you know !! Anyways, I was hoping some of you might have some advise, do I have any strength with the dealer considering he lied to me about my ability to haul this camper. Do you think I will be OK hauling it, I see lots of people hauling this camper on their SRW trucks.

Thanks for the help

 

greg32,

What kind of camper is this? Is this a fifth wheel trailer or does it fit in the bed of your truck?

 

I don't know anything about GAWR, but 70 is only 2% more than the 3600 weight of the camper. I wouldn't think that would hurt anything because most things I've ran across are underrated anyway.

 

Here's a recent thread from the SD forum that you should probably check out.

I just like to let people know the facts, what they do with them is their business. I can't say as I follow them anywhere near the letter myself.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...hreadid=142613

That being said, you should have an F350 DRW at the bare minimum for a camper that size IMHO.

Waxy

 

The Arctic Fox 990 is a slide in camper, very well equiped unit with a full wall slide out, dual propane, dual Batteries, sattellite, cable, wet bath, awnings, 46 gallon fresh water, Onan 2400 wat generator, AC, three way fridge.

 

At a minimum I would check the load rating of the tires and make sure they are not overloaded. As I'm sure you have considered, you will need to consider the weight of the gear you have stowed in the camper. Going up in tire size, if necessary, generally yields higher load capacity, but check the ratings to be sure. Blow-outs with a camper can be devastating.

The piece of mind alone may be worth loading up all your gear and taking the truck and camper to a truck stop scale house and have each axle weighed to be sure the tires aren't overloaded.

 

Greg,

That Arctic Fox is quite heavy. It weighs more than my Lance, even though the Lance is longer. The other issue with those units is height. Since the Arctic Fox employs a "basement" (I think), it makes for a higher center of gravity than mine too.

I don't have a CC either, so I can't really say for sure what your hauling ability is.

BUT, this I can say for sure. My unit is also slightly heavier than the 6830 lb rear axle rating. The single biggest correction I made is to add Rickson 19.5" wheels and tires which are rated up to "F" and "G" tire ratings. The ride is much more controlled than the 16" tires that are stock. I also have air bags and Rancho 9000 shocks. My rig drives very well and has been on some LONG hauls and HIGH winds. Even going to a dually doesn't solve all problems. A dually is rated for 1600 lbs more than a SRW. By the time you add all the Dually components (axle, extra wheels and tires, flares, etc) I would bet that you lose 800 lbs just in the configuration. So in reality, the dually gives you +800lbs over the SRW. I chose to stay SRW and go with the heavier wheel and tire setup.

I've seen your Artic Fox on 3/4 ton trucks. It doesn't mean that that's good, just a reality. These trucks are very under rated IMHO.

You can check my wheels set up under my gallery.

 

Outpost22..

You are very helpful... I slept a little better last night after your post. Do the "F" and "G" tires carry more weight? As opposed to my 265/75 R16 "E" rated at 3415 lbs.

 

Outpost22

I just checked out your gallery, I feel alot better now!! Thank God for the internet and forums!!! I have been calling tire shops for the past two days and it seems that no one has the answer. The combo you have gives me an additional 600 lbs per wheel. This solves all of my problems. OK... now how much did it cost... If you don't mind, and how is the ride without the camper on the back, not that it really matters.

Thanks again,
Greg

 

Greg,
The "F" and "G" rated tires will carry from 4080 lbs up to about 5400 lbs per tire(depending on selection). The Rickson wheels are rated for 4500 lbs. You can get them in plain epoxy coated steel, chrome, or aluminum. I went with chrome. The wheels go from approx. $200-380 depending on style. I went with 6.5" wheels and 245 size tires. You don't need any more than that and I don't recomend anything bigger as it is just MORE weight.

This will not increase your axle rating, but I trust a steel axle more than 2 ply sidewall tires. Your stock 16" tires are wimps compared to these things .

The tire costs are variable. I went with the lowest rated (weight) Michelin at 4080 lbs, figuring it would ride better than a really stiff tire. I think it rides just like stock. You can air these tires down to 65 psi for everyday driving, and air them up when you haul. They actually fill faster than stockers because the sidewall is lower (less volume). Ride height is increased about 2" and the seedometer is off about 3 mph. The tires were $250 each. I let Rickson mount/balance them and ship them complete. This way you shouldn't get any vibration when driving. (very important for a light truck and a HEAVY tire!!!

Try www.ricksontruck.com and talk with Dan.
Tell him Mike in Medford, Oregon sent ya!

 

Greg;

I just went through this same process. My new Adventurer Camper with slide-out weighs 3440lb fully loaded.

I don't think you can simply add the front and rear axle weight ratings together to get you're overall GVWR. In fact, the GVWR is substantially less than the two combined.

Up here, it's the GVWR that sets the bar! If the door sticker quotes a GVWR of 9900lb and you're weighed in at 11,000lb, you're overweight and subject to the confines of the law. A truck and camper still falls under the same rules as a commercial transport truck.

Here are my numbers in pounds (for all you metrically challenged):

GVWR: 11,200

Truck: 6720
Camper: 3440

Total: 10,160

FAWR: 4250
Actual: 3880

RAWR: 8250
Actual: 6440

The axle weights above are the posted maximums and the "actual" load on the axles with the camper on the truck.

The truck was weighed at a commercial scale with a full tank of fuel, and the camper was fully loaded (except for the normal stuff that's kept in the 'frig), and both holding tanks were full (water only). I didn't fill the domestic water tank as we only travel with enough for emergency toilet use.

With a total weight of 10,160 and a GVWR rating of 11,200, I'm left with 1040lb to spare.

JMHO,

Rick

 

Just found this on another site:

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/new...ews/81678.html

Rick

 

That Great Falls Montana Truck crash story seems to suggest it's a very bad idea to use a pickup to tow a vehicle behind you which is also towing another vehicle. The problem is the author keeps using the word 'camper' when they really mean 'trailer'. Who would want to drive aggressively like this while hauling in tandem (not that I would want to haul like that in the first place!) anyway?

 

Skibo;

Your right, it does seem to be travel trailer involved. I was suprised to see this is legal in Montana, but I suppose it's because of the flat terrain.

My buddy hauls a boat behind his fifth wheel in certain areas of Alberta as well, but I've emailed this news piece to him and hopefully he'll re-think it.

Rick

 

Here's my weight story that I originally wrote a few years ago:
In early 1998, I pickup up my 1999 F350 SC LWB SRW 4x4 XLT V10 auto pickup truck. All the truck I would need according to the RV salesman who sold me my camper. The Ford brochure showed about 4000 lbs payload for my truck and the camper only weighs 2900 lbs dry weight per the brochure. When the camper arrived from the factory it showed 3277 as wet weight. So I stop by the local garbage transfer station and politely ask them to verbally tell me my weight by axle (no charge as I wasn't dumping any garbage). It was about 6800 with me and full fuel. After loading my camper, I stop by again and find out I'm at 10,700, with about 6700 of it on the rear axle (virtually all the camper weight goes on the rear axle). I ran with it for 2 years by making the best of a bad situation with Firestone Ride-rites and keeping the rear tires inflated to 90 psi (allowable per the Firestone inflation table). I felt very unsafe being overloaded. Just before trading in on my current truck, I drove across some scales on the highway (they were closed, but the scale was still on) and found that my rear axle weight had grown to over 7200 lbs (6830 is max for the tires). I was trying to simulate a worst case scenario by having the holding tanks full and also refilling the fresh water tank.

I took a $4000 loss on a 2 year old truck with 15,000 miles on it to get my current truck. It's basically the same, except I upgraded from SC to CC and SRW to DRW. This truck weighs 7200 with me and full fuel. With my previous 3900 lb loaded camper weight, I'm barely legal with a Dually! If I had the diesel engine, I would immediately be 500 lbs overloaded (heavier engine). I haven't weighed it lately, but with the seemingly constant influx of "stuff" into the camper I'm probably overloaded. I personally am not concerned about slightly overloading this truck. The nice thing about a dually is that you have to really work at overloading the rear tires. I feel much safer in this rig.

Then almost 2 years ago I wrote this:
I just got back from a hunting trip with my fully optioned out 1998 Alpenlite Pendelton 11’10” camper loaded on my 2000 F350 CC 4x4 V10 Lariat 4R100 4.30gear dually pickup. I had the Rancho RS9000 shocks set at 3 on the front and 5 on the rear. My Firestone Ride-rite air bags were pumped up to 70 psi. Also installed on the truck is Torklift frame mounted tie-downs, a Superhitch on the rear and a class 4 hitch on the front.

I came across a weigh station that was closed, so I pulled in. They had all the windows closed off with wooden shutters, but they left the window in the door uncovered and the scale on. So here’s the weights with full fuel and me standing next to the truck:
Left rear 3790
Right rear 3670
Axle total 7460

Left front 2100
Right front 2080
Axle total 4180

Total GVW adds up to 11640, which is a little over Fords recommended 11200 lbs. My front GAWR is 4800 and my rear GAWR is 8250. Not exceeding those. I was curious about individual wheel weights to make sure my weight was evenly distributed. Looks good there also.

After I got home and unloaded the camper, I stopped by the local garbage transfer station. They’ll verbally call out your weight for free if you’re not dumping garbage. Here are the empty truck weights (with me in it, tailgate removed and full fuel):
Front axle 4240
Rear axle 3300

So my total empty weight is 7540 (or 7370 with no driver).

Doing the math tells me that the camper weighs 4270. I didn’t have much stuff along for a long weekend hunt, so the camper weight will go up when the wife and kid are along for a 2-week trip. I’ve never weighed the camper without any gear in it, but the claimed wet weight on the label attached to the side of the camper is 3277. The Western RV ( www.wrv.com ) brochure shows 2900 dry weight for my unit.

So despite being a little overweight, the truck handles great whether I’m cruising at 70 mph on the super slab or creeping around off road in 4x4 to get to that good camping spot.