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With price of light duty trucks starting at over $33K, I would drive 30 minutes each way to a scale or find a different dealer. Before I buy a new car/truck I start it cold, do city driving, and get it on the freeway anyway.
Agree, as long as I hold the checkbook, I decide where to do business and how to spend my money. I normally have any vehicle I am considering out on a drive for way longer than it takes to drive 30 miles and I suspect if it meant a sale, a dealer would (should) feel the same way (at least the ones I have dealt with).
If you're reasonable in the camper you choose you'll be fine. By reasonable I mean a popup or a fairly light 8'er. Yes you'll be over but it MAY not be a big deal (within certain parameters). You will not likely want to carry an Arctic Fox 990 that will come in at close to 5K wet...although I have seen it done and see it often. Most trucks with a slide in camper are over weight one way or another.
My experience was a 1000lbs over is not a big deal as I did it for a long time. Now before the weight police start to break out their law and ticket books, I was within axle weights and tires but 1000lbs over on gross. When I wanted to add my 9000lb jetboat, I was screwed. The big bad F350 was not that as big and bad as I thought.... I opted to get rid of the camper. Truck handled the camper fine but adding the boat was going too far for my comfort level and I wasn't going to buy a 450.
Yes I had a dually so it's a little different but as it sits in the photo, that's a 9.5' S&S at 4000lbs wet. GVWR was 11,200 on that truck and I grossed 12,200 as you see it. I guess I'm just trying to point out that no matter what truck you have, a slide in will push the limits (or more). When I went back to a slide it I got a light pop up that comes in at around 1000lbs wet.
The 17's have a lot better payload ratings. My new rig is 2x the truck that dually ever was even with a gasser. Any camper that's 9+ feet is 350 country and a dually is a must for a 9.5'+ imo especially with a slide.
Personally I don't give a flip what other people do. Adults weigh the advantages and disadvantages and proceed according to what they decide. I think there is value in hearing what folks have to say.
The single point I would make about weight is unless you have a CAT scale ticket with your rig the way you actually travel anything you have to say about weight is just a wild guess no matter who you are.
Personally I don't give a flip what other people do. Adults weigh the advantages and disadvantages and proceed according to what they decide. I think there is value in hearing what folks have to say.
The single point I would make about weight is unless you have a CAT scale ticket with your rig the way you actually travel anything you have to say about weight is just a wild guess no matter who you are.
Other than that you make the call.
Steve
My '97 F250HD ran across the CAT scale at 6,120 with both tanks full, me not in the seat. I know how much my fat butt weighs. I dug out my roundy-round four wheel weight scales to corroborate that number and they said 6,233 with two full tanks. The difference could have been the top-off of the tanks before weigh-in or the CAT scales are just that much light. If I go with the race scales, that tells me how much camper I can carry.
That Lance weighed 3,318 on my race car scales, deducting for cribbing to protect the tops of the scales when my buddy put it on his Chebbie Silverado 3500. Not sure how much HappiJacks weigh but that's what it has on it. The camper was empty, no gear/food, liquids, battery or propane tank when we weighed it. Off by a half-ton per the tag.
I would not sign on a new camper without first weighing it at a known relatively accurate scale. I think the weight of all new campers might be optimistic by a little or a tonne-load.
What I did was load completely ready to travel which met even ice in the cooler, propane full, batteries in place, clothes packed, water tank full, generator, etc. That way when I weighed it was as heavy as it would ever be including my wife and I along with our newly acquired rescue cat. That put us at 3,100 pounds of payload more than the truck weighed with just a full fuel and my wife and I. Obviously way over the manufacturer's weight rating on the camper sans options.
I think so often folks start talking about going with a pop-up because they are light weight as though they are made of feathers and forget we all have to travel in the real world and we all do it in different ways. I also think there are a lot of conversations that take place about weight without the folks involved knowing what their camper actually weighs.
When we went to one dealership that handles almost nothing but truck campers after he asked what truck we had and I told him our 2012 F250 SRW his response was that we could handle anything on the lot including the campers with slides. Humm, I think not.
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