Sold my Layton travel trailer for a more versatile rig that fits our family's extracirricular activies. Its a 1973 11 1/2 ft. Holiday slide in. My father was the original owner and it is in immaculate condition, both inside and out! We traveled from Seattle to Minnesota to pick it up then took our time coming back through Glacier National park and the Potholes state Reservoir in WA (fishing). Only one flaw, the bathroom water will not shut off when flushing the Aqua Magic toilet, but I'm having someone look at that Saturday.

Does it look to you like I may need airbags? It felt fine traveling, the camper weighs roughly 3100 lbs. and the truck is a 1997 F250 Heavy Duty with the camper package (upgraded brakes, overload springs)with Torklift spring loaded tie downs. The hitch needs to be turned over to level out the boat (we hooked it onto the boat in Eastern WA, at the lake where we dropped the boat off enroute to Minn) but it appears the rig is level to my eye and feel. Comments welcome on the air bags, and model preferences!

I'm going to order and install myself, the "Stablelift kit" when I take the camper off this fall.

http://home.comcast.net/~ripsnort60/Holiday.jpg

When we set the camper on the bed, the overload spring was just BARELY sprung, about 1/2 inch of tension on it. See pic:
http://home.comcast.net/~ripsnort60/136_3611.JPG

Here is the truck without the camper:
http://home.comcast.net/~ripsnort60/Truck.jpg

Another shot with the camper on...
http://home.comcast.net/~ripsnort60/camper5.JPG

Some random interior shots:
http://home.comcast.net/~ripsnort60/camper4.JPG[/img]

http://home.comcast.net/~ripsnort60/camper3.jpg[/img]

http://home.comcast.net/~ripsnort60/camper1.JPG[/img]

This area below obviously converts to a table area

http://home.comcast.net/~ripsnort60/camper2.JPG

 

That's a sharp lookin' truck, and the camper looks to be in nice shape as well .

From the pic with the boat hooked up, yeah it's definitely squattin' a bit and I would think that the air bags would help some there. Look at Firestone Ride Rite, and Air-Lift air bags, available at local RV dealers and through JCWhitney and other catalog outfits.

If you don't have a rear sway bar, you may want to look into putting one on the rear axle. They do help with lessening body roll in the curves. Helwig makes them aftermarket. Some stiffer shocks would probably help out too.

I put Rancho RS9000X adjustable shocks on the rear of mine and it rides firmer with a load on it with the shocks turned up and still rides descent when empty with the shocks turned down. They do help some with leaning in the curves when they are turned up.

For GVWR info, the GVWR of the truck should be 8800 lbs and with the 4wd, supercab and diesel motor, it probably weighs 6500-7000 lbs with people and gas in it. My '92 F350 CrewCab 4x4 longbed with single rear wheels and a 351 weighs around 6500 lbs unloaded in normal day to day driving. Your diesel engine adds about 700 lbs over a 351 engine, but your Supercab weighs a little less than my CrewCab.

With the camper on the truck and no boat, you're probably at about 9500 lbs, using the camper weight estimation you gave. You may want to weigh the truck on a scale with the truck and camper loaded for a trip to find out what it actually weighs.

The boat adds, what, 300 more lbs in tongue weight?? Of course it's on a foot and half or so long extension bar, so that multiplies it a little. From the picture it looks like it's a little lower in the front, but doesn't look bad. Better to be low on the tongue than high.

The upgraded springs, if they are the same as what comes in an F350 single rear wheel truck of that year, are good for the 9200 lb GVWR of the F350. I would look at the truck's rear tires' sidewall and find the max load rating for those tires and weigh the rear axle of the truck and make sure you're not over the tire rating. 265/75-16 tires can be had in ratings up to about 3400 lbs, if you find that you are over on your tires.

The rear gross axle weight rating for that truck should be about 6000 lbs. Most guys with big campers are exceeding the axle rating, especially with a trailer on there too.

I'm not voicing an opinion about all this, rather just providing the info in case you were not aware of it. . Happy camping!

 

Thank you, excellent post..and consistent from what I've seen at other RV forums too.