Measuring the weight of truck, camper, gear and supplies

[haven]

http://www.truckcampermagazine.com/the-payload-match-challenge:-part-2/

Truck Camper Magazine staff took the time to carefully weigh the stuff they added to their Chevy 3500 single rear wheel truck as they prepared the truck for use with a big Lance camper. After loading the camper, filling its water and propane tanks, and rounding up their camping gear and supplies, they drove to the weigh station. The ticket showed they were exactly at the truck's GVWR of 10,800 lb. The weight on the rear axle was within the load the tires could carry, too.

Nice to know not all big hard side camper rigs are overloaded!

The article has lots of detail about the weights of camper tie-downs, tailgates, hitches, and so on. Useful stuff.

 

[Ozarker]

Thanks for the article Haven. I'm trying to come up with a custom built rig and it is something I'm trying to watch carefully. I don't want to be near my vehicle capacity, it's just an F-150 with a trailer package. Some things we can't get away from, like the weight of water and fuel but I'm trying to think out of the box for the lightest stuff I can find. I know when it gets to food, clothes and personal stuff for a long trip it will add up quick.

 

[adam88]

It was an interesting article, must say I enjoy it. However, their obsession with GVWR is a little overwhelming. I have a feeling if they weighed in at 10,820# they would start shaking in fear, and immediately pour 2.5 gallons of water onto the ground and then re-weigh themselves. Like seriously, I can't tell if they are joking or not. As long as they had fun......

 

[redthies]

I am starting to question my set up. My trucks gvw is 9200 with the diesel. Same rig with bb gasser is 10,000 +/-. The truck weighs 7200 empty, and the camper is supposed to be 2700 dry. I'm guessing 3200 loaded. The math is way too simple, but with airbags it handles the load well.
The issue comes from the "what if" files. If I get in an accident, either my fault or not, will my insurance hold up? I tend to think not. I'm tossing around the idea of a different truck. A srw Dodge 3500 in the 03-07 era has a 9900 lb gvw. Anyone have a club cab dually of same vintage, or even 94-02? What gvw do they have?

 

[cnynrat]

Interesting. We went through a similar exercise with our rig, and oddly enough came out with similar results - we were right at the GVWR of our truck. We did not go through the exercise of weighing the truck by itself though.

We have a '99 F350 SRW Super Cab 4x4 with the 7.3L Powerstroke, and a '99 Bigfoot C2.5 10.6. I am pretty sure tires are the limiting element for us, as the rear tire weight rating x 2 equals the rear axle weight rating. As a result, I am meticulous about tire pressures when carrying the camper even though I do expect Michelin puts some margin in their weight ratings.

It was interesting that all of the camper dealers would tell us that the camper we bought was appropriate for a 3/4 ton truck. Admitedly we would gain some capacity with standard cab, 2WD, and a gas engine, but I still think that GVWR would be pushed pretty hard on a 3/4 ton truck.

 

[redthies]

I called my friend who is finance manager of a Dodge dealership, and he actually had someone ask the same question yesterday, so he spent the morning asking icbc etc about it. The insurance guy says that unless the cops see something obviously overloaded, they likely won't check gvw, and insurance companies won't know any different. Comforting though that may be, I still have to wonder how violent the shiite storm would be if I ran someone over with my "overloaded" truck.

As a note, I asked the rv dealer if my truck choice was adequate for the camper. You know how fast they said yes!

 

[IdaSHO]

It's notable that the vehicle featured in the article has a healthy payload of >4000# but that the writers easily mopped all of it up. Even with careful selection. For us, starting with only a 1,000# dry camper, it's not difficult to get close to GWV (11,400#) - a “real” camper would require a dually axle. YMMV

You do realize that the actual payload capacity of a dual rear wheel is LESS than that of a single rear wheel, right?

GVW for similarly equipped rigs, with the only difference being dually or single rear wheels, is the same. Adding dual rear wheels adds a considerable amount of weight that lowers your payload capacity.

A couple of 1-ton powerstroke owners have posted in this thread already. Both of which should see 9,900 lb GVWR tags on their door jams. The same as my 3/4 ton powerstroke.

Name of the game for heavy campers is to find the rig with a good PAYLOAD allowance. So you need to know two things, the curb weight of your truck with a full tank of fuel and passengers, and the max GVWR. Only then will you know just how much camper you can haul.

My '97 Powerstroke 4x4 F250 weighs 6800lbs empty. Max GVWR is 9900lbs. That gives me a LEGAL payload capability of 3100lbs

A similarly equipped dually typically has a curb weight of 7600lbs or so. That means the payload capacity is just 2300lbs

 

[redthies]

My '97 Powerstroke F350 cc has a GVW of 9200. Whats the deal? Why would your 3/4 ton have a higher GVW than my 1 ton???

I just looked at Dodges website for 3500s. SRW has payload of 2680, DRW has payload of well over 4000.

I also just looked at BC govt site, and they said "don't exceed your gvwr", but if you do, they will still honor your insurance. ******??
I also noticed that they put most trucks licensed gvw at far less than manufactures. You have to go in and have them raise it to the proper weight. Weird, or what?

 

[Surfy]

Becaue of the overloading stuff - i dont go with such a setup...

A lance was for a long time my dream of how i want to travel... But driving offroad - when you are on your GVM - isnt a good idea.

Then my idea was - to do an offroad capable minimal camper build - which i have done (based on the land cruiser 200).

But it is the same here: when you add a rear tyre holder, add fuel tank, frontbar, winch, watertank and so on - you also nears slowly to the GVM.

But better on the limit - than over the limit!

Surfy

 

[IdaSHO]

My '97 Powerstroke F350 cc has a GVW of 9200. Whats the deal? Why would your 3/4 ton have a higher GVW than my 1 ton???

Dont know. How is it outfitted? If it has taller gears they might have dropped it due to something like that. Sometimes having a manual trans will drop it too.

Mine is outfitted with 4:10 gears and auto-trans.

I just looked at Dodges website for 3500s. SRW has payload of 2680, DRW has payload of well over 4000.

Are you looking online? I did a quick check and it seems you are right. So Dodge must be up-fitting their 1-ton line a bit from the 3/4 ton. And increasing their max GVWR

Most MFGs are pushing this way, even Ford. A F550 is the new F350 these days.

No matter really, same equation remains.... Max GVWR - Curb weight = Payload capacity.

 

[redthies]

Weighed my truck today... 3460kg with me and my Weimaraner in it. That is close to 7400 lbs. It leaves 1800 lbs for payload. Too bad my camper is 3100 dry. I did find fine print where the insurance company says "don't drive when over your gvwr", but in the next sentence says "If you get in a crash while over your gvw, we will still cover you. You just might be called 'at fault'". This is funny if you know they sent me a letter saying "You have so many years at full discount that you can have an 'at fault collision', and we won't take your discount away". Seems like I have carte blanche...

 

[JIMBO]

Heh Heh, I don't see any jeep comments o n this thread, so here's a FYI (

 

[JIMBO]

Heh Heh, I don't see any jeep comments on this post, so here's a note most of your truckers maynot believe--

Jeeps are light duty right ?--well they used to be, but now with the 4dr (JKU) jeep, there's no telling what can happen !

My '08 JKUR, was issued at 4300 lbs, now after a few mods Wow1-her certified weight is 5150 lbs and my trailer weight unloaded weight is-745lbs--SO

When I go ona trek, my total loaded GVW combo weight is--------6545 lbs (avg)!!!

For you 3.8L v6 disbelievers-I avg 14.9mpg at 65 mph on level freeway-

Yeah, I know--nobody asked me, but I'm in Vegas and I have a little time this morning-

Good morning

:costumed-smiley-007:wings: JIMBO

 

[JIMBO]

:sombrero: Heh Heh, thanx Klahanie--I've had people ask me " what does that mean"-

fwiw, that's what I meant about a real camper "requiring" a dually (oem truck).

plus the dog gets "one free" too, right? :ylsmoke:


JIMBO, I like that tire cover!
:sombrero:

So, I do the turnover motion and say "think aboutit"-

:costumed-smiley-007:wings: JIMBO