LokiBear303
New member
Hey everyone,
I am a new member and have been checking the website for a while but finally decided to join in the hopes of learning from the community and seeking specific advice on the title above.
We live in Colorado and love to travel around in our rig and explore different parts of the western US. I built the ram up in 2021 with the help of High Country Performance to serve as a backcountry exploration rig capable of towing light loads and mostly used for weekend and hunting expeditions. It has served my wife and I, our two huskies, and all of gear wonderfully to this point - but a recent addition to our family has forced us to rethink our needs. We also want to take longer extended trips and avoid having to find hotels for creature comforts. My wife's wish list includes hot water, heat, refrigerator, comfortable bedding, etc - mine includes ease of setting up and breaking down. This led us away from our current RTT setup to a FWC Hawk slide-in camper form Juniper Overland in Denver.
Fast forward several day's worth of youtubing and scrolling through pop-up camper forums and I find myself, like many 2500 owners, wondering about GVWR with a camper. My truck is a 2020 ram 2500 cummins laramie 4x4 off road edition with an AEV bumper, Warn m15s winch, 35x12.5 tires, Thuren/King suspension, firestone airbags, daystar cradles, drop brkts, sway bars, steering stabilizers, rig'd spare carrier, and some recovery tools. I left the rear coils stock to maintain payload, the front coils are Thuren, and the Kings are tuned to Stage 2.The truck's door payload states 2118lbs from the factory, "dry" weight of 7516, and gvwr of 10,000lbs. Not sure where the payload and dry weight difference stems from (maybe fuel and DEF? empty vs full?) but either way the total weight is adding up quickly.
According to my spreadsheet I will be running anywhere from 200 - 1,500lbs over gvwr depending on the load, people, dogs, water, gear, etc. It looks like the axles are rated for around 11,500lbs, my tires are E rated, and I already have airbags. I spoke with a company out of the western slope who can create some customer coils for me once everything is loaded and I emailed Don Thuren about tuning the shocks.
After speaking with some FWC experts and other folks it sounds like many people ride heavy with slide-in campers and never look back. I haven't found a ton of info on people running "5th Gen" ram HD trucks with slide-in campers aside from a few Power Wagons enthusiasts online. No one talks about their total gvwr understandably but I am seeking real-life advice on anyone who has had a similar setup or currently running one. My number one concern is obviously safety for my family. I drive conservatively but we do like to explore and I would hate to find myself in a pinch on a remote logging road at 12k feet with my family giving me the stink eye!
My options appear to be...
A) Order some custom coils and take 'er easy. Accept the weight and drive carefully.
B) Trade in my truck for a 3500 or similar HD with leaf springs and a higher payload. Take a huge financial hit and give up on a perfectly good truck with lots of love and only 16k miles on it.
C) Cut some weight and/or move weight to a light trailer. This would almost defeat the point of having a point-and-aim truck that can get us anywhere without having to stop at a storage unit.
D) Stick with current RTT setup. Did I mention the wife and kiddo part? Not an option any longer.
Any advice from the community is greatly appreciated! Look forward to contributing information as we develop our plan and reading more about other's rigs and adventures.
Thank you,
I am a new member and have been checking the website for a while but finally decided to join in the hopes of learning from the community and seeking specific advice on the title above.
We live in Colorado and love to travel around in our rig and explore different parts of the western US. I built the ram up in 2021 with the help of High Country Performance to serve as a backcountry exploration rig capable of towing light loads and mostly used for weekend and hunting expeditions. It has served my wife and I, our two huskies, and all of gear wonderfully to this point - but a recent addition to our family has forced us to rethink our needs. We also want to take longer extended trips and avoid having to find hotels for creature comforts. My wife's wish list includes hot water, heat, refrigerator, comfortable bedding, etc - mine includes ease of setting up and breaking down. This led us away from our current RTT setup to a FWC Hawk slide-in camper form Juniper Overland in Denver.
Fast forward several day's worth of youtubing and scrolling through pop-up camper forums and I find myself, like many 2500 owners, wondering about GVWR with a camper. My truck is a 2020 ram 2500 cummins laramie 4x4 off road edition with an AEV bumper, Warn m15s winch, 35x12.5 tires, Thuren/King suspension, firestone airbags, daystar cradles, drop brkts, sway bars, steering stabilizers, rig'd spare carrier, and some recovery tools. I left the rear coils stock to maintain payload, the front coils are Thuren, and the Kings are tuned to Stage 2.The truck's door payload states 2118lbs from the factory, "dry" weight of 7516, and gvwr of 10,000lbs. Not sure where the payload and dry weight difference stems from (maybe fuel and DEF? empty vs full?) but either way the total weight is adding up quickly.
According to my spreadsheet I will be running anywhere from 200 - 1,500lbs over gvwr depending on the load, people, dogs, water, gear, etc. It looks like the axles are rated for around 11,500lbs, my tires are E rated, and I already have airbags. I spoke with a company out of the western slope who can create some customer coils for me once everything is loaded and I emailed Don Thuren about tuning the shocks.
After speaking with some FWC experts and other folks it sounds like many people ride heavy with slide-in campers and never look back. I haven't found a ton of info on people running "5th Gen" ram HD trucks with slide-in campers aside from a few Power Wagons enthusiasts online. No one talks about their total gvwr understandably but I am seeking real-life advice on anyone who has had a similar setup or currently running one. My number one concern is obviously safety for my family. I drive conservatively but we do like to explore and I would hate to find myself in a pinch on a remote logging road at 12k feet with my family giving me the stink eye!
My options appear to be...
A) Order some custom coils and take 'er easy. Accept the weight and drive carefully.
B) Trade in my truck for a 3500 or similar HD with leaf springs and a higher payload. Take a huge financial hit and give up on a perfectly good truck with lots of love and only 16k miles on it.
C) Cut some weight and/or move weight to a light trailer. This would almost defeat the point of having a point-and-aim truck that can get us anywhere without having to stop at a storage unit.
D) Stick with current RTT setup. Did I mention the wife and kiddo part? Not an option any longer.
Any advice from the community is greatly appreciated! Look forward to contributing information as we develop our plan and reading more about other's rigs and adventures.
Thank you,
