Reasonable Mods For Carrying Heavy Things

[JSKepler]

On these big purchase decisions my MO is always, "know thyself".

We're fussy so that doesn't help the buying part. Plus I tend to carp about stuff after and the Good Wife hates that... so a lot of things we just don't do, or we do them ourselves which takes forever...

Seems like you're pretty realistic about things and giving this some careful consideration. Good news is both units are pre covid builds and both marques have solid reps. Will say I'm partial to the NL. That's partly Homeboy stuff but also I see quite a few around (again, in BC).

Thing is, I don't think you're going to be able to tune the rig like a sports car. Campers will impose limits. Most owners will just accept them because of the $s and effort. If you want to mod that's fine, of course. I just see the camper part being the core raison d'être and so one puts up with (some of) the rest.

@simple brings up a great point re storage. If you don't have a spot, campers - and other RVs can be a giant PITA around the home.

^^^ this is me. I saw a small camper up at a local ski resort a few days ago, surrounded by snow and ice. I thought, I'm never going to be comfortable driving in these conditions knowing I'm overloaded. Too many years of trying to follow requirements and too much risk when you ignore them.

My main thought about covered storage is that a camper in almost new condition will last a lot longer and be a lot lower maintenance if stored under a cover or in doors. Sounds like OP is on the right track. Also great if you can plug it in when not in use and condition the interior with heat and dehumidifier.

If I were you and spending the money your talking about, I'd get a Northern Lite that has never been lived in and has been stored under cover. The ones with the double pain awning windows look like a worthwhile upgrade.

I do systems engineering work as part of my job and there's just a never-ending series of tradeoffs that ultimately come down to schedule, money, and customer needs. Requirements? Hahahahahahaha... I must get some kind of twisted satisfaction out of it because I'm still doing it after over 30 years. Then again, maybe putting kids through college bled me dry and I have no choice?

At any rate, the current selections are the 2017 Lance 825 and a 2018 NL 8-11. The Lance is about an hour away and has been stored, by anal retentive owners, in a climate controlled garage since new, and it looks new. The NL has been stored outside in the Colorado winter since new. It looks nice in pictures but I haven't seen it since it is 12 hours away. I'm not even sure I could load it right now as they are in snow. Our winter is yet to arrive here in Northern Utah and I could probably go load up the Lance today if I wanted.

Part of my 'fear' all along has been that I'm going to put the camper in the truck, drive down the road a half mile, and the suspension is going to fail catastrophically. I have done enough research at this point to be reasonably certain that isn't going to happen. It might not ride great, I might have to drive slow, but I'll get home just fine.

 

[simple]

^^^ this is me. I saw a small camper up at a local ski resort a few days ago, surrounded by snow and ice. I thought, I'm never going to be comfortable driving in these conditions knowing I'm overloaded. Too many years of trying to follow requirements and too much risk when you ignore them.



I do systems engineering work as part of my job and there's just a never-ending series of tradeoffs that ultimately come down to schedule, money, and customer needs. Requirements? Hahahahahahaha... I must get some kind of twisted satisfaction out of it because I'm still doing it after over 30 years. Then again, maybe putting kids through college bled me dry and I have no choice?

At any rate, the current selections are the 2017 Lance 825 and a 2018 NL 8-11. The Lance is about an hour away and has been stored, by anal retentive owners, in a climate controlled garage since new, and it looks new. The NL has been stored outside in the Colorado winter since new. It looks nice in pictures but I haven't seen it since it is 12 hours away. I'm not even sure I could load it right now as they are in snow. Our winter is yet to arrive here in Northern Utah and I could probably go load up the Lance today if I wanted.

Part of my 'fear' all along has been that I'm going to put the camper in the truck, drive down the road a half mile, and the suspension is going to fail catastrophically. I have done enough research at this point to be reasonably certain that isn't going to happen. It might not ride great, I might have to drive slow, but I'll get home just fine.

Yep.

 

[andy_b]

Of course I would never run over GVWR on purpose. But, supposing I was close to GVWR and was hiking from the truck and found 1,000 lbs of buried Spanish gold up in the Sierra Madre? I would naturally want to bring that gold home to donate to a museum. What mods could I make to 'prepare' for that happening, just in case I 'accidentally' go over GVWR.

I have a 2004 F350 SuperDuty 4x4 Diesel Short bed. GVWR is 9,900 lbs and vehicle weight is 7,700. Gives 2,200 lbs payload. Tires are load range E so I'm okay there. Axles are well under 'accidental' overages. So while I can't actually raise the payload, and would never imply that I have, what might I do to give myself a false sense of security for carrying maybe 600 lbs of gold over the GVWR? I've got decades of wrenching and mod'ing experience but I'm new to trucks, and diesels, and campers.

What I know about so far are air bags, Timbrens, sway bars, and extra leafs. (Using a Torklift/FastGun tiedown system.) I'd prefer to start simple and get more complicated as I learn about how the truck carries this camper- er, treasure. When I find it. What have folks found works better, Timbrens or air bags? The truck already has a pretty beefy sway bar. Is there anything I should do up front? Do I need to beef up the bed rails? Are there any other mods I might do other than sell the truck and start over? It's a super low-miles pre-DEF and pre-DPF rig and I was very lucky to find it. Maybe put in an axle from like a 2007 which has higher axle load ratings?

Actually, the same model of this truck had gained 1,500 lbs of payload by 2007 when Ford switched to the even less-reliable and more-hated 6.4 Powerstroke. I'm wondering if they actually changed anything or if they just weren't seeing payload failures so kept pushing up the GVWR spec? As an engineer myself I know this is how specs sometimes work. It's not so much a design as how far they could push it before it brakes. With thousands of trucks on the road they'd have some really good statistics. The truth about how they do this is in the safe along with the origin of COVID and The Grassy Knoll.

I have a ’00 F350 with the 7.3. Our setup is similar to what you’re hoping for (and similar to what @IdaSHO currently has). Our weight fully loaded is similar to Idasho (~11.5k) which means you’ll probably be close, too. Obviously, folks have already covered making sure you have appropriately rated tires and wheels. I also upgraded the steering system (new pump, hydro-assist ram, etc), brakes, and the powertrain itself. For suspension, we had custom front and rear leaf packs made by Alcan along with custom ADS shocks; no swaybars. The springs were definitely the secret. The ADS’s are nice but not necessary. TBH, the 2.5s are designed for higher speed work than most of us do with campers attached (even those custom valved). Previously, we ran custom valved 2.0 Foxes and were fine. We also had both axle housing trussed.

TBH, the weight was never a concern in regular use. Once the suspension was dialed in, it drove great.

We’re currently using the same camper body but it is now attached to a ’24 F350 (also with custom Alcans and ADSs; no sways) - our current weight is almost exactly the same in the ’24 as the ’00. The newer truck actually weighed less (both are CCLBs) and had a higher weight capacity. We’re still close on GVWR but are now technically below the door sticker. We’d probably would be “safer” on a F550 platform but I really wanted to keep the narrow body footprint of a standard SRW rather than the full-width axles on the F550. Also, I’m not into running military tires; there are some LT-beaded tires that have pretty good weight capacity but they tend to either be loud MT patterns or in odd-ball sizes.

 

[JSKepler]

I have a ’00 F350 with the 7.3. Our setup is similar to what you’re hoping for (and similar to what @IdaSHO currently has). Our weight fully loaded is similar to Idasho (~11.5k) which means you’ll probably be close, too. Obviously, folks have already covered making sure you have appropriately rated tires and wheels. I also upgraded the steering system (new pump, hydro-assist ram, etc), brakes, and the powertrain itself. For suspension, we had custom front and rear leaf packs made by Alcan along with custom ADS shocks; no swaybars. The springs were definitely the secret. The ADS’s are nice but not necessary. TBH, the 2.5s are designed for higher speed work than most of us do with campers attached (even those custom valved). Previously, we ran custom valved 2.0 Foxes and were fine. We also had both axle housing trussed.

TBH, the weight was never a concern in regular use. Once the suspension was dialed in, it drove great.

We’re currently using the same camper body but it is now attached to a ’24 F350 (also with custom Alcans and ADSs; no sways) - our current weight is almost exactly the same in the ’24 as the ’00. The newer truck actually weighed less (both are CCLBs) and had a higher weight capacity. We’re still close on GVWR but are now technically below the door sticker. We’d probably would be “safer” on a F550 platform but I really wanted to keep the narrow body footprint of a standard SRW rather than the full-width axles on the F550. Also, I’m not into running military tires; there are some LT-beaded tires that have pretty good weight capacity but they tend to either be loud MT patterns or in odd-ball sizes.

Does the new truck handle the weight any better or are they about the same in driving? I'm sure the 6.7 has a lot more oomph than the 7.3, if you went diesel again. I was pretty adamant that I didn't want to mess with DEF or the DPF so limited my truck search to pre-2009 or so.

 

[andy_b]

Does the new truck handle the weight any better or are they about the same in driving? I'm sure the 6.7 has a lot more oomph than the 7.3, if you went diesel again. I was pretty adamant that I didn't want to mess with DEF or the DPF so limited my truck search to pre-2009 or so.

Meh, mass is mass so it feels similar. That isn’t to say it didn’t improve with the mods because they absolutely did and the truck handles about as well as stock now. It is still a big, heavy truck.

Another aspect of the diesel vs gas debate I forgot to mention was that the diesel ate into the payload a not insignificant amount which impacted our decision making.