Truck and tire suggestions for heavy Arctic Fox camper?

[Darwin]

For instance, the Toyos on my Ram get "overloaded" on the front axle at 35psi according to the chart. That doesn't mean they won't handle being lowered to 20 or so for the trail.

I agree, but if the OP is at capacity at 80 psi, then that does not leave much for going lower. I think going beyond what the mfg. recommends is fine as far psi is concerned for slow trail driving. In my case, I air down because the dirt roads of Baja can be so damn bad sometimes and it allows me to travel at a higher rate of speed without shaking the whole thing apart. I have done really well with my Cooper StMaxx load range "F" tires down there multiple times and another trip coming up again next week. The tires have near 50k on them with 3,500 lb camper on the back for 90% of the time. I have been pretty impressed with them so far.

 

[LeftCoastKiteboarding]

My Nitto Ridge Grapplers have also proven a great replacement for my Baja trusted BFG ATs. Handle great on the road, quiet, and air down nicely.


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[Bayou Boy]

I agree, but if the OP is at capacity at 80 psi, then that does not leave much for going lower. I think going beyond what the mfg. recommends is fine as far psi is concerned for slow trail driving. In my case, I air down because the dirt roads of Baja can be so damn bad sometimes and it allows me to travel at a higher rate of speed without shaking the whole thing apart. I have done really well with my Cooper StMaxx load range "F" tires down there multiple times and another trip coming up again next week. The tires have near 50k on them with 3,500 lb camper on the back for 90% of the time. I have been pretty impressed with them so far.

Nobody is going to (or should be) run "high speeds" on washboard with a 5000# camper in the bed if he wants stuff to work at the end of the road. You will have no problem dropping to 45# or so at both ends running 30 or 45 mph. The 4080# rated tires will still have 3000# per tire at 50psi but ride significantly better than at 80. IMHO, if you are running a hard sided camper on an SRW HD truck you need to be running the ~4000# rated 35" tires that are available or the 4300# rated 37s if you want to go that big. Stability becomes a nonissue with that capacity.

Good discussion.

I remember one time in my Lance when I neglected to air down driving out to a FS campground about 25 miles off the pavement in North New Mexico. I got parked and turned on the water and heard spraying in the cabinets. Tore it apart and the water heater had shifted just enough to crack the fitting. Turned it to bypass to use the water and replaced that with a stainless flex hose at the next town to prevent that issue in the future. You're going to break stuff running the dirt with these heavy campers but normally it's simple stuff to upgrade. If you start with a camper with a welded aluminum frame and screwed hardwood cabinets you can pretty much fix the rest.

 

[LeftCoastKiteboarding]

I agree with EVWEYTHING above...except...

The welded aluminum campers are nice but do not flex all that well. The ONLY time I would prefer a wood framed camper is off-road because they have a little more flex and can ‘bend’ instead of breaking. I weld and fabricate so I have no fear of metal and repairing it but in this case I do love my stick frame camper because it has so much give. Handles rough abuse very well. I’ve seen it flex quite a bit and no breakage.


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[Mundo4x4Casa]

I had a lot of trouble with my 16x12 inch super single aluminum rims. At 3600 pound capacity, they were just not up to rock crawling and chipped easily.







My solution was to have Stockton Wheel whip out some steel wheels to my spec: 16x10 super singles with a stupid high load rating. These are not going to break. 1/2 inch steel plate centers with no cut outs, machine welded both sides, H.D. 5500 series DOT approved rims. Not a .5 wheel. The will also make them in 18 inch sizes with different back spacing and off sets, so it's a good time to reevaluate your wheels. Have your wheel failures been only on the rear? If so, you just need two and I recommend of course 10 inch wide super singles on the rear with the factory back spacing.The tires are Cooper AT-3's with larger tread blocks and smaller voids giving longer mileage and less noise. 315x75R16 (35 inch, 10 inch wide) Load range 3860 pounds. These are very sturdy but will air down to 20 pounds for sand like this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bfj5y93wsd7vfkw/jefe does sand hill at dry wash of the devil Anza.m4v?dl=0

I have a lighter camper than you, my Lance being 1842 pounds, wet and about 2700 pounds loaded on the bed. It's only a 2500, but a messaged one at that with 8 leaves on the rr axle (5 in the main pack and 3 in the upper secondary pack) plus new anti sway bar and Stable Loads.

Yes, we count every calorie. But I still run the tires while traveling on pavement at highest air pressure.
For those that haven't seen it, here is a vid of us going up the down staircase on the Diablo Dropoff in Anza. click the link for the short vid. 20 pounds/4th gear low range/Cummins/ 10,400 pounds. jefe
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bfj5y93wsd7vfkw/jefe does sand hill at dry wash of the devil Anza.m4v?dl=0

 

[dwilliams]

AF twice as heavy!? Ouch. I’m about 4K loaded. Could that AF actually weigh 8k??


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No, not even close to 8k. My AF is right around 5k wet weight loaded with water and gear. I've never scaled it empty, but I'm guessing it'd be about 4500-4600 lbs dry and no food or gear.

 

[orangeTJ]

Dennis, let's see your new dually!!!!!!!

 

[tmacc]

No, not even close to 8k. My AF is right around 5k wet weight loaded with water and gear. I've never scaled it empty, but I'm guessing it'd be about 4500-4600 lbs dry and no food or gear.

It's probably closer to 3800-4000 lb dry. According to AF website, a new one is 3010 lb. dry-dry. Throw in genny, AC, Awning, MW, dual pane windows. 800 lb maybe? Our Adventurer 910 FBS is a similar size and they post that with all of the above options it weights 3672 Lb dry.(3060 lb dry-dry, no options) Add water(365 lb) batteries(130 lb), Propane (68 lb)=560 lb. then add beer and other stuff....Yeah we're probably 5k lb as well. I did add the Method NV HD wheels, 4500# and Toto 4080# tires.

 

[Regcabguy]

I agree, but if the OP is at capacity at 80 psi, then that does not leave much for going lower. I think going beyond what the mfg. recommends is fine as far psi is concerned for slow trail driving. In my case, I air down because the dirt roads of Baja can be so damn bad sometimes and it allows me to travel at a higher rate of speed without shaking the whole thing apart. I have done really well with my Cooper StMaxx load range "F" tires down there multiple times and another trip coming up again next week. The tires have near 50k on them with 3,500 lb camper on the back for 90% of the time. I have been pretty impressed with them so far.

That's a testament there. All that weight in Baja with their roads.

 

[mspenc45]

My biggest question about a DRW, if I were to make the switch instead of just going to a load range F tire, is are they really that much more stable? I know a lot of people claim that they are, but I can't help but wonder if that's just not because they traded in their SRW on an expensive new truck, and they just want to feel like it's better. I will concede that the DRW will obviously carry the load better, you've got double the tire and wheel, so the load is dispersed much more evenly. The DRW and SRW both have the exact same suspension (at least comparing 3500 to 3500, a 3/4 to a 1 ton would obviously be a different story). The amount of sway should be the same in either rig, shouldn't it? The DRW is going to be harder to tip over in an off-road situation, or when going around a corner or similar situation, but it's still going to feel the same inside the cab isn't it? You're still going to have just as much lean, you'd just have a slightly reduced tipping point in the DRW right?

Thoughts? Other pro's or con's of SRW vs DRW I'm missing? I think it's either a DRW or load range F tires and forged wheels.

I agree with you here. Most of the suspensions are the same, 3500 dually or single, F350 single or dually, if anything, tire wall flex is the only difference in dually VS single, when rolling straight down the highway, or in low speed maneuvering. This is due to the weight load being spread across 4 wheels instead of 2, less weight on each wheel = less wall flex. The dually would ride rougher at the same air pressure. The the increased GAWR in a dually is the result of, and will basically be equal to the rating of the 4 wheels and tires, less a small amount. The only difference otherwise would not be realized until a near rollover situation since your footprint is wider, so in a perfect, 90 degree roll, or near roll, perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the truck, there is certainly an advantage, and probably significant, but, and its a HUGE but, a rollover is almost never perpendicular, but during an evasive maneuver. Just remember back to riding the old three wheelers. In any kind of moving turn, all that rear wheel stability went away, and over you went as the roll vector moved towards the middle of the 3 wheeler, i.e. closer to the narrow front end. Same with a dually as this vector moves towards the front wheels in a turn. Is a dually more stable then? Absolutely, but not simply traveling straight down the highway, except for tire wall flex. If one ran stiffer tires, say load range G, on 19.5 wheels, the resulting stability on a SRW, and stability will be similar to the dually, until you get to that evasive maneuver, and rollover situation. This is why so many people comment that 19.5 wheels made a huge difference, it is essentially less wall movement in the tires, much like the dually setup, again, until we start that evasive maneuver.

 

[tmacc]

So, is there really that much difference between the F rated tires and the E rated tires other than the number of plies? For example the Nitto Ridge Grappler 305/65-18 F is 3970 lb. rating the the E 295/70-18 is 4080 lb rating.

 

[Darwin]

I don't think the it means much, but I believe the "F" rated tires are rated capacity but at 80 psi, in other words, hard as a rock. The Toyo MT inflation chart is interesting when comparing different PSI to the load carrying ability of the tires.

 

[hemifoot]

i'm not a tire expert but is it possible that an f rated tire will tolerate the generated heat from carrying a camper slightly better than an e rating and possibly lasting a little longer mileage wise,if you follow the way i'm drifting? mine only stay on the truck when the camper is on it so i can't really compare my f's to my e's. i only went f's because of the amount of offroad travel we do,it's more piece of mind than practicality.