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I have a 94 F250, Ext Cab, 7.3IDI, ZF5, 3.55 rears. It weighs 1750, am I good?
Regading getting it home, the previous owner gave me some rear torklifts that will work in my current hitch. Can I use Brophy pocket stakes on the front or do I have to buy Torklifts for the front out the gate? It’s about 150 mile journey.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions to problem solve this.
Your total combined weight safety wise is dictated by your tire/wheel and axle ratings, not to be exceeded. As for front tie-downs, with your truck I believe you should be able to use what you want. I'm sure others will chime in, lots of good experience here.
Your total combined weight safety wise is dictated by your tire/wheel and axle ratings, not to be exceeded. As for front tie-downs, with your truck I believe you should be able to use what you want. I'm sure others will chime in, lots of good experience here.
Agreed. Tire/wheel (“axle rating”) are the critical numbers so be sure you have tires rated to carry the loaded weight.
those are nice campers. Take it easy on the way home, put a rubber mat in the bed, and you should be fine. You’ll love truck camping!
IMHO your tie downs will work just fine. I'd check your rear tires for proper load index (weigh capacity) and air them up to max pressure on the tire. Rubber mat and a rear sway bar will be your friend.
it will squat a bit but dont worry, I was 1300lb over my GWVR on my F-250. Took my Northern Lite out west a few times, over 20,000 miles of travel with a truck camper and it did just fine.
IMHO your tie downs will work just fine. I'd check your rear tires for proper load index (weigh capacity) and air them up to max pressure on the tire. Rubber mat and a rear sway bar will be your friend.
it will squat a bit but dont worry, I was 1300lb over my GWVR on my F-250. Took my Northern Lite out west a few times, over 20,000 miles of travel with a truck camper and it did just fine.
Thanks everyone. Tires are fairly new LT 10 ply load rating E - Max weight was over 3K @ 80 PSI per tire so should be good there? How do I figure out my axels?
Rubber mat? That's new for me. Can anyone elaborate? I have a Plastic bed liner does that need to come out? Previous owner puts a piece of plywood down under the camper that he said I need to use.
I went with the Torklifts on the front in the hopes the camper feels OK on this rig. Someone told me I have overloads on the rear.. How do I know for sure?
No worries, you should be fine with your truck. It is a long bed, right? Put the camper on and see how it handles, then you can decide if you need additional modifications.
There will be dust trapped under the plastic bedliner which acts a bit like sandpaper when you put the camper on.
Better take it out. A rubber mat under the camper is a good idea to keep it from moving; although in my experience they usually don't tend to move a lot if set up correctly.
We carried a TC in our last truck for 15 years with a plastic liner and a rubber mat on top of that. Never had any issues either. If you need additional height for cab clearance you can use structural foam, its liter than plywood and won’t trap moisture.
With an F250 you should have lower overloads, if you have the camper package you may also have upper overloads. Crawl under your truck and take some pics.
I have a 96 F250 PSD Ext Cab. Hauled a 97 Lance Legends 880 for many years without a problem. Pulled horse trailer and boats behind it. Due to an arson we lost the 880 and ended up with an Alpenlite that was a little heavier until we could settle legal issues. Ended up with a custom ordered Lance 1062 Double slide.
That did it for me and we now have an F 350 King Ranch 6.7 DRW. It has the bed liner that we put a rubber mat on. We have never had a problem in 9000 miles now. Including 4500 miles on our current trip. (We are currently in Roswell NM supposedly on our way home - but keep getting side tracked?).
While we did make several trips with the 1062 on the 250, it was worrisome and nothing I would recommend to anyone, especially to someone new to the sport.
What I’m saying here is that you should be just fine and have a great & wonderful time with that camper on your pickup.
You should be just fine bringing it home, although one of the first things I would do (later) is get the tork lift for the front. Brophy stake pockets just don’t keep me happy on newer bigger campers. Still have some in the garage from older campers we had in the 80’s and 90’s. We finally upgraded to Torklift not long after we got the 880.
Rubber bed mats are fine and some people prefer stall mats for extra clearance. In my 96 all I used was a 3/4” plywood with a hole cut for the folding ball goose neck. 3/4” was perfect for clearing the hardware.
One thing I didn’t see (did I miss it) was mention of a connector for the lights. Most are 7 pin. Most are mounted on the drivers side towards the front on the bed sidewall.
Drive it and see how it handles and then start looking at mods. On my 96 ext cab I put the airlift loadlifter 5000 ultimates on and saw no reason to add anything else.
upper overload. 5000 ultimate's. They have a jounce inside that allows them to be operated with zero air pressure. Test your pickup out with the camper on board before spending a lot of money on these or other items. You can easily get into upwards of $700 /750 on bags, onboard compressors and wireless air....
Doesn't look to me like you would have any problems whatsoever. 80 PSI when loaded. I run my 96 at 80 PSI with no problems whatsoever and no abnormal tire wear.
Do you know anything about the weight rating on the rims?
I have a set on my 96 that looks like yours. I found out the hard way that that design comes in a couple of weight ratings. A year after I had them, I had cracked two of them. Just little bitty cracks that let the air out very slowly. And at that point, all I had been hauling in the pickup was hay and lumber. The tire store refused to even order new ones when I went in and talked to them about it. Told me to put the OEM steel wheels back on if I was going to drive on rough gravel roads.
I went down the road to Les Schwab (another tire dealer in the NW) and they did some checking. The wheels I had been sold were light weights from a different manufacturer. LS had the exact same design with a heavy weight rating for F250 and F350's. Haven't had a problem since I got them, replacing the light weights. 4 of the LS rims cost over twice as much as the rims I had, but they have been fail safe and I haven't had to stop on the side of the road and air tires up since.
Once you have it on the truck, weigh it again just confirm you’re safe. My Lance has a dry weight of 1832 lbs pounds. But by the time it’s on the truck and tied down, it adds about 1000 lbs to that. My last truck had a GVWR of 8800 lbs and I was overloaded. But, I had air bags and 3900 lb rated tires, so the truck handled the weight fine.
Doesn't look to me like you would have any problems whatsoever. 80 PSI when loaded. I run my 96 at 80 PSI with no problems whatsoever and no abnormal tire wear.
Do you know anything about the weight rating on the rims?
I have a set on my 96 that looks like yours. I found out the hard way that that design comes in a couple of weight ratings. A year after I had them, I had cracked two of them. Just little bitty cracks that let the air out very slowly. And at that point, all I had been hauling in the pickup was hay and lumber. The tire store refused to even order new ones when I went in and talked to them about it. Told me to put the OEM steel wheels back on if I was going to drive on rough gravel roads.
I went down the road to Les Schwab (another tire dealer in the NW) and they did some checking. The wheels I had been sold were light weights from a different manufacturer. LS had the exact same design with a heavy weight rating for F250 and F350's. Haven't had a problem since I got them, replacing the light weights. 4 of the LS rims cost over twice as much as the rims I had, but they have been fail safe and I haven't had to stop on the side of the road and air tires up since.
Not sure about the rims. I didn't see any information on them. I'm in OR so I might try running by my local Les Schwab...
So run the rears at 80PSI and fronts also? Or should fronts be a different PSI?
I just need to make it the 170ish miles one time to get it home. Hopefully hauling it on Thursday.
What part of Oregon? I'm in the Sheridan area. I got my rims at Point S. The replacements with the good weight rating came from Les Schwab. I have now come to the conclusion that the Point S rims of the same design must be imitation junk. I was assured they were something they obviously weren't.
I run all 4 at 80 PSI with the BFG 265's T/A KO's under load. Tires wear great and I never have any wear problems.
I really don't think I would worry too much or get in a hurry to sell it if you are right at or slightly over GVRW. As long as you are mechanically sound and not having problems and the handling is good.. A 170 mile trip home may give you some feelings as to power - performance, handling, stopping etc.
With my 96, I'm not sure in its entire 240,000+ miles it ever hauled anything that was not at or over the GVRW. My 96 does have the 7.3 PSD, 4.10 gears and the E4OD (bullet proofed - if there is such a thing).Our GVRW's (your 94 & my 96) are the same on GVRW and it would have no problem with the camper you described. Our Lance Legends 880 fully loaded for 3 weeks in the mountains (Diamond Lake) put us right at 11,300 with the boat connected (500 lb tongue weight). Carried her and pulled the boat for many thousands of miles.
Right now we are wild camping in the sage brush and sand for the night in Arizona on our way back home from visiting with our daughter and son at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio and visiting with a cousin in Lubbock. We are kind of taking the scenic route home. Tomorrow it will be Petrified National Park then on to Fort Apache, Tombstone then the West Rim Grand Canyon, the wife's cousins cattle ranch in eastern Idaho and then home. We are in the F350 DRW running right around 14500 and have a no problems whatsoever.
09-20-2020 | 10:18 PM
