The rancho 9000s are excellent for a removable camper like that. Spray a little lube on the adjuster occasionally.


Rio Grande pic is kinda blurry. Aliens in the background?

 

Allenc,

I read thru the entire thread this morning and found it interesting that your solution ended up being similar to the truck and camper that my wife and I purchased a year ago before C19 closed us down. Congrats on the purchases! Like you this is our first TC after spending many years camping out of the back of a Subaru wagon. After spending 40 nights in our new "rig" over the past year, I have no doubt you will be happy with your decisions!

I have experienced the "weird bouncing of the back end" you described, and believe it is in part a result of the compromise that must be struck between empty and full load on the rear axle. On the F350, the lowest leaf of the spring pack is normally engaged when heavily loaded, but also when the rear suspension is cycling up and down after upset from a road impact. The lowest leaf is very stiff (high spring rate) and is used to progressively increase the overall spring rate of spring pack to match a variable load from empty to GAWR. This works very well under most circumstances and allows for a surprisingly reasonable empty bed ride for such a high GVWR.

I suspect that after a road impact, the spring rate is changing significantly as the suspension cycles, resulting in a longer time required for the shocks to damp out the oscillation. The frame of the 2017+ SD is much stiffer than its predecessor, so I don't believe what you described is porpoising from a noodly frame, but rather the inability of the shock absorbers to manage the rapidly changing spring rate at the rear. I also don't think this is easily remedied if you want to maintain the empty bed ride comfort. Aftermarket shocks will better manage the "transient" condition with more compression and rebound damping, but I still experience what you described with FOX IFP shocks mounted at the rear axle...

Here's a pic our rig at one of our new favorite campsites north of Canyon City, CO.

Cheers,
Ken

 

Joe, could be Aliens, anything is possible in the land of enchantment!

Jim - thanks, will do some more research on the Rancho 9000 as well as Bilstein, they seem to be popular as well. I guess I'm also considering lifting it a bit and getting bigger tires at some point - but the Goodyear Wrangler A/T tires and 18" rims it came with seem fine so far and I'm not planning any serious offroading at this point. So we will probably run it as is for a while before deciding on any upgrades.

I did take the truck out today sans camper, aired down to 55F/50R and it did a lot better on the washboard - I was able to go 30-40 mph, still a rough ride in the worst spots but I was able to get it to smooth out the bumps and ride over the tops quite a bit. I also took it on a few miles of lesser used dirt roads that branch off the main one, these are more your typical FS/BLM type dirt roads with some bumps and ruts etc but nothing extreme and no washboarding. It did well on these roads as well, much nicer ride than the washboard as expected. I actually went down to 50 PSI all around and that felt good as well. Will do more experimenting but I'm curious what PSI other people use on their F350s both loaded and unloaded and on dirt roads vs highways.

 

Ken, glad to hear you are enjoying your rig! Looks great, sounds like we had similar goals and ended up making pretty much the same choices! I am glad we went with a different color truck though, so we don't get them mixed up if we ever park next to each other someplace! Thanks for the explanation of what is likely happening with the back end. Makes sense to me, I didn't expect a plush ride but at 80 PSI it sure is rough. It definitely rides a lot better at 50-55 PSI on the dirt roads so I'll continue experimenting with different pressures in the front and rear and do some more research on that. May upgrade the shocks as well at some point, but I'd rather change one thing at a time for now and see how that affects things. Also don't want to spend a bunch more money on it just yet if it can be avoided. I should probably take it to the scales to get the true weight on each axle but I think we will have some excess payload and therefore may be able to go down a few PSI even on the highway to get a slightly better ride.

Edit: not sure if you've tried this, but I discovered I'm able to leave the tailgate on when we load up the camper. Mainly because we have a short bed truck and the camper was made with the long bed style wrap-around with no storage boxes. I didn't plan it that way but it allows us to not have to repeatedly remove and reinstall the tailgate, as well as store it somewhere, and we can use the step that is integrated into the tailgate to get in and out of the camper. Looks like you have the same combo so it might work for you as well.

Also, how is that hitch mounted bike rack working out? I'm hesitant to do that because we'd have to use a hitch reducer and extender to get it out far enough, which seems like it could lead to some fairly high forces at the end of the lever arm with two bikes bouncing up and down back there. If you don't mind sharing your hitch/rack setup and how it's working for you I'd appreciate it!

 

2021 F350 XLT, 7.3L gas, $49,000. Regular cab so no issues around town or parking.

 

This may be an alternative

https://fourwheelcampers.com/

 

Thanks, but we have already bought both truck and camper - F350 and Northstar Laredo SC.

We briefly considered 4wheelcampers, but while they are light and have some advantages in height/profile, they seem pretty expensive for what you get when you start adding some of the options that are standard on Northstars and most other hardsides. We wanted something more comfortable and better insulated for 4-season travel and did not want to deal with the many downsides of a pop-up, so the Northstar (a relatively light and small hardside with a wet bath) made more sense for us. We found this guy's videos very helpful in making the decision - he has owned a 4Wheelcamper Hawk as well as a Laredo SC and now a Liberty and he talks about the pros and cons of each.

 

A shock upgrade will provide a noticeable ride improvement both on and off road, but reducing tire pressure will give you the best bang for your buck dealing with washboard. It really is the bane of any heavily loaded vehicle because the suspension cannot cycle at the high frequency required to smooth out the crests and troughs of washboard. As you described previously, if you try to increase speed to smooth things out, you just end up loosing control of the back axle as it bounces around and begins to slide side to side. Reducing tire pressure really is the best way to improve small bump compliance and give you a better ride on rough surfaces.

I had considered leaving the tail gate on, but since we keep the camper on the truck full time, decided to remove for a bit of weight savings. The 4-step little giant ladder works very well for us and weighs about 24 vs 90 lbs IIRC. We stow the ladder floor on the floor of the camper when traveling.

Although expensive, we really like the 1up rack with swing out attachment. Very handy for quickly accessing the camper. Just like any other hitch mount bike rack, there is some movement, but no worse than what I have had with other racks like this. I used a Roadmaster Highlow Adapter part # RM-058-6 to improve the departure clearance and make the transition from 2-1/2 to 2" receiver. Also used Roadmaster RM-061 and -062 Quiet Hitch clamps to eliminate play in the connections. This has resulted in a solid set-up that allows for very little movement. There is some movement in the rack itself, but this would be present with or without the extension/reduction. I'll attach photos so you can see what this looks like.

 

This is the only pic I could find that shows the bikes loaded on the rack for travel...

 

Ken, Thanks for the pictures and the specifics - looks like a great setup. I like how you raised it up with the adapter, great idea I hadn't considered. Did you need a separate extender or did the highlow adaptor bring it out far enough to work?

Will definitely consider the little giant ladder as well for extended travels when it makes sense to leave the tailgate home. We are definitely in the learning/experimental phase, will have to try things out to see what works for us.

 

The HighLow adapter was all I needed to clear the fairly wide handlebars on my trail bike, although I do not have a spacer between the front of the bed and camper...

Modifying to suit your needs and just plain tinkering for fun provides a significant part of the enjoyment of owning a camper. Enjoy!