wheel strength?

[wcjp]

About to buy a 8. 5' truck camper. I'm looking at wheel/tire strength. Anyone know how strong and/or the ratings of the wheels? Wheels are stock chrome clad aluminum on my 06' 2500 Mega.

 

[HBarlow]

The weight rating of a wheel is usually stamped on the inside. If you don't want to remove the wheel and tire and dismount the tire to read it you can estimate it.



The tires, wheels, and rear axle GAWR are all matched by the manufacturer. The wheel's rating will be slightly greater than the tire rating and approximately equal to 1/2 the GAWR.

 

[Regcabguy]

Load centering.

An 8. 5" camper on a Mega Cab may exceed your rear axle rating. Your load is hanging off the rearend instead of being centered on the truck. Most manufactured campers exceed their weight claims. You more than likely have a disclaimer in the owners manual concerning this. My camper weighs 2000# wet,so I'm over on my reg. cab. Load is almost perfectly balanced with this configuration.

 

[wcjp]

I think the rear axle is rated for 9k. Problem is tires/wheels. The stock Michelin's are rated at 3,195lbs each. They have 45k miles on them. Replacement to a stronger tire isn't a cost issue at this point. However, the wife says no way to the cost of 19. 5" tires/wheels. I was looking at Toyo tire ratings last night. They're not any stronger in stock size than my Michelin's. I'd prefer a smaller camper. Again, the wife wants something with a slide. I'll pull a tire this weekend to see the rating stamped on the rim. Didn't know it was there.

 

[HBarlow]

wcjp,



You seem determined to make a very large and potentially dangerous mistake.



It is clear that you don't want to accept the obvious fact here. You don't have a truck to carry a slide-in camper.



If you persist and hang a slide-in camper off the back of your truck it could possibly roll over backward when you or your wife open the rear door and step in.

 

[jelag]

on my 04 dually the wheels are stamped and rated something like 200 lbs more than the tires.....

I've put 19. 5" tires and steel wheels on my trucks to match the tires on my F550 and 5500... . which are rated something like 800-900 lbs per tire higher... . I did some research on this... . but don't recall the exact numbers.....

 

[Dbonzi]

wcjp,

If you persist and hang a slide-in camper off the back of your truck it could possibly roll over backward when you or your wife open the rear door and step in.

Wow I can't even follow this exaggeration:-laf:-laf

 

[wcjp]

wcjp,





If you persist and hang a slide-in camper off the back of your truck it could possibly roll over backward when you or your wife open the rear door and step in.

My wife doesn't appreciate being called fat.

 

[BHolm]

The dually is by far the best answer to carrying a lot of wieght in the bed. If you have to stay SRW 19. 5s are the answer. The only way to get more capacity in the tires is to go to a larger size E rated tire. Problem is, it still isn't going to be nearly as stable as the dually or 19. 5 options. Campers raise the center of gravity BAD, you really need to reconsider your plan IMO.

 

[MSicotte]

I have a short box 3500 4wd and haul an Arctic Fox 860 camper with a slide out. I run the Toyo 295/70r17 tires for weight rating (3960lbs each). The rear axle is rated for 10800 lbs. Add spacers to the bumpstops (approx 2. 5" box tube) for your overloads so they contact the overloads right away. Your truck will be over its load rating, but so is mine. My camper weighs 4900 lbs wet, I scale at 7400lbs on the rear axle and 12200 overall. Overloaded, hell yeah, but after buying it believing the brochure, what do you do? Use some common sense while driving and loading, buy one that is DESIGNED FOR A SHORT BOX, and go from there. Hope that helps. Cheers, Marc.

 

[BHolm]

I have a short box 3500 4wd and haul an Arctic Fox 860 camper with a slide out. I run the Toyo 295/70r17 tires for weight rating (3960lbs each). The rear axle is rated for 10800 lbs. Add spacers to the bumpstops (approx 2. 5" box tube) for your overloads so they contact the overloads right away. Your truck will be over its load rating, but so is mine. My camper weighs 4900 lbs wet, I scale at 7400lbs on the rear axle and 12200 overall. Overloaded, hell yeah, but after buying it believing the brochure, what do you do? Use some common sense while driving and loading, buy one that is DESIGNED FOR A SHORT BOX, and go from there. Hope that helps. Cheers, Marc.

Wouldn't airbags have been easier than spacers for the overloads? I have bags on my truck and they work pretty well when I have a lot of pin wieght on the gooseneck hitch.



Do those Toyos take 80 psi?

 

[Paddy McMahon]

The Toyo 295/70/17 MT's show a max load of 3970 at 80psi. I love these tires. I ran a cabover lance camper on my old 1st gen Dodge one ton single rear wheel p/u that was always over loaded, but I always drove cautiously and ran good tires and was always made painfully aware of crosswinds, chassis sway, and increased braking distance when using the camper-but I had a good time anyway... ... ... ... .

 

[MSicotte]

BHolm - My suspension saga is fairly involved, but here goes. I originally started with the stock leaves and overloads with the spacers. The truck rode level but still had some bounce. I upgraded to a 5 pack overload but because of the extra size, they hit the bumpstops with no spacers creating a very poor unloaded ride. Next came the 12 leaf Deaver springs (no overloads) to get a good ride. They are soft though and I had to tighten up the shackles so much to keep the truck from sagging that I lost the great ride I had achieved. I added Firestone ride rites to supplement for load and they aren't nearly enough, the truck sags and bouces way too much. My plan in the next week or two is to loosen the shackles again to get the ride back, add a block to get the ride height back to where I want it, add the stock overloads again with new bumpstop spacers, and keep the air bags as a back up. Hopefully , this will give me the soft unloaded ride I've been working towards, and handle the weight of the camper... ... ... . 4th times the charm??

 

[Regcabguy]

BHolm - My suspension saga is fairly involved, but here goes. I originally started with the stock leaves and overloads with the spacers. The truck rode level but still had some bounce. I upgraded to a 5 pack overload but because of the extra size, they hit the bumpstops with no spacers creating a very poor unloaded ride. Next came the 12 leaf Deaver springs (no overloads) to get a good ride. They are soft though and I had to tighten up the shackles so much to keep the truck from sagging that I lost the great ride I had achieved. I added Firestone ride rites to supplement for load and they aren't nearly enough, the truck sags and bouces way too much. My plan in the next week or two is to loosen the shackles again to get the ride back, add a block to get the ride height back to where I want it, add the stock overloads again with new bumpstop spacers, and keep the air bags as a back up. Hopefully , this will give me the soft unloaded ride I've been working towards, and handle the weight of the camper... ... ... . 4th times the charm??

Trade it in on a dually. Nothing hauls a slide in hardside like them.

 

[MSicotte]

A dually is out of the question, the truck camper is built to fit a short box truck, and the new mega-cab dually has less load capacity than my single wheel short box.