Today went to Dealer to get a 2003 Elkhorn slide camper. It is a camper made for a short bed truck. The deal was done. Then i got the bright idea too weight my truck do to seeing that the camper weighed in at 2,745 lbs. The truck weighed in at 6,545 lbs. The total weight was 9.290 and put me 490 lbs over my GVWR of 8,800 lbs. So i had to break the deal.Now i know i have seen trucks like mine with even bigger camper on them. Are they setup in some special way? The dealer said airbags. But my thoughts are they would only make the load "happier" and not increase the GVWR. There is only 2,255 lbs to play with for the payload of my truck and there isn't too many NICE camper in that weight limit. I also tow a trailer with two quad weighing in at about 1,200 lbs total.Sorry for a long thread. Any thoughts?

Can't hold down a good Cummins I guess... But the owner is a bit... But we know its all...

The owner isn't a bit , he's alot of !!! I hauled an old 4020 john deere tractor yesterday! Had it on my mind to take pics and post them! But I didn't think about it again till I had the tractor unloaded! I will be hauling my backhoe tomorrow and will take pics of it! It weighs about 22k! Between running runs, working, and trying to keep my dad up to snuff! I feel like I'm getting OLD TIMERS...:lmao:Just getting plain forgetful lately! I looked through some pics on my phone! Found my lil backhe...tractor with backhoe attachment! Had the trailer hooked up and decided not to swap trailers so I hauled butt with it!

Towing heavy also depends on "HOW" your trailer is loaded. In North Dakota, I see farmers/ranchers pulling round bale trailers that'll blot out a semi-truck in your rear view mirror. These boys have the weight on the trailer axles and not the truck. Only problem is........stopping!!!!!!:doh: No traffic out there though!!About 4 years ago, my cousin rented a skidsteer and hydraulic auger to grade his yard and drill footings for a deck he added to his house. The skidsteer probably went 6000lbs by itself.......then the flatbed, at least another 5-6000lbs, plus the auger attachment. The idiots at the rental place had the skidsteer on the front of the flatbed and the auger behind. I was leery of hauling it, but my cousin and the rental guy said it'd be OK!!!! Wrong!!!! I couldn't go over about 35mph without my truck getting "squirrelly" in the steering. I told my cousin, that if he wanted me to haul that thing back, he'd have to figure a way to load the trailer differently...........he did, and the 10 mile drive back was a piece of cake. Once that load was moving, the only problem was stopping!!!!

I'll haul just about anything, I take my time and always check my brakes before I cut out on a trip! I replace my front brake pads yearly, adjust the rear brakes regularly! Trailer brakes are checked often as well! Matter of fact fixing to replace them on the trailer! What is crazy is I called the place where I get my trailer parts from, told them to get a price to replace the brakes and backing plates. The guy told me I would be cheaper replacing the axles instead!!! Said backing plates and brakes would run 500 per wheel, total 2 grand or I can get new axles and springs for 2200! So I guess I'll be replacing axles and springs!

You shouldn't have any problem at all with that slide in camper you are wanting. I've had almost 3 ton of slag in the bed and a trailer with a bobcat and an couple extra attachments behind my old 3/4 ton chevy with no trailer brakes before. DOT officer with the temporary scales was so nice to just call me out of my mind but couldn't find anything illegal. He said the weight was just under 30k and apparently was still legal in Ohio.

I carry a 2001 Summerwind 8'11" camper on my truck. It also has a slide out but the unit is made with an all aluminum frame. It's called the lite-weight model and its weight is 2505#. My truck is probably pretty close to the weight of yours. My camper would then put me at about 200+ pounds over weight. I do not run air bags but have over loads and the torq-rite tie downs and overload bumper pads. There is no squatting when I have the camper on my back. I run RS9000XL adjustable shocks and a heavy duty sway bar with heavy duty brake pads and slotted rotors. I worried about the over load condition and checked with multiple RV dealers and truck owners and all I talked to said this is done every day. The long and short of it is that I talked myself into carrying this camper because on doing my research on carrying capacity of tires and axles as well as the stopping capacity of the brakes that I would be ok if I didn't do something stupid like driving to fast, driving too close or ignoring the environmental conditions. I have picked my cruising speed to be 60-62mph and I don't go over it with the camper on my back. I have put almost 7000 miles on my truck carying this camper and have not had any kind of problems. This unit is 12' tall so I have to watch high winds and of course my mpg drops but everything else has been just fine..

Ok I have towed heavy too. There is a thin line between crazy and stupid. I'm close but still consider myself on the crazy side. Max ever I towed was 29K GCW. Well that was when moving. Got stuck leaving our yard. Drove 20miles to a truck stop, weighed it realized I wasnt on the crazy side anymore, drove back and unloaded a good bit. Not as much as I thought. I normally tow heavy when we have to move which has been trips like from Fl to AZ, Az to Or, Or to FL, Fl back to Az, then finally Az to Wa. Yes my own one lap of america. Normally weight is usually, around 24K GCW. Both of my cargo trailers have WD hitches. I have them setup so when the truck squats a bit in the back, my hitch weight is about spot on. I always weigh the rig just to double check. I would load the camper however, make sure you are not over loaded on the tires. My are for 3400 and change. About 6800 for the rear axle rating. The axle can handle more but not with a blown tire. One of my weigh slips shows a truck weight over 10K. Just over 3K on the front and right around 7K on the rear. One of the few times I ran the truck tires overloaded. My normal speed was only 55mph. That was a boring drive.

When I pickd up the Toy Hauler... I knew nothing of WD hitches. The trailer came with most of the WD hitch. The shim pack was missing... that was necessary to make the torsion bars work. What a scary ride home that was! Just did not have proper steering control. I looked up the Hitch on line, read the instructions & used a bolt & washers to make a replacement shim pack. I can't say I like WD hitches but it's necessary for this rig.

My Gooseneck horse trailer has the axles way back & I'm sure I have very high tongue weight when load for camping but never had control issues.

About the craziest thing I've seen... Our barn was built over a 56' mobile home... intended to be used as storage rooms. We decided to get it out. It took me years to reduce it to a platform. A local junk guy said if I could put it in the street, he'd take it! I opened the end of the barn & used my backhoe to get it out (between trees) and turn it. I had to fix all the tires. The junk guy showed up with a 3/4 ton Chevy & down the road we went. My road is a steep down hill accross a brook and nearly 45 degrees up the other side in creeper gear. We had someone in front & one behind to block traffic (only had 2 miles to go). Wouldn't you know some idiots tried to pass us (we blocked them)... they couldn't pass the trailer anyway on that narrow road. We had a narrow bridge to cross (right down the middle). The junk guy didn't think he could stop it. When we got to his place we had to make a left & the lead guy blocked oncoming traffic... WHEW!!

editI remember driving ahead, down the middle of the street, waving people aside. They looked at me like I was nuts... for just a second, until they saw what was coming AT THEM!! They moved WAY OVER!!

I got conned into hauling some concrete storm shelters for a guy! Truck trailer loaded with fuel is 17k and the 5 units weigh in at 27,500!

i too am in that crazy club. I have also hit that 40,000lbs and up club. I was conned into hauling a Formula 400ss series boat that empty weight in at 18,000, the trailer weight in at 17,000, plus my truck which tipped at 7,200 with 5th wheel hitch installed. total weight was likie 42,000+lbs. The trailer was a custom low body trailer that rode almost 1ft off the ground, however with airbags it could be raised to almost double to help clear weird angles and stuff, strange looking thing. link to a boat site to see what it looks like http://www.boattest.com/boats/boat_video.aspx?id=2201 My 99 the heaviest i have had dragged around was a 18,000lbs camper that rolled across the scales at about 24,000. what i couldn't figure out is what weighted 6,000lbs that he could put into the camper. Total load was 31,000 the 99 also had a Star 5 Camper which at its time was the heaviest camper weighting at 5,100lbs or around there, it was so heavy (i remember buying it with my dad) that the Camper dealership up in Massachusetts refused to sell it to us unless we loaded it up on the truck and took it for a ride. Apparently this camper was 14 times and never left the parking lot as everyone who bought the camper would come in and load it up and couldn't get it anywhere(it would bottom out the tire wells). the last guy had a F-350 but that thing the front end got squirrelley right out front of the dealership as they were on the side of a mountain. And well that camper came back. Anyways we loaded up this camper, and the guy got in the passenger side and my dad took him for a spin in the Cummins, and the truck handled like a tank. Loan behind then in febuary of 2002 during a bad arse snow storm my dad decided to go to florida, and then they bought an extend a hitch and had a bolted bracked welded to the back of the camper This extended hitch was a separate bolt on for the truck that was a real hitch, with about 10 feet between the bumper and the end of the camper it was a long bracket, then a trailer with a 16 foot palm beach boat was added on the end. total weight was not that bad, just about 16000lbs or about there. My dad took that to fla all the way to key west and back. The rest is run of the mill stuff, boats of all sized and weight but nothing like that stuff mentioned above. SO to the OP, i think with the proper upgrades your truck will handle that camper just fine, call him back up and get it. My 99 had a complete suspension overhaul, i have stiff springs, and chock block that will bottom the axle out onto of the frame, so the springs are not inverted, in order for my truck to sit on the chock blocks i need at least 3,000 in the truck bed, so my truck is not stock either. i think it has a 6inch lift on it as it rides much higher then all the other trucks i have found.

Those are some serious loads, pepsi!

yea, i can say somet of those were white nuckle, it took me almost a whole afternoon to drive that camper around boyds campground in key west. The Campground oweners were like "hmmm we have never had anyone with a 5th wheel camper this big before im not sure how we can get you to your slip, and i was like :banghead:

Do you guys not have DOT's down there?! If I tried hauling stuff like that I'd be pulled off the road before I started!