Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Truck Campers: Broken Frame on a RAM 3500

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Topic: Broken Frame on a RAM 3500

Posted By: Grit dog on 01/03/23 10:22am

Another good point. No one knows how his rear suspension was set up. But one thing is certain, that camper won’t haul on that truck without something else besides the stock springs.

2016 Ram 2500, MotorOps.ca EFIlive tuned, 5” turbo back, 6" lift on 37s
2017 Heartland Torque T29 - Sold.
Couple of Arctic Fox TCs - Sold

Posted By: Groover on 01/03/23 11:42am

Grit dog wrote:

Another good point. No one knows how his rear suspension was set up. But one thing is certain, that camper won’t haul on that truck without something else besides the stock springs.

Unless you are bottoming out the suspension going with stiffer springs adds stress to the frame. The suspension is there to absorb the bumps. Making it stiffer reduces that capability.

Posted By: joerg68 on 01/03/23 01:14pm

If only a device existed with which you could find out your actual vehicle and axle weights... oh, wait...

When you are running a TC on your truck it is always a good idea to have the rig weighed. Most of the stated weights are optimistic and disregard certain details. And you can make optimistic weight assumptions and calculations about your rig all you want. None of that will alter physics.

Surely the numbers on the door sticker are no hard limits. But they are there for a reason.

2014 Ford F350 XLT 6.2 SCLB + 2017 Northstar Arrow

Posted By: mkirsch on 01/03/23 01:37pm

I find this whole thread hilarious. This forum has been dedicated to beating down "weight police" for years... "You don't need to worry about weight! GVWR is meaningless! It's a DUALLY! The AAM axle is rated for 11,000lbs! Just add up your tire capacities, slap in a set of airbags, and GO! If the tires don't add up to enough, get 19.5's! Nobody that's anybody pays attention to weight! It'll be fine!"

Now all of a sudden everybody's a weight police. "Oh he was 10lbs over GVWR! That's why his frame broke!"

Putting 10-ply tires on half ton trucks since aught-four.

Posted By: jimh406 on 01/03/23 01:47pm

mkirsch wrote:

This forum has been dedicated to beating down "weight police" for years..

Of course, it's been more even than that. The weight police have had their say for at least 17 years. That's as far as I go back here. [emoticon]

People have been pointing out what the parameters are. Each person gets to decide what they do next.

'10 Ford F-450, 6.4, 4.30, 4x4, 14,500 GVWR, '06 Host Rainer 950 DS, Torklift Talon tiedowns, Glow Steps, and Fastguns. Bilstein 4600s, Firestone Bags, Toyo M655 Gs, Curt front hitch, Energy Suspension bump stops.

NRA Life Member, CCA Life Member

Posted By: mkirsch on 01/03/23 02:12pm

jimh406 wrote:

mkirsch wrote:

This forum has been dedicated to beating down "weight police" for years..

Of course, it's been more even than that. The weight police have had their say for at least 17 years. That's as far as I go back here. [emoticon]

People have been pointing out what the parameters are. Each person gets to decide what they do next.

Eh, no. I've tried pointing out parameters and telling people to decide for themselves, only to get beat down by the "The numbers are meaningless, just haul whatever you want! It's a DUALLY!" crowd. So much so that I've pretty much joined them.

An even better twist to this little soap opera is that this guy was DENIED WARRANTY!!! Thought that "never happened" guys. "How are they ever going to know?" Right?

Posted By: JimK-NY on 01/03/23 02:31pm

mkirsch wrote:

Now all of a sudden everybody's a weight police. "Oh he was 10lbs over GVWR! That's why his frame broke!"

Did you notice the post from someone with the same truck? CCC is 4738#. The owner of the broken truck had a camper with a base weight of 5000#. Water and propane bring that to 5500#. Accessories are not included. We can see solar, awnings and a roof rack. I can't see if there is an A/C unit or a generator neither are in the base weight. At a minimum the weight will be 6000#. That does not include the bikes or rack, tools, kitchen gear, food, bedding, air compressor and personal items very likely totally well over 1000#. Best guess is this unit was in the range of 7000-7500# or roughly 2500-3000# over the CCC. In addition there is clearly an issue with center of gravity.

Sadly beginners and often experienced truck camper users often fail to realize how heavy their rigs are.

Posted By: Fisherman on 01/03/23 02:40pm

Maybe next time the owners will pay attention to numbers and not make hap hazard guesses.

Posted By: Kayteg1 on 01/03/23 03:14pm

I no longer own TC and come here just because of those articles.
The pictures of similar broken Ford have been cruising this forum for years, but the limited information we had about Ford incident lead to believe that the owner welded tie-downs to the frame, what weakened it and then very heavy trailer on stinger did not help.
This Dodge incident is another story as the truck did not have any modifications and broke plain under camper weight.
Just for the record, I drove my 2017 F350 with 12' Fleetwood basement camper and coming back from Alaska, with collection of rocks and beer, the scales measured camper at close to 9000 lb.
Ford took it just fine, but my model was SuperCab and RWD with diesel.
Also for the record, the aluminum body dually Ford did not require any suspension reinforcement for the weight. I put Sulastic hangers for comfort and that was it.

Just saying

Posted By: Kayteg1 on 01/03/23 03:29pm

I don't know if I will be back to this forum, but for years I've been pointing how important is COG in TC combo. Lot of members downplayed the issue.
So in case of this Dodge the frame could bend this way only when COG was way behind rear axle.
Would COG be properly adjusted on top, or in front of axle, the rear bending forces would not exist.

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