What issues will I have lifting my 02 GMC 2500HD and carrying a camper? My rear will have a leaf added and possibly air bags so does it even need to be lifted? The lift would be to accomodate larger tires, 285 or 305's, so I don't think I need much more than 2.5 inches or so.

Tim

Those tires will fit stock.Minor rubbing if at all.A leveling kit will take care of that.

Is the 02 GMC 2500HD gas or diesel? Long bed or short bed? Crew cab, extra cab? Dually? How much does the truck weigh? How much does the camper weigh, loaded?

I went through this whole scenario. I thought about getting a Lance for my truck. After months of researching my conclusion was that I could not put a cab over on my truck. With the weight of my truck + family I was looking at only being able to put about a 1500 lb camper in my truck to be legal. Now I know that everyone runs a cab over but most driving down the highway are overloaded. The Lance I wanted was about 3000lbs loaded. I started looking a Rickson 19.5 rims, air bags, sway bars, all that crap.......but still knowing I was over the limit I said screw it and threw the idea away.

So if your wanting to do it I would say get the Ricksons to be safe
http://www.ricksontruck.com/wheels_gm_srw.html
Check out the customer pictures on that site.

Get the air bags for sure and a rear sway bar.

Its a crew cab diesel long bed, I bought it specifically to carry a camper. It weighs 7250 lbs, according to the scales at the local dump (that's with full tanks of diesel, myself (200#) and my 4 year old.

The camper is 2200-2500 loaded, don't know for certain what the empty weight is, as I bought it used. Im at gross with just the camper. I'll probably add a leaf for now just to carry the camper and add airbags when I get a bigger/newer camper. Sounds like I don't need to lift the truck with 285's. I'm thinking I'll either go 265 or 285. The rickson's are baaaaddd! Great weight-bearing wheels.

Dumb question alert: what's a sway bar and where does it go? I thought sway bars were for trailers.

Tim

Its a crew cab diesel long bed, I bought it specifically to carry a camper. It weighs 7250 lbs, according to the scales at the local dump (that's with full tanks of diesel, myself (200#) and my 4 year old.

The camper is 2200-2500 loaded, don't know for certain what the empty weight is, as I bought it used. Im at gross with just the camper. I'll probably add a leaf for now just to carry the camper and add airbags when I get a bigger/newer camper. Sounds like I don't need to lift the truck with 285's. I'm thinking I'll either go 265 or 285. The rickson's are baaaaddd! Great weight-bearing wheels.

Dumb question alert: what's a sway bar and where does it go? I thought sway bars were for trailers.

Tim

Check out this one from Frederico......you can call up NorCal Truck and talk to Nick about it.
http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=197348
It will help ALOT to reduce sway. I would put air bags and sway bar at the top of your list when you get that camper on there. Oh yeah, get some new Bilstein shock all around also! Call up Nick and he will set you up!

Dumb question alert: what's a sway bar and where does it go? I thought sway bars were for trailers.

Tim

Here is your Sway Bars 101 information, and feel free to call us anytime we will answer all your questions an concerns.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m16/tf-ent/Sway%20Bars/SwayBarTechInfo.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m16/tf-ent/Sway%20Bars/antirollinfo-2.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m16/tf-ent/Sway%20Bars/antirollinfo-1.jpg