Looking to buy a truck camper for my 1998 K3500 SRW 4wd truck. I was curious who has used their 6.5 with a camper and towing? I will be towing a 3500lb boat or a horse trailer along with having the camper on. I would like to get as big a camper as possible without overloading the truck. Any experiences? Size & weight of camper?

It's different from the truck in my sig but has 4" exhaust, Heath computer & Turbomaster--------------

i used to tow an 18ft i/o 135hp maxum. and have a 9 1/2ft. kodiak camper. truck did fine although i should have had trailer brakes. that was before i did any mods to the truck. i'd still think you'll be fine with any camper. if it makes you feel better add airbags. did i say make sure you got trailer brakes. Ed

on edit i see you have srw, mine is a dually

i used to tow a 197? ,25' holiday camper with a 18' tri hull boat behind it,and my 98 hd app 900# in the bed with my 93 ,2500,ext cab,4x4,never had any trouble ;)

I've never seen a 25 ft truck camper, so mjd must live where it's legal to tow two vehicles. I've packed a variety of campers from 8 ft to 10 ft on SRW 2500's and 3500's plus towed a boat or horse trailer. Never a problem. Of course campers vary a lot and some are way heavier than others, plus some people carry more beer. I try to keep within the weight rating for my truck, but usually go over once the gear is in. An eight ft makes for easy towing as you can close the tailgate and use a normal slide-in hitch. I towed up to 25 foot boats with an eight foot camper. Once the camper hangs past the bumper, you need a long reach on the trailer or some type of extension for the hitch. It's not usually difficult to extend a boat trailer reach, but most horse trailers are pretty short between the coupler and the body and aren't easy to extend unless you are a good fabricator or know one. I built a 2ft slide-in extension with side bars that works well for my 17 ft boat and my old horse trailer with my current 9.5 ft camper, but my new horse trailer is quite a bit bigger and heavier and I think I will have to beef up the extension or build a new longer reach for the trailer. Tongue weight is also in the equation, bigger trailers often have up to 500 lbs hitch weight which has to be factored in, usually better riding and safer with an equalizer. Look into your options before you buy a camper that is too big or heavy.

I've never seen a 25 ft truck camper, so mjd must live where it's legal to tow two vehicles. I've packed a variety of campers from 8 ft to 10 ft on SRW 2500's and 3500's plus towed a boat or horse trailer. Never a problem. Of course campers vary a lot and some are way heavier than others, plus some people carry more beer. I try to keep within the weight rating for my truck, but usually go over once the gear is in. An eight ft makes for easy towing as you can close the tailgate and use a normal slide-in hitch. I towed up to 25 foot boats with an eight foot camper. Once the camper hangs past the bumper, you need a long reach on the trailer or some type of extension for the hitch. It's not usually difficult to extend a boat trailer reach, but most horse trailers are pretty short between the coupler and the body and aren't easy to extend unless you are a good fabricator or know one. I built a 2ft slide-in extension with side bars that works well for my 17 ft boat and my old horse trailer with my current 9.5 ft camper, but my new horse trailer is quite a bit bigger and heavier and I think I will have to beef up the extension or build a new longer reach for the trailer. Tongue weight is also in the equation, bigger trailers often have up to 500 lbs hitch weight which has to be factored in, usually better riding and safer with an equalizer. Look into your options before you buy a camper that is too big or heavy.


reread my post ;),i said i TOWED a 25' camper,plus a 18' boat,and put my harley in the BED :D

a friend had a 93 4wd duelly stock with a manual trans and he bought a new truck camper, this beast was massive. From the back of the truck cab to the assend of the camper was 11.5ft. It weighed 3500lbs empty, it was huge. He hauled it with no problems.

Try Truck Camper Magazine...they have great information about matching trucks and campers. Also Bill or Mike at East End Campers are 30yr vetran Experts with Truck Campers and would be glad to help,

Looking to buy a truck camper for my 1998 K3500 SRW 4wd truck. I was curious who has used their 6.5 with a camper and towing? I will be towing a 3500lb boat or a horse trailer along with having the camper on. I would like to get as big a camper as possible without overloading the truck. Any experiences? Size & weight of camper?

It's different from the truck in my sig but has 4" exhaust, Heath computer & Turbomaster--------------

I have a Lance 915 (9.5') that I haul on my 97 CC SRW K3500. It says it's 2,400 lbs on the tag, but in use it scales right at 3,000 lbs. IMHO it is at the limit of what a SRW 3/4 or 1 ton should carry for a camper. I know guys that have hauled 11.5' campers on SRW trucks though.

Tires are very important at this weight: truck is about 7,000 lbs and the camper at 3,000 put me at 10,000 lbs. I had 265/75/R16 load range D's (3,000 lb rated) at first, but when I replaced them I switched to 265/75/R16 load range E's (3,415 lb rated). I would not ever consider a tire less than load range E again.

Towing with my camper I have towed my Scout (both flat pulling and on a 7,000 GVW trailer) and I've towed a two horse trailer too. I scaled the setup when I flat towed my Scout from Alaska and it was 16,900 lbs (my trailer adds 2,200 lbs to that with no spare tires). I have to use a 16" extension to tow due to having a 9.5' camper. The extension increases the force applied to the hitch by the tongue weight. An 8' camper would be best for towing, but it limits you inside the camper.

I have made 3 trips either to or from Alaska and one +6,000 mile here in the lower 48 with my setup along with many smaller trips sine I got the camper in 1999.

In my garage I have pics of my camper and my hitch setup.

In the towing section there is a good thread with pics of different extensions for towing.

when you got a big camper E tires and air bags are a good idea. I have a 8.5ft camper and its fine with no airbags but the new campers with slideouts and generators get heavy.

Nice looking Rig Thanks for sharing!

Im still yet to haul my camper its a 31' ft tow behind. Without beer and 25 flats of shotgun shells its 9k empty then loaded its 11k so idk what the hell is going to happen this summer.

Pic hitched up to horse trailer.

http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/garageimage.php?do=full&p=87353

Hey, thanks everyone for their input. I am picking up a 9.5' camper tonight. It weighs around 2k so that should be fine. It is tought to find 9.5 footers at a good price, they sell fast. It should work well but I may add air bags after we use it a few times.

My older 9 1/2 foot camper barely made my truck squat. I hooked my 14ft tri hull up as well & had no problems. Mind you, I kept the go peddle off the floor. & milage wasn't the greatest, but there was no overheating etc.

A 9.5 would be a nice size, a 10ft would probably be ok too. I dont like going to big but the extra room is nice. The 8.5 I have it a nice size but I had how it sits on the tail gate. There is about 12" of tailgate hanging out and your steps hang on it. I like how the one is on careys truck.