WTB lighter camper

[michael noble]

I am looking for a camper that weighs 3500 lb or less. Not a pop up. Preferred used and to have A/C hot water and shower. I have a camper that weighs 4800 lbs, but it is a strain to haul it in the Shenandoah mountains with a 1500 Dodge Ram.

Mike Noble
Lenoir Braves

[MR. GADGET]

Don't want to blow your hopes but....
I have towed trailers all my life tow 10 to 15k or more easy a year.
A lot of it has to do with the size and not weight. If you have a wide tall flat front trailer you could drop 800 to 1500 lbe and not really see much difference.
My big box trailer when I towed it all the time up there in the mountains it towed the same at 4500 lbs as it did at 6500 lbs. All I did was waste time offloading stuff I was not using to find out it handled the same.

Lot has to do with truck gears and motor but towing a big box that acts like a anchor is a lot of the problem.

If you down size like you plan and also get a lower more rounded camper you will see a larger difference than just drop the weight.

If you don't have a lot of towing background go ride with someone that tows a lot. They may be able to make pointers that will help.

[Muley Gil]

You might look at using a shorter tire. This will in effect slightly give you a lower gear ratio-say 3.00 vs. 2.73, depending on how mech shorter of a tire you can find that still meets the load requirements. I do know that when a co-worker added taller tires to his Dodge P/U, it make pulling his boat and trailer more difficult.

[Dheisey#7003]

If you are looking for an older, lighter camper, it is a rarity. I ordered a 25' coachman apex last year and it came in early this year. Curb weight is 3700#. Pulling it is not hard by any means. The last older camper I had was somewhere around 6400# it was 28'. The previous one to that weighed 8400# and was 19'. It may take a while, but if you keep looking you may find one.

[Robt. Propst]

When I was talking with my camper repair shop owner about weight, he said that the older the camper the more likely it is to be heavier than the newer ones. Different materials used now bring the overall weight down.

You may already be doing this, but waiting to fill up the water tank at the Fort, and dumping before leaving, can cut weight significantly in both directions. Took once to figure this out for me?..

[Lou Lou Lou]

100 gallons of water is 833 pounds, if your tank is that big. Puts you right in the ball park

[michael noble]

Thanks for the replys, I believe consistency will be key to locating a lighter camper, but thanks for the tips.

[Bob Lintner]

Use deeper gears in the rear end IF it's a 2 wheel drive. You need to change both front and back rear end gears, so they are the same, in a 4 wheel drive. If you tow a lot, you need the deeper gears anyway. Mileage will suffer a bit, but hey, it's a truck. Good luck.
Bob