cabover & towing

[jeepfrk9]

hello all,
what I've got is a 2000 ford f250 cc power stroke short bed,
I currently tow a 19 foot jetboat that weights about 4200 loaded, I'm looking into a cabover camper to stack on. The campers I've been looking at are 2500# or less loaded w water and gear.
looking for some opinions on this setup to tow/haul SAFELY. I think I well within to load cap.
How about the auto trans...will this set up kill it quick, 77,000 miles on the truck. Somthing I could do to help it live...sort of anouther trans!
Any opinions are greatly apprecated!

[SmokeyWren]

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... 2000 ford f250 ...looking for some opinions on this setup to tow/haul SAFELY.

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Ford engineers are the experts on the weight limits of your truck. They say you have a limit of 8,800 pounds GVW and 20,000 pounds GCW.

The 20,000 pounds GCW is probably no problem.

But the 8,800 pounds GVWR is a huge problem.

If your truck is a 4x4, then it probably weighs about 7,300 pounds when wet and empty. About 8,000 pounds with two people and only a few tools and other weight. That leaves only 800 pounds for additional payload.

About 450 pounds of your additional payload is taken up by the hitch weight of the jetski trailer. So that leaves only 350 pounds available for a slide-in camper.

Sorry, but the only thing you can haul per Ford is maybe a tent, a Coleman stove, a cooler full of cool, and maybe a "slop jar" for a pottie. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Some folks say the F-250 is almost identical to the F-350 SRW, so it's okay to overload the F-250 up to 9,900 GVW. If they're right, then you have a max of 1,450 pounds available for a camper. So maybe an empty 4-Wheel pop-up tent camper, but certainly not even the lightest slide-in truck camper. Or maybe a bed topper, plus the tent, a Coleman stove, a cooler full of cool, and maybe a "slop jar" for a pottie. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/warmsmile.gif[/img]

Your next step should be to load up the truck with the loaded trailer and the folks and stuff normally with you when on the road. Go to a truckstop that has a CAT scale, fill up with diesel, then weigh the wet and loaded rig - driver, passenger(s), and all. Add the front and rear truck axle weights to get your loaded GVW. Subtract that weight from 8,800 and you'll know how much more weight you can haul SAFELY.

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How about the auto trans...will this set up kill it quick, 77,000 miles on the truck. Somthing I could do to help it live...sort of anouther trans!

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The tranny killer is heat. If you don't get the tranny too hot, it will live regardless of your load. So add a tranny temp gauge with the sender in the pressure port on the side of the tranny. Watch that gauge like a hawk when under high-torque, slow-speed conditions, and don't allow it to go over 225. Up to around 200 is normal. 200 to around 220 is not unusual when under high-torque, slow-speed conditions. But if you see 220, then get ready to find a wide spot in the road so you can pull over, stop, take the tranny out of gear, and idle the engine at 1,200 RPM or more until the tranny cools off to about 210 or less. And do NOT kill the engine when the tanny temp is over about 200.

If you ever see over about 205 tranny temp, then change to synthetic MERCON ATF. Do not use any dual-rated MERCON/MERCON V ATF. Be sure it's DEXRON III/MERCON or MERCON/DEXRON III. AMSOIL makes one, but it's not their normal "Universal" ATF that is dual rated including MERCON V.

[Big Boy w/ Big Toys]

I would not recommend an extension for your trailer hitch. Limit your cab over length to truck length, or as close to as possible.
The longest extension you can get is 18", this also reduces your weight carrying capacity by 35% or for a 12,500 lb hitch, 1250 lb tongue weight, is now reduced to 8125 lb with a tongue weight of 812.5 lbs.

Weighing your boat on a good scale to include tongue weight to ensure that an extension would be a good idea for that bigger Cabover.

Total weight wise everything would be fine. I know of two cabovers one a full size the other a shortbed, one auto and one 6spd and both have had no issues. Both have airbags and aftermarket overloads. Both pull 21 foot jet boats, one has a trailer extension and one does not. The one with the extension has needed some type of work before, during and after the season, cabover, trailer, and hitch, but the roads here in Alaska can be unforgiving.

[Hoss350]

[ QUOTE ]
hello all,
what I've got is a 2000 ford f250 cc power stroke short bed,
I currently tow a 19 foot jetboat that weights about 4200 loaded, I'm looking into a cabover camper to stack on. The campers I've been looking at are 2500# or less loaded w water and gear.
looking for some opinions on this setup to tow/haul SAFELY. I think I well within to load cap.
How about the auto trans...will this set up kill it quick, 77,000 miles on the truck. Somthing I could do to help it live...sort of anouther trans!
Any opinions are greatly apprecated!

[/ QUOTE ]
I have a 19 foot inboard ski boat, with a 1978 10.5 foot Conestoga Cabover (so yes, it is about the heaviest and longest camper you can get). I use a 1 foot externsion bar, so that when the stinger sticks out, the center of the ball is about 16" past the end of the hitch insert, which puts the hitch ball almost directly under the lip of the camper. Long story short, I've hauled the steepest hills on the windiest of roads and never once felt uncomfortable at all. Mind you, I have a SRW F-350, so my rating is a little higher than yours, but by the factory rating, i am still overweight. The factory GVW (what you can haul) is almost shameful for these trucks. There are half-tons with higher payloads than super-duties, simply because the SD truck is so heavy. This basically leads me to not really care all that much about payload. If you put the max payload into your 250, it won't even hardly squat. You probably won't even be able to tell there is much of a load there. Seriously.

So, if you ever plan on using your truck based on it's capability, then you should probably just turn a blind eye to the payload ratings (within reason, of course. If the rear axle is really squatting down, then you may want to rethink your load distribution...) and focus on GCVWR, which is the total weight of the truck. Your truck can be as much as 20,000 pounds combined truck and trailer weight. This means that your truck, at say 7,500 pounds loaded, and your boat, at (WAG) of 5,500 lbs leaves you enough room for a cabover camper. Your rear axles will almost be "overloaded" based on the factory specifications with just the boat behind you, since your hitch weight will be about 1,100 lbs. So, my recommendation is that you keep the camper within reason. I would go max 9.5 foot camper, so you don't really need an extension hitch (check this first to make sure it will work with your setup, you may even need to go shorter). However, the extension hitch is a much maligned item that never really lived up to it's horrible reputation, if you aks me. I've towed a lot of miles with an extension hitch and never really felt much difference. That being said, I am also very conservative and careful when I drive loaded.

YOu will be easily within the GCWR of the truck, and over on your rear axle by a substantial margin (by about the weight of your camper) but I would not worry about it. JMHO...

[Motogrl307]

We had a 9.5ft jayco at 2500lb and pulled a 20 x 8.5ft closed trailer hauling as many as 6 dirtbikes or 3 and a golf cart and 200gal of water with a 30in extension and weight distribution hitch since '93. Our first truck was a '92 f250 single wheel with air bags and then an '00 f350 dually crew cab with air bags and no problem and we travelled all over the US and over 150,000mi.

We now have an'06 F350 crew cab dually with a Lance 1181 at 4500lbs and pull the same trailer with a 48in extension with some modifications and so far it is doing fine. Total weight is about 23,000lbs.

We welded a second hitch to the Ford 2 1/2 hitch and have two extensions coming out, one is 2 1/2in and the other is 2in and clamped them together for strength. Super Hitch makes one like it so we made our own.

[PSDfreak]

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If your truck is a 4x4, then it probably weighs about 7,300 pounds when wet and empty. About 8,000 pounds with two people and only a few tools and other weight. That leaves only 800 pounds for additional payload.

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800 lbs?! that sounds like a joke...not that im saying its wrong...just sounds awfully wimpy [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

-Casey