Overloaded

[Beach]

Saw this article online: https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/autos-trucks/broken-ram-3500-dually-shows-a-camper-can-still-overload-a-big-truck/ar-AA15MPD2?cvid=ad723692b0b24f748fee9658fd17a854

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

That was an accident waiting to happen.
Frank

 

[fish more]

Where was this guys head?

 

[ski3pin]

Where was this guys head?

Don't know, but the "thinking" button hadn't been pushed.

And everyone please remember hindsight is 20-20 and we've all done very stupid things.

 

[JaSAn]

I would venture to guess that over half the weight of the camper is behind the rear wheels.

 

[rubberlegs]

Yes, it's not just how much weight is in the truck bed, but where the weight is (i.e., where the center of gravity is). Too much weight behind the axle will pivot about that axle and lift the front. I didn't see that mentioned in the article.

I'm glad I've never done anything stupid before. The only mistake I've ever made was to buy an eraser.

 

[TacomaAustin]

Too much weight behind the axle will pivot about that axle and lift the front. I didn't see that mentioned in the article.

That was my guess. No matter what is stated in the MSN article, my other guess is the road manners on this rig was probably a bit squirrelly even before the failure.

 

[oldhotrod]

I have a reg cab 1500 Sierra with an 8ft bed and FWC camper base model. The weight of that camper is more than my entire rig, loaded and with me in it. Every time I see one of those overblown campers, I just shake my head and make lots of room. People have zero common sense...

 

[RONR]

Door jam sticker would at least eliminate one item of speculation. The other is the weight of the fully loaded camper, people and anything else in the cab. 5000 lbs for dry weight, but a lot of stuff could be loaded into that big camper and that crew cab ramping up the weight big time.

Btw: Good point on the center of gravity.

Ron

 

[kmcintyre]

Some good points in the article for those considering a camper and weights, etc.

 

[CPT Davenport]

All the weight hanging off behind the rear axle??? Who wouldn’t say oh what the heck, let’s stick a motorcycle back there as well!?!!!!!! Yikes! I think Mopar will win this one. Next time 5500.

 

[CPT Davenport]

I actually saw this guy parked down at the Santa Cruz harbor campground right before Christmas. That camper is HUGE!!!!! I was very surprised when I saw it sitting on the 3500. When they had the slide outs extended the thing was holding its own next to the big 5th wheels. Crazy.

 

[craig333]

Trusting the dealers to have his best interest at heart was his mistake though I can understand thinking they knew what they were talking about.

 

[Taku]

seems to be a trend of folks insisting on putting full size campers on short bed trucks and then having issues. I also wonder how fast some folks drive on rough roads with campers and eventually have serious structural failures of either the truck or camper. Also reminds me of a post on Expedition Portal a while ago where someone had a brand new Colorado, was pulling a trailer and bent the truck frame while claiming he was only going 10 mph when he hit a bump in the road!

 

[tbaxter]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[kmacafee]

"and both the Ram dealer and the camper company where we bought it said it was the perfect truck," Of course they did -- they want to sell campers and trucks. I just got back from Baja and the roads there are no worse than what exists in many parts of the US. As many have already said, too much weight behind the rear axle.

 

[Tom n N]

Probably preaching to the choir here but just as important as total load capacity is capacity of each axle. When I set up my current rig I went to the local truck scale and weighed not only the total (fully loaded), but also just as important, weighed each axle separately. Glad I did, as after 20 years of bad roads everything is still in one piece. When I see the current practice of strapping a bunch of junk on the back of an already overloaded rig I just shake my head and hope they don’t venture further than AAA will go.

 

[Mthomas]

Point of info, 4th and probably 5th gen rams are having an issue with the frame. FWC”s test, demo rig suffered a broken frame at less than 60k miles as I recalll about 1-2 years ago.

there are a ton of what appear to be grossly overloaded TCls running around and not failing. I wonder if FCA and maybe some others are cutting some corners in the design, spec, and mfg area.