Hauling truck camper restrictions? New truck

[mikelut01]

Hello. New to this forum. Mike here from florida.
Purchased a2019 tradesman 3500 6.4 hemi . Has 195 miles on it...we want to load the lance truck camper and go to texas over christmas. Camper weighs 3200 lbs. truck will be about 4000 lbs fully loaded
The sticker says cargo is 4535 lbs. 3500 8 foot box single rear wheel . 6.4 hemi gas
Questions. Is hauling the same as towing ?.
If so no loads until 500 miles then 50 mph for next 500 miles.
I have been trying to pin down dealers and so far. duck and dodge!
We will go but it seems arbitrary that 500 miles and 1000 miles will break in everything ...
So if i follow the guidelines i need 300 more miles to load the camper and 500 more before i get to turnpike speeds. 50 should be a gas saver but not sure of that...
Any thoughts about this would be appreciated . I will post next year about the performance. Have not got the dealers first tank of gas through it yet.
Another question. What grade of gas to burn?. Dealer put regular and said it is ok to burn...manual recommends 87 grade or higher..... one of our camper friends burns regular in their 2108 hemi and has a 4000 lb camper on a dually. ...seems to run ok. Dont know about mileage yet.
Just installed running boards and tonneau cover. Truck is too high to get into , however the view is great.
Thank you for reading.
Mike l

 

[sandawilliams]

I tow 8800# with another 1500 in the bed. I have tried the different grades of fuel many times and see no difference in power or mpg. In Colorado our low grade is 85 and it works fine. As far as the camper my 2014 came with a overhead camper placard in with the owners manual. I would look for it to get more info.
As far as break in- I purchased my truck new coming home from a camping trip. It only had a couple of miles on it when I hooked the trailer on, drove about 110 miles, with no problems. Truck has 60K on it now. I was concerned at the time but took it easy coming home.

 

[mikelut01]

Hello. Completed trip from florida to brownsville texas and back. 2500 miles total miles on truck 2995. Mileage average is 11.1. Whilst travelling at highway speed indicated 8 to 10. .left home with 505 miles and loaded camper. That pix is in texas flying j near houston. Back to tHe trip 50 mph for 500 miles was a bear.ran up state roads to marianne and then west on 90 to mobile. Reasonable speeds sometimes over 50 because truck wanted to go..loxley ala. picked up ten 960 miles and went thru tunnels heading west. Finally opened it up near mississippi border. Mileage figures went down but truck did not seem to care. Used haul mode because i did not know any better. If i forgot when we left a fuel stop or rest area it did not seem to matter.had a warning light emissions heading toward victoria texas (middle of nowhere sunday afternoon). Book said it might be gas tank filler cap loose .reset cap no deal. Read that you needed three key starts to clear. Stopped for night and after parking cycled switch and light went out...Arrived at Daughter's to visit grandkids and celebrate christmas. Truck ran fine for me wife handled it fine..coming back ran into storms and wind south of houston.camper was rocking pretty good in the truck stop.parked on the lee side of trucks. Wind dropped after dark. At least 25 mph winds. Went thru houston sunday am before 7. One glitch going from 59 to 10 downtown tractor trailer jackknifed at intersecting onramp to 10. Crawled thru there. Cops did. NOt help anyone just let traffic sort itself out. Panhandle of florida is still devestated from hurricane last year..no bathroom facilities at some campgrounds or rest areas. Trees down as far as you can see. 50 mile swath...sad. Stayed at falling rivers state park. Because they had showers and bath facilities.question i have is when to use tow haul mode...?? Seems to me flat roads it does not matter
My load was about 3500. Truck is rated 4545.
Happy with results . Need more runs to figure out other camping needs. Truck has plenty of room.for two of us.. oil use is at 63 % so will need to change at 7000 or so.some advise changing early first time? Dont know? Will use pennzoil ultra,,. Filter??? Amazon 6 guarts 58 bucks. Will check wally world. So thats it first trip completed..

 

[Elkman]

The factory sticker is based on the truck as it left the factory and with a SRW truck the limiting factor is nearly always the tires. With my truck the factory tires were rated at 3195 lbs and I changed them for tires rated at 3750 lbs to gain 1100 lbs of load capacity at the rear axle.

Fortunately my truck has rear leaf springs so I added SuperSprings to gain 1400 lbs of capacity with these as well and this reduced the pressure on the shocks we a reduced range of travel with the springs not overloaded.

 

[mikelut01]

Hello. This truck has 3640 tires on from the factory. Dont know if there is any recourse. Axle capacity is fixed. My choice was dually but did not figure i needed that for my purposes..regards. Mike

 

[Elkman]

Axle capacity is not the limitation but the springs and the tires. Go to a CAT scale and get the exact weight on the rear axle of the truck. Check the actual load capacity of the rear axle that Ram is using on the current 1500 pickups.

Lance and others make lighter weight campers for people with 1500 class pickups. They will be at least 1000 lbs lighter than their standard campers that are meant for 2500/3500 trucks. Better to go with a travel trailer with a 1500 pickup or a bare bones popup camper in the bed.

1500 class trucks have weaker frames than the 2500/3500 trucks and that is something to consider as well. More than a few Ford 2500 and 3500 truck frames have broken near the cab with too much of a load in the bed. GM improved its 2500/3500 truck frames in 2011 and Ram did in 2013/2014 and Ford did starting in 2016.