pick up Eagle Cap 1165

[mpoulsen]

Hi everyone,  the wife and i left Brookings Oregon Monday to Colorado to pick up 2014 1165, we both fell in love with it. We have had big campers before Host double slide, Okanagan 117UT and we have a 38' Fifth wheel we are down sizing from. So we went thur six states, snow, hail, rain, and 40 mph plus winds in Wyoming with the camper.  The truck did great thur the whole trip in fact my wife was in the cab and asked if i had loaded the camper yet because she didn't feel the truck go down.  The truck is a 2012 F-350 dually diesel long bed 2wd camper package.  Like i said the truck did great event in the winds in Wyoming with the camper never did i feel that i was in danger and needed to pull over and wait it out. So the real story is weight, I know some of you are running 1 tons with this camper and my truck has the bumpstops over loads and the lower torklift, air bags, Rancho 9000 front and rear shocks and Heilway sway bars.  The tires are Firestone Transforce A/T  load 2910 @ 80 psi.   I knew I was going to be over weight by 500 to 900.  But on the way back i stop at a Love's to get fuel and thought what the heck let's put it on the scale and WOW I was surprised! Mind you I said the truck did great thur all six states!!!  Here are the numbers......  GVW 14840  Rear axle 10,200  Front Axle 4640.  Truck Rating  Gvw 13380  Rear Axle 9,000 Front Axle 5250  Cargo 5168     So I am total Gvw 1540 over and rear 1200.  The weight of the camper was 5760  Cargo of truck 51687   sum of 592.  Anyways I notice that some of you run 1 tons are you this much over?  I just looking for some simple infor.  Thanks and sorry for the long post.

[admin-rich]

At the moment, I'm 50lbs under!
However, I had an 1140 Arctic Fox for a couple of years and was 1,000.lbs over and the truck was 2005 F350 dually.
It drove okay but I was perpetually unhappy with being so far above GVWR.

So I traded it for a floor plan that I really liked (a Lance 1180)
As I recall, the Lance was only a few hundred pounds over GVWR.
But it was poorly balanced (among other problems).  The rear end was heavy and de-loaded the front end by a hundred pound or so.
This made handling a little light and required constant attention to avoid drift.

I traded the Lance for a 2021 1150 Arctic Fox (Eagle Cap still doesn't make a floor plan that I really like).
The fox has a taller profile by about 6-inches which has reduced fuel mileage by about 1mpg.
But it handles great and when loaded is still under the trucks GVWR.

I suspect that AF has reduced weight by going to frameless single pane windows (which suck by the way because they don't open enough for good air circulation and they all fog up in cold weather.)
A full sized 1150 and up model typically will put all pickup trucks over GVWR.
Eagle Cap used to make an 1150 model which was lighter than the AF 1150 but discontinued production of it many years ago.
I'd like to see them offer that model again.

[mpoulsen]

Admin-Rich,   did you have a 1165 at one time??   My truck handles the camper well despite it being over.  Took care of the propane leak, found the line for a BBQ had major cracks; easy fix.  Moved the Recliners forward to allow them to move out better.  Sure like the camper and so does the wife

[admin-rich]

Admin-Rich,   did you have a 1165 at one time??   My truck handles the camper well despite it being over.  Took care of the propane leak, found the line for a BBQ had major cracks; easy fix.  Moved the Recliners forward to allow them to move out better.  Sure like the camper and so does the wife

No, I had an Eagle Cap 1150 at one time, a 2005 model and it was built lighter than the AF 1150.  
I don't remember the EC 1150 camper weight but it handled well and did not overload the truck.
Then, as a novice camper, I did a lot of crazy things and eventually damage the camper beyond repair.
Insurance cashed me out on it and by then Eagle Cap had discontinued the 1150 production. 

The 1165 is too heavy for the payload capacity of my current diesel dually.  
Should I every go to a gas powered truck then I might consider one of the really big campers.