The article below chronicles a warranty issue of a RAM 3500 owner. He thought that he had done his homework before buying his RAM 3500 to carry a cap camper, even discussing it with the RAM dealer. It broke in half anyway. Be careful if you plan anything like this. The issue is that he used the carrying capacity for a regular cab RAM with a long bed, two-wheel drive, and a 6.4-liter V8 engine. The truck in question is a crew cab that features four-wheel drive and a 6.7-liter Cummins diesel engine. it’s a $17,000 mistake. Ouch.
And one of his big mistakes is listening to the salesman about the technical specs. From my experience the car salesman is by far the least knowledgeable person at a dealership.
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Shopping at two dealers the last week, I had to explain to each salesman the options available on the particular car I’m buying.
The camper is designed for the truck so if it fits it must be good? Right?
I ran onto something similar with plow weight on an extended (bonus) cab. The longer frame isn’t rated for the weight. It’s not just total weight either, it’s weight distribution. Look at how much of the weight is cantilevered off the back of the truck. It also mentions having a motorcycle strapped to the back of the camper…
That doesn’t surprise me. In my 50 years of buying cars, I’ve only met ONE car salesman who was very knowledgeable (Acura dealer). Wife bought a Lexus instead.
And unfortunately, we have the same problem in the tech world. We’ve lost sales because the salesperson didn’t know the product. One was 3 years ago. We lost a $500,000 sale over multiple years. It would have been a top ten sale in company history. She was fired the following week.
Like any serious truck buyer, all the guy had to do was read the sales brochure for the truck to see what the payload was.
And that is properly loaded and distributed, not hanging out past the bumper.
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Too bad truck isn’t in India. They’d fix it good.
Can’t tell for sure, and I don’t know what bed is offered for the crew cab, but it appears that is a short bed ~6.5 ft, cab over campers are usually designed for 8 ft bed. The camper salesman should have advised him about that.
He may have been okay with either a gooseneck or 5th wheel trailer.
When we traded some years ago I asked the salesman if my old Acura power steering fluid could still be used in the new Acura. He said it should be fine. The car had electric power steering.
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If that salesman previously worked at a Mazda dealership in NJ, he might be the same one who told my brother that Traction Control works by “making the car heavier”.
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Not to change the subject but we have had snow here the last couple of weeks and I’m putting off clearing the driveway yet but reading the comments. I have found the traction control totally worthless and regularly shut it off in snow. Climbing a hill with it on, drives the car to the curb. With it off, the car goes straight when the wheels slip. At least one the fwd car. No problem with the awd and not sure it has an off button.
When I was growing up in the 60s, truck bed campers used to be pretty popular, especially with fisherman. The camper slides in the bed and you can still tow a boat behind it. But those campers were MUCH smaller with far fewer amenities. No water tanks, no grey or blackwater tanks. No tanks except propane. So they weighed a LOT less. Good, because trucks carried far less that today.
This guy not only overloaded his truck… he attached a (eh, 500 lb?) motorcycle and carrier some 6 feet behind the rear axle. So SURPRISE… the truck broke. Look at where the frame failed, not down, but UP. The behind the axle load broke the truck.
Failure of EVERYone to read the instructions (the load chart @It_s-Me posted) caused this. If I was his insurance company, I’d deny the claim.
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I realize that as a life-long automotive tech I may have a different perspective than the average driver on the road, but one only needs to look at that set-up to see that it’s just not right. That much camper overhang on a long-wheelbase truck, with a motorcycle hanging off the back, is just too much. With a long enough lever you can move a mountain. Or break a truck frame.
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I had my car at the dealership to get a smog check done and spent some time talking to a salesperson who was low man on the totem pole. He had worked there just 4 weeks. I gave him some advice. I told him if he really wanted to do this job for an extended period to study hard to learn as much detail about the cars he was selling, as well as their competitor’s vehicles. I told him nothing turns off a customer more than knowing more that the salesperson about the product he/see is selling.
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