Broken Ram 3500 Dually Shows a Camper Can Still Overload a Big Truck
This Ram 3500 is awaiting a $17,000 repair job after an enormous slide-in camper snapped its frame.
www.thedrive.com
I read somewhere else that he also stated that the front camper mounts were welded to the frame and that's where the frame cracked. If that's the case the heat from those welds could have weakened the frame a lot.
I would like to see his door payload sticker. I bet he is way over payload.
The Rear axle weight does not account for the weight way past the bumper plus the welded frame mounts create a fracture point both from the heat of the weld and the leverage point. If the truck was a LB i guarantee the failure would have not happened like that as the weight would not be as far past the rear axleI’m more interested in what the RAW was.
Door payload is a joke on these trucks, it’s limited by class of vehicle and not true capability. There is a reason door sticker payload and GVWR aren’t legally bearing ratings in most states. Axle ratings and tire ratings are what matters.
DRW’s have a GVWR of 14K, but a FAWR of 6,000 and a RAWR if 9,750. You can’t tell me that the truck isn’t built to handle full axle weight ratings.
To go one further, the only different in an auto-level 3500 SRW and an auto-level 3500 DRW is the tires. Same frame, suspension, brakes, axle, etc. Yet even the SRW GVWR is less than FAWR+RAWR. It’s a numbers game on paper for marketing, not a capabilities game. The 2500’s are the worst at it, they hamstring their “capabilities” to maintain them as a Class II truck.. it’s dumb, IMHO. A 2500 is fully capable of at least 12K lbs, based solely on axle ratings.
All that being said that guy was likely way overloaded, and if the frame was welded then you compound issues. Improper frame welding could also cause this issue within weight ratings. The other failure I saw was on a 3500 SRW, so likely not overloaded for frame design.. until it was welded on.
If I wanted to run a camper that size a 4500 is what I’d be looking at.
The Rear axle weight does not account for the weight way past the bumper plus the welded frame mounts create a fracture point both from the heat of the weld and the leverage point. If the truck was a LB i guarantee the failure would have not happened like that as the weight would not be as far past the rear axle
I thought at first it was a MCSB i see now it is a LB but the weight is cantilevering way past the rear axle thats were the RAW is pointless as its shear frame strength that matters at that point even if under the RAW capThe RAW does account for weight behind the axle, since all the weight pulled from the front axle is added to the rear axle.
Bedsides, it was a long bed. The camper is just that long.
I thought at first it was a MCSB i see now it is a LB but the weight is cantilevering way past the rear axle thats were the RAW is pointless as its shear frame strength that matters at that point even if under the RAW cap
The camper does dwarf the 8’ bed.
The more weight you cantilever behind the rear axle the more weight you pull from the front axle and add it to the rear, so the more cantilever action you have the heavier the rear axle is. I’d be shocked if he was under RAW with all that weight, and a CG that appears well aft of the axle, which is why I’m curious what it’s at. The frame failed forward of the axle, where the weight is lower than without the extreme cantilever but you do have the cantilever action trying to lift the cab/engine and that’s failure point. Just looking at the photos, the empty weight of that camper, and the bike rack, I’d be shocked if the RAW was under 11K… way overloaded.
Ram says 9,750#, even thou that’s well below AAM’s limit for the axle (10,912 was the rating for the original 11.5”’axle and the 12.0” is much stronger). So is that a frame limit? Suspension limit? Good enough? It’s hard to say without speaking to one of the Ram engineers.
Sad/scary part is that this is the only guy with this setup, and I bet they are all
The cross braces welded to the frame directly where it broke is the biggest reason for the failure in that exact spot i would say.I bet it will cost all of the $17,000 if done at a dealer, and done right.
So ... disclaimer that I've never owned, nor driven, a truck with a slide in camper. I went to Eagle Cap's web site (pretty cool product BTW!) and the largest model was around 4,800# dry weight, as stated in the article. So the guy's estimate of 6,500# loaded for vacation is probably pretty close.
I do understand the points made above about gvwr, axle rating, CG, RAW. I get it that the heavy rear end of the camper plus the bike create a significant lever action that takes weight off the front axle, plants it on the rear while putting a lot of stress on the frame somewhere between the axles. I do get all that. I'm still surprised it fractured like that. I think of these frames as being pretty rugged given all the different uses they are made for and if you showed me that truck and that camper and asked me off the cuff if the truck would handle it, I'd have said yes. Not that I'd suggest going over weight ratings, not that I think it would drive very well (that truck had to handle like crap I would think), just that it wouldn't fail.
4500\5500 c&c trucksLooking around Eagle Cap's web site, I was wondering what trucks they actually would be within weight specs on. Maybe RCLB 1 ton? Or Ford or GM?