K20 carrying capacity

[fishead]

I was wondering what the hauling capacity of my '77 K20 is.

The goal is to have my truck running by next fall with a camper for hunting, but I am wondering what the capacity is.

I will likely be getting a camper from a buddy of mine that is hauling it with his '92 Dodge diesel 3/4ton, but my dad is worried that my Chev 3/4 ton won't be enough to handle it.  I can't get the weight from the camper until my buddy comes back from a business trip (within a couple weeks), and I have been unsuccessful finding the capacities of either trucks.

To be fair, his Dodge, though it has more then enough power, handles like an ocean going freighter with the camper on the back.  He had to drop his phone one day because he had to "tack" onto the freeway.

I am wondering about the legal capabilities as well as the practical capabilities.  If installing a pair of air bags in the back improves handling, I already have a compressor.

I guess this rules out any lifts that I can't really afford.

[72 Nova]

how long of a camper are you wanting to pull       just wondering because my wife and i just bought a 33 foot bumper type pull behind loaded gross weight of it is 8700 pounds with 850 pounds of tongue weight    we bought a weight dist. hitch  and we are pulling ours with a 98 chevy half ton short bed 4x4

[Lt.Del]

a 3/4 ton should be fine--it will squat some depending on the weight.  I pull a 30' camper with both my 79 Big10 pickup as well as my 91 suburban. I put air shocks in both just so I can adjust the ride height, but don't rely on them to keep it from sagging. 
If you find out that your truck sags too much, get a helper spring thrown under there.  A weight distribution hitch also works wonders, I use one and would never go back to the normal hitch again.

Get yourself an external tranny cooler as well. 


www.delbridge.net/install
www.delbridge.net/suburban


 

[fishead]

Seems to be some confusion.

I meant Camper, as in the entire thing sits on the back of the truck.
It is not this one, but same idea:


The new ones weigh around 1100kg, or 2500 pounds.  I would imagine that the old ones weigh quite a bit more.

I have a tranny cooler as grandpa used to pull a 5th wheel.

[nova801428]

I knew what you were talking about.  It works just fine.  Maybe a little slow (not fast to begin with) but it works.  This is my old 75 Chevy k20 before lift and tires.


Before I sold

[farmallgray]

Take your truck somwhere and get it weighed empty (stone quarry, Garbage transfer station, feed mill etc). Subtract that weight from the GVW on your registration and that is how much you can leagally haul. Example; my 79 weighs 5000 lbs empty, and the GVW is 6800. That means I can haul 1800 lbs.

[fishead]

I guess that's what I need to do then.  Problem is that it is un-insured, sitting in the backyard waiting for my wife to let me spend some money on it. 

My GVWR on the door post is 7500.  All I need to do is make a HUGE pile of garbage in the backyard and she will FORCE me to insure it to do a dump run... or find the factory spec'd curb weight.

Thanks.

[fishead]

I finally got to talk to my buddy with the camper.

The camper weighs 1908 pounds (with full tanks) so it must be smaller then I thought.

My trucks GVRW is 7500 pounds. 

As long as the truck weighs less then 5592 pounds I should be good.

[Captkaos]

You should be well within the load capacity of a 3/4T truck  The GVR range was 6800 - 8400 and the front/rear GAWR was 3700 and 5500.  Curb weight for a K20 4x4 would be 5090lbs.