If you got a lighter camper, you wouldn't need all the cussin' and busted knuckles.............just sayin' Jim!

My F-250 don't even notice the 8 1/2ft 1,360lbs Pastime camper on it.

 

That was my original intention Dave! However, I was outflanked, outranked and overruled by the "Warden" that insisted we have Bill Gates mansion put on jacks so that we could jack it up, back the pickup underneath it and take it to the mountains and "rough it"! I was quite happy with the mountain man tent and pine bows - although I did break down and get an air mattress and air pump. The "Warden" has told me that I'm perfectly free to use my tent and air mattress. I figure if I have to drag that camper along anyway for her, I might as well use it too.......

 

Jim, the on board air system I use for the front bags on my plow trucks is reasonably priced.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/25854-Airli...sor-/121455874157?hash=item1c4755906d&vxp=mtr
It sits under the hood over by the vacuum can on the passenger side right behind the battery

 

That's in the ball park for what I've been figuring. Although when I put that in, I'll put in a dual gauge, dual control so I can control each bag separately. Need to get the estimate and bill from the roofer and figure out how much the paint is going to cost me first. The warden seems to be scheming about a couple of "honey do" projects inside the house as well.

 

LOL. Looks like your retirement is getting to be just like Don's and mine!

 

It has the potential for being a long summer.....

 

With the time you have you might find the stuff on craigslist or ebay.
That is how I found mine. I did not care about in cabin gauges and compressor too much, but they come with used bags in $200 package.
Once I installed the gauges on the floor next to the seat, I could not live without them. I did not use the truck every day, so coming after a week or 2 an quick look would tell me right away if the bags hold the air.
One would hold the air for weeks, while other would loose 30 psi in a week. Being in hurry and having shrader valve on fill up tube, I would just push both valves simultaneously to equalize the pressure and be on my way.
Than for heavy load I would pull the compressor from behind the seat and pump it up.
The Firestone compressor pumped me up several tires to 100 psi and I used it tens of times to pump air bags on my trailer, while it holds the efficency.
The el cheapo compressors would loose the pressure after pumping one high pressure tire.

 

I plan on getting there eventually. In this part of Oregon, unless you are a duck and quack constantly, anything that keeps you in the cab and dry is a bonus!

 

Been a few months and the installation has now been road tested, at least with the camper on. Working fantastic. Do to some unfortunate circumstances - health issues in the family, no water, fires - I have not had the opportunity to do the heavy boat hauling with camper on road test.
Will try to let you know how they worked / helped out around mid September when we get back from our "Get out of Dodge or go to jail trip".

 

Well, we made it back from our trip. The Loadlifter 5000's seem to help overall. Pretty happy with the performance and the way this turned out. It appears to be money well spent. The only thing that would possibly be better is if I could wave a magic wand and turn the F-250 into an F-350. Don't see that as an option floating around in the crystal ball....

 

Trucks aren't meant to feel like a Lincoln it is a truck. (For the teeth chattering i use a mouth guard LOL)

 

Kidneys are over rated

 

Been there done that......we have a horse / farm truck that is a 1 ton dually with a home made stock box on it for the live stock. Empty, that thing can chatter its way around to where the rear end is pointing in the direction from whence you heading a second before. With all of the heavy hay trucks on our county road out at the farm, it is one long solid washboard.