Well, with yesterday off, I went and pulled my Scamp camper out of winter storage (basically I just hooked it up, secured any lose items inside, and pulled away). Took it to the scales to weigh it out with the TJ. My TJ w/out me in it and a 60# dog in it scaled at 3540#s. I've got a winch up front, stock front bumper, no rear bumper and a tow hitch frame. I've got 4+" lift, D30/D35 combo, 4.88's&lockers, 5 - 34" LTBs on 15x7 steel rims. Soft top with 1/2 doors. No AC. Rear seat. Maybe 10#s worth of tools.
My Scamp weighed in at 2060#s with a tongue of 240#s. Anything larger than 2000#s it really would kill the 4-popper. Even though I have a tired auto, I had to keep it up to 4500rpms just to keep the acceleration into 3rd gear at highway speeds. I couldn't make OD but I kept at 65-70mph at 3500rpms. Once I hit a hill, the little engine couldn't keep the rpms up nor the momentum. Slight hills was ok, but anything with an incline, forget it. Get down to 2nd gear and hold up to 4500 rpms till acceleration warrants to upshift to 3rd. There was some wind gusting, at some point it was hitting from the side. The TJ had to be corrected but it felt like no more than usual with a side wind. Rear locker I didn't feel either way. Only time I really took notice was on take off. The Jeep hood would be at an angle...cool, maybe lifting a driver's front tire when launching it...hehe.
I probably drove only 30-40 miles, but lost better than a 1/4 tank. Without the camper I wasn't getting anything close to 12 mpg if that. I've check codes and nothing shows on the speedo. However, I can't put no more than 12 gals in!!! Once winter is over, I'll be pulling the tank to check the inside out and get the 19 gals out of the 19 gal tank with the return fill line.
Hope this info helps.
