Camper hold downs

[dieselshu]

Tork Lift tiedowns

Tork Lifts rock, I had them on my truck till I sold my camper. A few things to know about them. Gte the tiedowns with the springs installed, then you can attach a chain with a turnbuckle to adjust the tension. You want to tighten the turn buckleuntil the eye on the spring pulls out about a 1/4 of inch, thiswill allow the camper to have slight movement up with out pulling the mounts out of the camper framing. If you do a search on google for tork lift you wil find a few distributors who sell torque lift at a reasoonable price. I also bought a rubber mat for the be dof my truck to ensure there would be any sliding around and it work great. I still have to sell the front mounts as the rear went with the superhitch and tiedowns I sold to my friend. If you have specific questions on the steup drop me a pm or email Ill be more than happy to answer.



Happy Camping

Dave

 

[Bill Stockard]

He also recommended the camper centering guides that are triangular pieces of metal. These guide the camper into the center of the bed while keeping it from "walking" on rough roads. His position was favoring the HappiJac system which was no surprise, but his reasoning was the angle of the hold downs for restraining the camper. Anyway this is what Lance had to say, so thought I would pass it along.

Yep. I've been using the Lance camper guides since the middle 80s with our Lance campers. I have always used a rubber bed mat under the camper. The camper guides help guide the camper into the truck bed when loading it. Loading the camper is quicker, easier, and it is always in the same place in the truck bed every time it's loaded.



Bill



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[SRehberg]

Bill, thanks for the picture, those are exactly what I wanted to find and put in the truck bed. Are they mounted rearward as well? i. e. a pair in front and a pair in back? Looks like they would guide that sucker right to where you wanted.

 

[Rman]

That's pretty slick Bill...



Hey does anyone use foam in their beds to raise the camper? I've heard of a couple trucks being too tall... or the camper not being tall enough so they raised them with foam to accomodate.



I have a folding gooseball in my bed, I cut a 5/8" plywood board to raise my camper so it wasn't riding on the goose mount plate. Can't I use a piece of Owens-Corning insulating foam (the pink extruded polystyrene) to raise it. Is this stuff sturdy enough? Lifting the plywood is a pain, and the weight is not helping anything either.

 

[Crazy Horse]

SRehberg, This is all you need to do in the rear-rather than the corner of the bumper. I've run this set up on a 2000 3500 and a 2002 2500 Short Bed for thousands of miles on rough roads with no problems. One camper was a Lance , the other an all fiberglass Northern Lite. Very inexpensive, bullet proof, and won't rattle.





Run the tube about 5" into the reciever. Drill a 5/16" hole out near the verticle brace that runs up to the frame through the reciever and extension and run a 5/16" grade 8 bolt through from the rear. Install locknut. This will prevent the extension from pulling outward.



With the extension in place drill up from the bottom approx. 1" in from where the end of the extension is. Next step I'm drilling and taping for a 7/16"x1. 25" fine thread grade 8 bolt and lock nut. Drill through the reciever and extension. Pull the extension out and tap the extesion for 7/16" fine thread. Slightly enlarge the hole in the reciever to allow the bolt to freely go through the reciever. Reinstall the extension, install the 5/16"x3". Reinstall the 7/16" up from the bottom threading into the extension and lodk down using the jamb nut. You can use a little bit of removable lock tight on the jamb nut.



Doing it this way with the 7/16" bolt provents the extension from rattling around when the camper is on

 

[SRehberg]

Nice setup and not all that expensive as well. It looks like it would fill the bill and sure the heck a lot less expensive than the commercially available setups. What is the preload bolt for on the underside, to take up play? So there seems to be two bolts, one horizontally and the preload bolt vertically. Does it just press up against the tubing? Thanks for the great picture.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Bill, thanks for the picture, those are exactly what I wanted to find and put in the truck bed. Are they mounted rearward as well? i. e. a pair in front and a pair in back? Looks like they would guide that sucker right to where you wanted.

Yep, a pair in the front and a pair in the rear. I ran the carriage bolts down through the truck bed, through the under bed boxed reinforcements, and backed them up on the bottom with a large fender washer.



Bill

 

[Crazy Horse]

SRehberg,





Run the tube about 5" into the reciever. Drill a 5/16" hole out near the verticle brace that runs up to the frame through the reciever and extension and run a 5/16" grade 8 bolt through from the rear. Install locknut. This will prevent the extension from pulling outward.



With the extension in place drill up from the bottom approx. 1" in from where the end of the extension is. Next step I'm drilling and taping for a 7/16"x1. 25" fine thread grade 8 bolt and lock nut. Drill through the reciever and extension. Pull the extension out and tap the extesion for 7/16" fine thread. Slightly enlarge the hole in the reciever to allow the bolt to freely go through the reciever. Reinstall the extension, install the 5/16"x3". Reinstall the 7/16" up from the bottom threading into the extension and lodk down using the jamb nut. You can use a little bit of removable lock tight on the jamb nut.



Doing it this way with the 7/16" bolt provents the extension from rattling around when the camper is on.





Know one thing, in order to do this you have to file down the inside lip of the reciever to get the extension tube to slide in. It's a seam lip that sticks out inside of your reciever. You can see this by looking inside the reciever tube. It's no big deal but it has to be done.

 

[SRehberg]

Thanks Crazy Horse, the picture tells it all. How far in did you have to file the seam ridge off? I think you mentioned the extensions slide in 4-5" so I guess that would be the distance. Any tricks to filing it; a moto tool or something as I bet a file would be a little hard in the back recesses. Thanks for the great shot.



Bill the guides look like it makes it pretty easy to load the camper into the middle of the truck. Have you found them to be troublesome for using the bed when the camper is off?

 

[Crazy Horse]

A long flat metal file is what I used w/ a wooden handle on it. On the 2 trucks I've done this way I only needed to take off about an 1/8" or less. I just filed and kept checking periodically to see how far the extension would slide in till I had the desired depth.

 

[Crazy Horse]

SRehberg,



I got to thinkin, because it's been a couple of years ago that I made the last pair of extensions. Note above: I edited the above posts with the proper sized bolts. This is not the 2nd, but the 3rd truck this extension/front happijac system has been used on with absolutely no problems. Note that they were all 2nd Generation Dodges.



This was the 1st one:





99 3500 regular cab

 

[Bill Stockard]

Bill the guides look like it makes it pretty easy to load the camper into the middle of the truck. Have you found them to be troublesome for using the bed when the camper is off?

No, the guides are far enough apart for a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood to fit flat on the floor. In fact, I've used them as a tie down point for something I was hauling in the truck bed.



Bill

 

[SRehberg]

Thanks Bill, an additional plus to the guides!

 

[jmtandem]

srehberg,



I think Lance (and some others, too) want you to use a spring loaded tie down, usually a small spring that is attached to the chains on one end and to the frame mount on the other. This regulates the pressure or tension on the camper tie down points so they will not be damaged or pull out of the camper. I use TorkLifts (prior I had the HappiJack system) for our camper and they are super so far. Our camper is 10' 11" and weighs almost 4000 loaded and ready to go.



By the way, my wife comes from Linden so get to the Stockton area several times a year. We like the Delta, Tower Park or Delta Bay for camping. The Delta is so laid back.

 

[SRehberg]

I think you're right about the spring tension for taking up any shock loads to the camper. A rigid connection would most likely do damage.



I too love the Delta, so much fun away from the city/crowds. It's getting busier as well. Linden is a really nice quiet community, rural enough to make it great without being to far from city services. How do you like Nevada?

 

[Lorenz]

I have a near new set of torq lift tie downs for a 2nd gen for sale. They came off a short bed.



They have the good happi jack spring loaded turn buckles included. This is the same set up im using on my 3rd gen. Torq lifts with spring loaded turnbuckles.

 

[Lorenz]

Tork lift propaganda

I think I got these off the competitors site a while back before they took them down.



This is the happyjack set up that ties directly to the bed and bumper. No bed bar, and obviously not like the tork lift frame mounts.



Notice the bent bumper on the ford. I still like thier spring loaded turn buckles though. Happijac turn buckles are the chrome pieces in the pictures. If I recall correctly only the front, longer shaft, pair of 4 turn buckles are spring loaded. The rears (shorter bodies) look like there spring loaded but they are not. So basicly only two of the 4 turn buckles are spring loaded. I was told the spring loaded ones go in the front near the cab of the truck. It's worked for me. 2 different campers, 1 truck, 1 set of torq lifts with happijac tie downs, @10k miles, and a partridge in a pear tree...

 

[SRehberg]

The picture says it all. I sent you a PM. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

 

[jmtandem]

SRehberg,



Nevada is another world compared to the central valley of California. Much drier, much more windy, colder winters, snow, not as hot in the summer, and in many ways much more independently minded people. Fog is rare. I love the ocean so I am effectively farther away. Also, for those who like trees, Nevada doesn't have many. We also don't have income tax, but many commodities cost more here than in Stockton so it kind of makes up for it. I live in Carson City that is at the foot of the Sierra mountains and the beginning of the desert. The desert can be beautiful in its own way but I am partial to the mountains.



I always found the orchards of Linden peaceful. It might be hard to appreciate trees until there are not many.



I go on many bicycle rides in California so we visit often, usually via Highway 88.

 

[fkovalski]

I will be getting a set of TorkLift frame mounts thanks to the advice here. I do have a question. When using that frame mount brackets, is there the chance of the frame twisting by virtue of how the bracket mount to the frame? Granted it would have to be a significant amount of force to do this. Or do the springs (such as in the Fastfuns) help prevent this? I aam not worried about this happening to me as I am looking at an 8' pop- up.



Also- for those of you with slide- in campers on duallys... . when you lift the camper on its jacks... and want to pull the truck forward... . how do you clear the rear fenders? (are the camper mounted jacks mounted wide enough to warrant this?)