camper question

[George_Pimpdaddy]

Quick question going hunting here in the next day or so and got a cheap slide in camper that i can bring up there with my 97 2500HD 4x4. Anyways could I use the box stake (pocket) type mounts and be gentle only going roughly 300km away. or do i need to find the belly bar and hope i don't bend it on the trails..

 

[George_Pimpdaddy]

Ttt

 

[toomany]

I'd run the belly bar on the road, then pop it off when you go offroad. When you take it off, I'd run some ratchet straps to the frame to keep it tight to the box. Maybe put some towels between the straps and the box to protect the paint.

 

[K10 KRAWLER]

Running ratchet straps would probably be worse, you would run the risk of crushing your boxsides in, I have used the pocket mounts before and i did notice that they do bend the top of your box a bit. a belly bar would be your best bet

 

[George_Pimpdaddy]

im to poor right now to afford a bell bar the camper came with one but its for a dodge and there's no way to mount it just the bar so looks like ill do the pocket stakes and take it very easy

 

[Russell]

Come over to my place and you can borrow the belly bars from my 96. The rear bars slide into your hitch receiver, and the front is two bolts and a hook on each. Easy to install, no drilling required.

 

[George_Pimpdaddy]

thanks Russell your the man!

 

[scotto0609]

You could use the happi jac system, it has tabs that come off the front of the box and two tabs that bolt thru the rear bumper. Its not as strong as the bellybar but certainly stronger than stake pockets. I use this system on my camper for the beach and I twist pretty good but its all slow speed,plus I believe I have stonger metal in my 85. Definetly would avoid the stake pockets for any length of time! good luck

 

[Wasatch K5]

The available camper tie down systems, such as the Happijac system that scotto mentioned all have some flex to them to allow the camper to move independantly from the truck's box. The Happijacs use what I'll call "spring loaded turnbuckles".

(I have the Happijac system on my F-350) the "front tabs" in the Happijac design bolt through the pickup box to a length of square tubing that runs across the bed. That tube also has brackets and bolts to go through the bottom of the bed and attach to the frame.

If you don't allow for some flex, you will very likely damage the camper.

 

[Russell]

That doesn't make much sense if you really think about it...

I can see if you have a very elastic give in the bracketry it could absorb some energy, but if you have a typical belly bar which is a solid piece of metal with a chain running between the truck and the camper you'd want that sucker as tight as you could make it so you never have the camper gaining momentum then suddenly being stopped by a chain / belly bar that has no give.

I personally crank those chains down as tight as I possibly can to make sure that camper ain't moving anywhere unless it rips it's mounts out. If the mounts rip out, I probably shouldn't have performed whatever maneuver I did, and probably deserve the roll-over that resulted from it.