Bigfoot, I agree that the mounting plates on the camper for the rear turnbuckles were inadequate for rugged 4WD roads (essentially asking a 2 1/4 x 5 inch square of plywood to hold up against shocks of repeated big bumps). Larger metal plates should help a lot, hopefully there's enough solid plywood around the ripped-out areas to securely mount to.
Back to the front/rear turnbuckle issue, though, it still seems to me there is no good reason to have spring loaded front turnbuckles, and good reason to soften the force of the down-pulls when the rear end of the camper gets bounced. Keeping slack in the rear turnbuckles doesn't seem like a good solution when you're trying to keep things battened down inside, and big enough bumps will pull just as hard (though, granted, not as continuously) on the mounting points when you run out of loose travel.
I'll give Torklift a call (they seem to have a good tech line) and at some point will post a more detailed account of our experience, including what we decide on as our next "ultimate fix" for securing our camper in challenging driving conditions.
Moral of the story, at any rate, is: know what's holding your rig together before doing something that's likely to tear it apart, and be prepared to tinker and/or overhaul when things get damaged (they will).
Edited by DoGMAtix, 05 December 2016 - 07:13 AM.
