17 replies to this topic

[Hyakian]

Howdy,

New member here.
Recently purchased an 1988 8' cab over Alaskan, and will be mounting it to my 04' Dodge 2500.

I have seen that some people bolt through the bed of the truck to secure the camper.
Considering that the camper wont be on the truck full time, this seems like it will be a pain when it comes time to remove?

These seem to be popular but rather expensive:
http://www.torklift...._page=tie_downs

What are others doing that seems to be working?

Thanks,
Hyakian

[MikeDahlager]

Well, I took what has turned out to be a difficult way of attaching the camper to my truck. I bolt it up front to the top of the rails the camper sits on. I simply drilled holes on the left and right sides and slip a 1/2" bolt through and bolt it on. Works fine, especially since I added side rails to the sides of the bottom section which center the camper between the wheel wells.
Mike

[banderswipe]

Hello Hyakian, welcome, I am in the process of attaching my 10' 1972 Alaskan non cab over to my Ford truck. I am using Billis split mount front tie downs,these bolt to the frame at the split between the cab and the box, with j bolts. They are similar to the Torklift tie downs but cheeper.The Billis fronts are 250$ Canadian. Then I am using heavy eye bolts attached to the Ford rear bumper for the rear tie downs. I have 4 eye bolts on the camper and will attach to lower tie downs with chains and turnbuckles. I hope this Helps.

Cheers, Kevin.

http://billisrve.com/index.php

[wcj]

I have a 8 foot cab over and am currently rebuilding a 8 foot non cab over. I tried several mounting methods, settled on happijac mounts in the truck and eye bolts in the camper (after reinforcing the corners).

[Hyakian]

Hello, thanks for your responses.

Picked up the new camper last night.
It was bolted to the bed of the truck and was a bit of a PITA to remove.

I looked at the BIllis Split mount.
They specify that this is not for off road use?

Here's a picture of the 8' cabover that I am selling.

[Fisher205]

Hyakian,
If you are going to go off road, your camper needs to flex. I have ripped out both front corners of my Alaskan because of flexing. I currently use in the front happijac cushioned tiedowns to eye bolts in the reinforced corners. I have still managed to straighten out the eye bolts.


In the back I bolt down the box but use old roller blade wheels as cushions

I haven't seen any damage to the rear, but I believe that isn't twisting as much as the front. I try to keep the mounts as close to the center of the box as I practically can so that they don't have as much leaverage on the camper.

[Kilroy]

I've gone back and forth on the best way to attach my 10' CO. Currently I use happijacks on the front corners to a homemade mount, and use happijacks in the rear that go from eye bolts in the bottom of the camper sticking out the back to the bumper mounts.

Next pic shows front mount, kind of. I'm also now using aluminum angle bolted to flatbed to limit side to side movement without stress to the happijak mounts..

[Fisher205]

Kilroy,
Nice Looking rig. Which bed is that?

I like the way the back attaches to the receiver mount. It would act more like a triangle type of mounting.

I had a problem with tying mine down using bumper mounts. It would spread the camper enough that the door wouldn't latch. I admit my camper is getting alittle "soft" in the back.

-Brad

[Kilroy]

Kilroy,
Nice Looking rig. Which bed is that?

I like the way the back attaches to the receiver mount. It would act more like a triangle type of mounting.

I had a problem with tying mine down using bumper mounts. It would spread the camper enough that the door wouldn't latch. I admit my camper is getting alittle "soft" in the back.

-Brad

It's a Ute aluminum flat bed. I'm very pleased with it.

I used to have it attached in rear to the corners coming down to the hitch. Have had some issues with corners pulling apart so changed the rear to the floor. Easy to do because it sticks out so much. Reinforced the front corners.

Dave

[Hyakian]

Update...

^^^
The CO I purchased was mounted through the trucks bed.
When I removed it from the sellers truck I was struck by how little was really holding the thing in place.
Four bolts with basic washers running through the floor of the camper, through sheet metal without reinforcement.
This person never went off road and never removed the camper so it worked out for him.

If I was going to leave the camper on the truck full time I might bolt it on as well however I would reinforce the holes on the camper and
add some material to the back side of the trucks bed to make sure there was no way the bolts would ever pull through.

I will be removing my camper when not in use so I chose to spend the money and get the Torklifts.
Considering my investment into both the truck and camper
the cost of the tie downs gives me peace of mind that the camper isn't going to come off or move around.
They installed easily enough and seem pretty solid.
When I'm not using them the extensions remove very quickly leaving just the receivers which you can hardly see.

I have some tie downs that came with the camper that I will be selling.
They mount to the back side of the rail of the trucks bed, and extend out over the side.
Simple turn buckles attach from the campers tie down points.
Send me a PM if there's any interest and I'll post some pictures.

Hope this helps.