Anyone using an RV stabilizer with their 4WC?

[Herbie]

We're enjoying our newly acquired Flatbed 4WC Hawk - it's a big step up from our pop-top van, but one item my wife has put on the punch list, then highlighted and circled, is to find a way to stabilize the camper a bit more when we're camped.

As it sits on the suspension right now, the truck rides great (especially offroad), but with all that suspension compliance, things are soft enough that with two adults and a kid moving around inside the hawk (even tossing in bed at night), we can pick up a noticeable side-to-side rock. This is especially true for those in the cabover bed as they are the farthest from the axis of rotation as the suspension moves.

I was looking at some of the off-the-shelf solutions like the Valterra stabilizers, which I like because they're compact and dead-ass simple (attached).

Unfortunately, the span of the Valterra won't work with our truck as we don't have a complete rear bumper (due to the flatbed conversion) - I need a slightly longer span to bridge the gap between the rear suspension points.

I can certainly whip something up that works just like the Valterra style, but I'm only about 60% convinced such a thing can take enough load off the suspension to nerf the side-to-side roll. The alternative of just running a couple of jacks up under the rear leaf-spring mounts works fine in the driveway, but is 15 minutes of hassle I'd rather not take in the field.

I'm also curious if others have also faced and solved this problem? Any other ideas?

 

[craig333]

You didn't say what vehicle your camper is on.

 

[Herbie]

You didn't say what vehicle your camper is on.

Apologies - 2018 F150 supercab shortbed with a Ute, Ltd. tray.

I'll get a photo of the rear end - there's not a whole bumper, but the PO re-installed the OEM inner bumper section upside down (so as to raise the hitch up higher, etc.)

 

[Herbie]

This is the current configuration - this is the OEM inner bumper/hitch piece flipped over, which is at least nice for getting the hitch up out of the way. Again, this is from the previous owner, we may revise a lot of things before we're "done", but no big changes before end-of-summer as we're starting a big trip soon.

I've gone ahead and ordered one of the Valterra stabilizers - it's too narrow as-is, but I could hardly buy all the telescoping parts for the price, so I'll use theirs as a starting point and see if I can't make it fit with our truck.

EDIT: Ignore my very sloped driveway, sorry for the weird perspective.

 

[veryactivelife]

What do you have for suspension and what is the truck’s payload capacity listed on the door sticker?

 

[Herbie]

7050lbs GVWR, 2200lb payload
Custom rear leaf pack from Boise spring works, Falcon Tow/Haul suspension (leveling/shock kit).

 

[Herbie]

I forgot to grab a photo, but I had a promising test in the driveway using the Valterra stabilizer with an extra bit of 1.5" sq tube to bridge the gap between the rear bumper portions.

We'll bring both pieces on our next trip and see if it works well enough to justify continuing to carry. If so, I may just adapt the Valterra kit to have a longer overall top/center beam to fit my truck.

 

[Herbie]

So this is the setup we used for our recent 2-week trip around Oregon. We only deployed it on 2 nights - whilst in campsites near the coast with strong winds cross-wise to the camper (the conditions that get things side-rocking enough to be problematic).

This definitely took the majority of the roll out of things and made it more stable. Deployment takes ~3-4 minutes to get everything unpacked and setup, and ~2 minutes to stow everything again. The Valterra stabilizer stows easily in one of the narrow outside channels in the underbed cabover storage. The "extension bar" I mounted under the flatbed by slotting it into one of the open aluminum c-channels and using an existing hole to fasten it down with an eye-bolt.