Howdy all. New guy here looking for expert advice. Thanks in part to a post in the Gear section, I have located and bought a 1971 8-foot cabover ... exactly what I've been looking for.
Now, the hard part. I'm in Colorado and the camper is in Montana. I'll travel there next week with tools I think I might need to mount the camper.
The good news: The camper does not have the bumpouts on the lower section that would require me to remove or cut them down to fit my modern truck.
The bad news: I have a 2000 Ford F350 crew cab dually, with 8 foot bed and with the tallest tires they make. I plan to bring a compressor to air down the tires to lower the rear end. The owner also has lots of cinder blocks to raise the two jacks (Reico?) that he has. I assume these are the old types that have angle irons that simply hug the side of the camper in the middle. I will bring an offroad jack to stabilize the back end.
The only way I figure I can make this work is take the two old jacks, check the wire cable, lubricate, and have a welder or machinist weld or bolt on wide steel extensions onto the bottom of the L channel jacks. These extensions would probably have to be at least 12 inches wide on each side to clear the dually fenders (each of which extends out 10 inches from the side of the truck.) I worry that kind of load would collapse the tops of the tripod jacks inward, so I would raise them as high as possible before jacking to minimize the torque on them.
Am I on the right track? Is there a better way (short of an industrial forklift!)? Does some else have a better idea? Any pictures of your solutions?
Finally, the camper is now resting on his truck on 1x6 boards. I saw on another post the non-cabover dimension of the bottom part on a 1976 is 19.5 inches. My bed to top of rails is 20 inches, so that would fit. But my bed to top of cab is 45 inches. Would a base structure made of 2x2 pressure treat wood or aluminum give me enough clearance over the roof?
Sorry for all the newbie questions. The camper is kind of in the middle of nowhere Montana, so I am going to have to anticipate most of the supplies I need to bring with me. I do plan to bolt the camper to my truck bed, at least until I get back to Colorado.
Thanks for any advice or pictures of how folks with similar issues solved the loading problem.
Bill
Now, the hard part. I'm in Colorado and the camper is in Montana. I'll travel there next week with tools I think I might need to mount the camper.
The good news: The camper does not have the bumpouts on the lower section that would require me to remove or cut them down to fit my modern truck.
The bad news: I have a 2000 Ford F350 crew cab dually, with 8 foot bed and with the tallest tires they make. I plan to bring a compressor to air down the tires to lower the rear end. The owner also has lots of cinder blocks to raise the two jacks (Reico?) that he has. I assume these are the old types that have angle irons that simply hug the side of the camper in the middle. I will bring an offroad jack to stabilize the back end.
The only way I figure I can make this work is take the two old jacks, check the wire cable, lubricate, and have a welder or machinist weld or bolt on wide steel extensions onto the bottom of the L channel jacks. These extensions would probably have to be at least 12 inches wide on each side to clear the dually fenders (each of which extends out 10 inches from the side of the truck.) I worry that kind of load would collapse the tops of the tripod jacks inward, so I would raise them as high as possible before jacking to minimize the torque on them.
Am I on the right track? Is there a better way (short of an industrial forklift!)? Does some else have a better idea? Any pictures of your solutions?
Finally, the camper is now resting on his truck on 1x6 boards. I saw on another post the non-cabover dimension of the bottom part on a 1976 is 19.5 inches. My bed to top of rails is 20 inches, so that would fit. But my bed to top of cab is 45 inches. Would a base structure made of 2x2 pressure treat wood or aluminum give me enough clearance over the roof?
Sorry for all the newbie questions. The camper is kind of in the middle of nowhere Montana, so I am going to have to anticipate most of the supplies I need to bring with me. I do plan to bolt the camper to my truck bed, at least until I get back to Colorado.
Thanks for any advice or pictures of how folks with similar issues solved the loading problem.
Bill
