Eye bolt placement-washers

[trailrider]

Is the position of the eyebolts mainly driven by the camper size and brand or the truck?

I have a 2013 Silverado, would the placement be the same for a ATC Ocelot and FWC Hawk?

I have read that the proper eyebolt is a shoulder style with square washers top and bottom for reinforcement. One person trimmed the top washer to fit inside the bed ridges.

Why not span the bed ridges and take advantage of there strength?

You just need to be careful not to torque the eyebot too tight and possibly start to deform the ridge.

Why limit the top square washer to 2"?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[ntsqd]

2" square is 4 square inches and 8 linear inches perimeter (slightly less if the corners are radiused - which I still strongly suggest), so if the camper were nearly hanging on by just one bolt (say 1000 lbs force) that's a bed loading of 250 psi and a shear force of 125 lbs/in. That assumes a purely tensile loading, but that isn't real world. Still, there's a lot of safety factor there.

I placed the holes so that my lower plates sit partly on the "brim" of the hat section cross-ways reinforcing rib on the underside of the bed floor.

Two reasons for the shouldered eye bolts. First is that they are forgings, so there's no formed eye that can open up under load. Second is that the shoulder helps with bending loads as even if you could pull straight down it is better to pull at a slight angle (orient the eye in the plane of the angle!). They should be all splayed inwards or outwards, but not a mixture of the two. I installed everything slightly loose which allowed the eye-bolts to self-align, and then tightened the nuts

 

[ski3pin]

<snip>
I installed everything slightly loose which allowed the eye-bolts to self-align, and then tightened the nuts

Good thinking, thanks for all your technical savvy!

 

[trailrider]

"I placed the holes so that my lower plates sit partly on the "brim" of the hat section cross-ways reinforcing rib on the underside of the bed floor."

Thanks for the reply. Why not span the valley between two reinforcin ribs?

[SIZE=10pt]We just order our camper today (ATC Ocelot). It will be a shell. We are getting the big passenger window, refrig cabinet (I am buying my own compressor refrig) and reinforcement for a 29" bed extension (I can do it myself). I think I will build a front dinette but we can wait on it. The extension would only be used if we want to sleep more people. If not we leave it at home. I am thinking of using an air mattress for the 29" extension.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Marty is going to show me where the front eye bolts go and he is going to drill and install the rears.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Mike[/SIZE]

 

[ntsqd]

Thank you Ski.

The bed floor is "corrogated" and the eyebolt hole is in the low section as viewed from the top. So the lower plate rests on the 'high' as viewed from the bottom and the plate spans to adjacent 'high' sections in addition to sitting on the 'brim' section of the perpendicular reinforcing hat section.

 

[trailrider]

I think I got it. The bottom plate is resting on two high sections and you want it to extend to the vertical reinforcement of the high sections. It would be best if it could rest on the four corrogated vertical reinforcements.

Correct?