How to anchor light-weight truck bed camper to first gen

In the little online searching I've done, I'm finding advice for heavier pop-up campers, or generally much larger, heavier campers. The one I bought is likely not much heavier than a fiberglass topper. I need to weigh it, but I'm guessing well under 500 pounds.

I've included photos. The attachment points on the camper are...adequate? Not awesome. But I wonder whether these anchored to my factory bed anchor/tie downs will be plenty. I'll need to run this with my tailgate down, so I don't have that added security.

I've seen the tie downs that attach to the frame and stick out from under the body, then connect to the camper. I've seen tie downs that bolt through the floor of the bed, into the frame. The under-body type is definitely not necessary for this camper. I guess I'm curious what people think between the factory tie downs, or adding ones that bolt through the bed into the frame. No idea on the weight limit of the factory hooks.

Any advice? I guess my question is: frame mount, or bed mount?

Pretty small


Bare bones, very little weight, though I'll be adding maybe another 200 lbs of stuff


Current mounting setup. This is how it's mounted in the 70's pickup truck bed. My Tundra has the factory 4 ring tie downs at each corner of the bed. Previous owner only had front turnbuckles attached. I'd obviously want all four attached, but it rode just fine the way it was

 

Check out wander the west, but everyone I know runs bed mount with larger plates on top and bottom to distribute load.

 

Thank you. Can explain this? Plates where?

By "bed mount" I'm talking about these

 

Ahhh ok. I thought you meant drill through the bed and mount eyelets. Yes I’ve used those as well on my 2019. It has worked just fine for 4 years.

the plate comment was only for going through the bed, sorry about the misunderstanding.

 

I’d say though, you may want to beef up that angle metal on the camper. Not sure what you’re going to be doing with it. Most people run an eyelet on the interior, and go down through.

 

This thread has a pretty in depth “through bed” mounting documentation
https://forum.expeditionportal.com/...fleet-shortening-documentation-thread.199234/

 

Gotcha. Yeah that's my debate - drill through the bed to mount eyelets to the frame, or just mount to the bed.

I agree, the metal anchor points on the camper aren't very stout.

 

Looks like mounting 4 new rings to the floor of the bed, with steel backing plates, is my best, cheapest, simplest option. Just ordered these. Will drill through the bed floor, put some steel plates underneath the bed, bolt through. I'll also look into camper mounts that are a bit more stout than the brackets currently on it.