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

***EDIT*** Added something of a tutorial in later posts now that I've got the camper installed.


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*(massive underestimation).

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.

 

Here's documentation of my install. I don't believe I did an expert job, but I got it done. I had trouble finding a clear explanation of this process that wasn't buried and spread through many pages of larger threads, so here goes for what it's worth.

My first advice is - if you can find an actual kit meant for slide-in campers, do it. I could not. So I did a lot of comparing and brainstorming at the local hardware store, and spent far more money than I would have on a complete kit.

My first step was finding safe anchor points. Conventional wisdom is that the OEM tie-downs aren't up to the task. I found stout D-rings online, and hardware at a local store.



D ring and black plate are for the truck bed, black bracket and smaller plate are for the camper. I ended up not trusting the smaller plate and used the same plates from the top of the photo for the camper, too.

My expert drawing. I found a Four Wheel Camper video online explaining install for their campers, and it gave advice on truck anchor positions. You want an offset, not straight down. Up to 6" offset, 4" is adequate. To be anywhere near that range with a 6.5 foot truck bed, it's easy, because it means you need to install the anchors in each corner of the bed.



Mine is an 8' camper, built for an 8' truck bed. So I needed to move the bracket location on the camper to be able to get at least 4" away from the 4 corners of my truck bed.

I didn't feel like having to fill the old holes, so for now I just left the old brackets in place. Ignore the janky propane line holder...came that way and I haven't worked on a better solution yet.

Rear


Front


You can see in that photo how the camper is right up against the bed of the truck. Probably will rub off a lot of paint. I have bump-stops I'll be installing later to put a little space between the front of the camper and bed of my truck. Maybe 1/4" spacers.


Inside


Then...drilling into the truck. All four corners were mostly clear on my truck. Some wires to watch for, and the gas filler tube, but you'd really need to careless to hit them.












Once I saw it was clear I got a little ahead of myself with drilling...so one front anchor is less stout than the rest. I was too close to the edge and couldn't fit the larger plate, or even a very large washer. Still more stout than the OEM anchors though.

Oops.



Others are all good though.






Anchors.






The tie-downs were the hardest. I've since found this kit.



Not sure of the quality, but the turnbuckles I bought at the local hardware store were $30-40 each. With four of those plus the carabiners I used, my set up was expensive. And has lots of connection points aka failure points. Like I said I was standing in the aisle brainstorming with what was available. Wish I had thought of chains...but oh well. I'll likely buy that kit, but for this fall, I've got it installed and it's working and I've spent enough money.



Larger turnbuckles were too long and wouldn't crank down tight. Smaller size was too small...so more carabiners. Chains are the better solution.

Problem with not buying a custom kit was that every choice I made limited my next choice. The brackets had small holes, and the hooks from the turnbuckles wouldn't fit through them. The turnbuckles all had hooks on one end and loops on the other. Carabiners needed to be large enough to hold up, but small enough to fit the bracket holes. Etc. Made things complicated and expensive and in the end not as strong.

Then I cranked everything down as tight as felt safe. The walls of my camper aren't really thick and stout, so I didn't want to pull them too hard. It shifts very slightly on washboard, but nothing I'm worried about.


And it's worth noting I have Sumo Springs in the back. Maybe not completely maxed out, but pretty close. I definitely feel bumps now.

 

Everything I've read says 300 lbs of force is plenty. Basically just keeps it from shifting while the weight keep if from falling out

 

Makes sense. At first I thought I was going for worst-case-scenario safety, like a collision. But I don't think any truck camper is staying put in a head-on collision. So yeah, just a matter of it being secure and not shifting.

 

I had mine much too tight, luckily it bent the hook on the turnbuckle instead of pulling the anchor off the camper. A valuable lesson learned for cheap.

 

I’m thinking that thing has to weigh more than 500#, or your leafs are toast.

 

Possibly both. I've seen/felt leafs that are far worse, but at 22 years and 230,000 miles, no doubt they're tired. I should weigh it. It's surprisingly light. I have friends with a brand new Four Wheel Camper. Pretty basic, but has a heater and the typical furniture. No fridge or water. They claim it's 850#. Mine has got to be significantly lighter.

But until I can weigh it, I don't know. I've estimated my trailer tongue weight at ~300#. It lowers my bed noticeably, but I definitely can tell the Sumo Springs are more compressed with the slide in than with the trailer. 200# more compressed, or way more? No idea. If my topper is, say 150#, + 300# tongue weight from the trailer and less Sumo compression than the slide in...certainly it could be more than 500#.

I'm halfway through building a dinette. Will add two small cabinets, one for a sink and one for burners. Then I'll be sure to weigh it. As long as I'm under 1000#, I'm happy. Using this photo as inspiration.



Progress on dinette. Just need a table and finishing touches. Then the cabinets.

 

I truly can’t fathom how that camper is less than 500#.

 

Coming along very nicely. Is the cabover section just for storage?

 

I won't edit my initial post to strike that claim from the record, but I won't defend it. 500 was a fairly wild guess, based on how easy it was to move on the trailer, and claims from the seller. I'll do a decent job of estimating what I add to it with upgrades, then weigh it.

Anyone care to make their own guess?

 

For me, yes. PO had young kids and they slept up there. Not made for adults.

 

How many guys did it take to move it?

 

500 - 750 looks about right+ what your adding

 

I realized that might have been misleading. I meant how easily it was to move the trailer, with the camper on it. The PO claimed he and his wife could slide it back out of the trailer. He didn't claim to be able to lift it. I can get a shoulder under a corner and lift that corner. But I don't know what that tells us.

I'll figure out a place to weigh it. The trailer is empty now, so I'll weigh it, then weigh it again when the camper's back in it.

The walls are thin. Thin wood paneling, very thin styrofoam insulation. Not sure if there's anything between that and the metal skin. Plywood bottom. I'm not going to be shocked if it's a few hundred pounds heavier than my claim, but I think it might surprise you how light it is. There's a reason it only cost me $550, trailer and camper included.

 

With the windows and door and framing and plywood bottom, and the way it’s crushing your rear suspension, I’m voting closer to 750#.

 

Noted! There will likely be no prize, but maybe I'll come up with something...

 

Any decent scrap yard will let you roll across the scale and you can avoid the tolls at the CAT scales.
13 bucks to weigh in, and 3 per re-weigh is utterly ridiculous

 

Either I'm not tuned in to weigh locations, or the typical places people in highly populated areas go don't exist out here. Our landfill doesn't have a scale. We don't have a giant truck stop gas station. There's a weigh station at a interstate rest stop 40 miles up the road from me, but with all the wind turbine traffic going to Alberta, it's packed these days.

But I'll find somewhere.

 

1600 lb camper held down with 400 lb straps. Sometimes ya just do what ya gotta do. So far so good, it can move a bit but I'd rather it shift than rip out the anchors.

 

https://www.allstays.com/c/weigh-scales-alberta-locations-map.htm
Not sure if this helps but might be worth checking it out

 

I'm taking the truck up to another town for the holiday. Will weigh it at the landfill with the camper on. I plan to be back up there again next week, and hope to have the camper off in the meantime. Will go to the landfill again without the camper.

 

Camper is out! I'm headed back to the town whose landfill scale I used to weigh the whole setup, and I'll go through the same scale. I considered posting the camper + truck weight but that would just generate more speculation. By Friday afternoon, we'll know for sure what it weighs.



Jacks look a little sketchy, and maybe they are, but it all feels solid. We had trouble getting it high enough to slide it off the trailer and into my truck. The two 2x6s are a perfect spacer. Once I'm 100% sure they'll raise it plenty high, even if I put new leaf springs on the back, I'll make better spacers, bolt them to the camper, and run the bolts through the jacks. For now this works.

 

I dunno if you've driven it like that, but those front straps are going to destroy the paint.

Cool camper OP, wish i could find something simple like that around here.