2014 3500 Duelly driver fender spreading

silversand wrote:

HMS Beagle wrote:
If I was seeing this problem I would put something more substantial across the bed. A few flat 2x4s would be much stiffer than plywood, better still would be some 2" square or rectangular steel tubes...

....wouldn't that narrow 2 inch steel add really acute load points laterally along the corrugated tin bed (and potentially permanently deflect the corrugation; even right through a rubber bed mat) ?

I'd be careful to locate them on top of the top hat sections or other transverse bed reinforcement where it exists.

I have a 3/4 ply platform cut around the wheel wells, sitting on top of a poly drop in bed liner. On top of that I have a rubber mat (to protect the plywood from the bottom of the camper). The rubber mat has dimples typical of the type. After the camper has been on for several days, there is a nice dot pattern where the pressure is on the plywood. On my camper (Bigfoot 10.4) it is mostly across the front 3 inches, down the sides about 4" wide, flaring out around the wheel wells behind them, with a couple of stripes where Bigfoot has some bulkheads in the basement. And across the tailgate. Very little in the middle anywhere.

I agree that the load is entirely on the outside edges of the tub. Ruined my bed. Ruined the weak cross supports in my basement. I put 3/4" plywood in to stop the damage but what's done is done. Closing the tailgate is now a perpetual problem when the camper is off.

Rick

KayTeg wrote:
My aluminum bed have the ribs ending like 3" before the bed end, so TC was "rocking" on the ribs ends and the factory mat did not even it up at all.

....I don't know why truck camper manufacturers (all of them) don't build T shaped tubs ? I know there are a handful that do, however most tubs seem to be purely hyper-rectangular.

When we researched buying truck campers (back in 2003/2004), I made, as one of my criteria, a T shaped tub, for stability against "tub rocking".

HMS Beagle wrote:
If I was seeing this problem I would put something more substantial across the bed. A few flat 2x4s would be much stiffer than plywood, better still would be some 2" square or rectangular steel tubes...

....wouldn't that narrow 2 inch steel add really acute load points laterally along the corrugated tin bed (and potentially permanently deflect the corrugation; even right through a rubber bed mat) ?

The beds are not really design for carrying TC to start with.
My aluminum bed have the ribs ending like 3" before the bed end, so TC was "rocking" on the ribs ends and the factory mat did not even it up at all.
I noted that when I pick up new truck and I shaped a strip of 3/4" plywood.
The end of the bed has some good support there as I have 2 bolt sticking up and had to cut holes on the strip to accommodate it.
So now most of my 6500 lb TC weight sits on plywood strip with good support under.

The way many of these campers are built, pretty much all the weight is carried on the outside edges. The truck frame is narrower than that, so the weight is carried by the overhang of the bed sheet metal outside of the frame. If you look under there, there are small, light, tophat sections of sheet metal carrying this load. A sheet of plywood may help a little with local denting, but is still pretty floppy. Block a sheet up by the edges and bounce up and down in the middle, and that's only 200 lbs or so.

If I was seeing this problem I would put something more substantial across the bed. A few flat 2x4s would be much stiffer than plywood, better still would be some 2" square or rectangular steel tubes. They could be pretty thin wall and would still be far stiffer than the bed. That would transfer the weight across the bed and more directly down to the frame.

These trucks will carry 5000 lbs - evenly distributed, meaning like dirt or sand. Balance all that load on the outside edges of the bed and bad things may happen.

My Arctic Fox 811 in my short bed SRW 2005 Ford truck did not dent it although I only had Line-X and a thin DeeZee rubber mat. My friend with a long bed DRW 2007 Ford carrying an Arctic Fox 1150 had the front corners of the camper fatigue the bed enough to puncture the skin and the rear of the bed deck started sagging even though you could not see any sidewall damage. He eventually replaced the entire bed due to fatigue cracks showing up in the supports because he is now hauling Host Mammoth with the same truck.

Sorry I did not do this earlier...auto body shop fixed bending, Ram dealer took it there. Agreed it should not have happened, problem seems to be the under bed supports are NOT strong at outside edge of the truck bed. So be aware that our Lance is heavy enough to allow this to happen. We put a 3/4" piece of plywood in under cargo mat....will see where it goes from here.

The above are pictures of the Ram 3500 bending...I thought I posted this last week but it does not show up?

The pic on left shows drivers side rear bed at bottom, panel pushed in tailgate at top..Happened when tailgate was NOT on the truck.