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todsme's avatar
todsme
Explorer
Jul 28, 2017

ALL truck campers ,Basic construction,truck tie downs info.

My qualifications for this post is that I have been refurbishing truck campers for 16 years,as extra income. 60 plus campers ,an estimate. These are some observations, given in modesty. Camper Construction: Front wall under sleeper is the most important part of a campers design . Carrying a large part of the cantilver weight of sleeper,a cross member for camper wings,load bearing corners of front Jacks.Rear of campers,in most cases lose integrity the the longer the camper (8.5-11.5), magnified with a side door camper. I will not go into details.Measure camper wings to top of truck bed. SLides and generators tax the rear part of campers.Good habits-Lightly apply rear turn buckles,Rear holding waste holding tanks; don't travel when full.Always lock back door, especially on older or wood framed campers when traveling.Don't use stinger,towing extensions that attach to camper.And so on.Camper mounting- Use a rubber mat , especially with plastic bed liners. A bed lift with Ford trucks, loading older campers.wedges of any design that align camper in bed when loading, preferably with Teflon skids.Raise front of camper first when unloading.3to4 inches,keep this way until setting camper on saw horses ,or? , Settling close to ground.this will greatly reduce front Jack's from binding and front swing-out brackets for dually trucks from twisting.Best to have fresh water tank with low fill.Happi-jac campers anchors work great on most trucks( pull to front , and at an arc ) ,tork lift do the job.Over tightening of turn buckles,or non spring loaded, sloppy truck suspension,lifted truck, driving out of places (gas station)at an angle fast, speed bumps;you will thrash something, Usually one of your camper anchor points. Bigfoot, Eagle Cap,Arctic Fox,Lance,Alpenlite,They all are susestipal to ripped out tie downs; magnified with slide outs.I started; I'm sure that there are many things for you all to ad,or rectify. Happy camping to all that are fortunate.
Truck Campers
  • jimh406's avatar
    jimh406
    Explorer III
    Jul 28, 2017
    Seems like a lot of generalities with lack of punctuation. :) But, also implies that much of the damage can be avoided which I would agree with. Unfortunately, I don't have time to type out detailed specifics either!

    Observations from paying attention to this forum since 2006 and also paying attention to what I've seen in person follow.

    I do know many manufacturers have had a few versions of the construction techniques and slide designs. I have to think you are better off if you didn't get V1 or V2. Unfortunately, many people here have exposure to V1 and apply those same rules to V6 or even later!

    I feel like RVs are getting better. Maybe not as fast as we want, but still getting better.

    Fwiw, I personally wouldn't buy an older slide camper from most people because it seems like 10% of the people have 95% of the issues like most other products. Their RVs and vehicles are torn apart from abuse not use.

    I think you increase your chances of getting a good one if you buy a newer model with the exception of Bigfoot and Northern-Lite that seem to be having more issues as of late or at least not as proven as their older designs.

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