Attention all Wolf Creek 850 Owners

mkuzmuk wrote:

Attachment method. I attach em like the dealer said to. We used a hacksaw to notch the front turnbuckle at zero load. I snug them up, then tighten 1/4" to 3/8" past the hatch mark. Supposedly this sets the correct pre-load.

I have probably 6-7K miles on the camper.

This worries me...

When I remove and put my camper back on the truck, which I do a LOT It will never settle in the same spot.. The HJ's will never tightened down the same... I'm talking about only a couple of turns either way and sometimes even more.

So I do not see how you can reference the same point each time you put the camper on.

Although with the Tlift method of straight down and you reference the camper forward at exactly the same point each time then maybe you will be ok. But 1/2 inch back from the front of the bed and you will be tightening the HJ'sj too tight trying to get the reference point that you hacksawed in.

I do believe that Wolfcreek has a problem though...

I can almost lift my truck with my HJ's when raising the camper with the tiedowns still attached.

We have almost 200,000 miles on our camper over the 14 years we have had it. We just finished an 8,000+mi trip with it all the way to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.. On some roads so rough, rocking and bouncing and I know the truck and camper went airborne on one of the Frost heaves I missed.
We have been on rock trails with all our campers over the years.... Not one issue with tiedowns.

I know there are thousands of camper folks over the years with the same stories, no tiedown issues.



The other issue of a long bed camper on a short bed truck is worrisome.
How to deal with the camper's Center of Gravity... Tail heavy on the bed will have a tendency to want to raise the front of the camper and truck, actually removing the front axle weight. My camper adds 300lbs to the front of the truck which is about average for most TC's on trucks.

Your camper's weight on the front of the bed is going to be minimal because CG is either on top of the rear axle or behind... This is not good.. The front of the camper is able to bounce really easy.


Jim