Belly Bars

Not paranoid, but did a mock up, and had at least 16" clearance to garage floor. Jacked tubing up and put jack stands under it and came up with that. Will look very close tomorrow at the RV show. Let you know what I find out if I don't drive the salesmen too crazy.

MY BLUE HEAVEN wrote:
As 67avion's prior owner, I was the one that made the "monster", the extremely heavy duty belly bar. If you want to buy it, I bet he'd sell it to you at a reasonable price.

But his criticisms are quite valid, particularly if you off-road. With my new unit, I bought Torklifts for the front and copied Torklifts for the back to fit into the hitch ends.

Just to be clear, the belly bar certainly served its purpose...it handled my camper with never a problem. That is, until I went off road into some sketchy rocky road. And then I nearly had a disaster. My Blue Heaven was very clear about the belly bar when I got the camper from him several years ago, in fact he is an ideal PO.

So, if you never go off road or go over a curb, etc., there is nothing to worry about. If you do, then that solid belly bar could do some real damage.

YMMV.

Thanks for all the critique's. Will be going to An Rv show Friday and there will be several TC's there and should be tie downs to look at. Because I'M building, not buying, the belly bar was certainly the easiest to make. I do not have to drill any holes, Ford must have all kinds of options on a 550 that they are used for. Mine is quite high with the 19.5 wheels and had to re-engineer the hitch to get the trailer level, the only off roading I do is parking the trailer in the back yard or race track parking and the TC will be on the Patio. I am also making that, about a quarter of the way there. By the way, drilling the sides of a frame within in reason does not weaken it at all. We had a frame drill at work because we mounted a lot of 5th wheel hitches that had 6 or so on each side for the 18 wheeler's.

Torklifts doesn't require drilling as they use the bed bolt and exiting holes/slots in the flame.

However, if you are set on a belly bar, you can do the same without drilling a hole in the frame. For a high point, make a riser to catch the bed bolt. For a low point, use an elongated nut to fit in a nearby slot on the frame.


I had a belly bar I made for my truck when I picked up the camper. Could have also kept it but like the clean design of the Torklifts. They are tucked up tighter the sheet metal (by about 5" on my Ram), doesn't hand down below the frame (yes, I go over things a belly bar would catch on), and have the removable ends so aren't really seen when they are removed.

67avion wrote:
Torklifts are much better.click

And Torklift tie-downs don't require drilling through the frame of the truck, at leas all the ones I've seen don't require drilling.

Drilling through the truck frame seems like a bad idea.

If you want to do belly bars, go ahead, "knock yourself out." They'll work as good as anything if your design is solid. 2" x 1/4" wall tubing is more than adequate; the commercial bars don't look like they're more than 1-1/2" x 1/8" wall. Make sure your tiedowns allow for a little flex, though, as your bars won't, and may tend to pull the mounts out of the camper.

There is only 1 good way to secure your TC and that is with Torklift frame mounts. Don't be penny wise and dollar foolish!!

Just get Happy Jac they have better holding angles and are much cheaper

As 67avion's prior owner, I was the one that made the "monster", the extremely heavy duty belly bar. If you want to buy it, I bet he'd sell it to you at a reasonable price.

But his criticisms are quite valid, particularly if you off-road. With my new unit, I bought Torklifts for the front and copied Torklifts for the back to fit into the hitch ends.

Hi there. I posted on belly bars not long ago on this Forum. Take a look at my experience, which may be helpful to you. My advice is to not install a belly bar. Torklifts are much better.click