camper fitting in new truck

regarding building foam. depending on the weight of your tc, it will flex. friend of mine tried this and ruined his bed rails. we replaced with good old plywood. problem solved.

Had the "rounded corners" problem when changing from a 1991 1500 to the 2013 3500, both long bed Chevy's. Screwed a 4x8 3/4" hard wood plywood to the bottom of the camper ($50); and then, screwing treated 2x4's frame ($24) to the plywood. This raised things up about 2 1/2" (1" above the rounded corners) with about 3/4" clearance side-to-side at the end of the truck bed.

I also had to deal with both front & rear jacks being too short to raise the camper because of the higher ground-to-bed measurement of the 2013. Fixed this by building a 4x6 platform for the jack stands.

Having resolved the whole GVWR thing by going with a 1-ton ... my way of dealing with the changes to bed was to suggest a new camper for the new truck ... wife said: "yeah right ... go figure it out ..."

billyray50 wrote:
I used 4' x 8.' Pink or blue foam board from Lowe's or home depot with my last camper they was 3300 lbs with no issues.. Comes in different thickness. The one i used was 1 inch thick.

This is the best solution. This foam board comes in 1/2", 1", and 2" thicknesses and you can cut it to size with a box cutter. Never absorbs water the way any type of wood will do. No compression with a 3500 lb. camper in the bed. Weighs next to nothing so easy to remove if you decide to do so when the camper is not in the bed.

I put the foam board down and then a bed mat and leave them in the truck year round.

Led 67 wrote:

kbaum wrote:
GM trucks have a rounded lower bracket welded in (part of the bed support system, I think) by the tailgate that requires that you raise your camper anyway. This is one of the reasons I bot a Dodge when I purchased my last truck after owning a couple of GMC's before that. I am sure many members of this forum have good suggestions to deal with this. however I never found one that dealt with it to my satisfaction so I went to the "dark side" and bot my current truck.

Welcome to the Dark Side :B

X2!!

Love, love my Dodgie!

On my TC I made a raised platform with 2x4s and OSB. Worked good because of the 5th wheel hitch rails in my old truck
Jim

Ya for long distance driving I'd glue a sheet of plywood to the foam to help distribute the load from any larger camper.

Something to consider--

I've been a proponent of using building foam to support the TC but have learned a bit recently that you may want to consider depending on your TC construction.

My Palomino TC had no basement and the tanks were elevated above the bottom. It had 3 external metal floor supports running across underneath the floor. This construction worked great using the building foam to raise it. The only areas where the foam got compressed was where the metal floor supports were.

On my AF the weight of the TC is supported by the perimeter walls of the floor tub. There are light duty frames from side to side, covered with an 1/8" bottom, that support the tanks but are not strong enough to support the weight of the camper.

The problem is, during movement the foam compresses some around the edges which puts excess pressure on the cross frame.

All my tank supports were cracked, leaving me thinking this could have been part of the cause (not all), and I will no longer use this method of raising the TC height.

It needs a solid support on the edges. Other camper such as my Palomino work great with the foam.


The radius of the tailgate opening doesn't interfere with my TC, as that area is still wider than the wheel well width.

dave17352 wrote:

trail-explorer wrote:
foam board sounds like the easiest solution.

kbaum: Unsure of what "bracket" you are referring to on a GM truck that requires the camper to be raised.

It part of the way the back end of the box is molded. My 2011 has the same thing

In either 2007 or 2008 gm trucks changed the tail gate opening with the large lower radius mentioned. Its more than just the radius the opening dimension above the radius is also more narrow as shown in the picture. A 2006 isn't like this but my 2008 shown in the picture is. If the camper fit tight in your 2004 chances are it will not fit in a new gm truck.

I pulled this from a google search:
http://www.carid.com/images/access/bed-accessories/access-tailgate-protector-3.jpg
When you look at the pic you can see the rounded lower edges. Depending on the width of your camper floor, the camper needs to be raised to clear the opening.

trail-explorer wrote:
foam board sounds like the easiest solution.

kbaum: Unsure of what "bracket" you are referring to on a GM truck that requires the camper to be raised.

It part of the way the back end of the box is molded. My 2011 has the same thing