Centering Guides 2.0

Crumm,
Very nice work here. The way I mistreat my old Lance, I tried to spread the stress over the entire lower shear side of the camper box with 2" alum angle (screwed on with S.S. screws in the same way you did). On extreme side hilling the drivers front guide formerly left a depression in the wooden camper frame. Not good. With one cycle on and off and on, I see no change in appearance of the aluminum L's. Of course, I use the lower guides on the front too, so a long strip does double duty just keeping the box loosely in the slot. When I installed the guides many years ago, I made the clearance on each side about 3/4", With 1/8" alum. angle it is now tighter yet. Yes, it takes a few times of getting in and out of the truck even with Jeanie as a spotter as there is so little clearance. I'm still wanting to keep a little 'wiggle room' between the guides for eventual twisting of the pickup bed.
I have found my Lance does creep around in it's 'slot', sometimes the front moves right, and the rear moves left or visa versa depending on the trail. After mounting the camper, I leave the tie downs very loose until I drive forward to about 10 mph, and hammer the brakes. The cabover part bows down a bit (with the rear lifting) and the whole box moves as far forward as it can to set the two rubber bumpers tight against the front of the bed. For the first few hours of use on the highway, I will occasionally check the status of the now firm but not tight tie downs until they finally reach an equalibrium. It is surprising how much, if subtile movement there is even with a very sticky, thin bed mat. You can judge this by how the tie downs feel.
Again, nice job on something we can all use, and really need.
jefe

I use the Lance Guides. I just used super glued some heavy rubber strips on all 4 of mine to help against the rubbing.

The Mad Norsky wrote:

I use the Lance centering guides, ordered them from the factory.

However, they do or rather have rubbed against the camper when it shifts slightly, so the padding added onto yours may be what I need for mine.

Jefe4X4 mentioned in another post using the Lance guides too, but his solution was putting some sort of angled metal along the bottom of his camper to protect it.

I have a small strip of angle iron on mine to protect the plywood and to give a slicker surface to slide down into the guide.

10-4. Thank You!

The Mad Norsky wrote:
Nice work. Very neatly done.

A question?? What's 1/4" UHMW???

Just cannot figure what the UHMW means.

Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene which is basically very hard slick plastic. It helps the camper slide down into the guides without hanging up.

Wikipedia wrote:

Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE, UHMW) is a subset of the thermoplastic polyethylene. Also known as high-modulus polyethylene, (HMPE), or high-performance polyethylene (HPPE), it has extremely long chains, with a molecular mass usually between 2 and 6 million u. The longer chain serves to transfer load more effectively to the polymer backbone by strengthening intermolecular interactions. This results in a very tough material, with the highest impact strength of any thermoplastic presently made.

UHMWPE is odorless, tasteless, and nontoxic. It is highly resistant to corrosive chemicals except oxidizing acids; has extremely low moisture absorption and a very low coefficient of friction; is self-lubricating; and is highly resistant to abrasion, in some forms being 15 times more resistant to abrasion than carbon steel. Its coefficient of friction is significantly lower than that of nylon and acetal, and is comparable to that of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, Teflon), but UHMWPE has better abrasion resistance than PTFE.

Nice work. Very neatly done.

A question?? What's 1/4" UHMW???

Just cannot figure what the UHMW means.

I use the Lance centering guides, ordered them from the factory.

However, they do or rather have rubbed against the camper when it shifts slightly, so the padding added onto yours may be what I need for mine.

Jefe4X4 mentioned in another post using the Lance guides too, but his solution was putting some sort of angled metal along the bottom of his camper to protect it.

Crumm,

Those look GREAT.

Thanks for the idea. We are trading in our Lance 855s for a new/leftover Eagle Cap 850. I'll have to see the exact dimensions once the new TC is home.

Bedlam wrote:
I wish I could say I married into money just to prove you wrong, but we married into love and that been working for us for quite a while now.

Yeah me too. We were broke when we got married 26 years ago and we are still broke ;)

I wish I could say I married into money just to prove you wrong, but we married into love and that been working for us for quite a while now.

Bedlam wrote:

Right now I'm pretty happy with my spotter (DW) and don't think I need to replace her with guides.

Aluminum centering guides are cheaper.