DIY Slide In Camper questions
Background - I currently have a homemade 8 foot truck camper with a slant front that I built for a dodge dakota. It's just under 80" wide. The end of the camper sits on the tailgate. I had original...
Forum Discussion
Grit dog wrote:
It's a bit more than 2 - 1x6s on a standard (not popup) camper overhead, but @mkirsch's recommendation is a good place to start, to design it. Similar design on your ladder rack, if it has a cab overhang. Need relatively stiff sides/cantilevered "joists" that run fore/aft with enough anchorage back in the main camper side wall.
Yeah, I was hoping to maybe angle the cab-over so the front is skinnier - maybe 5' for a Full/6' if I use a Queen. I've been working on a layout, and may just have about 1-2 feet of the bed hanging over the floor and mount into the floor to help with strength.
Grit dog wrote:
Couple other comments. Reason not to bear on bed sides AND bed floor simultaneously, it'll never be perfect and at some point, either the bed side or the floor will be holding all the weight. Not to mention stability and stress on the bedsides if resting solely on them with an (arguably) similar or greater load then your lumber racks. Sure it might work for a while but if you've seen trucks with years of overloaded lumber racks, the beds are no longer straight/strong. Keep it bearing on the bed floor only, or you're inducing unknown stresses into the truck bed sides.
Makes sense. I was thinking to maybe setting it up to clamp the wings to the bed sides to secure it better. Will have to ponder it.
Grit dog wrote:
Regarding the truck, 7200 gvw is a very light 3/4 ton gvw. Presume squarebody or GMT 400 or possibly pre "HD" GMT800 2500? But I think the non HD 2500s were 7700gvw at least.
GM 2500 trucks of that era went up to 8600gvw, with a few changes, but you're safe (presuming the truck is in good physical and mechanical condition) at 2000lbs of payload even with a very light duty Sierra 2500.
It's a '99, GMT800. First year of that style and the 6.0. Reg cab 8' bed. Door sticker says 7200lbs. They didn't intro the HD's till '01. I've had more weight on it than that, but only hauling stuff. With the camper being mounted for a continuos length of time in use, I'd rather go lighter to be on the safe side(plus saving fuel). I did upgrade the rear shocks to Monroe coil-overs earlier this year. I use the same on my Dakota. They make a big difference over a regular shock-only for hauling. I definitely recommend them.
