easy on/off truck caps?

I built a rack / shelf in the corner of my backyard, the height of the bed rails of my dually, to store it on. With the tailgate down I can back up to the rack, unclamp the topper, get inside and lift it with my back, and walk it / slide it onto the rack, by myself. It's a fiberglass eight footer, heavy for my son and I to lift to or from the ground. This way is pretty easy so far, although I haven't done it in reverse to load it back on. I don't think it would be any harder. I built the rack 8 feet wide by 6 feet deep, out of 4x4's and 2x6's, for about $100, pressure treated.

When I built my garage I built it with 10' walls so that I could store kayaks, canoes and my truck topper above my vehicles and out of the way. The trusses were built to be load bearing. The engineer that designed the trusses said that he was surprised more people didn't do it. I just hook my topper to the overhead winch with the attached eye bolts and hit the button. My wife keeps telling me to work smart, not hard. She lets me buy some great toys.

I set fold up steps next to the tailgate and two sawhorses away from the truck. Unfasten the canopy and lift the canopy with your knees on your back. If you have it balanced properly, you can walk off the rear of the truck on to the steps and lower it on your horses. A heavy canopy may weigh over 300 lbs, so you do need to have leg strength to carry its and your weight. Your back is just a platform for balancing.

MKish wrote:
Getting a second truck (as described by JRscooby) is my favorite plan so far! :) Hehehe

As a city-dweller I don't have a barn but I can set up some sawhorses in the garage and put a couple teenagers to work if I have to.

This sounds doable! Appreciate it. Thanks all!

Scooby never much liked having a cap on daily driver. Was on a beater 3/4 ton I traded for. Was great to go to parts store pick up a dozen drums and a couple dozen sets of shoes, because I could leave them out of sight and weather until installed. Was nice to have when needed to put on the 150 to protect stuff for 1 trip.
Instead saw horses in the garage I would hang 2X (or pipe?) from chains. No more work than setting on horses, but would not take up floor space. Could even hang so could park with bed of truck under it.
Winch and pully system would be great if you did it often. We made a attachment for the engine hoist so could reach thru door and lift a pickup cab off frame. Bet could do a shell.

Getting a second truck (as described by JRscooby) is my favorite plan so far! :) Hehehe

As a city-dweller I don't have a barn but I can set up some sawhorses in the garage and put a couple teenagers to work if I have to.

This sounds doable! Appreciate it. Thanks all!

JRscooby wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:
I've had aluminum and fiberglass.

The fiberglass could be done with 2 large strong guys but really 3 or 4 was a lot easier.

The aluminum one I could do myself in a pinch (mostly awkward to control, weight wasn't an issue). With 2 people (even not very strong), it was a breeze.

If I was buying a new cap, it would be aluminum in a heartbeat.

I needed to move a aluminum one from 1 truck to another for a trip. The guy that was to help didn't show up so I parked back to back so could walk from one to other. Turned around as I crossed the tailgates, a piece of chicken. Worked so well I didn't ask for help when I got back. Got lucky, did not damage the good truck. Don't take much wind to take control.

Yeah, you didn't want to try in in the wind as you have no leverage but I would just crawl in and stand up with it on my back with my arms out to sort of stabilize it. At the tailgate I would drop down so half rested on the bed rails and I held the rest while climbing down, then lift again with head and hand making an inverse tripod, putting it on the ground was the trickiest part as I would squat down and let the front edge slowly rotate down then walk out the back lowering as I went.

But heck 2-10yr olds and 30 seconds, they could easily lift it off and set it on the ground. (I did use a 10yr old nephew a couple of times to hold one side).

So if you don't have a barn or want to build a lift mechanism, aluminum is the way to go if you will be taking it off with any regularity.

Back in California I had my dually registered as RV, so when I took TC off, I had to put camper shell to avoid tickets.
Even for big shell, I was able to go under it and lift it on my back. Walking with it was not easy, but I was getting it.
Also I was able to find a shell with full size rear door. That was very convenient.

I had an 8' Fiberglass shell I would put on/off a regular bases by myself. Just unbolt the 6 small screws, lay two 2x4x9' in the bed, crawl up in there then use lift one end up at a time to put the 2x4 under, crawl out, put each end of the 2x4 into a 5' sawhorse and done.

After a couple years of this, came across an old manual boat winch so bought two double pulleys and 4 single pulleys, put eye bolts in the roof and then just used the winch to lift it up. Was so much easier plus didn't have anything on the floor in my way. Everything was positioned so I could still park the truck under it.

depends on how old you are.
when I was young, I had a fiberglass cab on a Ford 8' bed.
I would have 4 tall saw horses, 2 on each side of truck.
I would unbolt the cap, stand in the middle of b4ed and lift it with cap on my back.
than wife would slide 2x4's across the saw horses and I would let cab down onto 2x4.
than I would pull truck out from between horses leaving cab suspended on 2x4's.

I've got the same type of eyebolts installed in my camper shell. And a pulley system with a worm-drive hand cranked winch in my pole barn, along with a rack to hold the shell when I remove it off the truck. So to remove or install the shell now takes only about 15 minutes. The rack holds the shell up high enough so all I need to do is back the truck under the shell, then drop the shell a couple inches onto the truck bed. The worm drive winch is handy because it cranks easily and holds the load in place without extra steps needed to lock it in place.