Front Frame Mount Tie Downs Not Working!
I have gone through so many sets of Torklift frame mounts I want to fix the problem permanently. Why aren’t there bars run across the whole truck like for the rear tie downs? Those last. M...
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My front tiedowns are pretty much vertical as well, because I moved the tie down point on the camper to the front jacks. I didn’t like the deflection I was seeing around the factory tie down points. You can see them in this picture, about 12” behind the front jack.
The jack mount is a much stronger tie down point, and there has been no deflection. The tie down on the driver side also doesn’t block the fuel door anymore, so that’s a good thing, too. But, despite sitting on a rubber mat the camper tended to slide backwards a few inches while on a trip and I’d have to move it back to the front every 3-4 days. I do take mine off road regularly. Just unpaved forest roads, but some of them can get pretty rough.
After puzzling over that issue for a while, I came up with a way to stop the movement of the camper in the bed. On the bottom of the camper, I put a 1x4 along each side of the tub to tighten it up between the wheel wells. Then I ran six treated deck boards across the bottom of the tub at evenly spaced intervals. The first board is new because I had just replaced it. The original one developed a big split.
Then, I made a Camper Hauler Stiction Device (CHSD, or just “frammus”) that sits under the camper, with some tabs that extend into the four 5th-wheel hitch attachment points. The two boards on the CHSD are carefully placed so that they allow the 3rd and 4th boards on the bottom of the camper to land just in front of them, and prevent rearward movement. The camper no longer moves front/back or sideways.
:):)
The jack mount is a much stronger tie down point, and there has been no deflection. The tie down on the driver side also doesn’t block the fuel door anymore, so that’s a good thing, too. But, despite sitting on a rubber mat the camper tended to slide backwards a few inches while on a trip and I’d have to move it back to the front every 3-4 days. I do take mine off road regularly. Just unpaved forest roads, but some of them can get pretty rough.
After puzzling over that issue for a while, I came up with a way to stop the movement of the camper in the bed. On the bottom of the camper, I put a 1x4 along each side of the tub to tighten it up between the wheel wells. Then I ran six treated deck boards across the bottom of the tub at evenly spaced intervals. The first board is new because I had just replaced it. The original one developed a big split.
Then, I made a Camper Hauler Stiction Device (CHSD, or just “frammus”) that sits under the camper, with some tabs that extend into the four 5th-wheel hitch attachment points. The two boards on the CHSD are carefully placed so that they allow the 3rd and 4th boards on the bottom of the camper to land just in front of them, and prevent rearward movement. The camper no longer moves front/back or sideways.
:):)
