Mystery Damage to my truck. From the camper??

MN Ben wrote:
I originally thought this was from my camper. I have absolutely no clue. I made a video in hopes someone would know what caused this. https://youtu.be/djhJfPwoNlA

MNBen

Your issue shows the big weakness with TorkLift tie downs. The anchor points are almost vertical with most trucks/campers so they don't hold the camper from dancing around in the truck box (left/right, front/back). You need more triangulation to hold the camper from moving any direction in the truck box. HappiJac gets beat up here many times, but their holding angles are far superior and your camper stays put.

MN Ben wrote:

silverbullet555 wrote:
Your trailer is rocking back and forth in the bed which is independent of the cab, or the cab is rocking back and forth. In either case, the body bushings are where it's likely rocking and it is moving enough to make contact. Could be cab is moving one way and camper the other on rough roads, over bumps, etc.

Even with the Fast Guns attached? It happened on one side but not the other.

Yeah. I'm not sure why. Loaded to the side, crooked, etc. The fast guns are better than bed mount in my opinion, but there is still movement of the bed and cab.

If this is new damage, think back to your last trip. Rough, washboard, bumpy roads. High winds while driving, etc. Maybe the cab moved and the camper stayed. They are on separate body mounts and I've watched ours move quite a bit in relation to each other.

It's clear where the damage occurred from. We are trying to solve why and how.

I had one 10 mile section of porpoising road which sucked to drive on. This is the only thing that I think could have caused the paint to rub off. I just cannot imagine the legs getting so close to the truck. My brothers driveway was at a sucky angle but only traveled over it up and down one time. Not much cross wind and solid with the semi trucks passing.
The jack cannot rotate any closer in-word, even if it was lifted above the locking points.
I'll make some blocks to put in the front of the bed. I don't do bodywork so fixing the paint will be a pain for me.
Thank you every one for your help!

I had almost the same thing - my camper moved enough for a jack leg to touch the truck. The cushy rubber matting wasn't quite enough to stop the bit of movement.

I did what kayteg said ^^ about blocking the camper side to side so it cannot move enoough for the jacks to touch.

Angles and what not make loading it much easier.

MN Ben wrote:
There is no dent. Id doesn't look scratched. It is worn or rubbed smooth.

That makes me think it was just barely in contact and the slack in the jack mounting when stowed was enough to sit and rub with light pressure. Can the jack ever get any closer? I see they lift up to pivot before dropping down. If you hold it up out of the lock slot, can it move any closer to the truck?

The truck cab and bed move much more independently than you might expect. Did you drive through something slow but twisty (like up an angled driveway cut)?

Even with snug tie-downs campers will shift in the bed. Did you drive through any strong crosswinds?

This just happened right? Was it unusually windy or bumpy on your last trip? I’d say your camper got a little sideways in the bed at some point.

Years ago, I was having strong headwinds and side winds occasionally move my camper a surprising amount, despite the fact that the tiedowns were tight, and the camper is sitting on a rubber mat. I eventually made some modifications to the bottom of the camper, and made a centering fixture for the truck bed to keep it from moving around.

:):)

There is no dent. Id doesn't look scratched. It is worn or rubbed smooth.

Kayteg1 wrote:
For my camper set I made a 2x6 plank, who made front wall stop and than I screw small 4x4 block to the ends, to hold the camper from side movement.
Tops of 4x4 have some taper for easy camper loading.
I also experienced that fast guns tension is crucial. I had my camper on factory rubber mat, yet on the 1st trip the camper move 1 inch to the back. The rocking motion during driving combined with air drag made it.
Than I put about 3/4" tension on spring-loaded fast guns and the problem did not come back.

I have a mat under it. I like your 4x4 block idea. 3/4" on the fast guns??? Wholly Cow that seems like a lot of tension.

For my camper set I made a 2x6 plank, who made front wall stop and than I screw small 4x4 block to the ends, to hold the camper from side movement.
Tops of 4x4 have some taper for easy camper loading.
I also experienced that fast guns tension is crucial. I had my camper on factory rubber mat, yet on the 1st trip the camper move 1 inch to the back. The rocking motion during driving combined with air drag made it.
Than I put about 3/4" tension on spring-loaded fastguns and the problem did not come back.

jimh425 wrote:
Looks to me like the DRW brackets are installed wrong. They should be parallel to the TC sides, but appear to angled toward the cab.

Btw, it’s normal for the TC to move side to side some. You just have minimal clearance.

When I originally had these brackets one was angled in and the other was flipped and more inline with the camper side. I needed all the clearance I could get so I flipped the one. This made the jack straight out when unloading giving me the most clearance and angled towards the cab when folded in. I actually made the 3" extensions to give me more clearance. Maybe now I could try the brackets reversed. Maybe.