New Truck, Soon new NL . How to prep the truck

I have one trailer and plan on a second plus the occasional vehicle tow, I might be better off going with a superhitch magnum. Better to plan on that now so I can get the proper camper brackets.

I found that Tractor Supply had a very reasonably priced rubber mat that was made to fit the Ford bed. I used the same mat on my 2010 and my current F450.

If Ford is still putting this frammus on the driver side of the hitch receiver, it may need to be removed to install Torklift rear tiedowns. It’s a harmonic balancer, and the cage around the weight interferes with the tiedown bar on that side.



It used to mount here.



I also put a 2x10 across the front of my bed. Mine needed a layer of 1x10 Trex material on top of it to keep the camper from touching the taillights.



To keep from having to cut a hole in the bed for the camper plug, I ran the wires through this plastic knock-out plug, and mounted a plastic box to the board.



My camper uses two plugs because I have 4 gauge wires installed for the +/- 12V circuit. The big two-pin plug is just for those wires. The smaller four-pin plug is for the clearance, brake, turn, and backup lights.



If you need the truck to provide any real charging current to the camper batteries, you may find that these new trucks “smart alternator/ECM controlled” 12 volt system is incapable of providing the high amp charging you used to be able to coax out of the older trucks with a “dumb” alternator/voltage regulator. To get around that on my truck, I installed a DC-DC charger in the camper. That’s what the 4 gauge wires are for.

:):)

mbloof wrote:
Unless the 450 is built much different than the 250/350 you'll have to raise the camper to clear the cab. I used a sheet of 2" 8x4' styrofoam from Lowes. When loading be mindful of the camper centering in the tail gate opening and where your truck tail lights and the camper are - loaded all the way forward might cause them to touch.

- Mark0.

Are you talking about a new Northern Lite EX CD?
They’re designed to fit all new trucks, with just a 3/8” rubber mat.

There’s plenty of room to tow a trailer with a longer tongue and no extension under a Northern Lite. I even towed that way for many thousands of miles with an older camper that had the holding tanks hanging below the rear.
The problems most people describe with this setup are mostly imaginary ones from people who haven’t done it.

As for the difficulty of crawling under to latch the hitch, that’s really easy and compares well against the trouble of installing and removing a four foot extension.

If your trailer is really light, and you don’t mind having extra junk to install every time you load up, extensions work great.
The heavier your trailer is, the worse extensions are.
That’s why people buy goosenecks and 5th wheels: the further forward you can get the hitch point, the better. The further back it is, the worse. Everyone knows it.

I used a Curt 48" extension in my Chevy's factory 2.5" receiver to pull my 4,500 pound boat. It worked okay but had a lot of slop in it.
Next I used a Troklift SuperHitch with a 48" Supertruss on my '05 Chevy dually. It worked great. Very heavy duty and the turnbuckles and chains keep it nice and tight.
I don't think I'd want to mess with the tongue on the trailer. I sometimes pulled a cargo trailer behind the camper so would have needed to extend that tongue too. Then, it would have been pretty strange pulling either trailer if I didn't have the camper one because of the extra long tongue. Also, resale on the trailer with a super long tongue would probably take a serious hit.
My camper hung 4' past the back of the truck. I would not have wanted to have to slide the tongue up under there without hitting the bottom of the camper and then crawl under to hook it up. It was much easier to have the ball at the back of the camper where I could see it and hook up like normal.

Unless the 450 is built much different than the 250/350 you'll have to raise the camper to clear the cab. I used a sheet of 2" 8x4' styrofoam from Lowes. When loading be mindful of the camper centering in the tail gate opening and where your truck tail lights and the camper are - loaded all the way forward might cause them to touch.

- Mark0.

Ok on the trailer hitch mod. I have some aged pressure treated 2x10s. I will cut one. Will have to get the camper to fine tune things. I plan to find a dealer, so I will have some support (i hope).

Just to be clear, stretching the trailer tongue is custom work, but really it’s easy.

Any approximately 3/8” thick rubber mat should be fine.

Every camper has its little quirks... on the 10-2, the set screws that hold the extra step just below the rear door really gouge into the aluminum step. If you epoxy-glue a coupe dimes on for the set screws to grind into, it helps with that.
I also stuck little clear rubber adhesive bumpers under my extra step so it doesn’t scratch up my back bumper where it sits on it.
Also, the big slide out tray in the rear “basement” storage compartment will bend and chew up the flange around the compartment hatch. The quick easy fix is to lay a strip of wood inside the rear storage compartment hatch for the tray to slide over as you pull it out. Make it just thick enough so the tray clears the lip on the access door frame.
It seems to pull in and out just fine when the tray is empty but once you load it up, you’ll see what I mean.

Oh!! Another truck-prep thing I think everyone should do is cut a pressure treated 2x10 or 2x12 to fit sideways across the front of your truck box. The front bed wall is actually pretty flimsy and I’ve bent several of them during unplanned hard braking with a camper on.
A nice big 2x12 across the front helps a lot to keep it from getting bent out of shape by the camper shoving against it.

You may find the black rubber bumpers on the front of your 10-2 make it sit too far back. I removed mine. It still has white plastic front bumpers (that the black rubber ones were screwed into) and it sits just right.
Your truck may be a little different (mine is a Dodge) but check that.

Is the standard Ford rubber mat sufficient? I failed to request one as part of the deal.

It came with spray in liner and has a 7 pin in the drivers rear of the bed.

I will make sure to look into an extending trailer tongue. That sounds like a great idea.

You can bet I will be stopping every few inches to check everything for the first dozen or so times I load.

Wow, agonizing over it at 5am. Home by noon with a new truck!
Congrats!

The Northern Lite 10-2 EXCD SE should clear the cab fine.
Northern Lite recommends a rubber mat under their campers.
I think they even require it for warranty purposes.
You can use a hitch extension, but I don’t like them.
I prefer to stretch my trailer tongue to reach the truck.
Benefits are many. No extra heavy junk to attach and remove whenever you load/unload your camper, and superior towing physics, mainly.
The Northern Lite has nothing has nothing hanging down under the rear so there’s plenty of clearance. You’ll want to relocate the tongue jack further aft.
A set of Torklift Fastgun tiedowns make life a whole lot easier loading and unloading.
Apache Camping Center near me (Seattle area) told me they’d throw them in the deal with the camper, ask (beat up on) your dealer. They’re expensive.
They sell locks to go on the Fastguns, so no one makes off with them.
I have a set but really some tall-shackle padlocks would work too.

Your F450 may not need any suspension help. I’d try it out first before adding anything.
Torklift seems to be the go-to for the frame-mounted tiedown brackets.
I made my own, it’s not rocket surgery if you can weld.

Get a 7-pin RV type connector in the left front of your truck box and you should be good to go.

Be really careful of the right rear corner of your truck bed as you back under the 10-2, that’s the tightest spot.