Nothern Lite on a flatbed?
I have just recently purchased a 2011 Northern Lite 10'2 special edition and am now shopping for the truck to put it on. I believe we have found it but I was thinking about putting it on a flat bed an...
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portscanner wrote:J.Duncan wrote:
My dude, so many questions. Does the camper require an 8’ bed? How long is your flat bed? Do you have center of gravity issues? Is there a large space between your camper and your headache rack? Literally exactly what I want to do just Ford and Northern Lite.
Those were several issues I had to address.
The camper I have requires (at least) an 8 foot bed. Note I got a cab and chassis truck - which has a 9 foot bed. The rear axle is moved a foot further back away from the cab (than on a truck with an 8 foot bed.) Moving the axle back means the center of gravity of the TC will remain in front of the rear axle - where it belongs.
If I am correct, the Northern Lite 10'2 is designed for an 8' bed so it should work on any truck with a 8 foot or longer bed that can handle the weight. Make sure the weight of the truck + the weight of the TC + the weight of your new flat bed + weight of all your "stuff" (i.e. fishing gear, dogs, food, beer, etc) does not exceed the GVWR of the truck. Please do your homework first before buying your truck. I recently acquired a Ford 2011 F-450 that had only a 13,300 GVWR and was 1000 lbs over the GVWR with the Lance loaded (but that is a story for a different time)
Check and confirm how much room is under the cabover of the Northern Lite. I have heard that newer Ford cabs are taller than other trucks - but I dont have any written documentation to support that - just rumor.
If you get a cab and chassis model like I did, you will have 12" between the front of the bed / headache bar and the front of your camper. I temporarily put some 2x4's in there to keep the camper from walking forward on the bed, but I am looking at building a frame from aluminum that will keep the camper from walking forward along with providing space for another fresh water tank.
A note on tiedowns - the flatbed has a rail along the side. I used that in conjunction with Torklift "Original FastGun Turnbuckle .45- Polished S9527"
Before you load the camper on the truck, verify the truck will fit between the front jacks. You might need front jack extensions.
Thats about all I can think of at the moment. Let me know if you need any other information!
Music to my ears. Thank you for taking the time to explain all of this out. We have been working the weights and with a brand new Ford F350 DRW 7.3 we are well under our GVWR with a serious amount to spare, of course by design.
