Plywood & Rubber mat question ( Who's on first )

Had to raise mine 2 1/2" ... screwed hard wood 4x8 plywood to o bottom of camper, followed by 3 treated 2x4x8' frame screwed to plywood. All this sits on a rubber mat that sits on top of a sprayed liner ... sucker ain't going anywhere ...

I tried it both ways, the only thing that worked was to screw the boards to the bottom of the TC. Then no more moving around...

I did much the same as monkey44 only with 3 boards running front to back. I let the front end of the boards stick out the same distance as the bump stops to act as bottom bump stops. So far so good.

Seems the plywood will skate around on the bed floor, or the camper will skate around on the plywood... Catch-22.

Either you have to do a bed mat/plywood/bed mat sandwich, or secure the plywood to the bottom of the camper somehow.

Super_Dave wrote:
My opinion would be that the plywood will skate on the bed of the truck. Ideally, the plywood would be secured and the camper rest on the rubber mat.

x2

Seal plywood first - keep out the water, which will eventually soften the plywood, or use green-board (waterproof board used for outside ...

Then, put mat under the plywood and it won't slip.

To save weight, and plywood hassle, I cut four pieces of 1x6 waterproof decking, and ran it at each end and two in the middle. Screwed it directly to the floor of the camper. Works great, and allows ventilation under the camper so water doesn't settle with no way out.

When we had a BF in a Chev, I tried several options to get the height correct. The best solution I came up with was heavy, 1" rubber livestock mats. Downside is they are heavy. The upside was the needed height, a bit of extra cushion for the bed and camper and good insulating properties. Even after we sold the Bigfoot, I just left the mats in the bed (until yesterday). It took two mats and a sawzall to make the cuts for fitting nicely in the bed. Only removed them because out new camper (non Bigfoot) doesn't need the clearance and I needed to loose some weight.

If you need to raise the camper as the cab is so much closer to the cabover then there is another solution. Buy some closed cell insulation, blue board, pink board or gray board...each is very dense and will deform some untill the weight is evenly idstributed, but it also gives extra insulation value, a cush for the camper, is lighter than plywood, will not absorb moisture. In the end I actually built a frame of 1x1's sealed them, inserted blueboard and atached the whole assembly to the bottom of my camper. was like that for years. Do not use the white stuff, it hold water and fall apart in little balls.

I had plywood on top of my rubber mat and the camper moved around. I had to stop and reload the camper at one point because the tie downs were rubbing on the side of the truck. I removed the plywood (it was a support system while the camper was off the truck) and now it does not move. I would consider fastening the plywood to the bottom of the camper so nothing moves.

My opinion would be that the plywood will skate on the bed of the truck. Ideally, the plywood would be secured and the camper rest on the rubber mat.