Loading with a flatbed and service body
I am considering trading in our 2017 Ram 3500 for a Ram 5500 with a Douglas Service Body. I like the Douglas brand as they have models specific to my camper. They are also close to home base for me. ...
Forum Discussion
I have a Ram 5500 with an 11' Douglass body. It replaced an F450 w/pickup bed. Loading/unloading is not a problem. I installed a backup camera above the truck's rear window, painted a white stripe down the middle of the bed, and installed some red tape up the middle of the front of the camper; makes it easy to line up. Also, Douglass installs guides at the rear of the bed to help align the camper.
There is a potential issue with tie downs. My Host Mammoth is the same width as the Douglass body; Host requires the use of springloaded turnbuckles, which I use. The Host mounting brackets are recessed a few inches from the outside of the truck body; the tie down brackets extend past the side of the truck body; in order to attach the turnbuckles to the tie downs and not hit the truck body, I had to make some extensions to attach to the Host tie down brackets to allow the Fastguns to attach to the frame mounted tie downs. If I had it to do over again, I would ask the folks at Douglass to engineer that set-up differently. Douglass is a great company to work with, so they likely would design something. Douglass' standard tie down method was to bolt some brackets to the top of the truck body, line them up with the camper tie down brackets, and secure the camper with 1/2" bolts. The only problem with that (other than Host's "suspension mounting" requirement), is that if you are on uneven terrain and use your jacks to level your rig, you have to unbolt the Douglass brackets to allow the camper to level separately from the truck. It's difficult to re-align the camper/truck body brackets.
If you need any more information, send me a PM.
There is a potential issue with tie downs. My Host Mammoth is the same width as the Douglass body; Host requires the use of springloaded turnbuckles, which I use. The Host mounting brackets are recessed a few inches from the outside of the truck body; the tie down brackets extend past the side of the truck body; in order to attach the turnbuckles to the tie downs and not hit the truck body, I had to make some extensions to attach to the Host tie down brackets to allow the Fastguns to attach to the frame mounted tie downs. If I had it to do over again, I would ask the folks at Douglass to engineer that set-up differently. Douglass is a great company to work with, so they likely would design something. Douglass' standard tie down method was to bolt some brackets to the top of the truck body, line them up with the camper tie down brackets, and secure the camper with 1/2" bolts. The only problem with that (other than Host's "suspension mounting" requirement), is that if you are on uneven terrain and use your jacks to level your rig, you have to unbolt the Douglass brackets to allow the camper to level separately from the truck. It's difficult to re-align the camper/truck body brackets.
If you need any more information, send me a PM.
