Torklift fronts and Happijac rear?

kjenckes wrote:
Thanks everyone. I went with..... Torklift front and rear. I installed them this morning. Saving $250 on HappiJac bumper buttons was very tempting, I mean, I had them on my 96 F250 and was happy with them right? I looked this all over. I grabbed my 96 rear bumper and pulled, and pushed, and pulled some more. Nope, didn't budge. I grabbed the 2013 GMC rear bumper. I hope it holds if I get rear ended. Yup, it moved rather easily.

Thanks to Andrew at Torklift for some excellent customer service. He probably thought I'm an ignorant dumb--s but very politely explained to me how to fish the bolt fish wire for the front mounts. That took longer than installing them. Maybe 15 minutes each side. The rears were more challenging. The driver's side- 15 minutes. Easy-peasy. Passenger's side? Ummm no. The rears have 4 mounting holes. 2 go to the holes in the bottom of the spring shackles and 2 are GMC OEM frame bolts. 1 of the shackle bolts wouldn't feed so I had to take a small trip and buy a 1 1/2" to use instead of the supplied 2". Now easy-peasy.

I love the look and they are super steady. If you don't know what you are looking at you don't even see them.

Thank you so much for sharing this review about our buddy Andrew, he works very hard to do a good job for our customers. We always watch these forums in order to find opportunities to help our customers but we are also looking for opportunities to honor our team when we can. Every time we see someone share a nice report about one of our team members, we buy them lunch. Thank you for helping us buy Andrew some lunch!

Thanks everyone. I went with..... Torklift front and rear. I installed them this morning. Saving $250 on HappiJac bumper buttons was very tempting, I mean, I had them on my 96 F250 and was happy with them right? I looked this all over. I grabbed my 96 rear bumper and pulled, and pushed, and pulled some more. Nope, didn't budge. I grabbed the 2013 GMC rear bumper. I hope it holds if I get rear ended. Yup, it moved rather easily.

Thanks to Andrew at Torklift for some excellent customer service. He probably thought I'm an ignorant dumb--s but very politely explained to me how to fish the bolt fish wire for the front mounts. That took longer than installing them. Maybe 15 minutes each side. The rears were more challenging. The driver's side- 15 minutes. Easy-peasy. Passenger's side? Ummm no. The rears have 4 mounting holes. 2 go to the holes in the bottom of the spring shackles and 2 are GMC OEM frame bolts. 1 of the shackle bolts wouldn't feed so I had to take a small trip and buy a 1 1/2" to use instead of the supplied 2". Now easy-peasy.

I love the look and they are super steady. If you don't know what you are looking at you don't even see them.

I had happijacks on my old camper front and rear, when I installed the bumper buttons and put the turn buckle on them the first time, I thought that dang bumper isn't much to write home about, but I used them and never had a problem, the old camper never moved, stayed right where it was suppose to, never shifting at all. When I gave the camper to my grandson we put the buttons on his truck, never a problem.
I say go for it, you can always go to the expensive torque lift ones any time you want to, or feel the need.

kjenckes wrote:
Th… it might hit my fender on 1 side and exhaust on the other. The torklift bracket sits forward just enough to clear. I'm leaning to front and back torklift because I am nervous about the rear bumper. …on.

For the rear, if you are mounting the Torklift to a receiver hitch, you can rotate the Torklift mount forward or back to get it angled exactly how you need it to sit. I did this on my Ram to keep it as close to the body without hitting, high enough to be mostly above the exhaust and still at a good angle to hold the camper properly.


I rotated it just 8-10 degrees back, clockwise. Don't think it has to be bolted in exactly square to everything, it does not.


This makes it sit closer to the body than if I had mounted it square and level. Closer means higher and more out of the way for any off-roading encounters with rocks, and also less visible hanging out under the truck… cleaner lines.
Mounting it square-up would have put the bracket exactly in the exhaust stream, much lower.
Is hard to see, but the bracket is just barely missing the body, I gave just enough room for it to flex up and not touch.


This is with the bracket clamped on in a mock trial all squared up as most will mount it, directly in the exhaust and several inches lower.

I did the same thing on a 05 dodge with a winter creek camper that weighted over 5000 lbs. this time when I bought the new camper the dealer said it would void my warranty, not sure how that would affect a refrigerator

The days of strong bumpers are over.
My father had 69 Buick Riviera, where emergency jack had low hook and could be used on factory bumper at ANY POINT.
It would lift whole front or whole rear by single point on the bumper.
Still if you have the hitch -there is not much into making your own rear tie-down for much less than $300.

Thanks everyone for your input. There doesn't seem to be a wrong answer to this which clears my thinking like mud. Ha. I looked at doing a bar out of the end of my hitch like suggested but it looks like it might hit my fender on 1 side and exhaust on the other. The torklift bracket sits forward just enough to clear. I'm leaning to front and back torklift because I am nervous about the rear bumper. I don't mind bending, and replacing, a bracket but not a bumper. My 96 F250's bumper doesn't seem any worse for the wear but who knows what the difference in materials are now. Thanks everyone for your input. I'll post back in a few days when I make my decision.

I have happijac front and torklift rear. The rears tie nicely into my torklift trailer hitch. I wanted the happijac front because it has some forward "pull" compared to the straight down front torklifts. I use the torklift fastguns at all 4 corners. No problems.

One camper ago and two trucks ago, I went the other way. When the Happijac button attachments bent the bumper, I installed Torklifts on the back. I think HJ has bumper reinforcement brackets now.

ajriding wrote:
..The Torklift attachment point for the chain seems to have a built-in break point. I have not heard an answer for this, but where the chain attaches has a slit instead of a closed continuos hole...

1 of the members reported "testing" the break point on speed bumps.
It is tie-down tubing that bends where it enters heavier extension.
My home made rear tie down bend somewhere on 7000 miles trip as well and I am happy the weak point is actually bending, not breaking point.
Obviously that all assuming you don't have dryrot on camper holds.