Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos
Without going into too much painful detail, we had a mishap several week-ends ago. While working with sand bag crews on the Mississippi River, the truck and camper fell into the flood waters as a road...
Forum Discussion
C11motorhome, I have been following your progress with interest and, frankly, some trepidation, but we Avionistas are nothing if not persistent, so let me tell you how Argo, the all-aluminum camper mounts on the Big Bad Truck.
You may recall that I eliminated all wood and made a frame of aluminum tube 1 1/2" square. Then I made a mounting frame for the camper that is bolted to the truck frame, the bed having been removed. This fore and aft frame, which is 3"x2" aluminum channel incorporates polyurethane body bushings. The camper will be bolted to the the fore and aft channel along the edges of the floor frame. It will also be bolted to the back of the cab as well as through the roof of the cab. The theory is that this will make the camper and cab one single unit that will flex on the truck frame as a unit.
My side storage units are bolted to the camper frame but not to the truck frame. They are attached under the wings and to the sides of the camper. Since your side storage is so light, I would think you'd only need to have a secure attachment through the floor of the camper into the van floor to keep everything together.
As for how my attachment has held up, I have had the camper on the truck and held in place with C clamps only and driven around the very bumpy, steep and winding roads here in the Santa Cruz mountains with complete security. It will only improve when everything gets bolted together.
I hope this helps. I'll have some pics up soon. Argo and the BB Truck are about to be permanently joined!
Onward!
Dick
You may recall that I eliminated all wood and made a frame of aluminum tube 1 1/2" square. Then I made a mounting frame for the camper that is bolted to the truck frame, the bed having been removed. This fore and aft frame, which is 3"x2" aluminum channel incorporates polyurethane body bushings. The camper will be bolted to the the fore and aft channel along the edges of the floor frame. It will also be bolted to the back of the cab as well as through the roof of the cab. The theory is that this will make the camper and cab one single unit that will flex on the truck frame as a unit.
My side storage units are bolted to the camper frame but not to the truck frame. They are attached under the wings and to the sides of the camper. Since your side storage is so light, I would think you'd only need to have a secure attachment through the floor of the camper into the van floor to keep everything together.
As for how my attachment has held up, I have had the camper on the truck and held in place with C clamps only and driven around the very bumpy, steep and winding roads here in the Santa Cruz mountains with complete security. It will only improve when everything gets bolted together.
I hope this helps. I'll have some pics up soon. Argo and the BB Truck are about to be permanently joined!
Onward!
Dick
