Custom/DIY Truck Camper Tie Downs

jimh425 wrote:

Bert the Welder wrote:
"Very mild steel" That's a type of steel I'm not familiar with. Must be special to American't Home Depot's?
As it happens, I've hand bent steel flat bar from HD, side by side with "regular" mild steel and there was no difference.

And if you want to call something structural and of safety relevance to other travelers "a typical DIY project" then that says everything one needs to know about your thinking right there.

It’s unclear why you think the steel at HD is just the same as everywhere else. I’m sure you know that the amount of carbon in steel makes it much harder. You should also know that not all steel is from the same place and formed with the same methods.

I and friends have been very unimpressed by steel and aluminum we’ve bought at HD. On the other hand, the steel at typical steel supplies and aluminum seems to be much stronger. No, I didn’t put it on a machine to test the hardness. It was good enough for us to avoid it after unexplained failures.

I said “not” a typical DIY project.

Everywhere else?

As I said, The HD steel I got matched up to the supplier steel. So then it be down to HD's supplier. American HD= American steel. Canadian HD= Canadian steel. Perhaps.

You may have "felt" the steel to be inferior. I don't know what your steel handling and forming experience is. I can only base what I found on 20,000 plus hour of hand bending steel alone, and that's cold hand bent, not with machines or torches or forges. All manner of shape and thickness of bar and rod stock, both hot and cold rolled and various dimensions and profiles of tubing and pipe. I consider my hands pretty sensitive to variations in the recipe and therefore properties of mild steel. So yes, I'm quite familiar with how "mild steel" behaves.

It's quite possible that your supplier is giving you a steel that is indeed higher carbon and they just refer to it as "Mild steel" for the punters.
I've had suppliers try this. As soon as I hoist a hand full of 20 foot lengths on my shoulder, the waggle ain't right. Back it goes with a polite note.

Bert the Welder wrote:
"Very mild steel" That's a type of steel I'm not familiar with. Must be special to American't Home Depot's?
As it happens, I've hand bent steel flat bar from HD, side by side with "regular" mild steel and there was no difference.

And if you want to call something structural and of safety relevance to other travelers "a typical DIY project" then that says everything one needs to know about your thinking right there.

It’s unclear why you think the steel at HD is just the same as everywhere else. I’m sure you know that the amount of carbon in steel makes it much harder. You should also know that not all steel is from the same place and formed with the same methods.

I and friends have been very unimpressed by steel and aluminum we’ve bought at HD. On the other hand, the steel at typical steel supplies and aluminum seems to be much stronger. No, I didn’t put it on a machine to test the hardness. It was good enough for us to avoid it after unexplained failures.

I said “not” a typical DIY project.

"Very mild steel" That's a type of steel I'm not familiar with. Must be special to American't Home Depot's?
As it happens, I've hand bent steel flat bar from HD, side by side with "regular" mild steel and there was no difference.

And if you want to call something structural and of safety relevance to other travelers "a typical DIY project" then that says everything one needs to know about your thinking right there.

Ha, I’ve only had Torklift tie down mounts, I’ve seen their approaches for many decades and brands. Since you know everything, I’ll just agree you are right and have fantastic engineering skills.

Will that work for you?

It seems like making rears isn’t as easy as implied, and of course, that implementation doesn’t seem to be removable to paint etc.. But, if you like it, I guess that’s perfectly fine with me.

I painted my ties with 99 cents rattle can from Home Depot.
Alaska highways sandblasted them to bare metal anyway.

JimK-NY wrote:
I wondered about painting. Seems like the usual Krylon or Rustoleum paint would not last very long. I am not sure what Torqlift and others use but I would guess a powder coat or baked on enamel not some home spray/paint application. Or just let is rust.

Most commercial product like that are Powder Coated. It's durable and efficient, if done right. My old mounts are cheap and poorly PC'd. Good manufacturers with degrease, sand blast, clean again, dry, and apply the PC.

Spray paint like you mentioned is kinda the same. Better prep, better durability. Another step I've done on pieces if warranted and the customer wants to pay for it, is clear over top of the color. Prime, 2-3 coats color, 2-3 coats clear. Clear helps protect the color from fading longer, IMO, and if it gets scratched, it's less visible then the color getting scratched. Few squirts of clear over top and your good.

Down side of PC is you can't touch it up like paint. You gotta sand out the rust/flakey bits and re PC. Though you can touch up PC with paint. We had the local auto paint shop color match some little touch up bottles for us to match our 'Gunmetal Grey" PC we use to use on just about every product. Couple hundred CD rack's getting shipped our getting the ol' in-and-out from trade show to trade show, you get dings. And if UPS's gorilla's smash a pallet of product YET AGAIN, it's easy to just mail a little bottle to them.

If I was building my own, I'd go belt and braces. Color PC then a clear PC over that. But I'd also like something low friction to line the inside of the receiver tube. The in and out really gouges up the paint/PC.

Then again, I'm the guy that walked into my PC'er handed him something I'd rusted the **** out of and said "Here, clear coat it!" That lead to visits by rep's of three powder manufactures that found we were pulling it off. The fun is in them not being able to replicate it b/c they weren't using the same rusting method I was, and I surely wasn't revealing that secret. LOL!

Kayteg1 wrote:

Bert the Welder wrote:


Did you up-size the tube with a couple sections/sleeves of larger dia. tube or ?

And any reason for not going w/ the larger tube that fit the receiver tubes for the whole thing? Did you have the off cuts laying around or was the larger tube 10x the price?

I used the junk I had in my garage.
My hitch tube was 3" from what I recall, so old 2" receiver tube and then old ball holder from what I remember brought me 1.5" hole for long tubing.
The tube adapter doesn't have to be build from tubing. You can cut flat plate to size and weld the shims around.
As for making whole tie-down from 2 or 3" tubing, the tie-downs as experienced by several members act as weak point.
When you hit a bump at high speed, I rather will have to deal with straightening the tie, than with repairing camper anchoring point.

Yep. I do the flat bar shims on jig mounting stems. I have square receiver tubes in a few places on my welding table. Certain vertically oriented jigs have smaller tubes that needed upsizing to fit the new receiver tubes on the new table. (Like you, working with my off-cut bin I work with what I have on hand) Set screw lock them in place. Various bench grinders get a base with a tube so they can be mounted in the table receivers. Just bring out the one you need rather then all of them being out and in the way.

Thanks for pointing that out. Hadn't thought of the smaller dia. tube as a crumple zone, but that makes very good sense. And the springs in the tie downs are only gonna forgive so much.

Bert the Welder wrote:


Did you up-size the tube with a couple sections/sleeves of larger dia. tube or ?

And any reason for not going w/ the larger tube that fit the receiver tubes for the whole thing? Did you have the off cuts laying around or was the larger tube 10x the price?

I used the junk I had in my garage.
My hitch tube was 3" from what I recall, so old 2" receiver tube and then old ball holder from what I remember brought me 1.5" hole for long tubing.
The tube adapter doesn't have to be build from tubing. You can cut flat plate to size and weld the shims around.
As for making whole tie-down from 2 or 3" tubing, the tie-downs as experienced by several members act as weak point.
When you hit a bump at high speed, I rather will have to deal with straightening the tie, than with repairing camper anchoring point.

I wondered about painting. Seems like the usual Krylon or Rustoleum paint would not last very long. I am not sure what Torqlift and others use but I would guess a powder coat or baked on enamel not some home spray/paint application. Or just let is rust.