A car backed into one of my front camper jacks and consequently the mounting plate was pulled away from the camper. Fortunately, no serious damage was done to the camper itself but the mounting plate was bent and needs to be straitened at a machine shop.So, my question is what is the best way to re-mount the plate such that the attachment to the camper will be at least as strong as the original install? The TC is a Bigfoot with fiberglass exterior.My plan is to drill out all the screw holes, fill with Gorilla glue and insert appropriately sized wooden dowels. Let dry for several days and then re-drill all holes for the correct screw size and install plate using original screws.Does anyone see a problem with my plan? Is there a better way?I have in fact done this same thing several years ago with a rear jack mount plate. It was successful and I've never had a problem. But of course the front jack bears substantially more weight when removing the camper from the truck so the repair had better be rock-solid!All comments/feedback welcome!

unbob wrote:A car backed into one of my front camper jacks and consequently the mounting plate was pulled away from the camper. Fortunately, no serious damage was done to the camper itself but the mounting plate was bent and needs to be straitened at a machine shop.So, my question is what is the best way to re-mount the plate such that the attachment to the camper will be at least as strong as the original install? The TC is a Bigfoot with fiberglass exterior.My plan is to drill out all the screw holes, fill with Gorilla glue and insert appropriately sized wooden dowels. Let dry for several days and then re-drill all holes for the correct screw size and install plate using original screws.Does anyone see a problem with my plan? Is there a better way?I have in fact done this same thing several years ago with a rear jack mount plate. It was successful and I've never had a problem. But of course the front jack bears substantially more weight when removing the camper from the truck so the repair had better be rock-solid!All comments/feedback welcome!Placing a call to Bigfoot and asking them what they would do in this case would be one of my first plans of action.

Buzzcut1 wrote:Placing a call to Bigfoot and asking them what they would do in this case would be one of my first plans of action.Yup, very good advice!

I had the same problem on a palomino bronco. the bracket was just lag screwed into the frame from both directions, but the lag screws were coming loose.I took a 4" wide piece of flat steel and a 2" piece of angle iron, drilled holes and weld them together in the same configuration as what was on the camper, but 6" long instead of 4". then I put a piece of 1 1/2" alum angle on the inside and not only lag screwed it to the camper wall frame, but bolted through into creating a clamp between the inside and outside. all of this was able to do since it was on the lower rear brackets which were inside the storage boxes and both inside and outside were easily accessible.

I would not use gorilla glue myself. use epoxy or something that works other than by air bubble expansion. gorilla glue gave up on holding my cane hand grip to the shaft, hate to think of the sideways stress on a jack.bumpy

you could try west system epoxy it is some strong stuff...looked into it when i was designing a catamaran..

Jack mounting plate pulled away from camper - repair?

31 Replies

bighatnohorse
Explorer II
Jun 21, 2013
Ditto to the West System epoxy.
There are at least two varieties of Gorilla Glue. One type is polyurethane the other type is like white glue.
The polyurethane fails when delivered a "shock" type impact - the glue itself will split.

A high quality epoxy such as West System would be my first choice.
unbob
Explorer
Jun 21, 2013
recycler wrote:
you could try west system epoxy it is some strong stuff...looked into it when i was designing a catamaran..
Should I use epoxy and wooden dowels - or forget the dowels and just fill the new drilled-out hole with epoxy and then re-drill for screws?
unbob
Explorer
Jun 21, 2013
tooldad1041 wrote:
I had the same problem on a palomino bronco. the bracket was just lag screwed into the frame from both directions, but the lag screws were coming loose.

I took a 4" wide piece of flat steel and a 2" piece of angle iron, drilled holes and weld them together in the same configuration as what was on the camper, but 6" long instead of 4". then I put a piece of 1 1/2" alum angle on the inside and not only lag screwed it to the camper wall frame, but bolted through into creating a clamp between the inside and outside.

all of this was able to do since it was on the lower rear brackets which were inside the storage boxes and both inside and outside were easily accessible.
Thanks for the feedback. That won't work for me - no access to inside wall of camper where plate mounts. Sounds rock-solid though.
recycler
Explorer
Jun 21, 2013
you could try west system epoxy it is some strong stuff...looked into it when i was designing a catamaran..
Bumpyroad
Explorer
Jun 21, 2013
I would not use gorilla glue myself. use epoxy or something that works other than by air bubble expansion. gorilla glue gave up on holding my cane hand grip to the shaft, hate to think of the sideways stress on a jack.
bumpy
tooldad1041
Explorer
Jun 21, 2013
I had the same problem on a palomino bronco. the bracket was just lag screwed into the frame from both directions, but the lag screws were coming loose.

I took a 4" wide piece of flat steel and a 2" piece of angle iron, drilled holes and weld them together in the same configuration as what was on the camper, but 6" long instead of 4". then I put a piece of 1 1/2" alum angle on the inside and not only lag screwed it to the camper wall frame, but bolted through into creating a clamp between the inside and outside.

all of this was able to do since it was on the lower rear brackets which were inside the storage boxes and both inside and outside were easily accessible.
unbob
Explorer
Jun 21, 2013
Buzzcut1 wrote:
Placing a call to Bigfoot and asking them what they would do in this case would be one of my first plans of action.
Yup, very good advice!
Buzzcut1
Nomad II
Jun 21, 2013
unbob wrote:
A car backed into one of my front camper jacks and consequently the mounting plate was pulled away from the camper. Fortunately, no serious damage was done to the camper itself but the mounting plate was bent and needs to be straitened at a machine shop.

So, my question is what is the best way to re-mount the plate such that the attachment to the camper will be at least as strong as the original install? The TC is a Bigfoot with fiberglass exterior.

My plan is to drill out all the screw holes, fill with Gorilla glue and insert appropriately sized wooden dowels. Let dry for several days and then re-drill all holes for the correct screw size and install plate using original screws.

Does anyone see a problem with my plan? Is there a better way?

I have in fact done this same thing several years ago with a rear jack mount plate. It was successful and I've never had a problem. But of course the front jack bears substantially more weight when removing the camper from the truck so the repair had better be rock-solid!

All comments/feedback welcome!

Placing a call to Bigfoot and asking them what they would do in this case would be one of my first plans of action.

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Jack mounting plate pulled away from camper - repair?

31 Replies

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