ALL truck campers ,Basic construction,truck tie downs info.

[todsme]

My qualifications for this post is that I have been refurbishing truck campers for 16 years,as extra income. 60 plus campers ,an estimate. These are some observations, given in modesty. Camper Construction: Front wall under sleeper is the most important part of a campers design . Carrying a large part of the cantilver weight of sleeper,a cross member for camper wings,load bearing corners of front Jacks.Rear of campers,in most cases lose integrity the the longer the camper (8.5-11.5), magnified with a side door camper. I will not go into details.Measure camper wings to top of truck bed. SLides and generators tax the rear part of campers.Good habits-Lightly apply rear turn buckles,Rear holding waste holding tanks; don't travel when full.Always lock back door, especially on older or wood framed campers when traveling.Don't use stinger,towing extensions that attach to camper.And so on.Camper mounting- Use a rubber mat , especially with plastic bed liners. A bed lift with Ford trucks, loading older campers.wedges of any design that align camper in bed when loading, preferably with Teflon skids.Raise front of camper first when unloading.3to4 inches,keep this way until setting camper on saw horses ,or? , Settling close to ground.this will greatly reduce front Jack's from binding and front swing-out brackets for dually trucks from twisting.Best to have fresh water tank with low fill.Happi-jac campers anchors work great on most trucks( pull to front , and at an arc ) ,tork lift do the job.Over tightening of turn buckles,or non spring loaded, sloppy truck suspension,lifted truck, driving out of places (gas station)at an angle fast, speed bumps;you will thrash something, Usually one of your camper anchor points. Bigfoot, Eagle Cap,Arctic Fox,Lance,Alpenlite,They all are susestipal to ripped out tie downs; magnified with slide outs.I started; I'm sure that there are many things for you all to ad,or rectify. Happy camping to all that are fortunate.

[Wikel]

jimh425 wrote:

Wikel wrote:
Checkout hostcamperssuck.com

They'll all had their problems, be it improper setup, abuse or bad design/manufacturing.

That might be true that all have had issues, but that website isn't an example. A quote from it.

"We had fast gun tie downs put on from the beginning which I don't believe CAN be tied down too tight."

It doesn't take a brilliant person to know that's not true. That site is one person's attempt to extort from Host due to damage from his lack of knowledge.

I think a better source would be searches here in the archive. Keep in mind that all didn't turn out to be "exactly" true and that goes for all manufacturers.

Hence my comment about "improper setup, abuse or bad design/manufacturing". As Jim mentions this site is a great resource for research around your question and an informed consumer is an empowered consumer. Good luck on your selection and enjoy!

[jimh406]

Wikel wrote:
Checkout hostcamperssuck.com

They'll all had their problems, be it improper setup, abuse or bad design/manufacturing.

That might be true that all have had issues, but that website isn't an example. A quote from it.

"We had fast gun tie downs put on from the beginning which I don't believe CAN be tied down too tight."

It doesn't take a brilliant person to know that's not true. That site is one person's attempt to extort from Host due to damage from his lack of knowledge.

I think a better source would be searches here in the archive. Keep in mind that all didn't turn out to be "exactly" true and that goes for all manufacturers.

[RedRocket204]

Wikel wrote:
Checkout hostcamperssuck.com

They'll all had their problems, be it improper setup, abuse or bad design/manufacturing.

Thanks for the link. I went ahead and read through that. All info, including the RV.net link is all dating back to 2007 timeframe. While I do appreciate knowing about this and I would avoid buying a Host camper at least pre-2010, there are still unknowns on my part for current Host reliability. I was of the assumption Host was quality built and I don't recall reading much about failures with current product. However, it is good to know Host has been subject to problems so I will keep doing my research.

Thanks again!

[Wikel]

RedRocket204 wrote:

todsme wrote:
Bigfoot, Eagle Cap, Arctic Fox, Lance, Alpenlite, They all are suspicious to ripped out tie downs; magnified with slide outs.

Any experience with this occurring on Host?

Thanks for your insight.

Checkout hostcamperssuck.com

They'll all had their problems, be it improper setup, abuse or bad design/manufacturing.

[notsobigjoe]

Thanks for this great info.

[Kayteg1]

I am visual guy and I can understand everything much faster when seeing pictures.
I just did repairs on 2 campers and when I agree that front wall is very important, can't see how rear door affects it?
Than my 2 campers do have different frames.
On Fleetwood, doing rookie mistake in 1st season- I "tried to lift truck" with camper jacks.
The frame holding the tie under slide bent pretty bad.
But being it aluminium, back home I was able to jack it up to make it straight again.
Wood would simply broke.

[Farmerjon]

Thanks guys for putting out the time and effort to share your knowledge about TCs with us!

[SidecarFlip]

One thing I've noticed on newer trucks with shorter beds (in particular Ford's with a 6.5 foot bed, is that the TorkLift frame mount (front) tie down's don't provide enough mounting angle for the Fast Guns, or Quik Loads or whatever securement device you use... The attachment angle is no where steep enough to keep the camper from sliding backwards. I've seen that a couple times now and I've talked to TorkLift about the issue. The Talons, especially the ones for short beds, need to have an extended mount. The other issue I have noticed is that the tie down crosses right in front of the fuel filler door, making fueling difficult without releasing the tie down and removing it, all cured with extending the mount.

Guess thats why I like my HappyJac mounts. The angle of attachment in the front is much more conducive to keeping the camper from moving. Better to have an inverted 'V' setup than a 'I' setup.

Just installed a set on a 2016 F250 and I've extended the both Front Talon's to place the Fast Guns at more of an angle and get them from in front of the fuel filler door. TL is aware of the issue (I sent them a message), How they address it, remains to be seen.

[d3500ram]

...with lack of punctuation. 🙂

Agree!!

If I can be presumptuous and "paragraph-ize" the OP's good information (OP.. hope you are OK with it because it is very informative!)


My qualifications for this post is that I have been refurbishing truck campers for 16 years,as extra income. 60 plus campers ,an estimate. These are some observations, given in modesty.

Camper Construction:

Front wall under sleeper is the most important part of a campers design . Carrying a large part of the cantilver weight of sleeper,a cross member for camper wings,load bearing corners of front Jacks.

Rear of campers,in most cases lose integrity the the longer the camper (8.5-11.5), magnified with a side door camper. I will not go into details.Measure camper wings to top of truck bed.

SLides and generators tax the rear part of campers.Good habits-Lightly apply rear turn buckles,Rear holding waste holding tanks; don't travel when full.Always lock back door, especially on older or wood framed campers when traveling.Don't use stinger,towing extensions that attach to camper.And so on.

Camper mounting- Use a rubber mat , especially with plastic bed liners. A bed lift with Ford trucks, loading older campers.wedges of any design that align camper in bed when loading, preferably with Teflon skids.Raise front of camper first when unloading.3to4 inches,keep this way until setting camper on saw horses ,or? ,
Settling close to ground.this will greatly reduce front Jack's from binding and front swing-out brackets for dually trucks from twisting.Best to have fresh water tank with low fill.
Happi-jac campers anchors work great on most trucks( pull to front , and at an arc ) ,tork lift do the job.Over tightening of turn buckles,or non spring loaded, sloppy truck suspension,lifted truck, driving out of places (gas station)at an angle fast, speed bumps;you will thrash something, Usually one of your camper anchor points.
Bigfoot, Eagle Cap,Arctic Fox,Lance,Alpenlite,They all are susestipal to ripped out tie downs; magnified with slide outs.I started;

I'm sure that there are many things for you all to ad,or rectify.

Happy camping to all that are fortunate.

[RedRocket204]

todsme wrote:
Bigfoot, Eagle Cap, Arctic Fox, Lance, Alpenlite, They all are suspicious to ripped out tie downs; magnified with slide outs.

Any experience with this occurring on Host?

Thanks for your insight.

[jimh406]

Seems like a lot of generalities with lack of punctuation. 🙂 But, also implies that much of the damage can be avoided which I would agree with. Unfortunately, I don't have time to type out detailed specifics either!

Observations from paying attention to this forum since 2006 and also paying attention to what I've seen in person follow.

I do know many manufacturers have had a few versions of the construction techniques and slide designs. I have to think you are better off if you didn't get V1 or V2. Unfortunately, many people here have exposure to V1 and apply those same rules to V6 or even later!

I feel like RVs are getting better. Maybe not as fast as we want, but still getting better.

Fwiw, I personally wouldn't buy an older slide camper from most people because it seems like 10% of the people have 95% of the issues like most other products. Their RVs and vehicles are torn apart from abuse not use.

I think you increase your chances of getting a good one if you buy a newer model with the exception of Bigfoot and Northern-Lite that seem to be having more issues as of late or at least not as proven as their older designs.