Custom/DIY Truck Camper Tie Downs

[fishingcamper]

Looking to avoid the $600 price tag on the torklift frame mounting system. Anyone have a good solution?

TC Lance 845 2800# Dry No Slide Out
GMC 2500HD SRW

[jimh406]

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.

[Kayteg1]

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

[Bert_the_Welder]

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!

[Bert_the_Welder]

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.

[Kayteg1]

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.

[JimK-NY]

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.

[Bert_the_Welder]

Kayteg1 wrote:
Home Depot carries square tubings.
Sound like you are talking about front tie-downs, when as I mention, rears are 1-2 hr job.
Here is picture what I did. 3" sill washer from HD on the end.


Click For Full-Size Image.

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?

[Bert_the_Welder]

OH! If you want to save a few bucks, you could paint them yourself.
Paint isn't structural.....unless it's my neighbours fence...... LOL!

[Bert_the_Welder]

"Since it appears that this is a simple project, I am considering this for next time. I am fairly handy but not a trained welder so I have a few questions."


-"Appears" being the key word. 🙂


"Where do I get the 3/8" stock? What specs do I need for the steel and how much will it cost?"

- Much to hard to say as it depends on your local suppliers. 3/8" plate is the thickness. You'll need an appropriate length and width too

"It looks like there is a lot of bending involved. What do I need for that? Heat sources? Vise? HD pliers? Hammers?"

-Again, without knowing what you are doing or where/what it's going, one can't say. You can get from 'A to B' via bends, welded joints or straight lines. You can bend hot or cold. Under a truck tire, in a vise, hydraulic bender, kerf cuts. You could cut out the 4 parts from flat plate and build the section.
Torch, pliers, hammer, clamps, vice, angle grinder, chopsaw, vicegrips, rules, angle gauge, Plasma cutter, TIG or MIG or Flux core, or Brazing, welding table to clamp fixtures to, etc,etc,etc,etc......

"I have no idea about welding but I guess I can find a friend with the gear."

-Or better yet, talk to a local fabricator/weldor.

"Design and fitting in very tight spaces seems to be a big issue. I guess the solution would be to make a prototype from 3/8 plywood?"

-Prototypes are always handy for getting things figured out without wasting the expensive stuff. (though with the $$$ of wood these days.... LOL)

"With all that is involved, it would seem that this would be about a 40 hour project. Does that sound about right?"

-No way of knowing. Depends on who's building it. How it's being fabricated. Quality of the design and build.

I'd highly suggest figuring out what you need. Either take your rig down to the local fabber or at least bring pic's. Explain what the pieces do and where they mount. Bring some pic's to show them examples. They'll give you a ball park $ and will need the rig for a few to do proper measurements and come up with a quote. They may have the materials in their off-cut pile and have done these before so it $ could be quite reasonable. Or, it's way out of their wheel house, they might have to get the material in special and it's gonna take them extra time to really figure out whats appropriate.
They may tell you it's going to be $1000. That'll be the 'we don't have time and/or the inclination to do this' But if you're willing to toss a grand at me, I'll come in on the weekend' price.
And when a client ask for a price, then asks how much if I help? I tell them "That'll be $400. If you help, it'll be $800...." If they want to tell me how to do it, it'll be $1600 and I'll have a bunch of paper work for them to sign and full, non-refundable payment up front. 🙂

[Kayteg1]

Home Depot carries square tubings.
Sound like you are talking about front tie-downs, when as I mention, rears are 1-2 hr job.
Here is picture what I did. 3" sill washer from HD on the end.


Click For Full-Size Image.

[JimK-NY]

Since it appears that this is a simple project, I am considering this for next time. I am fairly handy but not a trained welder so I have a few questions.

Where do I get the 3/8" stock? What specs do I need for the steel and how much will it cost?

It looks like there is a lot of bending involved. What do I need for that? Heat sources? Vise? HD pliers? Hammers?

I have no idea about welding but I guess I can find a friend with the gear.

Design and fitting in very tight spaces seems to be a big issue. I guess the solution would be to make a prototype from 3/8 plywood?

With all that is involved, it would seem that this would be about a 40 hour project. Does that sound about right?

[Bert_the_Welder]

burningman wrote:

Bert the Welder wrote:

burningman wrote:
Are you guys for real?
These are extremely simple metal fab, not rocket science.
I made my own and they’re a better fit for what I needed than anything Torklift makes, and easily as strong.
I’m not knocking Torklift, they make great stuff.
I’m knocking the people who think no one can or should do anything themself.

Sure. If someone can build a dog house, then they must be able to build a full size house. Makes sense.
So yeah, just go grab any old Harbor Fright welder and start blazing away. Beside, there's always a grinder and paint to make it 'look' good. :S

That’s not the comment I’d expect from a guy who calls himself Bert the Welder!
I didn’t say “if someone can build a dog house they can build a house”, it’s easy to try to make someone sound crazy by quoting things they never said.
Camper brackets - as you should know judging by your user name - are extremely simple. Seriously anyone with a Harbor Freight welder and a chopsaw could build them.
And sure, you could do a horrible job and scree them up.
You can also be a horrible driver and wreck the truck.

OK. You obviously are one of those guys.

First, where did I indicate I was quoting you?

Second, you 'wouldn't' expect a comment from a weldor on someone suggesting with no welding experience or training being told to weld up a critical component? Really? Who would you expect a comment on welding from? The lady at the coffee shop? Santa Claus?

Third. By calling something that hold thousands of pounds for the purpose of safety to all directly and indirectly involved "extremely simple"(now I am, indeed, quoting what you said...) has proven their own ignorance.

And again, to quote what you said, "And sure, you could do a horrible job and scree them up" Yeah, no big deal. Failure could only result in killing someone. Hopefully only the builder. But as these things go, good chance it'll be someone else that had no say in the matter. Maybe a whole family. But why should you care, right?

[mi_drew]

Many seem to be very concerned with the strength of the tiedowns at the truck. Take a good look at how lightweight the connection is at the camper. Tiedowns are only as strong as the weakest points.

[jaycocreek]

Good ratchet straps solves everything and are inexpensive..




Lol

[jaycocreek]

Bert the Welder wrote:

mi.drew wrote:
Belly bar clamped to the frame for the front. Tubing run through the frame cross member at the wheel well for rear.

"C" clamps or "F" clamps?

Umm how about "U" like those that holds your springs on but square..lol..Frame clamps...