F350 bed supports
Hi all, I have a 2005 F350, long bed crew cab. We live in Canada. My question is about bed supports and at what point does the rust become too bad so that the bed cannot safely support my truck camper? I know the first support (closest to the cab) fell off a couple of years ago, the second one is partially gone. I don't know how many more supports there are, although I do know that the base of the hitch is partially rusted and my husband said not to tow anything until he can repair it. The truck developed "wings" a couple of years ago, pieces of the side body of the bed that had rusted through and stuck out on each side of the bed above the rear wheel wells. My husband has done the bodywork to cosmetically repair those.
We have a Sunlite truck camper, the last time that was on the truck was 2 years ago, the first bed support was gone at that time so he used 2 ratchet straps, about 2" wide each from the mounting brackets of the front truck camper legs, those straps come together and attach to a central point under the truck, that central point is solid. The rear of the camper is attached via the normal chains. The strap supports seemed to work well 2 years ago, although the other rust issues were not apparent at that time. The camper has not been on the truck since. My question is - what holds the bed on the truck other than those bed supports? If the supports are rusted and are weak and/or missing, are the front straps and the rear chains the only things that would hold the camper on the truck? How many supports should there be? Yes my husband is a DIY guy, and he's very good at it, although he sees no need to address any of the rusted bed supports at this time. For this issue I just need to know that the camper really is safe w/this arrangement as I will be taking trips w/this rig by myself.
We have a Sunlite truck camper, the last time that was on the truck was 2 years ago, the first bed support was gone at that time so he used 2 ratchet straps, about 2" wide each from the mounting brackets of the front truck camper legs, those straps come together and attach to a central point under the truck, that central point is solid. The rear of the camper is attached via the normal chains. The strap supports seemed to work well 2 years ago, although the other rust issues were not apparent at that time. The camper has not been on the truck since. My question is - what holds the bed on the truck other than those bed supports? If the supports are rusted and are weak and/or missing, are the front straps and the rear chains the only things that would hold the camper on the truck? How many supports should there be? Yes my husband is a DIY guy, and he's very good at it, although he sees no need to address any of the rusted bed supports at this time. For this issue I just need to know that the camper really is safe w/this arrangement as I will be taking trips w/this rig by myself.
