Front Frame Mount Tie Downs Not Working!

[HadEnough]

I have gone through so many sets of Torklift frame mounts I want to fix the problem permanently.

Why aren’t there bars run across the whole truck like for the rear tie downs? Those last.

My truck camper is sliding off to the passenger side now and both front frame mounts are broken. Again.

The camper is used on normal tarred roads only and never off road.

What’s are these things so defective/fragile?

Has anyone just run a piece of square tubing across the entire underside bolted to the frame with spacers and square u bolts to make a better frame mount?

[Eric_Lisa]

jimh425 wrote:
Probably because it’s a highly unusual setup.

I scanned this thread, but I admit I didn't read every post in detail...so it is possible this was already mentioned.

- I did not see details about the model of the truck & camper other than 'Artic Fox' and 'Ram 2500'. In the absence of that information it makes me wonder if this is a classic 'but the salesman said it would work' with a triple-slide monster on top of a 6-foot bed. And unfortunately the lack of additional pictures does not help eliminate that question.

- I did not see if anyone has questioned the Fastgun tie-downs. We all know they are spring loaded. And we all know not to use things like chains & turnbuckles to tie down campers as they do not have any 'give' which will tend to break other things. What if the Fastguns are shot and have lost their spring tension, functionally becoming no better than a turnbuckle? Without any spring to give way, such a setup could certainly start breaking things.

- Finally, I feel for the OP's conundrum. Posting to this forum has not produced any information about a systematic problem with the Torklift tie-downs. This community by-and-large believes they are a quality product. From a troubleshooting standpoint, that puts the issue back on the OP's truck/camper as the source of the problem.

Just my $.02

[jimh406]

BurbMan wrote:
The OP never did post a pic of the camper on the truck....

Probably because it’s a highly unusual setup.

[BurbMan]

The OP never did post a pic of the camper on the truck....

[Kayteg1]

Comparing the pictures from 4 years ago, the "professional" tie-downs installer attached them to non-existent bed towers. Truck had serious structural problems and seems they were not addressed at the time and 2nd set of tie-downs was again attached to bolts hanging in the air.
I see whole chain of .. let's say "bad decisions" who happen in this time frame before real issue got addressed (taking OP word for it as no pictures to follow).
I am technical guy. When I have technical problem, I address technical problem, not seek a lawyer to do it for me.

[BurbMan]

I know I am late to the party here but finally made the time to read this whole thread since I am currently shopping for tie-downs for my Lance 811. Good analysis of OP's pics by AnEv942.

Nobody has asked if the OP is using the right Torklift bracket for his truck. I see LOTS of permutations of tie downs based on truck configuration.

My bet is that the "professional" that installed these didn't have the right ones to fit the OP's truck, so he used what he had in stock and did some creative trimming to make them fit. IF OP was replacing them by model # it's possible that he kept installing the wrong one...

As the Brits say, "Glad you got all those bits sorted, then."

[HadEnough]

Kayteg1 wrote:

HadEnough wrote:

It’s definitely regrettable. How come you didn’t figure it out 4 years ago? Ha ha.

At the time I was doing finishing touches to the house I build in California, so sorry I wasn't here.
We do have more folks who know the stuff beside whining, but looks like they were busy at the time as well and if I read the 1st thread correctly- you were looking for a lawyer in it.
Sorry it went the way it did.

That thread about the speed bump?

If this was more expensive, I should have used a lawyer against the city.

The speed bump/table was freshly laid and completely invisible. Unmarked.

Ok for a car to hit, but very bad for a TC to hit. Just the wrong fundamental frequency the suspension and it sent everything airborne. That’s definitely something to get a lawyer involved in. However, not worth it because the damage wasn’t expensive enough to warrant it.

I was completely out of control from the residual bouncing after hitting it too. It could have easily killed people. It’s an extremely dense, urban area with kids running all around. You have to be on high alert there. You spend most of your time watching sidewalks for children and people darting out from behind the parked cars that line both sides of the narrow, one way streets. Much more difficult than driving in Manhattan in nyc. If anyone has ever driven to Liberty Harbor RV park, they know what I’m talking about.

You actually don’t have anything like it where you’re from. You may think downtown LA is like it, but no. It’s not at all. You have huge, wide open lanes everywhere out west. Either that, or little quaint places with much lower population and most everyone driving. . All easy driving. Nothing compares to this dense, urban compact with roads that grew up from unplanned dirt paths crisscrossing each other every 100 or 200 feet . Where that speed bump is, it’s just as many pedestrians as cars and many of them are children running around the ghetto. Most roads are one way lanes you can barely squeeze a TC down without swiping the parked cars lining both sides. The people are going 30 mph or so down these roads and you are in a large line of vehicles doing 30 trying to watch the sidewalks for people potentially darting out from between the parked cars. You do NOT have right of way over the pedestrians.

So I can understand if people out west simply dint get it. You’ve never been in it if you haven’t driven there.

[Kayteg1]

HadEnough wrote:

It’s definitely regrettable. How come you didn’t figure it out 4 years ago? Ha ha.

At the time I was doing finishing touches to the house I build in California, so sorry I wasn't here.
We do have more folks who know the stuff beside whining, but looks like they were busy at the time as well and if I read the 1st thread correctly- you were looking for a lawyer in it.
Sorry it went the way it did.

[jimh406]

HadEnough wrote:
How come you didn’t figure it out 4 years ago?

I don’t think you posted 4 years ago about it, but the real clue was the picture. And ... of course, the fact that nobody here had ever heard of a TL mount breaking that way.

Fwiw, I don’t think the replies were that bad considering the description implied something that shouldn’t ever happen. At least you got it fixed which is the most important thing.

[HadEnough]

Kayteg1 wrote:
Good call.
Too bad it took you 4 years, several threads with hundreds of mislead replies to get there.

It’s definitely regrettable. How come you didn’t figure it out 4 years ago? Ha ha.

I’m a boat guy. Never even knew how a truck bed was supposed to be attached until this thread. And some later googling

[Kayteg1]

Good call.
Too bad it took you 4 years, several threads with hundreds of mislead replies to get there.

[HadEnough]

Built in some new towers, bolted to the frame and bed. Put the bed floating on rubber spacers at the top of the towers.

It’s been a lot of work but the bed is now level, which should stop the TC from sliding to the passenger side and leaning that way also. It was tilting to the passenger side because that tower was crushed.

Driver’s side tower is in ok shape, but I’m removing some of it and putting in my custom heavy duty tower and rubber bumpers there too.

After that, I’ll fix the geometry of the TL mounts so they can’t break anymore. No more sheer forces on the tower/bed interface bolts from the diagonal support. I’m going to make it so the TL support is vertical. That will remove sheer stresses and change them to compression forces.

[TxGearhead]

Since we're talking about TL and their geometry, I was on here a couple years ago trying to solve RAM dually fender clearance and my Bigfoot. I got a message from TL to talk to them. They told me to drill a hole in the extensions 1" farther inboard to gain some clearance. I questioned that affecting strength. TL said the strength comes from the corners of the square extensions being twisted within the TL frame mounts. That is assuming the Fastguns have some fore and aft angle on them. I also talked to Bigfoot about using shouldered machinery eyebolt to move their hold down points farther out. Then TL asked me if I wanted a free TL hold down relocation bar. Heck yeah I'll take that.
All this to say that TL will work with you to get safe and happy. Good people.

[Kayteg1]

OP is using tie downs to hold his bed as original truck towers are gone.
I did hit bumps with my 6000 lb camper couple of times.
Once to the degree that I had impression I could see nose in drivers line of sight.
Front mounts hold just fine, but since rear bounced up - the rear the-downs bend.

[Geewizard]

I struggle with the idea that the OP's TL product is to blame as well.

Why? Because I hit a HUGE pothole while going about 70mph on the Alaska Highway near Destruction Bay in the Yukon. I was heavily loaded in the camper and the truck. A rear wheel bearing was cracked from that hit.

One thing that was NOT damaged by that HUGE pothole (when my truck and camper went up in the air a bit and came down hard) was my TL tiedowns. I don't have Fastguns just standard turnbuckles, chains, and the spring-loaded eyelets on the tiedowns.

My 2 cents.