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?

[wnjj]

AnEv942, I think we totally agree here. Major installation failure, not product failure.

The ones on my '05 Chevy don't have the bent top either but a top plate welded on. Furthermore, the top plate extends back in the opposite direction (toward the outside of the truck) where the hole is drilled, so it easily clears the stock towers and bolts to the crossmember away from the stock mounting.

The OP's don't even look like the right product for that truck. At a minimum, I'd modify any replacements to work like mine do or at least see what TL has to say about it.

[AnEv942]

The style of TL mount is different than shown earlier, and a lot different than mine.

OPs are not welded at top to a piece of angle but end is bent and bolts to bed cross member. Shown in previous thread.
IF the bolt drops, upward force from camper the flat bar brace can 'slide' inboard, that in turn breaks lower weld.
2 issues-1st This style works in conjunction with frame tower and existing bolt plate, Ops towers are shredded.
Second and primary is instead of a 1/2" bolt going thru mount into bed someone dropped a smaller bolt thru.






While there is a lot of torn metal it sure looks like someone cut out the top of towers?
Mount brace is supposed to mount to it. Issue here is from what I gather, the bolt that's supposed to go up thru is also the bed mount...
If OP can fab a belly bar should hold camper, really doesn't take that much.
The existing situation/condition & way it was bolted, only option was to fail. Still need to address bed mount towers, if that is what it also does.

[HadEnough]

Geo*Boy wrote:

HadEnough wrote:

Geo*Boy wrote:
Very strange, my AF 990 doesn’t move period. I tension my Fastguns per Torklift spec’s.

It would probably move if your frame mounts looked like mine. Ha ha.

I have had Torklift frame mounts and Fastguns on two GM trucks and two different campers and never a bend or a broken weld on either of them.
I don’t like saying this but YOU are definitely doing something seriously wrong.

Like what??

What can you even do wrong? It’s a piece of metal formed by Torklift into a frame. It’s a Dodge RAM pickup truck. It’s an Arctic Fox TC. I didn’t make ANY of these components and I didn’t install the Torklift equipment. It was all installed professionally by a Torklift installer. Both times. Different installers.

So do tell me what I’m doing wrong...

Because all I’ve done is decide to go with Arctic Fox, Dodge and Torklift. I guess that was wrong?

[Geo_Boy]

HadEnough wrote:

Geo*Boy wrote:
Very strange, my AF 990 doesn’t move period. I tension my Fastguns per Torklift spec’s.

It would probably move if your frame mounts looked like mine. Ha ha.

I have had Torklift frame mounts and Fastguns on two GM trucks and two different campers and never a bend or a broken weld on either of them.
I don’t like saying this but YOU are definitely doing something seriously wrong.

[Bert_the_Welder]

Well certainly and interesting read this one.
Early on, my guess was a) perhaps the insert tube that the tie-downs attach to wasn't inserted far enough. The further out/less it's inserted the more leverage would be applied to the mount. I realized this early on with my non TL tie-downs so I started pushing the tube into the receiver further so the tie-downs(Fastguns) were angled in more towards the truck from the camper mount points.
And b) Can't picture how it moves/pivots 11" in a truck box, so assumed you had a flat deck, but you mentioned you've got a reg. box, so that's out the window. If mine pivoted that much, it have crushed in the wheel well by a good bit. (In no way am I insinuating it's not as you stated, just can picture it.)

That is quite the damage. That metal has deformed quite a bit.

So..... time for guesstimations ......

Your truck is a 2500....have you checked your truck frame? Is it porpoising at all, even on normal road/highway bumps? Has the truck frame been flexing/bending? That would put some weird stresses on the brackets.
Also.....you've replaced them a number of times. Did you buy them from the same place? over what time span? Reason: If from the same place (or even from different places in the same zip code) it could be possible that all the ones you got were from the same build batch. Perhaps a faulty batch. And the place you got them doesn't sell many, so yo kept buying new ones from the same faulty batch, hence the repeat problems. And if they aren't a TL dealer, they may not have gotten a recall notice, if there was one. If different places but close together, maybe they all got the same bad batch ones, so you were still buying faulty ones. I know, sounds far fetched, but the universe has a perverse sense of humour and it just may have been your turn to be the butt. 😉
I would seriously be emailing TL with pics. From all accounts, a very good company, which is rare these days. So they will be interested and you'll also be doing the TC community a solid if, in fact there is a bad batch, and others just haven't been bit yet. Could literally be saving a life, as what you've described is a catastrophic failure.
Or, and I know others have thought this to themselves, there's a big chunk of the picture we're not being shown, which again, I'm not stating is the case. But I'm sure you can understand, given the seemingly unicorn like issue coupled with this being the internet... 🙂
TorkLift.....are you here lurking?

[wnjj]

Your pictures finally came through for me. Where is the top plate on the passenger side? On my setup, there's a bolt through the bed mount and Torklift plate. Even if the weld broke and the angled bar fell off, the plate should still be bolted up top. On your driver's side I see what looks like a bolt, but no nut or top plate.

Broken welds should not make the hardware disappear but missing hardware could definitely affect the structure. Between this and you mysteriously unclipping spring clip, you seems to have hardware demons, not weak design.

Also, are your bed support posts hacked away at the top to make clearance or something? One is even cracked. When I asked about the stability of the bed mounting, seeing this raises some concern. If the Torklift angled bracket is expected to support the bed where a factory post used to be that can't be good. Your passenger side looks to be cut completely away and bent down. Is that just an artifact of the photo?

Again maybe the photo but even the bed floor looks like it's bent due to lack of support there.

If what I'm seeing is true and you say all of those hacked up factory parts are "professionally installed", you need to get a refund and make them pay to repair your truck.

[HadEnough]

Geo*Boy wrote:
Very strange, my AF 990 doesn’t move period. I tension my Fastguns per Torklift spec’s.

It would probably move if your frame mounts looked like mine. Ha ha.

[Kayteg1]

I can't make much of those pictures.
I don't see ties on them, I don't see mounting angles, all I see is fatigue metal and no idea what is tie-down what is frame.
So once again, ties should have some angle to pull the camper forward and some side angle to keep camper from moving sideways.
When you have them vertical, ties have pull the camper down without preventing sides movement.
That would work with no vibration and no impacts, but that doesn't happen while driving.

[Grit_dog]

Hadenough, idk what is happening, but it’s not the forklift mounts. There is absolutely no reason your camper should be bouncing and sliding around as you describe.
Fix the root cause of the problem, and not by building heavier tie downs.
Do you actually think the normal for your camper to move around like that?

[Geo_Boy]

Very strange, my AF 990 doesn’t move period. I tension my Fastguns per Torklift spec’s.

[HadEnough]

Kayteg1 wrote:

mkirsch wrote:


IMHO the camper should stay in the bed simply due to weight and friction under normal driving conditions. I myself would not hesitate to take the tiedowns off my camper and drive around town. It would not move a fraction of an inch and I am not doing anything special to keep it there.

Normal driving in most of US cases include constant vibration (yes, I drove autobahns, where you could put coffee cup on top of dashboard and it would stay there at 200 kph).
When I set my new pickup, where front ties did have noticeable angle pulling camper forward, I gave it advised "5 yo girl" hand tension on fastguns. Over 500 miles driving, the camper moved about 1/2" to the rear.
I concluded that when vibration liquefy the friction, regardless factory bed mat, the air drag gives the camper significant pushing force.
I adjusted fastguns from 1/4" stretch to 1/2" stretch and camper did not move anymore.
Now OP is saying his camper is also turning on the bed, so sounds like he is not having side to side angle neither.

Are you able to see the pics of just posted?

Of course there is no side to side holding in the front. LOL. There is nothing to stop it since it’s all broken.

[Kayteg1]

mkirsch wrote:


IMHO the camper should stay in the bed simply due to weight and friction under normal driving conditions. I myself would not hesitate to take the tiedowns off my camper and drive around town. It would not move a fraction of an inch and I am not doing anything special to keep it there.

Normal driving in most of US cases include constant vibration (yes, I drove autobahns, where you could put coffee cup on top of dashboard and it would stay there at 200 kph).
When I set my new pickup, where front ties did have noticeable angle pulling camper forward, I gave it advised "5 yo girl" hand tension on fastguns. Over 500 miles driving, the camper moved about 1/2" to the rear.
I concluded that when vibration liquefy the friction, regardless factory bed mat, the air drag gives the camper significant pushing force.
I adjusted fastguns from 1/4" stretch to 1/2" stretch and camper did not move anymore.
Now OP is saying his camper is also turning on the bed, so sounds like he is not having side to side angle neither.

[wnjj]

HadEnough wrote:
As far as the tension in the Torklift fastgun tie downs, it’s just right. Not loose and not cranked down super hard. They have a natural click to them at the right tension. They snap closed easily without too much force, yet they aren’t loose. Nice and snug.

At the proper tension I wouldn't say my fastguns snap closed easily. It takes a decent pull and they bang into place. The spec is 1/4" of spring compression (using that rubber washer to measure). I use the alternate easier method of just pulling all of the slack out and looking through the lock hole, where you can see exactly half covered before you pull them over center into place.

https://www.torklift.com/blog/entry/proper-tension-for-turnbuckles

[HadEnough]

wnjj wrote:
I have to agree with those who say you'll just be covering up the real problem by building different/stronger mounts. Something is way off to break welds that are basically in shear. As someone said, the camper mostly sits there and only needs some help to stay. If there's enough force to bust those welds either there is way too much tension on the tie-downs or not nearly enough, allowing the camper to leave the bed and "get a run" at pulling on the welds. If you switch to a one-piece belly bar, I suspect you'll start bending it unless it's really overbuilt.

Have you checked the truck's bed mounts? Since the camper sits in the bed but the mounts are to the frame any slop in the bed mounts could possibly aggravate the issue.

You haven't answered how tight you are running the fastguns? What method do you use to ensure the right tension?

Also, I'm really surprised you lost a rear mount with or without the camper. They are held by pins with spring-loaded retaining clips.

Yup. The spring clip like you see holding them in these pics just vanished one day and with it the rear mount. It was rattling around with no camper on it so it vibrated loose somehow.

I’d say the bed mounts are reasonable. I’ll have another look though.

The Arctic Fox TC just has momentum. It definitely wants to leave the bed over a lot of different bumps you encounter. Especially after the truck is depressed and then springs back up. It feels like the TC is carrying the truck higher into the air after many types of bumps. Say speed bumps for an extreme instance it feels just nuts going over those even at almost a dead stop. The TC and truck want to do different things.

I do plan to overbuild the bar across type of mount because I need to lock the front of this tc into the truck better than these Torklift mounts are capable of.

As far as the tension in the Torklift fastgun tie downs, it’s just right. Not loose and not cranked down super hard. They have a natural click to them at the right tension. They snap closed easily without too much force, yet they aren’t loose. Nice and snug.

It all works great on the back of the truck, don’t forget. Everything is fine on the rear frame mount and tie downs.

[wnjj]

I have to agree with those who say you'll just be covering up the real problem by building different/stronger mounts. Something is way off to break welds that are basically in shear. As someone said, the camper mostly sits there and only needs some help to stay. If there's enough force to bust those welds either there is way too much tension on the tie-downs or not nearly enough, allowing the camper to leave the bed and "get a run" at pulling on the welds. If you switch to a one-piece belly bar, I suspect you'll start bending it unless it's really overbuilt.

Have you checked the truck's bed mounts? Since the camper sits in the bed but the mounts are to the frame any slop in the bed mounts could possibly aggravate the issue.

You haven't answered how tight you are running the fastguns? What method do you use to ensure the right tension?

Also, I'm really surprised you lost a rear mount with or without the camper. They are held by pins with spring-loaded retaining clips.