Just Got My First Truck Camper! A Few Questions...

[BMW442]

So I just picked up an old school (mid-80s) Palomino Bronco Mini L.

It's a little rough around the edges, but in surprisingly good shape for its age. Limited water damage, no mold, canvas is solid, working jacks, etc. Still need to test the appliances & pop it up, but even if it needs some work it's all good, I got it for a song.

Some questions for all the experts out there:

How high should it be up over the side walls and cab? I build a riser out of plywood & pallet, since it is for a mini truck and I have a full-size, but it seems to be a little too high. I want it to ride as low as possible, and want to make a lower riser with 2x8s, plywood, and a rubber horse stall mat. Was also thinking about affixing some sort of polystyrene insulation panel under the cabover part, and go down to about 2-3 inches clearance (it is around 5 now). With the side walls of the bed, should I put some kind of wood or something to fill the gap between the top of the wall and bottom of the camper?

Also, it came with some old turnbuckles, but I'm not exactly sure how to set them up (right now I just have a bunch of ratchet straps). Do they attach onto the hooks inside the bed? Or under the truck? The camper itself is wicked light (around 750#) so I assume they wouldn't have to go into the frame.

Last question is about jacks. It came with 2 manual rieco-titans, one on each side, (one near the front and the other closer to the back). It also came with a third tripod base (but no big pole part) though I dont see a third jack support anywhere.

Any advice is much appreciated, I'm new to all of this but am looking forward to start camping as soon as I get everything fixed up!

[Redsky]

If you have 1/2 inch of clearance that is enough. The pink foam panel from Home Depot comes in 1/2, 1, and 2 inch thicknesses and does not compress with my 4000 lb. camper load and it does not absorb water and you can cut it to size with a box knife.

[Farmerjon]

I too had a camper that came to me with just 2 jacks , one on each side at the COG and I used them for some time before upgrading to corner jacks.
We built our platform too heavy. We used treated 2x4's flat o make a frame around the inside edges of a treated 1/2 plywood sheet with a 2x4 running down the center and a rubber mat on top of that and strips of baler belts on the 3 2x's that run the length of the bed. It is a chore for the 2 of us to put it in and take it out of the bed. We are going to lighten it up by rebuilding it with untreated materials.
It works great, except for the weight.We have about 2 inches of clearance over the cab and enough clearance over the rails that I can store stuff in the sides.
Happy camping. Jon

[BMW442]

Cool, thanks for the advice!
I'm hoping I can get it all hooked up without having to do anything too drastic to the truck, it's so light that I think the bed hooks/bumper system should work

If I make a shorter platform to lower the overcab height to 2 inches I'll still have about 4-5 inches clearance on the sidewalls, thinking about building out some kind of basic storage boxes, one on each side, then attach a board or something like that to put in between the camper & the sidewalls

I will try to get some pictures up this week!

[ejfranz]

With my old truck I took the bed off and installed a plate on each side of the front (there were pre tapped bolt holes on each side) and reinstalled the bed and then attached the front tie downs to those plates. I also had a camper were I was able to use the front hooks in the bed of the truck. In the rear I used hooks on the bumper. With the current heavy camper I purchased an external frame tie down system.
All my campers have had ~ 2 inches over the cab for clearance. For the side rail I had one with ~ 1" of clearance.
As for your jacking system, a picture would be nice. As a kid we used 2 tripod cable jacks to raise the camper, one on each side at the COG.