Mystery Damage to my truck. From the camper??

[MN_Ben]

I originally thought this was from my camper. I have absolutely no clue. I made a video in hopes someone would know what caused this. https://youtu.be/djhJfPwoNlA

MNBen

[Geo_Boy]

Just saw a picture of a 2005 F250 going through a ditch an WOW I couldn’t believe how much the frame flexed. Definitely part of your problem, can’t believe your cab isn’t dented.

[mkirsch]

It's just dumb luck that the damage isn't even on both sides and that it isn't worse.

Just leave it long enough and you'll end up with a matching rub mark on the other side of the cab, and probably dents.

[AnEv942]

Our Atwood swing out brackets swing inward toward truck exactly as OP shows. Ive never seen an Atwood swing out bracket that didn't. Swing from usage position to travel is maybe 120+°. The added extension plate between jack and bracket is why they are so close to truck. I have about twice the distance.
47 second youtube video
Due to the notches in the hinge that keep them in position no way to adjust.
Unfortunate the damage to truck but surprised this hadn't occurred before. Frame flex allows quite a bit of movement difference between bed and cab, camper can move. Jack contacting truck with so little clearance wouldn't be difficult. Powder coat verse truck paint wouldn't take long or much to scrape off trucks paint.

[3_tons]

This has nothing whatsoever to do with ‘torqlifts’ or with Motel 6….The 800# Gorilla in the room are the jack brackets!!…Of all the campers I’ve ever seen, I’ve never once see jack brackets that would pivot anywhere inboard of the campers outer-side, nor is there a rational reason to do so…All campers move around a bit and the scratch on the truck is the direct result of the jacks being pivoted inboard…

3 tons

[jaycocreek]

Maybe your dually brackets are on backwards or upside down..Mine will only go this far towards the cab for travel...



But going the other direction only a nut stops it from going in farther...

[joerg68]

Our camper is hardly ever on the truck completely straight, with the camper centerline being right on top of the truck centerline. Depending on where you load, it can be very difficult to back under the camper in an absolutely straight and center line, and usually being off an inch or so does not create a problem. At some point, it is just "good enough".
Even in the video you can see there are three fingers distance on the driver side and two fingers on the passenger side, indicating that the front of the camper is slightly off center.

[BradW]

MN Ben wrote:

jimh425 wrote:
Looks to me like the DRW brackets are installed wrong. They should be parallel to the TC sides, but appear to angled toward the cab.

Btw, it’s normal for the TC to move side to side some. You just have minimal clearance.

When I originally had these brackets one was angled in and the other was flipped and more inline with the camper side. I needed all the clearance I could get so I flipped the one. This made the jack straight out when unloading giving me the most clearance and angled towards the cab when folded in. I actually made the 3" extensions to give me more clearance. Maybe now I could try the brackets reversed. Maybe.

As Jim said, something ain't right. I've had two Lance campers and the jacks only had two positions, either straight out from the camper (loading/unloading) or straight forward (driving). They weren't angled in towards the truck cab were they were close enough to touch the cab when the camper rocks around while driving.

[mr_andyj]

If TC was going to stay on a few weeks or more I would take the front legs off and store them in truck cab. By that I mean I did this on mine.

It is obviously the legs rubbing. If no dent then it is barely rubbing, so you might can just move the leg farther out barely and then it will barely miss.

[noteven]

I prefer to block the camper from lateral movement at the bottom of it's frame where it sits on the bed and allow some vertical movement through spring loaded tie downs.

My F-350 is a bit of a flexi frame compared to my Dodge 3500 so I like to have the camper not ferociously tied down at the corners so when the truck frame racks a bit crossing ditches and such during light off roading the vertical force is not applied to the caamper which is trying to be a stiff box and maintain it's shape. I have actually released the rear two tie downs on a section of little wash crossings on the diagonal to get to a camp spot. The bed actually seperated from the bottom of the camper momentarily as the truck flexed through the spots.
My side box blocking holds the camper side to side but it can float away from the bed a bit if it has to.

If you never articulate your truck over anything more severe than a gas station approach then horsing down on all 4 corners of the camper is probably ok and triangles are better. I'm always wanting to drive across a forest road drain ditch or a wash or something to see what's over there...

In a pickup I'm still in the camp that says the camper needs to be blocked at the bottom to keep it from moving side to side or forward.

[jimh406]

MORSNOW wrote:
Your issue shows the big weakness with TorkLift tie downs. The anchor points are almost vertical with most trucks/campers so they don't hold the camper from dancing around in the truck box (left/right, front/back). You need more triangulation to hold the camper from moving any direction in the truck box. HappiJac gets beat up here many times, but their holding angles are far superior and your camper stays put.

If what you said was true, all of us with Torklift tie downs would have the same issue. But, we don’t. There is literally only and inch or two left over for most TCs in between the wheel wells no matter what brand of tie downs you use. It could be possible that the OP doesn’t have their fastguns adjusted correctly.

I’ll stick with this is a case of the DRW hinge being mounted wrong, so it is far too close to the body.

[MORSNOW]

MN Ben wrote:
I originally thought this was from my camper. I have absolutely no clue. I made a video in hopes someone would know what caused this. https://youtu.be/djhJfPwoNlA

MNBen

Your issue shows the big weakness with TorkLift tie downs. The anchor points are almost vertical with most trucks/campers so they don't hold the camper from dancing around in the truck box (left/right, front/back). You need more triangulation to hold the camper from moving any direction in the truck box. HappiJac gets beat up here many times, but their holding angles are far superior and your camper stays put.

[silverbullet555]

MN Ben wrote:

silverbullet555 wrote:
Your trailer is rocking back and forth in the bed which is independent of the cab, or the cab is rocking back and forth. In either case, the body bushings are where it's likely rocking and it is moving enough to make contact. Could be cab is moving one way and camper the other on rough roads, over bumps, etc.

Even with the Fast Guns attached? It happened on one side but not the other.

Yeah. I'm not sure why. Loaded to the side, crooked, etc. The fast guns are better than bed mount in my opinion, but there is still movement of the bed and cab.

If this is new damage, think back to your last trip. Rough, washboard, bumpy roads. High winds while driving, etc. Maybe the cab moved and the camper stayed. They are on separate body mounts and I've watched ours move quite a bit in relation to each other.

It's clear where the damage occurred from. We are trying to solve why and how.

[MN_Ben]

I had one 10 mile section of porpoising road which sucked to drive on. This is the only thing that I think could have caused the paint to rub off. I just cannot imagine the legs getting so close to the truck. My brothers driveway was at a sucky angle but only traveled over it up and down one time. Not much cross wind and solid with the semi trucks passing.
The jack cannot rotate any closer in-word, even if it was lifted above the locking points.
I'll make some blocks to put in the front of the bed. I don't do bodywork so fixing the paint will be a pain for me.
Thank you every one for your help!

[noteven]

I had almost the same thing - my camper moved enough for a jack leg to touch the truck. The cushy rubber matting wasn't quite enough to stop the bit of movement.

I did what kayteg said ^^ about blocking the camper side to side so it cannot move enoough for the jacks to touch.

Angles and what not make loading it much easier.