Need advice on spacer between camper and truck bed?

[Broncorambler]

Hello, great site for advice, thanks.
My 99 Ford superduty has a tall cab and need about 4 inch spacer to keep camper above it when offroad? Used 4 2x6s laid out across the bed to get it home and was touching the roof!
Picked up 2 stout pallets that are 5 inches high and 4x4 in size and looking for input on using them with a rubber mat?
Will anchor the pallets with blocks off the wheel wells.
Will use chain to lengthen tie downs if needed.

Have read about hard foamcore, but sounds pricey and hard to find.
What are folks using for spacers? Thanks

[ranholago]

Punomatic,

How did the rubber bed liner work out on the foam, longer term? Did you use spray cans from some place like Home Depot, do you remember the exact name/type?
I have just gone from foam panel with 2x6 on each side to a more solid foam core with out the 2x6 framing. I haven t tried the stronger foam core panel yet.

[punomatic]

In my 2001 F350 I used one sheet of 4'X8'X2" solid core foam, sprayed both sides with rubber bed liner and used it for 3 years without problems. Cost was under $100 and it was nice and light. I stored it on the garage floor under the camper when camper was off the truck.

[JimK-NY]

Extra insulation between the truck bed and camper would be a plus. In fact I have cut foam insulation material to fit between the upper rails of the bed and the camper. The gap was about 3" and is now totally sealed. This keeps the camper warmer in cold weather, keeps out any bugs and critters and makes it sure that the wheel well storage remains clean and dry.

[Broncorambler]

Found some Dow Corning foam core 4x8 sheets 1.5 inch think that are$50 each. Going to sandwich them between two half inch sheets of plywood for 4 inches of spacing. Should work great. Thanks.

[JimK-NY]

I screwed on simple pine slats to the bottom of my camper. I never get any water between the truck bed and camper so plain untreated wood is fine.

Clearance needs to be a minimum of about 2 inches between the camper and roof of the truck. I would keep it towards the minimum to keep the center of gravity as low as possible and to reduce sway.

[specta]

This was added to the bottom of my camper by the previous owner.

[Grit_dog]

Gents, he’s not building a house in the rain forest, it’s just cribbing to hold up the camper. Doesn’t even really get wet driving in the rain, much less just sitting under the camper.

[Kayteg1]

Camper weight goes only on floor perimeter, so just a square frame 4x8' (or whatever your truck bed length is) will do.
I like redwood, but it is not strong wood, when for shimming you don't have to worry about termites. Fir will be stronger and lasting for long years.

[Broncorambler]

Thanks for the responses.
Might check on foam core.
Pallets are heavy duty load rated quality pallets and will lay rubber over them if go that way.

[Grit_dog]

No reason that wouldn’t work. It’s cheap and easy, slap a rubber mat on top of them and if the camper moves around more than you’d like, revise the plan. Although if they are wedged tight to the wheel wells they shouldn’t move.
Maybe consider a thin sheet of plywood to tie the pallets together. Few screws that you could remove to take the pallets out individually.

2” thick 40psi foam board is about $50 a sheet so $100 saved if you can use the pallets.
Foam is readily available though at building supply places

[ORbiker]

For the base layer; a 1" 4' x 8' stall mat works great.

Our 2002 Citation camper had a aluminum square channel frame screwed to the bottom of the camper. I think it was 3" channel. KEN

[MarkTwain]

Broncorambler wrote:
Thanks Brad, what do you think of just using couple stout pallets?

Just a personal preference, I would spend a little money and use redwood lumber for weather/water reasons. I think that most pallet wood is not of the highest quality wood. IMHO

[Broncorambler]

Thanks Brad, what do you think of just using couple stout pallets?

[BradW]

On our 2001 F350, I made a 4' x 8' frame out of 2x4's (laying flat) and then attached a sheet of 1/2" plywood to that and then screwed the whole thing to the bottom of the camper. That made the spacer about 2" thick. Sounds like you need more than that. Maybe you could have two layers of 2x4's or one layer standing edgewise.

On my rig, the roof was closest to the cabover right in the middle of the roof. There was a lot more clearance at the side edge of the roof. This worked out well since most of the movement was on the side edges from the camper/bed rocking side to side.

Good luck,
bradw