Raising truck camper height

[MT_Camper]

I need to raise my truck campers height in the bed of my truck do to Ford raising the height of thier bed rails and cab on thier 2017 and newer f250’s. I here you can use a 4x8 sheet of polystyrene foam board. Has anyone used this and how well does it work? Will it hold the weight of the camper without crushing?
Please let me know your thoughts.
Thanks!

[JoeChiOhki]

Plywood, use a couple of 3/4" sheets glued together as a spacer. Alot more forgiving to abuse than foam and won't blow out of the truck bed if you forget to remove it after unloading the camper and driving around 😉

[youngm357]

Home Depot sells pink and Lowe’s sells blue; I did not know this when I bought mine so I’m stuck with pink.

[wallaceb]

My last camper was a AF 1140 (now travel 5th wheel) --- things don't get much heavier --- my solution to adding a little height : sandwich 1 inch closed cell foam 4X8 sheet between sheet of 3/4 marine plywood and pickup bed (bolted through to be fixed) --- killed two birds with one stone, added height without worrying about crushing/tearing foam and added insulation which kept floor warm to bare feet --- PS: if me and DW were not 72 and needing more creature features ( such as couch and bigger shower space) I would still have my AF

[Ski_Pro_3]

A 4x8 sheet of foam or plywood is 4,608 square inches. Roughly 1 pound per square inch for a camper that weighs 4,600 pounds. If one end is heavier than another, I would imagine the foam would 'self level' as it compresses under the additional load. If excessive compression happens, add additional foam UNDER this now-customized. mold of foam that matches your truck.

I imagine that the ribs in the bed of the truck are roughly 50/50 raised to recess, making the load per square inch on the loaded foam underneath double what the load is distributed on the top.

My truck's bed is deeper toward the tail gate than it is at the cab end. Makes my camper looks squatty in the back and the clearance between the camper sides and bed rail not parallel. I ended up making a wedge to level out the camper to the bed rails for a cleaner look. It also keeps fewer bugs from smashing into the camper behind the truck's cab and I imagine the air resistance as well is reduced somewhat.

[Frank_Mehaffey]

I have an aluminum frame 10' camper. I have the standard rubber mat, and screwed 3, 5/4 plastic porch decking lengthwise, front to back. Works great.

[burningman]

I use the pink foam board on an 11.5 camper and have never had issues with it “rocking” on the rear edge. It works great, costs little, weighs almost nothing and even adds insulation. What’s not to like?

[capeman]

I have had to use foam on every truck and camper combo I've ever owned.Older TC and a newer truck seems to be the issue....

[Geewizard]

Vinyl isn't slippery when overlain by foam board.

[Kayteg1]

vinyl is slippery.

[Geewizard]

I use a layer of vinyl fence boards (tongue and groove) then a 2" thick foam board (pink) from HD over that. Works for me and my lightweight TC.

[monkey44]

I screwed 5/4 decking in three places side to side, end center and end, not lengthwise, directly to bottom of camper. THEN, installed a 3/8" formed rubber mat from an auto parts place (I think Advance Auto, but not positive) and have ZERO problems in ten years.

That's on a short bed Lance - if it were an eight foot bed, I'd install four...

[WyoBull]

I have a standard rubber bed mat in my truck and then put a 4x6 horse stall mat on top of that. It gives me plenty of clearance with our Northern Lite 8.11 on our 2017 F350.

[Kayteg1]

I would consider TC weight distribution for choosing the foam.
When 8' camper will give relatively even weight spread over 8' bed, the 12' camper, with COG behind the rear axle tend to rock on last few inches of the bed. I had couple of my 2017 F350 bed ribs bent having 12' camper on factory mat, so imagine what that would do to a foam?
What I noticed is that bed ribs end like 2" before bed end and don't have solid support under.
So I add a stripe of 2" plywood at very end of the bed, where bed has frame under, so now my camper has good support at rocking point.

[Rustofer]

There are different qualities of foam. As far as I've seen the best has a 30 psi compressive strength. So whether or not the foam deforms will depend on your camper's weightbearing footprint. My Northern Lite seems to bear just on the fiberglass edges, so I won't use foam. Plywood and a rubber mat work fine on my '17 Ford.