Straps instead of bolt down too risky?

[breeves2245]

Looking for options to secure my new Cari Cowboy? I have a step side truck, so I had to go with bolt down because the usual turnbuckle system would not fit in the step side bed. Bolt down works fine, but does take some effort to get the bolt holes lined up. I did get a welder to weld a plate with the nuts on the underside so I don't have to jack with that. One option is to enlarge the 3/8" holes in the camper floor to say, 1" to get more room for error to drop the bolt down to the nut. I would need some type of spacer to fit in the hole to keep it from moving but that would be easy enough to figure out.

My motivation for this question is my difficulty backing up my boat. I'm good with backing up any trailer, don't even have to think about it. But even though I put a window in the front of the camper and I keep the back camper door open, it's not enough of an overall view to see what is going on and becomes very frustrating getting out of the truck multiple times, etc. Not to mention the on lookers are I'm sure thinking I can't back up a trailer, that really bugs me!

So my work around is to drop the camper at the campsite and then I'm free to launch the boat or park the boat in a tight camp site next to the camper. But would really like a more convenient load/unload option. The camper sits very tight in the bed with maybe 1/2" or so clearance to each side, so it ain't going forward, left or right. Only way out is to slide out the back. My truck bed has a sprayed in liner, so there is a fair amount of traction gained with the camper bottom. Picture a box in a box and that is how it sits in my bed since I do not have any wheel wells, just a rectangular truck bed.

Camper loaded weighs about 1,000 lbs.

Would really like to just strap the back using the mechanical jack plates for securing the straps.

Any thoughts? Am I adding too much risk even though it fits very tightly in my truck bed?

[NRALIFR]

Bruce-
First of all, I like your Capri. I’ve always liked the looks of those campers. I’m in Little Rock, and it’s always nice to see a fellow TC owner from Arkansas. I have relatives up in your area and get up there occasionally to visit.

A few thoughts and observations from about 25 years of TC ownership. All the TC’s I’ve owned have been the type that have a “cab-over” section where you sleep. On all of those campers, I learned that the front tiedowns are the ones that actually do the majority of the work holding the camper in the bed. The dealer that sold me my first TC was totally clueless when it came to tying the camper down. They used stake-pocket tiedowns and some very light duty turnbuckles for a 9.5’ camper that weighed about 3000 lbs. On a trip to Colorado, I almost lost the camper in Kansas when the wind got under the cab-over section and tried to lift it off the truck. Fortunately it didn’t come off, but it sure messed up the bed.

I know yours doesn’t have a cab-over, but it does sit up higher than the cab. High winds can do some strange things, and I wouldn’t want to swear that the wind couldn’t lift the front of your camper if it wasn’t tied down.

I think if I were in your situation, I would want the convenience of some external tiedowns also. While it would take a little fabrication work, I believe you could use the jack attachment mounts as the tiedowns points as well. I’m doing that very thing myself on my camper because I didn’t like the deflection I was seeing around the front tiedown points provided by Lance.

I used some stout angle-iron fastened to the jack mount plates to bring an attachment point down below the bottom edge of the camper. I mounted the angle-iron using the existing bolts that are holding the jack mounts to the camper. The jack mounts are already strong enough to hold the camper up, so they can surely hold it down. On my camper, the front jack mounts (whose fasteners are all in sheer) are a much stronger tiedown point than the eyebolts that are in tension.

An inexpensive belly-bar could be purchased or fabricated to provide anchor points on your truck.

A front hitch on your truck would be very handy for launching your boat. That may be the solution for all of this.

:):)

[breeves2245]

Took another look at my truck bed. I have eyelets to secure cargo recessed into the side of the truck bed about two feet from the tailgate. These would be just about perfect to simply hook a strap end on each side and pull tight with the strap running horizontal around the back end of the camper about six inches under the wings of the camper. The strap itself takes almost no room and the cargo hooks are recessed enough the hook will not interfere with the camper. So even though I got a tight fit, they will fit easily. Might give this a try on the next trip.

[Grit_dog]

Yeah the camper isn’t going anywhere, except out the back, like you said, so how would you get any forward pull off of the back jack mounts down to the bumper? or where were you going to hook it up?
I can’t imagine getting it lined up for bolts, especially without an enlarged hole, but then again, it shouldn’t need bolted down unless the mfg requires?

Presuming your boat trailer is too narrow to see in the mirrors until it’s way out of shape. Easiest way to cure that problem is make a tattle tale 8’ wide or so you can stick on the back of the boat/trailer so you can see which way the trailer is headed all the time.
Like a 2x2 board or strip of plywood or anything visible you can hang on the trailer or boat easy.

[breeves2245]

There are no attachment points on the camper to attach a tie down. Since I want to take the camper off at the campsite I need to keep the jacks on the jack plates. So they are using the only secure attachment points.

[cewillis]

I'm not seeing why Torklift tiedowns won't work.

[SideHillSoup]

Couple of this you can do to make backing up easier:
Purchase an after market rear view camera. I have a 2017 GMC 3500 which comes equipped with a rear view camera in the tailgate. When I put my camper on, I have to remove the tailgate which contains the camera. I don’t have a issue backing up my trailers with the camper on ( side x side and snowmobile trailers) however I was tired of seeing the empty blue screen when I put the track in reverse when the camper was on, so I go the camera. There are lots of the market to choose from.
The second thing you can do it put a front end receiver hitch on your truck and then when it is ti e to put your boat in the water. Unhook your boat Trailer, turn the truck around, remove your hitch insert that has the trailer Ball on it put that into the front receiver, hook back up to the boat trailer and drive it into the lake much easier. My neighbour years ago had neck surgery that left him unable to turn his head fast, and he had a hard time backing up his boat. So he mounted a trailer ball onto his front bumper. Now he was driving a 1974 Chevy pickup, which had a bumper that he could mount the ball to. The truck you have I think you would have to mount a front reviver.
Soup.