Temporary Tie Downs

[TubaPete]

We just bought a Sun Lite fold down truck camper for a trip to Alaska next year. I realize a good set of tie downs is important for the trip but how about getting it home right now?

My plan is to just use some heavy duty nylon straps to get it home, distance about 40 miles. Will this work?

[Bedlam]

A homemade belly bar made out of 8' of angle will get you home. Attach it to the frame with large hose clamps and drill the ends for hooks. If your rear bumper is weak or at the wrong angle, you make a second one for the rear that spans your spare tire.

[mkirsch]

The only thing I would warn against using ratchet straps is that you will mar your truck's paint for sure, and you may cause body damage at worst.

These truck bodies are made from little more than beer can material these days, so if you wrap your strap down over the side of the bed, hook it to the frame, and ratchet it down, it is very likely that the sheet metal will buckle, if not right away, then during some sort of maneuver.

[Gripnriprod]

A rubber truck bed mat will really help prevent any sliding. You can use it with the "good" tiedowns too. Happy camping!

[TubaPete]

To jefe 4X4

Actually it was a BBb sousaphone I played in my college marching band. Few people know what a sousaphone is plus its a little long for a nickname.

[sabconsulting]

I used my camper with cargo straps for a while until I had a chance to build a proper tie-down system, so using these for getting it home will be fine - just don't ratchet them down so tight you can play tunes on them.

Steve.

[Peg_Leg]

Had a 10' Sun Lite Condor popup that we used for one trip, Alaska in 2011. After the trip we decided we should have made a cover to sit on top of the corner port-a-pot closet. This would have been used to sit stuff on at night.

[jefe_4x4]

At this point, it's just cargo. Four big 10K pound, 4" wide straps should be enough. You might put some long 2x4's under the straps on the edges of the roof of the camper to spread the loading. Wind resistance will be the only worry. For a belt-and-suspenders version, you might put a smaller strap from the rear tie downs inside the truck bed around the back of the TC and to the other side, just to make sure the thing doesn't slide out the back. You just don't want that box to sail off to the side of the roadway.
jefe
PS: tubapete, what tuba do you play? BBb, CC, DD, Eb, F, G, Bb tenor tuba? My old buddie Roger Bobo owned and played all of these in the orchestra.

[Victory402]

I brought mine home using cargo straps. Like Buzzcut said, you want to check the tension on them a couple of times. I wouldn't over tighten them either.

[Buzzcut1]

just take it slow and easy and stop a couple of times to recheck the straps and you should be fine.