Tie-Downs

[ajriding]

I have two questions.

1. I have the tie-downs that drop into the square holes on top of the bed rail (Ram 2nd gen).
I have never used these. How strong are they? My camper is 1800lbs dry.
I plan to use these in the front.

2. For the rear I want to make something that attaches to the receiver hitch extension. A long bar welded to the extension, right at the receiver, that spans out to hold the tie-down chains.
Who has made or used one?
What steel tube do I need? I was thinking a 2 inch square, but could would a round steel pipe from the HD plumbing dept be enough? I will weld it all up.

Also, I have a gooseneck hitch, so there is a solid anchor point in the center of the bed. Has anyone used this a a 5th tie-down point? It would not do much for topple, but would keep it from sliding.

I'm back at the truck camper game after two years of trailers. I had a slide-in pop-up so did not need much to keep that in place. Now have a full height unit, 9.5 feet long. It does not have any cabinets high, really nothing but the shower door and curtains within the top 20 inches, so cant be as top heavy as most. It does have roof AC.
I will be towing a cargo trailer also, light, single axle.
I am buying the camper tomorrow Dec21.

[burningman]

jaycocreek wrote:


But that's old school..Won't work now with the internet and all! :B

Ha!! You’re a guy I could drink beer with!

[jaycocreek]

TxGearhead wrote:
I used stake pocket tie downs on an 8ft cabover back in the 1980's with no issues. I don't have a clue how much it weighed. Wood framed all aluminum siding and roof, stove, sink, porta-potti, roof A/C. The tie downs had a 3/8" bolt and washer that secured them in the pocket. Turnbuckles with springs and wing nuts. I did a bit of off road driving and never noticed much camper movement.
Just me, but I would do that on all four corners.

I did the same thing on several older TC's up to 10 feet long and never had any issues either in mountain terrain...In fact, my last Lance was tied down only with turnbuckles connected to the pocket holes sitting on 2X4's to miss the fifth wheel rails and it was used heavily in rough mountain places..Never an issue..

But that's old school..Won't work now with the internet and all! :B

[TxGearhead]

I used stake pocket tie downs on an 8ft cabover back in the 1980's with no issues. I don't have a clue how much it weighed. Wood framed all aluminum siding and roof, stove, sink, porta-potti, roof A/C. The tie downs had a 3/8" bolt and washer that secured them in the pocket. Turnbuckles with springs and wing nuts. I did a bit of off road driving and never noticed much camper movement.
Just me, but I would do that on all four corners.

[ajriding]

Yes something like that.
I will probably weld square tubing directly to that to act as a base for the monkey gym.
For now I used junk around the house, a square unistrut is all I had and I used leaf spring u-bolts to attach it to the receiver extension. It is wacky flexy since is just 3 sides, but it will get me home and I can find a 4-side tube or do some welding depending on my mood.

[Kayteg1]

I guess you have something like this?
Still not an issue for a welder.
You can weld the 1" tubing directly to side plates (with reinforcing triangles) or weld small receivers from 1.25" tubing and stick the tie downs in them.

[ajriding]

Why add more weight and additional tubing, when you already have the hitch tube?
Was searching google for my own picture, but could not find it.
Here is picture of Torklift tie-down.
The only difference on mine is square washer on the end and bigger adapters for my 3" hitch

My receiver is a class V, there is no tube opening on the side, or I would simply use that. My class IV has a thick solid plate on the side. The front is a class III and does have the side bube is why I know what you are talking about…

😉 😉

I guess the rear design will be a spring in itself.
The front Brody-style rail mount will be so close is there a spring for this?

[Kayteg1]

SidecarFlip wrote:


Don't forget to say you used schedule 60 square tubing...

I used all the junk I could find on my yard.
The only thing I had to buy were the washers and pins.
Nice to have materials laying around, but than DW complains that 900 sq-ft garage barely parks 2 cars. 🙂

[SidecarFlip]

work2much wrote:
I had the brophy pocket style tie downs on my first camper and quickly moved to a happijac down as I didn't find them very sturdy bending themselves and somewhat mangling the truck. That was over 20 years ago. Maybe they work better now. I switched to happijac bed mounts and didn't like them either as they tore the sheetmetal on our 1994 Ram. I know others here have had better success and I'm sure the product has improved over the years. After the happijac we went with a frame mount that has worked well on the last 3 trucks and 4 campers. I believe you can buy just the fronts if you are doing your own thing on the rear. Some sort of spring is recommended by most camper manufacturers to relieve stress on the camper.

My old 97 F350 lives fine with the front HJ mounts but the rear ones, not too good. I did the Kayteg number without the flat plates. Just a couple forged lift eyes in each end.

One thing I do like about the HJ's is when 2 tracking like I do, the less hanging down and outside the wheels, the more chance of snagging something. I often times remove the camper jacks because of that. I see Mellow Mike found out the hard way about snagging something on a 2 track. Ripped one of his jacks back.

[SidecarFlip]

Kayteg1 wrote:
I build rear tie-downs myself as I could not justify spending $300 for Torklift model.
All it took was 1" square tubing, some pieces of old receiver as my truck has 3" hitch and top it with 3" framing square washer from Home Depot.
I slid the adapter into end of hitch cross tube and secured with 1/4" pins.

Don't forget to say you used schedule 60 square tubing...

[Kayteg1]

ajriding wrote:
This guy did what Im thinking of. I will be towing a cargo trailer on that same extension too.
https://lookbeforeyoulive.com/?p=22714

I have also seen on etrailer there is a clip that can be bolted into the rear bumper. How do these work? My bumper seems pretty sturdy.

If I knew the forces involved it would be much easier

Why add more weight and additional tubing, when you already have the hitch tube?
Was searching google for my own picture, but could not find it.
Here is picture of Torklift tie-down.
The only difference on mine is square washer on the end and bigger adapters for my 3" hitch.

[work2much]

I had the brophy pocket style tie downs on my first camper and quickly moved to a happijac down as I didn't find them very sturdy bending themselves and somewhat mangling the truck. That was over 20 years ago. Maybe they work better now. I switched to happijac bed mounts and didn't like them either as they tore the sheetmetal on our 1994 Ram. I know others here have had better success and I'm sure the product has improved over the years. After the happijac we went with a frame mount that has worked well on the last 3 trucks and 4 campers. I believe you can buy just the fronts if you are doing your own thing on the rear. Some sort of spring is recommended by most camper manufacturers to relieve stress on the camper.

[ajriding]

This guy did what Im thinking of. I will be towing a cargo trailer on that same extension too.
https://lookbeforeyoulive.com/?p=22714

I have also seen on etrailer there is a clip that can be bolted into the rear bumper. How do these work? My bumper seems pretty sturdy.

If I knew the forces involved it would be much easier

[Kayteg1]

I posted the picture before and check that I deleted it from my computer. If you don't find old thread, I will take another.
1" tubing is what Torklift uses originally and rear not suppose to hold any load on regural basis. I adjust the ties to eliminate the play, putting only minimal tension.
That said, you need to design weak link somewhere and IMHO bend tubing is way better than the anchor point ripped off the camper.
I weld everything as this is the quickest and best way

[ajriding]

Kayteg1 wrote:
I build rear tie-downs myself as I could not justify spending $300 for Torklift model.
All it took was 1" square tubing, some pieces of old receiver as my truck has 3" hitch and top it with 3" framing square washer from Home Depot.
I slid the adapter into end of hitch cross tube and secured with 1/4" pins.

Do you have pics?
I was worried 1 inch would not be strong. Im not sure how much pull the camper will ever have pulling up on the mounts either.
Does the mount wiggle in the hitch, or do you have an anti-rattle thing holding it still?
Is the square washers just welded on for a place for the chain to hook?