Truck bed & slide in question?

[70GTO]

I recently purchases a 2013 Chevy dually pickup & it came with a 5th wheel hitch installed. I pulled all of the pins & removed the upper portion of the hitch & now the only remaining part in the truck bed are the 2 rails that are bolted thru the bed into the frame. I can now haul full sheets of plywood. My question is; do I need to remove the rest of the assembly, before I can put a slide in camper in it? I can put several 2x4's width ways & they will sit just a bit higher than the hitch rails and this will make an even surface for the TC to rest on. If anyone has any experience with a set-up like this, please share your knowledge with me.

Thank You, Bruce

[FreebirdFlies]

I bought my truck and camper mated together. It had previously been mounted together by an RV service place when the owner replaced his pickup.
There was one thin layer of rubber mat, the two pieces of plywood, then the fiberglass camper base sat on all of that to shim up the camper for cab clearance.
The camper had slid on the plywood, and the sheets of plywood had slid in relation to each other, assuming at mounting the plywood was near square. The camper had slid back approximately 3 inches somewhere during all the sliding. The previous owner had hauled horses to horse shows with the combination, so no off roading that I am aware of. However, in the PNW we have a lot of hills our highways climb and descend. Some are steep, and some of these older freeways are now rough and "Bucky".
Tie downs are Torklift frame mounts front and rear, which means there is at least a couple of feet for the turnbuckles to bridge. In this situation non sliding (grippy) shims would be best.

I remounted with a thick stall mat, then a sheet of that plywood, then the same thin rubber mat. Seems to be staying in place for me, but I don't have 27 thousand miles on the combination yet, either.

My experience. Might be completely different for everyone else.

[ticki2]

Reddog1 wrote:
I am amazed at how many people appear not to know how a TC is constructed. If you support the outside edges of the TC where it contacts the bed of the truck, that is all that carries the weight. Fact is, if you support the front and rear of the TC, that is all you need. Did you ever notice the TC jacks do not support the floor?

Wayne

While your statements may be true , they are not universally true . The primary purpose of the jacks is to load and unload the camper . Some manufacturers build the tub and floor strong enough to be used on the jacks , others do not . Your Bigfoot for instance has an entirely different structural system than most other framed TC's .

[pcoplin]

Reddog1 wrote:

KD4UPL wrote:
Wood is slick. The camper sill slide around like crazy. ...

My TC has never slid around. If you have this problem, it could be your tiedowns are not properly installed.

Wayne

My TC did slide around when I had a 4x8 marine plywood floor. If you don't have this problem, it could be you never leave pavement.

[FreebirdFlies]

^^^^ the floor and its support/structure can vary between the many brands and types of TCs.
Some are NOT made with the strength in the floor to use on the jacks, so those need FULL to mostly supported. The lite weight pop-ups come to mind. Others might be built the same.
If your manufacturer says you can use your camper for camping on the jacks, then you should be fine. ASK.

[Reddog1]

I am amazed at how many people appear not to know how a TC is constructed. If you support the outside edges of the TC where it contacts the bed of the truck, that is all that carries the weight. Fact is, if you support the front and rear of the TC, that is all you need. Did you ever notice the TC jacks do not support the floor?

Wayne

[Super_Dave]

My buddy used a thick sheet of plywood subfloor and some rubber bed liner and has no complaints.

[mkirsch]

The point being here is yes you can use 2x4's but you really need to line the entire bed floor with 2x4's, or add a sheet of plywood, to make sure you are supporting the camper properly.

Campers usually have a thin outer skin with a skeleton structure hidden underneath for the floor. The thin skin will not support the weight of the camper.

On a smooth bed with no rails, the entire floor of the camper makes contact with the floor of the truck so it does not matter where the skeleton structure is. It will always be 100% supported by the floor of the bed.

With 2x4's at random intervals, you are depending on random chance that the 2x4's will line up with the skeleton structure of the camper. Odds are it won't. The camper will only be supported by the outer edges, and its own weight coupled with bouncing down the road may cause the 2x4 to push up into/through the thin floor skin, possibly damaging the camper.

Risk of damage may or may not be small. We don't know. But, since it's so easy to go from possibly-low risk to absolutely ZERO risk, by simply adding a sheet of plywood, it would be foolish to not go ahead and do it.

[markowwes]

I took a ¾” sheet of plywood and cut slots in it to fit over the rails, it was high enough to ensure the camper didn’t touch them and it left a nice flat bed all the time.
Happy Camping
Wes

[Grit_dog]

70GTO wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
Do you have a 5ver?
If not, remove the rails......
Seems simpler than cobbling up stuff to put the camper on.

That is the plan for down the road, but I was mainly wondering if it was alright to do just incase I would happen to buy a TC & need to take possession of it before I could get the rails out "We are going to look at a couple of used units this weekend".


Thanks for the advice, Bruce

For sure, that's fine to make a trip home. Throw a few 2x boards cross ways and a sheet of plywood over the top. Like others said, campers tend to walk around a little in the bed on anything but a rubber mat but it's really a minor inconvienece unless you're doing a lot of windy, bumpy off road. Make sure you block the front off the front of the bed so it doesn't get into the top of the bed.

[Peg_Leg]

You can attach the boards to to the bottom of the TC. Once you figure out what spacing you need.

[kayco53]

My pu has a fifth wheel hitch in it as well.There are 3 strips of wood on the bottom of camper and they straddle the hitch.I also have the rubber bed mat anyways.Seems to work well have been doing it on the last 3 trucks.

[Reddog1]

KD4UPL wrote:
Wood is slick. The camper sill slide around like crazy. ...

My TC has never slid around. If you have this problem, it could be your tiedowns are not properly installed.

Wayne

[Yeti_plus]

I have a 2014 Silverado and I had to put a sheet of 3/4" plywood as well as the rubber mat to have my camper clear the bedrails.
You will likely need to add at least this much to put the camper in the box, so the 2X4's that others have suggested won't be all that much too high.
Brian

[KD4UPL]

Wood is slick. The camper sill slide around like crazy. You need a layer or rubber in there somewhere to keep it in place.
Build up the area with whatever you want but it should be fairly continuous to support the entire floor. Then, put a rubber mat on top.
I would just use horse stall mats to begin with.