Wolf Creek 850 roll over story

[anutami]

Well, Since I opened this can of worms here is the entire story.

First let me say I have been a long time truck camper owner and I am no rookie. I have gone trough several truck campers. I recently had an article published in truckcampermagazine.com about me and my family
Here is some more background on who I am and how long I have been truck camping.

http://www.truckcampermagazine.com/camper-lifestyle/four-season-truck-camping-in-southern-california

If you read the article you can see in the pictures I used the same tie down system with both the Northstar Laredo and Eagle Cap 800.

The week before Christmas I was driving home from a great camping trip in the anza borrego desert (trip report here http://www.anzaborrego.net/anzaborrego/Forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=694 and was traveling on BLM land road named EC085. I was traveling at approx 25 mph on a straight section of the road, when a strong gust of wind came up and caused the camper to become separated from my truck and rolled over the truck bed rail! The road was also a bit bumpy but not too bad. I had my 6 year old son Brett and 8 year old daughter Brenna in the truck with me. It is a miracle we are all okay. The crazy part of the situation is I did not really feel the truck do a huge sway or anything. It was my daughter in the backseat who said "dad the camper just fell off". Upon further inspection I noticed the cause of the camper becoming separated from the truck was my Wolf Creek was manufactured with a spliced in piece of plywood where the front passenger anchors are installed and this spliced plywood separated from the skirt. When the front tie down became separated I noticed my bumper was tweaked a bit upward and believe the rear tie down became separated by pulling up on my bumper. Before starting to travel on EC085 I called my wife to tell her we were going to stay one more night. Knowing I was about to be driving about 20 miles on a dirt road I specifically checked all my spring loaded turnbuckles to make sure they were nice and hand tight snug. I am fully aware of keeping the turnbuckles hand tight and not using a tool to tighten them down.

Here are some pics from the incident

The spot where I called my wife took a pic and checked the tie downs


The spot where the camper rolled out


My wolf creek in the middle of the desert. Notice the turnbuckle still attached


closer look at splice




My truck








The torn off jack


Underside separation


Nose cap damage


rescued by Dickerson Towing








Moderator edit: Please note, maximum photo width=640.

[Victory402]

You can blame it on the mounts if you want to, but anyone with 1/2 a brain can see that 7 wood screws and seamed plywood aint gonna hold squat. This blows my mind!

[n7bsn]

That is certainly not what people expect of Northwood quality

[Rbertalotto]

Once again...I'm totally amazed at how poorly truck campers are designed and manufactured.......And what we PAY for them!

Sure glad no one was hurt!

[Ski_Pro_3]

If it were me, I'd never even bother with dealing with the camper manufacturer. Your insurance should cover your camper and truck. Let THEM deal with the Wolf Creek folks if they wish.

If you want to kick the can, maybe contact an attorney about the personal injury / civil litigation against WOLF CREEK but life is awful short to be spending time on a long shot.

Only property damage. Nothing money can't fix and that is why there's insurance.

[Francesca_Knowl]

MAN!

Callin' my son right now and telling him to check how the tiedowns are attached to his camper- I'm really shocked that at least from the pics these depended on a few wood screws holding the point of attachment on.

Thanks a lot for the post/pics- sure hope insurance covers everything and glad no one got hurt.

[RamTC]

anutami, thanks for sharing your experience, good to hear that no one was hurt. The only thing I can add is that AF seems to be using the same failed design on the new Wolf Creeks that they were using on the AF's prior to 2005. This type of failure was an issue back then as well. When AF went to the AL frames in 2005, they improved the tie point design by bolting through the new frame, very strong and would tear up TorqLift or HJ mounts before failing. Seems AF needs to re-visit the the Wolf Creek tie points and I think they would want to based on the pics you've provided.

[CREATO]

Holy smokes , glad no one was hurt that's a story your children will never forget.

[Camper_Jeff___K]

I'm reading a post about your truck camper falling off the truck, and the replys are about a furnace, gas lighting, and other non-related topics.

Also, kind of sucks photobucket puts a their watermark over a significant amount of each image. I see lots of screws going through a piece of aluminum box that either pulled out of something or nothing. My old 2000 S&S has had some pretty hard slams and all tiedown points are fine. Rather than the tiedown points pulling out, the hook ends on my turnbuckles  bent straight.  I see no reason to use fastguns or similar over simple turnbuckles. The spring in the fastguns may even allow for acceleration of the TC mass increasing the breakaway force. A solid turnbuckle will not allow that freedom of movement.  I'm sure there will be plenty of expert argument over that suggestion.

The main thing is, you and your family are fine. Any landing you can walk away from as they say. Best wishes on getting a replacement and back on the trail.

[anutami]

Just wanted to give a 10 year update on this topic: LOL!!!

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/CUu2pG7l.jpeg[/IMG]

was looking at new Wolf Creeks today and noticed Northwood definitely fix the issue.  Tie downs are beffier and bolted into the frame. Plus I did not notice any splicing. I currently Have over 500 nights and 10 years going strong in wolfy 2 and starting to look to upgrade.  Its quite hard to swallow the new prices have over doubled since I bought mine.  As well as interest rates. Wow eye opening. Maybe I'll just keep wolfy 2 for another 10 years 😉

[RZAR66]

You should have still bought my Lance 850 when you came to look at it..LOL Glad to see you're still truck camping and Wolfy2 is working out for you. 

[MORSNOW]

My Wolfy is going on its 11th summer camping season this year (2014 WC850SB, delivered in Aug 2013).  We just got home two days ago from a 32 day, 4,278 mile road trip visiting family and friends.  We made a huge loop from our home in Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and back to Idaho.  It's been an awesome camper so far and with Covid and then the huge price hikes, I see myself keeping for a long time.  Some day I'll upgrade to a dually and a larger non-slide camper, but I see this camper in many years of my future if it continues to please.  The only thing that broke on this trip was a small plastic clip that holds the lower refrigerator vent on.  We were subject to tons of crazy winds on this trip and the plastic clip finally had enough I guess.  I caught it on time before losing the entire vent and secured the vent with white gorilla tape, hopefully I can find a replacement clip.  Attached is a pic from our West Yellowstone campsite in a beautiful RV park (super clean restrooms are a must while on long road trips for us).  Love our Wolf Creek!