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violetta

violetta

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Joined
Mar 3, 2010
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We started shopping around for a 70s  overhead camper that could use as our "house"  for the next 6 months or so.

We're looking at a few models and  hit a brick wall realizing we can't  figure out what the heck components you need to get a camper to stay on your pickup.  Every seller we spoke to has some different thing to say as to how to get it strapped on, and now, we're confused.

Tie Downs, Happijacks, etc.  What does it all mean?
 
We have a F250 Superduty Longbed (basic cab). 

We have these four little metal "loops" inside the bed.... are those the tie downs?  Do we get straps for those?  Do we have to use long metal bars like we've seen on Google? 

I am posting a photo on here - we have two in the back of the bed as well in their respective places.  Please let us know what we have to do, because google only pointed us to some very expensive parts and having the overhead fly off would be a nightmare.

My humblest thanks!



 

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what the dealers are trying to sell you is what you need, to safely hual your camper. i find they are all extremely over priced, so i built my own.  bassicaly its a belly bar that mounts to the underside of your truck directly to the frame to secure the unit to the truck. you will need these at the front as well as the back of you truck box. you do not want to secure your camper to the box in event af a rollover the camper could rip the truck bex right of the frame.
 
Welcome to the Forum. Lots of knowledgable folks here so you should get some answers to your camper question. Never had bigger than a shell on our trucks so can't help.

Wendy
 
Happijack has developed a solution that attempts to solve all the problems of safely securing a camper to the truck frame (not just the bed). I don't know if they are the best or cheapest, but I think a newbie would not go far wrong with choosing the solution they recommend.

http://www.rvstuffusa.com/tiedownsystemsforcamperframemountbyhappijac.html

I don't have any practical experience with truck campers, just observation of rigs & equipentowned by others, so will yield the floor to those who do.
 
Your camper is sitting on what is essentially a 4'x8' piece of plywood in the truck's bed.  You need to fasten it to the truck in a more substantial manner so it doesn't bounce when going over bumps, doesn't lean over while turning or when hit by wind, etc.

It looks like Happijack has done their homework - look at the explanation of the forces acting on your camper on their webpage.
 
It's never a good idea to tie a truck camper to the bed. Sure it'll "probably" work but you aren't going to be happy with the results. Some type of frame connection is much better. There are a few manufacturers that make frame mount systems. Yes, they are expensive but expensive is always relative. How much is your life or someone elses' worth?
 
Thanks for the help!

You have to understand that no one bothered to explain that to us with the hopes that we'd just buy their camper and have our own problems later.  We had no clue if it were going to be strapped on the bed, to the frame, etc.  No one mentioned Happijacks or the costs associated with those.  They just led us on to believe it just gets thrown into the bed, strapped in somehow, and voila!

...so now we're looking at another $300+ to just set up a dirty camper that already requires a lot of cleaning, gutting, and remodeling with only weeks left to get to my job in Washington, and I'm glad we learned that now; we'll sleep in a basic camper shell instead.  Save the money and suffer now, but come October, we'll have that Dually and that real deal RV, and then I'll be back with questions as to how on the heck we get those things hooked up and around corners. :p


The information was invaluable; saved us from making a big mistake before a cross country move.  Thank you so much guys.
 
A financial disaster was in fact prevented, that I can tell you!

We're up between one of two things - do we get the 28 (or so) footer or the truck first?  It would more or less be parked in the same place once we work out a deal with a national forest, rv park, or land owners in WA. 

If our '03 F250 Superduty can handle the initial getting it where it needs to go, we have time to save for the truck.  We live a cash lifestyle, so it makes getting both at once damn near impossible.  The truck costs 2x more than the campers we've looked at as well through some RV dealership sites. 

I suppose the way to go about that would be to look into the manufacturer's specs on the F250?  It would make things 100000% easier on us to get the camper/trailer first, but that doesn't mean that it is safe or can be done. 

Any ideas?  Can someone help me differentiate the different RV name types too - I find myself more or less referring to everything as a camper and I'm sure its getting annoying! :-[   

 
[quote author=violetta]Can someone help me differentiate the different RV name types too - I find myself more or less referring to everything as a camper...[/quote]

See our illustrated guide to RV types here. You might also want to take a peek at our Glossary of RV Terms (click the Glossary link above).
 
Thanks,Tom.  It is a travel trailer that I now speak of, so it would make sense to move this conversation out of the Truck Camper category at this point.
 
violetta said:
A financial disaster was in fact prevented, that I can tell you!

We're up between one of two things - do we get the 28 (or so) footer or the truck first?  It would more or less be parked in the same place once we work out a deal with a national forest, rv park, or land owners in WA. 

If our '03 F250 Superduty can handle the initial getting it where it needs to go, we have time to save for the truck.  We live a cash lifestyle, so it makes getting both at once damn near impossible.  The truck costs 2x more than the campers we've looked at as well through some RV dealership sites. 

I suppose the way to go about that would be to look into the manufacturer's specs on the F250?  It would make things 100000% easier on us to get the camper/trailer first, but that doesn't mean that it is safe or can be done. 

Any ideas?  Can someone help me differentiate the different RV name types too - I find myself more or less referring to everything as a camper and I'm sure its getting annoying! :-[ 
Click to expand...

It is difficult to imagine that there are any 28' TTs that can't be pulled a short distance by an F250.

You'll need a proper WD hitch and a brake controller.

I use a '97 K2500 to pull my 30' trailer.
 
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