Monday, June 18, 2012

Deciding on Camper Tie Down System

I have been brainstorming the methods and means of how I could anchor the truck camper in the bed of my pickup.  I thought of engineering some type of custom connection; but simply do not have the time currently to delve into greater depths in that department. 

I know my camper dry weight is going to be significantly lighter than any manufactured unit currently found in the US.  However, I still needed to account for yaw, roll, lateral and longitudinal movements of the camper.  I began looking at a few different systems available:
  1. Torklift system
  2. Happi Jac tie downs
  3. Brophy Stake Pocket tie downs 

I really like the Torklift system for it's engineering design thought and their usage of pre-existing factory drilled bolt holes in the chassis for mounting.  Torklift excels in the field but the entire system is just a bit overkill and unsightly for what I am trying to achieve.

There is even an amazing story (when on page - scroll down, story w/ pics) of a guy that was hunting sheep in Washington and accidentally drove his truck off the side of a steep cut and his camper remained in the truck during the rollover, which was using Torklift tie downs.  The tie down system was even used as a connection point by the wrecker crew retrieving the truck.

Happi Jac camper tie downs seem to fit the bill for what the weight that i am dealing with.  Must drill fresh holes through the front truck bed wall and bumper to mount the brackets. Not a deal breaker.  Simple enough but very strong once installed.  Sounds like my winner. 

Initially I didn't feel comfortable with the the thought of using the Happi Jac tie downs without their torsion bar.  The torsion bar when used, runs horizontally across the face of the truck bed front wall, nestled between the bed wall and the cab.  Each end of it is sandwiched inside the black plated tie downs.  Many claim they have used the Happi Jac Tie Down plates successfully for much heavier campers and never used the addition of the torsion bar. 

I did run across some individual camper owners online which had sustained truck bed damage at the location of their plates, created during traveling with their camper.  But once again, they were carrying the large, much heavier, manufactured slide-ins.  I did not obtain the make or style of their plates or whether or not they made them.  The variable of whether or not a torsion bar was part of their tie-down systems did not come up and the posts didn't provide me with any clues regarding. 

I do worry about wind shear due to the lighter weight of my camper design.  This has long been the big issue with the Indy cars given their relatively lighter weights.  I plan on designing the camper with the cabover portion hugging relatively close to the top of the cab to minimize lift and design the nose of the camper with slant to increase downward pressure on the camper.  

The third tie down I ran across are the  Truck Stake Pocket Tie Downs  which I didn't even know existed but they are mostly used with lighter pop up truck style campers.

Some of the main choices I found.

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Chris