Camper Tie Down Attachment Point UPDATE

The camper has been on the truck for some time now and seen quite a bit of road miles across a varied topography and been in positions that have undoubtedly placed stress and strain on the attachment points.  I am glad to say that the design behind the structural compound filled pockets lapped over and beneath with 1708 biaxial cloth have created a structurally sound connect.  You can see the initial design and construction here  and the reinforcement of the system with 1708 biaxial cloth overlay here.

The eyebolts purchased from McMaster are serving me well.  After several months, a check of all the attachment points are seemingly doing fine.

The HappiJac camper tie downs mounted on the truck cab are doing well although they are digging into the truck bed some, thus cracking the paint job and deforming the metal ever so slightly.  The deformation is minor at this point.  I did not install a torsion bar between the bed mounted tie downs.  Being my truck is an older model, I'm not overly concerned.  However, if I had a newer model truck I suppose installing the torsion bar in conjunction with the plates might have been a good idea.  The torsion bar is supposed to prevent that 'digging in' from occurring.  Mind you...'my camper is even lighter than all commercial units', so I would certainly use the torsion bar tie-in if I were carrying one of those manufactured units in my truck bed.

Those Stainless Steel HappiJac Turnbuckles are everything individuals claimed them to be and a little more.  They are extra durabable and have not given me any problems, they stay tight and the inner springs work as the manufacturer claimed.  You can occasionally hear the spring as it is being compressed and relaxed, in select topographies.  No bother to me...means it working.  Load your back and you just might croak every now and again as well 😂

 

1/4" thick fender washers underneath and 5/16" thick flat iron plates sit on top of the reinforced area in the interior. 

 

 

Months of driving and no movement, the reinforced fiberglass area is holding up as planned. To see the structural fiberglass mixture recipe which was used to reinforce this region for the bolt-throughs.  The pockets were cut and filled, wrapped in 7-8 ounce cloth, layered with 1708 biaxial cloth on top (both on exterior and interior), both interior and exterior recieved a little more lamination as corners of panels were lain (as seen in photo above)...you can see the wrap.  Eyebolts protrude through a 5/16" thick plate on the interior, another 1/4" thick structure washer and possess two nuts.