Tie down question.

I am wondering if anybody has ever tried using the bottom bolt hole on the jack mount as a point to connect a tie down turnbuckle. I have a Happijack on my truck and will use exterior turnbuckles. My old Keystone had anchors in all four corners. My new Grandby does not. I don’t see why I couldn’t attach a small plate to the bottom bolt that extends an inch or two below and connect that with a quick link.

Any flaws in this design idea?

I've witnessed it done repeatedly. Good luck.

I would assume that the best persons to answer that question would be the people that designed and built the camper...FWC.

Need to know the structural integrity and strength requirements for such a tie down point.

Just my WAG and I could be wrong...

I have Aluminess bumpers on my Tacoma and use turnbuckles that run from the Rear jack plates to the bumper. It’s a far better attachment than the system FWC uses.

From a security perspective, I believe your fine. It would however be something to catch on brush and rocks close to the track.

I use the fwd jack plates, with a length of chain and a tunrbuckle down to a plate I fabricated. I also have up graded turnbuckles installed as per the FWC standard set up. Might be overkill, but also peace of mind.

I think I got this figured out. I found some shackles at NAPA, drilled them out to 5/8 and pressed in some bushings. I had do a bit of grinding so they would sit flat where they are close to the welds on the jack. The fronts seem to work well. The rear does not have enough of an angle to hold the turnbuckle far enough from the jack. I removed the jack for now and will find some way to keep them from rubbing.

Just read Karlton’s thread about keeping jacks on while traveling. My parents never took their jacks off and always used them to stabilize at camp. So I guess that was my thought process.

I never thought about the risk of damage to the camper if they get hit or hit something. I decided to pull them all tonight and only use them to remove the camper.

This leaves all four corners open to connect turnbuckles.

I suppose if one wanted to use the camper jacks for leveling the camper on the road, they could be carried in the camper bed on either side of the camper. One would probably want to carry a rechargeable drill motor to put on and remove the fasteners.

But that seems like a lot of hassle vs carrying some wood blocks to drive up on to level the camper.

I guess the sensibility of the carrying the jacks might depend on if you are sojourning or moving around a lot.

Craig

Woogybugger said:

I am wondering if anybody has ever tried using the bottom bolt hole on the jack mount as a point to connect a tie down turnbuckle. I have a Happijack on my truck and will use exterior turnbuckles. My old Keystone had anchors in all four corners. My new Grandby does not. I don’t see why I couldn’t attach a small plate to the bottom bolt that extends an inch or two below and connect that with a quick link.

Any flaws in this design idea?

Click to expand...

Here's what I did with eye bolts (my main goal was to anchor a foldable solar panel):

The simple process of removing the lower jack plate mounting bolts and re-tightening them caused the lag screw to strip out. The wood material at the corners is not what I consider to be sound or very strong. I replaced the relatively short lags with longer ones and very gingerly tightened them down. No way would I attempt to use the corner plates for tie-downs. I don't run with the jacks on for obvious reasons (safety, obstruction) and would will be very mindful of the jack plates whenever I remove the camper from the truck.

Cuervo is right- I have been working on substantial framing issues on my old FWC- it started when I had to replace a rotted floor under the heater. When I pulled the interior paneling I saw that my jacks had been installed exactly as Cuervo sez: 3/4 plywood slats that were the terminus for the lag bolts run through the aluminum framing that were holding the jack brackets. Many of those lags were getting quite sloppy so I replaced about 1/2 the lags with 3/8 thru bolts and washers. To be fair its a 31 year old unit..... But I think ,as a tie down mount, my big eye bolts located 10" above the floor. run through an extra 1/2 ply backing and then thru 5/16 aluminum angle [also screwed into the ply] is a much beefier solution.

Having done major repairs on my jack mounts, I wouldn't recommend them for tie downs. Like GoodMack says, they strip out pretty easily.

I had many stripped, broken, loose and otherwise screwed up bolts, probably caused by a previous owner with a fat tired truck and insufficient backing skills! Mine ('04 Hawk) didn't have plywood in them, although I did think about a hardwood strip as a possible fix.



My jack bracket repair story here.