Bolting A Slide in FWC Hawk to a Flatbed Questions...

So Cal Adventurer · Jun 16, 2019

Hey All

I am in the process of converting my 2014 Tundra DC to a scratch built flatbed and mounting my 2018 Hawk Front Dinette to it permanently.

Fabricator friend is going to be building this flatbed from 100% scratch and completely custom for my needs.

Since it will be 100% custom built, we will be bolting the camper directly to the flatbed with custom mounts and eliminating the turn buckles.

He asked me where in the camper would be the best place to bolt through, and how many bolts are needed. Honestly, i have no idea! Hahahaha

I see lots of campers bolted to bed that seem to be done to accommodate things under the bed that may be in the way.

If doing this all from scratch, is there a best place to place the bolts? 4 sufficient? 6?

Ideally would be to have them all hidden in the cabinets or cargo access areas for the turnbuckles.

Any input from the experts?

Also, any pics of slide ins mounted on flatbeds are welcome for motivation and ideas!

I'll start a build thread once we actually get rolling on it!

THANKS

longhorn1 · Jun 16, 2019

So Cal Adventurer said:
Hey All

I am in the process of converting my 2014 Tundra DC to a scratch built flatbed and mounting my 2018 Hawk Front Dinette to it permanently.

Fabricator friend is going to be building this flatbed from 100% scratch and completely custom for my needs.

Since it will be 100% custom built, we will be bolting the camper directly to the flatbed with custom mounts and eliminating the turn buckles.

He asked me where in the camper would be the best place to bolt through, and how many bolts are needed. Honestly, i have no idea! Hahahaha

I see lots of campers bolted to bed that seem to be done to accommodate things under the bed that may be in the way.

If doing this all from scratch, is there a best place to place the bolts? 4 sufficient? 6?

Ideally would be to have them all hidden in the cabinets or cargo access areas for the turnbuckles.

Any input from the experts?

Also, any pics of slide ins mounted on flatbeds are welcome for motivation and ideas!

I'll start a build thread once we actually get rolling on it!

THANKS

Seems that is a question for FWC as I'm guessing 99% of the flat beds are installed by FWC in Woodland or at the distributors.

Wango · Jun 16, 2019

FWIW,
My ATC flatbed camper is held on by 5 bolts, two of them are accessed through the propane tank openings, one is in a small cabinet,
two of them are in the open area in the rear of the camper. Takes me about 30 minutes to get them out, mainly due to the height of my bed. Not sure of the size of the bolts, but they are fairly large but not overly so.
w

So Cal Adventurer · Jun 16, 2019

longhorn1 said:
Seems that is a question for FWC as I'm guessing 99% of the flat beds are installed by FWC in Woodland or at the distributors.

Yeah.. I agree.. but Stan and others often view this forum and respond so I figure asking here might help others too

So Cal Adventurer · Jun 16, 2019

Wango said:
FWIW,
My ATC flatbed camper is held on by 5 bolts, two of them are accessed through the propane tank openings, one is in a small cabinet,
two of them are in the open area in the rear of the camper. Takes me about 30 minutes to get them out, mainly due to the height of my bed. Not sure of the size of the bolts, but they are fairly large but not overly so.
w

Thanks

nevaska · Jun 16, 2019

My Eagle is bolted in using (4) 3/8" grade 8 bolts, size recommended by FWC.

veryactivelife · Jun 16, 2019

Our Hawk flatbed has 4 bolts, located in each corner more or less, with backing plates inside and out. After 4 years and 48,000 miles all is well and I've only found them needing tightening once. Someone in this forum posted about asking for 6, not sure who that was, perhaps he'll chime in.

Cheers,
Dean

So Cal Adventurer · Jun 16, 2019

nevaska said:
My Eagle is bolted in using (4) 3/8" grade 8 bolts, size recommended by FWC.

Thanks

So Cal Adventurer · Jun 16, 2019

veryactivelife said:
Our Hawk flatbed has 4 bolts, located in each corner more or less, with backing plates inside and out. After 4 years and 48,000 miles all is well and I've only found them needing tightening once. Someone in this forum posted about asking for 6, not sure who that was, perhaps he'll chime in.

Cheers,
Dean

Thanks

kmacafee · Jun 17, 2019

I have a Bundutec camper mounted on a flatbed. When I was deciding how to mount it, I kept thinking how tough it will be to align several relatively small bolt holes between the camper and flatbed. I opted to use Torklift tiedowns mounted from the camper jack brackets to the flatbed on the outside 4 corners. The camper has never moved and taking the camper on and off is super easy.

Andy Douglass · Jun 17, 2019

Definitely a question for FWC. It might not matter where a FWC flatbed model is bolted since you have a slide-in. The flat bed model might have reinforced areas that do not exist in your camper. If it was me and I couldn't get a satisfactory answer, I would design the flat bed to have raised boxes to mimic bedrails so that the turnbuckle locations could be used for through bolt mounting, as you know those locations are designed to handle the dynamic load that you are dealing with.

rando · Jun 18, 2019

There aren't specific locations for the flatbed bolts to go - just where ever they work with the layout of the camper and the structure of the flatbed. On my Fleet flatbed there are four M12 bolts (I insisted on metric) with nylock nuts and fender washers that are hidden in the cabinetry near the four corners of the camper. If you intend on taking this on and off frequently, I would install rivnuts or threaded plates in the flatbed so you only need access from inside the camper to bolt it down. You could also add a coupe of alignment aids ( eg fixed pins on the bottom of the camper and unthreaded holes in the flatbed) to help align the two together.

Be thoughtful in your flatbed build - even with aluminium it is easy to add even more weight to an already heavy setup.

So Cal Adventurer · Jun 23, 2019

Thanks All

I spoke to Aaron at FWC. He was very helpful.

I was kind of surprised/revealed that when they bolt slide ins down instead of the turnbuckles, there is not formula or specific spot they use to do it. He just said to make sure it went through the slats on the bottom of the floor frame. I will look closer at this when we take it all apart.

Closer inspection and brainstorming, i am going to do the bolt through, and the turnbuckles for extra measure, since it will distribute the load a little more evenly.

Bolting A Slide in FWC Hawk to a Flatbed Questions...

So Cal Adventurer

Senior Member

longhorn1

Ouch, that stings!

Wango

Contributors

So Cal Adventurer

Senior Member

So Cal Adventurer

Senior Member

nevaska

Member

veryactivelife

Senior Member

So Cal Adventurer

Senior Member

So Cal Adventurer

Senior Member

kmacafee

Senior Member

Andy Douglass

Senior Member

rando

Senior Member

So Cal Adventurer

Senior Member

Similar threads - WTW

New posts - WTW