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...just in case anyone was wondering whether all this breaking and fixing and breaking and fixing is really worth it...

You're right, Bad Habit. There will be more (hopefully minor) catastrophes along the road and the end will undoubtedly be a tragic one in a God-forsaken wash in the middle of nowhere. But for now we're looking pretty solid and are ready for another season of seeing where our truck/camper can get...

I'm sure the "10 truck camping pitfalls" were mostly well intentioned and have helped at least a few people avoid trouble; I also expect they've been used on occasion to ridicule some people who've gotten into it, perhaps unfairly or even maliciously. Having said that... - We violate the 3/4...

Oh, and did I mention the skid plates we had installed to protect the gas tank and transfer case while we were at it?

The truck is finally done! Here are some pics of the final repairs/reinforcements: 1) Driver's side exterior plate with turnbuckle mounting point attached 2) Close up of mounting point, welded to the plate 3) Interior plate for passenger's side, under the dinette cushions. We switched to...

Wow, great looking rig! I'd imagine it does pretty well off road. We like our jacks because they really stabilize the camper, especially in the wind. Canyon country can get pretty darn windy when you're parked on a plateau. Even without wind, our 3 year old twins can get the camper bouncing...

So did I. But the metal fabricator thought this would be plenty strong enough, and I have to agree. I don't think the plate will deform, it's just a question of whether the plywood has been weakened far enough away from the hole to give way over a much larger area. If the side wall of the camper...

Ok, finally getting close. Here are some photos of the plates made to repair the blown-out rear turnbuckle mounting points. The first is the front part of the interior (upper) plate on the driver's side. It's 7" wide and about 2 feet long (to ensure the hole is totally covered and the plate is...

Have not heard about timbrens. I suppose if we don't like the ride with air bags and adjustable shocks could consider trying those. The big news is that the fabricator is back at work and the plates are now ordered. We're going with 3/16 inch steel plates 7" wide and about 2' long on the inside...

Looks good. Interior plate should be the key to strength. Plan is to make ours significantly bigger than yours, mostly because of the damaged wood where our original plates pulled through. I'd say you should find some rough roads and see how sturdy the setup is. I can't imagine your pulling...

Rancho 9000s. Turns out we actually have older model Ranchos on the rear end of the truck now, with adjustments set to the lowest/softest level. The prior owner hadn't mentioned the adjustable shocks, and we were too focused on the air bags and tire pressure and turnbuckles to even think about...

I'll post photos of the plates as soon as they're ready to install - the fabricator is working on a backlog of monster trucks and rock crawlers and will be focusing on our relatively modest project when he gets some time in between. I'm sure our plates will be significantly larger than what...

Well, the truck/camper are now in the shop. Plan is to hold off on stableloads and work on dialing in optimal ride through adjustable rear shocks and modulation of pressure in tires and air bags. We are going with steel plates for the turnbuckle mounting points, the new interior plates will...

I seem to be getting more confused rather than less. Although my mechanic's advice to let the rear leaf springs/ overloads do their job as designed (without putting things in to obstruct their movement) makes sense to me, coulter6 and nobueno seem to feel the stableloads (lower and upper...

That's a good question (aluminum vs steel plates) - I'm under the impression that aluminum should be strong enough for the plates, especially with angles to keep them rigid under stress. Bill from Hallmark was in favor of aluminum and I think he's right that they'd be fine, and would have the...

I happened to be talking to my diesel mechanic (who I know pretty well, having bought a diesel truck with194,000 mi on it) and asked about his take on StableLoads. He had a similar view to Bad Habit's, that the StableLoads are not likely to decrease forces to the camper. He said that...

Hmm. As long as drilling holes in the lower overload springs won't cause any problems (can't see that it would) I think it's worth trying the lower StableLoads. They're $325 with free shipping (Amazon Prime) and seem pretty easy to install if you follow drilling instructions carefully, so not a...

Bad Habit, do you have the lower StableLoads too, or just the uppers? Do you think they work to decrease forces transmitted to the camper? There's precious little out there on the internet about StableLoads for rugged 4WD travel with truck/campers. The Torklift tech/engineer I spoke with...

Just spoke with one of the senior engineers at Torklift. He understands our limitations and thinks our plan is reasonable (though obviously he's not very happy about the fact that we can't mount to a structurally robust frame component on the camper). He did recommend getting "StableLoads,"...

The wood seemed to be in good condition (my neighbor who's a contractor and the guy at the shop both agreed); I'd expect it to fail again over a reasonably short period of time if we were to have the camper rebuilt with the same type of plywood, brand new. It's just too thin to do what's asked...

I didn't realize how far the frame mounts stick out to the side. Seems like you could do something like that, but creating a lever arm to torque the jack may not be the best idea. Did you get a chance to look for the interior plates? Seems like a pretty easy modification, with minimal time...

Open Space: We had remarkably little trouble getting home - if you've got two good turnbuckles up front you can get through most anything driving slowly, and freeway speeds on pavement were no problem. I couldn't enlarge your truck/camper photo to see what you've got, but looks like a Guanella...

Bad Habit, The passenger-side mounting plate was under the carpeting in the back of the dinette seating (under the window along the side wall about 6 inches in front of the "wall" between the dinette seat and the rear cabinet - may be a toilet in that cabinet in some campers). The heads of the...

Jack brackets would be much stronger rear mounting points than our plate system (which is on plenty of Guanellas and other campers). Unfortunately, the boxy rear construction of our camper with exterior storage cabinets and camper tail lights (made to fit the Guanella onto short bed trucks)...

I just spent some time inspecting the camper structure further and discovered that the dinette bench surface is continuous with the floor in the back of the passenger-side closet and the and floor of the under-stove cabinet is continuous with the floor of the refrigerator cabinet (in the back...