09 Grandby on 03 F250 CC Shortbed

[MrWindow]

Well, Hi!
I'm a long time lurker and I just registerd to say hi and ask a question.
I am hoping that I will be comming here and sharing my experiances with yall in the future. I will be driving to woodland in the am to meet a gentleman and close a deal on a 09 Grandby and have the FWC guys set it up on my 03 F250 crew cab.

I have read some here on putting a 8' camper on a short bed F250 and really have not found any consensus on whether I really need the tailgate left on or off. For now I will go with on because I have a 5th wheel hitch base and I have to build a small platform for it to put the camper in the truck intially.

I would like to here from the folks who have or had this set up and their insite of how it has worked for them. Good, bad and ugly.
Thanks
Happy camping!
MrW

 

[Mark W. Ingalls]

Welcome to the board Mr. Window.

Does your wife think you're a pane?

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

I would suggest leaving the tail gate "ON" to give the camper some support.

Kind of nice not having to take the tail gate off and finding a storage space for it too.

Sample pictures attached.




.

 

[MrWindow]

Welcome to the board Mr. Window.

Does your wife think you're a pane?


Thanks for the welcome.
If I WAS married she probably would more than she does now.

 

[MrWindow]

I would suggest leaving the tail gate "ON" to give the camper some support.

Kind of nice not having to take the tail gate off and finding a storage space for it too.

Sample pictures attached.




.


Stan
Thanks for the pictures!
I was wondering how it would look.
Maybe I can meet you when I get there.
Mr.W

 

[5444]

Does anyone know what the owners of the above vehicles are doing to lower their spare tire. I read on here that someone was using vice grips and only 2 sections of bar to lower. I was hoping someone came up with a neat trick/easier method. I have not been able to tinker with this yet.

 

[pods8]

I haven't ran into the situation personally but my vote has always been off. Facing down all the time seems like it's be asking to take some abuse on the paint from stuff kicking up. Outside of that though tailgates are only supported via a couple steel cables, which have also been known to corrode/snap over time, I'd personally not want to regularly be driving with it down.

 

[5444]

I wish I could make up my mind on this tailgate on/off issue.

 

[K7MDL]

Put mudflaps on to minimize gravel damage possibility. The bumper blocks most everything though. The support cables are tough and easy to replaced if ever needed.

 

[SLO_F-250]

Put mudflaps on to minimize gravel damage possibility. The bumper blocks most everything though. The support cables are tough and easy to replaced if ever needed.


My vote too. I doubt much debree will get kicked up to the tailgate unless you are hammering down Baja roads alot. And if that is the case I'm jealous. The cables are really strong as well and I wouldn't worry about them.

All in all personally I think it would look a little weird having just the camper sticking out about 2ft with no tailgate. Good Luck, its going to be a sweet setup!

 

[pods8]

The support cables are tough and easy to replaced if ever needed.


Its the unexpected breakage that concerns me. A coworker had his cables corrode under the plastic cover so he didn't know they were weakening, he was sitting on his tailgate and someone else hoped up and the cables let go. The tailgate folded down onto the bumper and put a nice dent/crease in it. Just imagine if it lets go on a bouncy road and combined with the fact you need to tilt it up some to remove it which the camper would be blocking if that actually happened so you'd have to somehow strap it up against the bottom of the camper till you could fix it or remove the camper. Just my preference but I'm also not running something in that configuration.

 

[Smokecreek1]

Does anyone know what the owners of the above vehicles are doing to lower their spare tire. I read on here that someone was using vice grips and only 2 sections of bar to lower. I was hoping someone came up with a neat trick/easier method. I have not been able to tinker with this yet.




5444-no problems lowering my spare on my F150 with the gate down! But it's not a dodge!

Smoke

 

[Smokecreek1]

I agree with Stan-cause that's what they told me to do when I bought my Granby-no problems. Also since it's an F250, will he have to add either air bags or reinforced rear springs like I had to do with my F150!-Just a thought!

Smoke

 

[MrWindow]

5444-no problems lowering my spare on my F150 with the gate down! But it's not a dodge!

Smoke

Being the Boy Scout that I am, (try to always be prepared). I thought I would make sure I could lower said spare tire if needed with the gate down.
No problem , it looks like Ford may have taken this into account and made the rods long enough to clear.

MrW

 

[Desert Rancher]

Its the unexpected breakage that concerns me. A coworker had his cables corrode under the plastic cover so he didn't know they were weakening, he was sitting on his tailgate and someone else hoped up and the cables let go. The tailgate folded down onto the bumper and put a nice dent/crease in it. Just imagine if it lets go on a bouncy road and combined with the fact you need to tilt it up some to remove it which the camper would be blocking if that actually happened so you'd have to somehow strap it up against the bottom of the camper till you could fix it or remove the camper. Just my preference but I'm also not running something in that configuration.


Chevy/GMC had a recall due to that. Have not heard of any other makes affected.
Also, I think someone makes stainless steel cables.

~DR

 

[pods8]

Chevy/GMC had a recall due to that. Have not heard of any other makes affected.
Also, I think someone makes stainless steel cables.

~DR


This was on a 99/00 era dodge.

 

[RicoV]

We have an '11 Grandby mounted on a half-ton '11 Nissan Titan w/ 80" bed. The end of the camper sticks out about 16" or so, doesn't look (too) weird with the end sticking out like that. We've had to leave the tailgate off because of the ridiculous spare tire access problem alluded to in above posts. In its place I'm presently cutting a 60" length of 1"x1" 11-gauge steel angle iron from Ace that I will be mounting along the camper bottom edge immediately below the entry door. I'll paint it white like the camper and then attach the two ends of the angle iron via cabling/turnbuckles to the bolts on the truck bed that would normally hold the front end of the tailgate cables, and cinch up the turnbuckles so its just snug. I'm hoping this will be a reasonable support substitute in lieu of having a tailgate underneath the far rear of the camper, as I'm fairly sure from the FWC forum posts to date that this particular method hasn't yet been attempted. (or if it was and it failed, they didn't want to have to confess to it, haw haw). I'll keep you posted on the results of my 'field tests' after I've had it on for a few months of use. Btw, love the Grandby...