are these units really tough enough?

[HERR42]

i am inches away from buying a new hawk to put on my f250 super duty crew cab. i must admit that when i read gvitek's baja hole thread i get a bit worried. the "prime" reasoning for the FWC is to continue to permit the use of the 4wd truck off road. we never use developed camp sites. washboarded roads are quite the normal thing as are long drives on other bad roads.
it bothers me that the hold downs are placed into wood and not the aluminum frame.
maybe campers in general are a bit more delicate than we would like to believe? i have bottomed out the ford a few times...especially going over rocks.
opinions?

 

[craig333]

I wouldn't plan on doing the Baja 1000 and expect it to stay on. That said, most or all of us go offroad to some extent. I can't say I am exactly gentle on mine and I haven't had any cause for worry.

 

[b team]

They are good for what they are but don't expect to run speeds like an offroad baja race truck when you have your camper on. I have to slow down a lot and handling sucks vs. not having 1000# or so in the bed of the truck.


Like NCF said you can modify weak spots. I'd recommend spending thousands of dollars on getting a quality long travel suspension for your truck to make the ride better. Better truck suspension means more mph off pavement.

 

[DirtyDog]

I think like most things, FWCs are tough units but they have their limits. There probably isn't a better truck-top alternative. Simple precautions like NCF suggested will probably get you where you need to go.

 

[Brian]

Suspension...

We had 2 more leaves put in our spring packs on the Mazda before our recent trip to Central America and it was money well invested. The truck soaked up the topes in Mexico. Our truck is dedicated to the camper though and I am sure that it would give a terrible ride with the camper off. We were able to drive some amazingly bad roads in Guatemala with nothing more than the "tope mix" in the camper. "Tope Mix" being what we call the pile of belongings on the floor everytime we open the back door. Mostly clothes that were hanging on the clothes hooks before we hit the topes and anything that isn't tied or fastened down. I have a set of straps that hold the storage bins in on bad road.
Brian

 

[Hayduke]

Are they tough enough?

Just FYI, I've absolutely beat my shell model circa 1995. I have had one eyebold crack some of the wood around it trying to 'break on through to the other side'. I removed it, backed it up w/ 1/2 plate of aluminum, used wood filler and epoxy around the damage and have had no further problems. Some of the roads I've been on would have shaken a wood frame camper to bits, I think.
Good Luck

 

[benburnett]

eye bolts

Over the years I have never seen an eye bolt pull out like that. I just recently came across a camper that actually broke on eye bolt on the camper but it didn't pull through like that.

Some simple plates like NCF suggested should work fine. Ask FWC to put them in when they build the camper. It would be a bit of problem to do after the fact.