Camper Mounting Bed Damage

[NateL]

I have a 2012 FWC Eagle in a 2019 Ford Ranger. Setup worked great for a year before I noticed that the steel of the bed is starting to tear down by the tailgate. Seems only to be happening in the rear. Camper tie downs are eye bolts with plate washer underneath. Has anyone seen this before or any ideas on how to reinforce the bed so it doesn't happen again?

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Welcome to the cult.
Bot that doesn't look good.
Does the Ranger have a aluminum bed?
I would think the plates would help that issue.
Hope you find a fix.
Frank

 

[CoreyTrevor]

Trucks that I've had have had kind of U-shaped channel pieces running crosswise under the bed, that mount the bed to the frame. Usually a number of them from front to back. I could see where they are by spot welds in the bed floor. I've put the eye bolts through that channel piece. Then you are pulling on something stronger than the bed sheet metal, and the force goes more directly into the frame. You can also use a piece of channel steel to spread the load even more.

I don't know if your truck has channel pieces like that, or if they are in places where you can use them.

 

[fish more]

You need to have the bed repaired and welded by a body shop. Then get some plates to mount under truck bed to prevent what happened. Also make sure you do not over tighten.

 

[Vic Harder]

I'm puzzled by how far away the crack is from the eyebolt. Spreading the load with bigger backing plates won't fix whatever was causing a crack that far away....

 

[Taku]

I agree with Vic. Unless that is an end of a piece of channel that is pulling up from the eyebolt, it seems like an odd place to have a crack forming.

 

[NateL]

The crack is starting right at where the metal turns the corner and propagates our from there. It seems like all that stress is concentrating right there. I don’t think I’ve over tightened the turn buckle.

A local body shop suggested welding the bed back together then sliding in some “S” shaped brackets underneath between the bed support rails and the frame. The eye bolts would then be pulling on the bed metal and frame. I’m not wild about this as the bed will then be shimmed up the thickness of the bracket.

I like the simplicity of a larger washer/plate under the existing camper eyebolt, but I’m not convinced the problem wont come back once the bed is repaired.

 

[NateL]

Also it appears to be the sheet metal that forms the bed is pulling away from the support channel. The support channel appears to be fine.

 

[Andy Douglass]

When I first looked at the pictures, I thought that the rear of the bed was somehow higher than it should be, and the dynamic weight of the camper concentrating on that one spot had led to the crack. But when I look closer at the first pic with the camper installed, it looks like the eyebolt is pulling that corner of the bed up. Even if you aren't overtightening, if the area where the bolts is mounted isn't strong enough, the camper could start to pull at that corner over time and vibration. I could also see that happening if you hit a really big pothole or rut, the kind that kind that gives you a headache.

We've had our Hawk in two trucks, a 1/2 ton and a 3/4 ton and gone over some pretty rough forest roads and 10s of thousands of highway miles and have had no issues like that. We always have had either a stall mat or a purpose built rubber bed mat under the camper, but that wouldn't help if the eyebolt mounting area is weak.

 

[Vic Harder]

Also it appears to be the sheet metal that forms the bed is pulling away from the support channel. The support channel appears to be fine.

Nate, what's the distance from the eyebolt to the back of the truck bed where the crack started?
Also, do you have a pic of the underneath area, to show how the bed is pulling away from the support channel? If it is pulling away, then bolting through the support channel may have real value.

 

[Oilbrnr]

If the factory tie downs are accessible, use them. That's what they are designed for, especially on modern beds.

 

[Adventurebound]

If your handy with a torch/grinder start by fabing up larger backing plates first. In my opinion the ones from the factory are too small and do not distribute the load over a large enough area of the bed and will start pulling through the metal. I have the other post with this same issue and the larger plates have seemed to have fixed this...for now.

 

[WjColdWater]

You need to have the bed repaired and welded by a body shop. Then get some plates to mount under truck bed to prevent what happened. Also make sure you do not over tighten.

This ^^^^^.

 

[makalutoo]

Tacoma's with composite beds have cradles that the camper mounts to that are tied into the frame. You could fab something like that up or figure out a way to mount eye-bolts to the frame and tie the camper directly into those.

 

[robcocquyt]

I had the same thing happen on my Ram 1500. I had the install done at an authorized FWC dealer / installer and was a little disappointed when I noticed that the tie down was installed in the sheet metal rather than the cross member. I'm sure the sheet metal is "almost" good enough in most cases but when I reinstall my tie-down in my new truck, I'm certainly going to be going through the cross members directly. Those spot welds are a weak link when it comes to an upwards pull (i.e when going over a speed bump a little too quickly.

 

[camper rich]

https://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/19746-backing-plates-pulling-through-truck-bed/

 

[Jon R]

That looks like the bolt and backing plate are pulling up on bed floor causing bending at the location of the crack, I suspect fhe crack was started by bending stresses causing fatigue and not by overload in shear. The bed is too flexible for the usual FWC mounting method. Any repair of the sheet metal without stopping the flexing will likely crack again just beyond the repair. A bigger backing plate probably won’t help. As others have suggested, you need to transmit the bolt loads to stronger structure and stop the flexing of the bed floor.