Eyebolts pulling truck bed apart

[b team]

The R/front eye bolt has pulled the bed apart. It has pulled the bed up about 3" and separated from the sides of the bed. The l/front eyebolt is just starting to pull the bed apart.

I could hammer the bed back down and maybe add some metal on the underside to make it a little stronger but think mounting the camper directly to the frame would be much better.

I'm wondering if anybody has some ideas on how to do this? Use some angle steel and make something? What do you think?

this is on a ford ranger

 

[brett13]

Search the forum. I recall LQ fabricated a nice mounting system using the bed bolts which go into the frame. There are lots pics on that thread too.

 

[b team]

thanks. i should have figured LQ was already on it.

 

[EdoHart]

Man that really sucks!

I've done some serious 4x4 driving and haven't had a single problem with the eye bolts in the bed of my truck, which raises the question - how did you mount the eye bolts in your truck?

The damage has already been done to your truck and copying lqhikers mount may be the best bet. I'm including the following description for the benefit of others who may mount their own eye bolts.

I used 1/2" diameter, galvanized, shoulder, eye bolts with 2" square, 1/8" thick, galvanized washers on the top and bottom of the truck bed. Because the corrugation of the ribs in my truck are less than 2" wide, I was careful to select a location in the middle of a corrugation rib, then I used a grinder to trim the 2" washers such that all the mating surfaces between the washers and the truck bed were flat and smooth. That is, I placed the top washer in a valley of the corrugation, trimmed a little of the left and right of the washer such that when it sat in the corrugation valley, the bottom, and both sides of the washer were flat with the truck bed's corrugation. I'm sorry I don't have pictures but in ascii art it looks like this:

Top washers before grinding/fitting.
      _______
     |_______|

Top washers after grinding/fitting.
      _______
      \_____/

Truck bed corrugation.
 _____       _____
/     \_____/     \

After that, I painted the truck bed steel exposed by the drill with a rust inhibiting paint. I used the same paint on the top washers which I had ground to fit. I finished it with an unmodified 2" square, 1/8 thick galvanized, flat washer on the bottom and a galvanized nut and lock washer.

As far as where to place the truck bed eye bolts, more can be found at http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1009

 

[benburnett]

Bed Fix

The easy fix is to hammer the bed back down and get someone you know to weld it back together. Then put some steel plates 1/4" thick under the bottom side about 4" square and it should solve the problem. We started doing the plates back in the late 90's because we had a T-100 pull a bed apart and after using the plates we never had another bed problem.

 

[chnlisle]

Ben nailed it. My old T100 pulled apart using washers only. I started using quarter inch aluminum plate and problem solved. You do need to take care not to over tighten the turn buckles.

 

[b team]

You do need to take care not to over tighten the turn buckles.

And keeping all 4 wheels on the ground

Mine was installed at the factory in 2003. No plates were used. I'll take a look at the bed this weekend and fix it.

 

[LAWNMOWERMAN]

I also have a T100 and had the corners of my bed pull out.The flaw with putting eyebolts in the front bed corners of a T100 is the bed construction itself.The corners are put in with pinch welds and these welds will pull apart and let the corners pull up and seperate from the bedsides.I took 2 pieces of 4"x3/8 flatstock welded them to gether to form a right angle and bolted it to the floor and the front bedwall.I welded a gusset down the center and drilled a 1" hole in it thus eliminating the need for an eyebolt in the front bed corners.

 

[pvstoy]

OMG

Did all four pull out? and what was the damage? Got a friend here with a T-100 / FWC Hawk and will pass this post on to him.

 

[LAWNMOWERMAN]

I lucked out.The only damage was a little rip in the screen door.The eyebolts pulled the bed corners up after a hard day of 4wheeling.After a bumpy washout it bounced around and the turnbuckles let loose.The rear eyebolts were ok but I have reinforced them also.Luckily there were plenty of people around to help out and get it back on the truck.One guy had a couple ratchet straps that I used to hold the camper on for the 2 hours of bumpy trails to get out to the pavement.

 

[SunMan]

That is amazing there was so little damage. Wow. You are one lucky man!

 

[b team]

OMG lawnmower... That is my worst nightmare!

 

[benburnett]

Turnbuckles

One thing to mention since most folks are second or third owners or didn't pay attention when they bought the camper. When you put your turn buckles on, hand tighten them and then put a stubby screw driver in them and tighten another 1/2 to full turn AND STOP. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN THE TURNBUCKLES.

Myself, I hand tighten them and go one turn with the screwdriver and that is it. I drove the last camper 3100 miles and the turnbuckles never loosened up on me.

For you folks that can bench 250 pounds, a 1/2 turn is probably good.

 

[craig333]

Wow. I"m going to go out crawl under my truck and make sure everything looks good after seeing that. Glad you had minimal damage.

 

[pvstoy]

What bed surface?

Hey Lawnmowerman....

When the camper slid off...was your bed bare metal, spray in liner, or plastic bed liner.

Just want to know what you had. I'm thinking a spay in liner would hold more friction and would have to bounce out instead of sliding out.

Ben thanks for the tips on turn buckles.

 

[EdoHart]

Horrible feeling

I can't imagine the horrible feeling you had when the camper left the bed of the truck on the side of a hill. I'm glad the damage was minimal and you were able to drive it out of there.

After reading some of the other comments I began to wonder if the problem was a difference in the bed construction. It sounds like it may be but then, I've never had wheels of the ground while carrying the camper.

 

[LAWNMOWERMAN]

I have a plastic bed liner and use a piece of 3/4 plywood to lift the camper up a little to clear the drain valve.If I had a spray in liner it may not have slid out.Allthough it might have rolled out over the side!I beat my truck up pretty good that day.Believe me it will not happen again.I did notice that the eyebolts were pulling up a bit and I would tighten the turnbuckles but when the pinch welds riped apart there was no more tightening.As I said earlier, on the T100 the front bed corners are pinch welded in.I have looked in other truck beds and have not seen the same construction.

 

[pvstoy]

Thanks.....I have mine bolted through the camper/bed and with metal plates on both sides to spread the pulling force out, and I have a spray in liner.

I know what you mean about tough roads/trails. When it is that bad she gets out and walks and most of the time faster. But I put her to work spotting. A couple of times even though it was pouring rain she still got out and said "If you are going to die you are doing it alone."

 

[lqhikers]

eye bolt faluire

After reading post on losing camper due to bolt breakage I would suggest doing as i did and adding a second set of tie downs as i have posted,(frame mounted)this is for hard core off road use,not all fwc/atc campers would require this but there is always the few that try the harder trail.Even if you only used the nylon rachet tie downs(tying camper jack brackets to frame) when hard core 4 wheeling you would save a lot of trouble!Just my 2 cents worth,been there had that experience!(sorry i can not refer to my posts on subject as i still can not absorb how to attach link to post!)drive slow and enjoy "its the journey"

 

[pvstoy]

Link for LQHikers

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/showthread.php?t=654

Is this the one you wanted linked???