First Re-mount Fleet - Advice?

[Fishbird Road]

Greetings from this new member. FWC Woodland installed new 2016 Fleet on my 2016 Tacoma DCLB in early Nov. I've been reading here for 6 months; thanks to all for all I've learned!

I removed the camper last week for the experience and to use truck for other duties. Found a front attachment bolt loose and bracket "sprung" over 1/2 inch above bed. Doubt this was a factory oversight, seems installer would have seen when the link was installed. Might explain small gap seen between front camper bumper and front of bed; also a couple instances of loosened turnbuckle? All is tight now. Is this cause for concern?

I plan to reinstall camper next week (Gulp!). It's on jacks on smooth level concrete floor, but truck access from outside is rough and frozen, approach is a bit dicey. But rear wheels will be on concrete when camper is lowered. I plan to put cardboard under jack feet so it can nudged a bit. Questions: can the camper be moved a bit once it's down on the pad in the bed? How close to perfect before weight goes off jacks? Any other words from the wise? Thanks!

 

[BFH4N]

Nothing to be afraid of. I've only done it a few times, but my confidence now is much higher than the first time. Just take it slowly. It really helps to have a helper who can watch at the back and direct the driver. The hard part is getting the truck lined up straight with the camper. The jacks are pretty wobbly, so you can push the camper around a bit, but you have to hold it in that position while you lower it. Annother helper might make this more feasable. Also, as you've figured out, you can nudge the jack feet around on a smooth surface.

The weight of the camper compresses the truck springs as it is lowered, so you don't have to transfer all of the weight at once. There will be a point where there is enough weight on the truck so that the camper stays where you put it, but you can still shove it around in the bed. Find that point, move the camper into position by flexing or sliding the jacks and then lower it the rest of the way.

I try to have the camper pressed hard against the bumpers at the front when it is lowered into the final position. If you don't do this, it could shift forward during the first hard braking and loosen the turnbuckles. I press it forward with a long 2x4 as a lever, wedged between something in the hitch receiver (hitch ball or my camper step) and the bottom rear edge of the camper (with a piece of wood between). Once it's down, it will stay in that position while you tighten the turnbuckles.

Take it out for a shakedown run and then check the turnbuckles. Don't forget to stop and connect the camper-to-truck cable when you are backing the truck under the camper!

Your bent bracket would certainly explain shifting of the camper and loosening of the turnbuckles. You might need to straighten that before you put it back. Or maybe tightening of the bolts will bend it. You need to get those bolts really tight! Use a long breaker bar or an air impact wrench. They are holding the camper in place and the entire truck bed, too. I put anti-seize grease on the bolts so they tighten well and so I can get them out.

Good luck...

- Bernard

 

[Alley-Kat]

Bernard said pretty much everything!

The camper does tilt left, right, front & back as you lower it.
I've got most of my weight in the camper far forward, so much so, that one or the other of the rear jacks is off the ground at times, no worries, it is still stable.

I usually go down (or up) no more than about 4"-5" on each jack until I'm level again then keep going around to each jack until I'm close, then smaller down increments will get it where I want it to be. I don't use any outside influences like a 2x4. Once I'm close, I start looking under the floor of the camper from the back to see how aligned I am to the flat part of the truck bed. Within 1/2" of sitting down on the bed, I do the final backing up of the truck to place the camper as far forward as I can.

The first time is always... the first time.
Aligning the truck and camper will take the most attempts the first time.
And, like everything else, you'll get better at it the more often you do it.

 

[Beach]

What bfh4n said. If you have the drill socket for the jacks its a big plus over manually cranking them. I lower or raise my camper jacks front to back or back to front. Side to side seems less stable to me.

 

[JimW]

I would add while you still have the camper off the the truck, to take a Sharpie and mark 1" increments on each camper jack. I also had the top of each jack marked where I needed to stop when removing the camper. With the marks, you're able to evenly raise and lower. Like others, i would do about 3-4 inches at each leg before moving to the next.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Fishbird, you can get the camper to move L-R by lowering the side to which you want to move in advance of the other. Don't over do it... I like to keep the nose a bit higher than the tail, too.

I will often put a centerline strip of masking tape in the bed, plus one on the front wall of the camper. It helps me back down and do a better job staying centered.

Just take it slow, don't get flustered if it takes a couple of tries.

 

[jimjxsn]

In my case the camper is stored on a gravel surface and is hard to get lined up perfectly. I bought four cheap 1000 lb. furniture dollies and raise it back up an inch or so, for final adjustment, once I'm back on the driveway. Oh, I cut a piece of wood to fill the middle so the jacks sit centered.

http://www.harborfreight.com/material-handling/dollies/18-in-x-12-in-1000-lb-capacity-hardwood-dolly-63098.html

It's amazing all the uses I've gotten from those dollies over the years since I bought them.

 

[abqbw]

My dealer, Denny Saunders at FWC Jackson Hole, showed me to keep the front of the camper higher than the back to get the front bumpers of the camper tight against the front of the truck bed. You lower the back of the camper onto the bed first and the bumpers in the front hit and push the camper back into place tight against the front of the bed when you lower the front. Since you are taking up suspension once everything starts to touch you may need to go back and forth back to front a few times to maintain a slight cant until it's off the jacks. Basically you are rotating the camper into place.

Love the masking tape centerline idea...brilliant!


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