mounting bolt locations in a full size truck bed

[WyoIDI]

Hello,
First post here. I'm looking to get a Grandby camper for my long bed pick-up. We're most likely going to get a used unit (unless FWC has a half off sale haha). So my question is, where is the approximate location of the mounting bolts in the pick up bed? I'm not too keen on dropping $400 to have someone drill holes in my bed and tighten some bolts and run some wires when I'm pretty sure I can do this. I realize that they need to be on either side of the wheel wells and out of the way of where the camper sits and yes I understand how much abuse they'll take and how strong they'll need to be. I'm also wondering if anyone has the location of where the plug in the pick up bed is located to match up with the camper plug (if the unit we find even has one). If I've learned anything about trying to buy a used fwc, you've got to be ready to go get it at a drop of a hat and It's not much good if I can't just drop it in my truck when I buy it. details: 93' f-250 (mid nineties body style) long bed and most likely a mid 2000 or newer camper if we luck out and find one. Any input is greatly appreciated, I'll follow up with how it goes when (if) we find one.
-Jon

 

[Ramblinman]

I spoke with Terry at FWC in this regard as I am required to do the same thing. Being that my camper is already bought (have yet to pick it up) he suggested measuring off the tie downs on the camper and mounting forward from the front tie downs and rearward from the rear tie downs. This said I was able to provide him with the year and make of my truck/camper combo. If you go to my profile I posted asking for similar information. Members here provided lots of great info. Sounds like you may be a little more capable than me though when it comes to this stuff.

Probably a good idea to call Terry at FWC either way.

 

[pods8]

and rearward from the rear tie downs.


Just make sure you don't go too far back otherwise the part of the camper that kicks out after the wheel wells will interfere with your placement. Best to actually measure a camper...

 

[camelracer]

My eyebolts are mounted in the front corners of the bed and right behind the wheelwells near the bed wall.

The electrical connector is in the drivers side bed wall between the wheelwell and front bed wall. The electrical cord coming out of the camper is long enough to reach anywhere in that area.

 

[riz]

When I bought my camper, I just slid it in and tied it down with some ratchet straps ($25 at Walmart). Then when I got home, I could figure out exactly where to drill in the truck bed. If you drill in the wrong spot, your turnbuckles might not be long enough to reach between the eyebolts. Good luck!

 

[WyoIDI]

Just the info I've been looking for. Thanks a bunch everyone. chances are I'll just bring my cordless and have to drill when I get there and take the measurements, though the wal-mart straps did cross my mind haha.
thanks again
-jon

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

The camper wiring location, eye nuts, and the eye bolt locations in the truck bed vary a little from model to model, and from year to year.

So unless we know the year, make, and model or the camper (or the locations of the eye nuts in the used camper), it will be hard to give you good measurements on where to put the eye bolts in your truck bed.

Just get some good straps, rope, a drill, good drill bit, some forged eye bolts, tools, scrap 2x4's in case you need to raise the camper up a little, etc.

And call Terry in our service department too.

FWC SERVICE

ASK FOR TERRY

1-800-242-1442




________________________________________________________________________________

Just the info I've been looking for. Thanks a bunch everyone. chances are I'll just bring my cordless and have to drill when I get there and take the measurements, though the wal-mart straps did cross my mind haha.
thanks again
-jon




.

 

[WyoIDI]

cool, thanks Stan!

 

[ntsqd]

Ratchet straps were how I got our Phoenix home. My wife commented that she'd never seen me move on something so fast.

Since the Phoenix has no clearance lights the only need for the plug and socket is camper battery charging. I did away with the RV 7 pin plug and am currently hard wired but will be mounting the 120 amp Anderson Connector now that we're back from our trip.

 

[pods8]

Since the Phoenix has no clearance lights the only need for the plug and socket is camper battery charging. I did away with the RV 7 pin plug and am currently hard wired but will be mounting the 120 amp Anderson Connector now that we're back from our trip.

Are you planning to run that heavy a gauge of wire (2, 4, or 6) to actually use that connector? I'm planning to use powerpoles on my new truck as well but was going to use the 75amp housing (6, 8, or 10ga) since I was likely to run 6ga. You just want to buy the connector that handles the applicable gauge not so much the nameplate amps they name it.

 

[ntsqd]

I have 6 ga. duplex wire already in place. When I worked out the worst case charging current (I'm current limited by an 80A manual reset breaker next to the LH engine battery) over the total circuit length (ground wire included) at 3% Voltage Drop that is the cable size required. I considered 10% VD to be unacceptable for a charging circuit. It's overkill, I know, but I'm comfortable knowing that I don't need to worry about it. If I ever pump 80A into the camper batteries I know that something is wrong, but at least the wiring can handle it w/o starting a fire.

FWIW I put the BEP Marine VSR in the camper near the batteries rather than under the hood. This location allows me to tap into that 6 ga. hot with isolated studs for other uses (stuff like relay driven reversing fog lights). I just wish that the dual sense VSR's had been available when I bought it. Now when I get around to installing PV's I'll need to swap it out.

 

[pods8]

Cool, just making sure you weren't running that big connector with a smaller gauge wire based on your alt. rating or something. As mentioned I'm likely to run 6ga as well but I'm going to go with a 75housing and 50amp thermal breaker. Keeps the components reasonably sized and I don't particularly think the batteries own resistance will ever let them pull near that many amps while charging to go bigger.

 

[ntsqd]

The 50's are tiny compared to what I'm used to (175's), but the 120's aren't that much larger than the 50's. I'd guess at most they're 2/3's the size of the 175's (which is what most use for portable winches).

 

[pods8]

The 50's are tiny compared to what I'm used to (175's), but the 120's aren't that much larger than the 50's. I'd guess at most they're 2/3's the size of the 175's (which is what most use for portable winches).


Whiches realistically pull hundreds of amps and should be using a rather heavy gauge wire, I can see using a 175 there easily. Realistically the way I use my camper batteries I'll never pull huge amps, which is why I don't think a 50amp thermal breaker is limiting. The larger gauge wire is for limiting voltage drop to ideally top things off better.