DoGMAtix
Senior Member
We just picked up a used 08 Hallmark Guanella for our 2006 Dodge CTD 2500 short bed, and had it mounted at Hallmark. We made it clear that our intent was to drive on rugged dirt roads, and knowing this they installed it as shown in the photos. The tiedowns are a Happijac frame-mounted system (the FT-DR2, shown here: http://happijac.com/tie-downs.html) and the turnbuckles are simple ones made of aluminum, the kind you can pick up at your corner hardware store. They're attached to chains which the folks at Hallmark extended with open links (we asked for screwdown quick links but were told they didn't have any in the shop and the open links were every bit as strong). We were instructed to keep the front turnbuckles as tight as possible, and leave the rears with a bit of give (not sure that you can really have give in a rigid system, minus the open links which unfortunately did turn out to have give, but only in one direction).
Here are some photos of our setup:
1) Freshly installed - after about 20 miles of highway driving from the factory. Awesome!...or at least so far...
2) Front turnbuckle and chain (note open link which has begun to stretch out - this will come back to haunt us further down the road; also note the way the tiedown is mounted to the jack frame, as opposed to some other mounting systems where the front tiedown is attached to a bracket further back on the underside of the camper).
3) Rear tiedown, turnbuckle and chain (that's a pool noodle around the chain to protect the truck from chain slap; again, note open links which we bypassed later in the trip to avoid chain failure).
We headed down the road toward home (Albuquerque), via a scenic detour over a relatively tame dirt road between Vail and Leadville (over Crooked Creek and Hagerman Passes).
I'll continue in the next post so I can continue to upload photos as I go along without going over the KB limit per post.
Here are some photos of our setup:
1) Freshly installed - after about 20 miles of highway driving from the factory. Awesome!...or at least so far...
2) Front turnbuckle and chain (note open link which has begun to stretch out - this will come back to haunt us further down the road; also note the way the tiedown is mounted to the jack frame, as opposed to some other mounting systems where the front tiedown is attached to a bracket further back on the underside of the camper).
3) Rear tiedown, turnbuckle and chain (that's a pool noodle around the chain to protect the truck from chain slap; again, note open links which we bypassed later in the trip to avoid chain failure).
We headed down the road toward home (Albuquerque), via a scenic detour over a relatively tame dirt road between Vail and Leadville (over Crooked Creek and Hagerman Passes).
I'll continue in the next post so I can continue to upload photos as I go along without going over the KB limit per post.