Dadocut
Advanced Member
Hi,
I bought used a 2013 F250 with a 2015 Hallmark Guanella. It has Torklift tiedowns front and rear. Unfortunately they let the camper slide backwards on steep uphill climbs. The front are spring loaded and the rear are not. It's all installed according to Torklift's specs: rears are snug, front tightened so the spring compresses by 1/4". The camper is on a rubber like mat. Here's a photo of the original tie downs. Note the front tie down is vertical.
The problem is the camper will slide backwards several inches after climbing steep hills. Of course it will slide back into position once I hit the brakes going downhill, but that can't be good for the camper. After a bumpy ride up to the top of Pleasant Canyon in Death valley the camper had slid backwards about 6":
To fix this I moved the camper's tie down attachment point so it was about 6" inches behind the bed mounted tie down point.. I welded some 1/8" angle iron and it worked well for a few days. The 1/8" angle iron just isn't stout enough and the tie down deformed (and one broke due to my low quality welding skills!). Fortunately I designed it so I could swap back the old tie down brackets in the field.
What's a better way to to attach the torklift turnbuckles to my camper's existing jack mount points?
I was considering using 1/4" steel plate and doing something like this:
I'll add some gussets too to resist any bending. Pardon my drafting skills, the upper drawing is the outside view on the driver's side while the lower drawing is the inside view of the passenger side.
I'm curious how others have solved this problem. I'm sure anyone with vertical tie downs would have a similar problem.
Thanks for your help,
DadoCut
I bought used a 2013 F250 with a 2015 Hallmark Guanella. It has Torklift tiedowns front and rear. Unfortunately they let the camper slide backwards on steep uphill climbs. The front are spring loaded and the rear are not. It's all installed according to Torklift's specs: rears are snug, front tightened so the spring compresses by 1/4". The camper is on a rubber like mat. Here's a photo of the original tie downs. Note the front tie down is vertical.
The problem is the camper will slide backwards several inches after climbing steep hills. Of course it will slide back into position once I hit the brakes going downhill, but that can't be good for the camper. After a bumpy ride up to the top of Pleasant Canyon in Death valley the camper had slid backwards about 6":
To fix this I moved the camper's tie down attachment point so it was about 6" inches behind the bed mounted tie down point.. I welded some 1/8" angle iron and it worked well for a few days. The 1/8" angle iron just isn't stout enough and the tie down deformed (and one broke due to my low quality welding skills!). Fortunately I designed it so I could swap back the old tie down brackets in the field.
What's a better way to to attach the torklift turnbuckles to my camper's existing jack mount points?
I was considering using 1/4" steel plate and doing something like this:
I'll add some gussets too to resist any bending. Pardon my drafting skills, the upper drawing is the outside view on the driver's side while the lower drawing is the inside view of the passenger side.
I'm curious how others have solved this problem. I'm sure anyone with vertical tie downs would have a similar problem.
Thanks for your help,
DadoCut