On Expo Portal-Turnbuckle gone wrong

[pvstoy]

A new post on Expo Portal where a person went wheeling as done before but this time had issues with turnbuckles and resulted in camper damage. Has picture that is interesting as to how it was damaged.

https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/securing-fwc.206638/

Advice is asked if you have any recommendations to give.

 

[DanoT]

My Phoenix camper came with ratchet straps that have seen 9 years of use and don't come loose and AFAIK the 3" fabric cargo strap has some give. I also have a rubber mat and I don't off road.

 

[klahanie]

Wowza ! What a shame. That would be a big vote of no confidence for me, were I the owner.

All for the lack of a nut or wire ?? Or were the turnbuckles too tight, I wonder.

Great campers but not indestructible.

 

[klahanie]

From the thread, "Why doesn’t FWC provide turnbuckles like those [with lock nuts] to start with? It’s not like this is a new issue"

Good question. I suspect the oem un-locked turnbuckles loosen partly because of being stressed. Acting as a kind of relief. With continued driving damage might then be caused from looseness (owner error), rather than from being set up too tightly, (harder to quantify for fault) and held that way with a factory supplied lock nut.

In this particular case, excessive truck box and frame flex might have also played a role.

 

[Andy Douglass]

There are several methods that people use to lock down the turnbuckles, but you don't need to do anything other than check the turnbuckles regularly as FWC recommends. For us, we check them before leaving camp. Even if it means we have to pull stuff out of the camper because we forgot to check before packing. Usually, there is some loosening during the first few days of our trip, but by the end of the trip we are just checking them and finding that they haven't loosened. We check more frequently if we drive for any length of time on dirt.

I plan on using some method to connect the buckles to each other on each side so that they can't loosen, I just haven't gotten around to it. I will not get locking turnbuckles because trying to blindly tighten the locknuts in an awkward position is something that I know will be frustrating for us as we both have shoulder issues.

 

[Machinebuilder]

I have made spacer blocks to go between the bed wall and camper so it can’t move in the bed. I also have stall mats and lock nuts.

I don’t have issues with the turnbuckles loosening.......stuff flying all over inside the camper on rough roads is a different story.

This topic seems to come up every couple weeks.

 

[PackRat]

Lock nuts on the turnbuckles are a necessity as an added safety item, perhaps WIRING each end so it can't turn on the body of the turnbuckle can't hurt either! However, if you are leaving on a trip, you would of course CHECK the alignment and the turnbuckles before you go, right? I would suggest that when you turn off the surfaced road or begin up/down any steep or tilting roadway, that you AGAIN check them along with any gear you have tied, bolted, or otherwise secured to your rig to insure it won't come loose or in the case of your camper, move around and incur damage. As a SYSTEM, each of the four turnbuckles carries a part of the load and as one or more begin to loosen, the strain is increased on the others which can lead to movement in the truck bed and damage to the camper or...begin to exert excess pull on the camper where the turnbuckles are attached.

A block in FRONT of the camper to transfer the forward loading of the camper to not just the front panel, but the floor of the camper keeps damage to a minimum. Additional wood blocking between the wheel well and the sides of the camper also help to stop sideways movement.

Its designed to prevent the "BB in a boxcar" effect wherein each time you go uphill or down hill or are bouncing around off-road you want to limit the possibility of any movement whatsoever.

I do think you need to check whatever method or securing your camper to your truck, be it turnbuckles inside the bed or outside, that its no different than checking to see if your saddle is still secured correctly to your horse! When you make a rest stop or however you need to once you learn if this is a problem for you on the road or going off-road!

 

[Backroad Joe]

It is unfortunate he did so much damage to his rig. But I also have to question if he was paying attention.

Any threaded fastener will loosen with vibration or thermal cycling if not locked in one of many ways. My rear turnbuckles are external to the bed. At the end of one of the threaded rods I drilled a small hole and lock the t-buckle by putting a small hitch pin through it. Quick, simple and cheap. I monitor the adjustment as I can see the t-buckle and chain in the side mirrors. Just the slightest slack so I know they are not over tightened.

Off-road is a whole different arrangement. A full rubber mat is a must. I have blocking all the way across the front to transfer loads between the camper floor (not the bulkhead) to the base of the bed's forward bulkhead where it is strongest. That prevents forward movement. I have 2x3's the the length of the bed.This has about 3/4" of lateral clearance and again, this is at the floor, not the lower side walls of the camper. This prevents lateral movement. Up front I have Happi-Jacs, spring-loaded turnbuckles. This holds the front down but has some give. Progressive as the spring resistance increases with travel.

When I leave pavement I will loosen the rear turnbuckles (forged steel, hardware store variety) by about two inches. No more than that so the camper will stay between the 2x3's. To help resist rearward movement I attach quality ratchet straps, horizontally, from the upper turnbuckle mounting eyebolt forward to a secure attachment point at the front top corner of the bed. While preventing reward movement this allows the bed to twist without taking the camper with it.

The essential goal is to allow the truck bed to flex, and it does, without forcing the camper to follow the same flexing which would destroy it. More to the point is that the truck chassis flexes torsionally on the trail. If it, the bed and the camper were all tied firmly together I know the camper framing would follow what the 3/4 ton truck chassis is doing. And it is designed to flex.

On the trail I adjust my side mirrors so I can see both my rear tires and the rear camper tie-downs. It is surprising how much movement there is. This arrangement has worked very well for me on some very rough trails.

 

[ntsqd]

I never used jam nuts with the old camper. Instead I used a piece of SS wire looped thru the 'eye' of the turn buckle, twisted together which was then wrapped ~1/4 turn around the whole shackle, and then one leg poked thru 'U' part of the shackle eye before being twisted together again. The key is that the twist around the whole shackle must be in the direction where for the wire to go looser on the shackle, the shackle itself must tighten.

The marine rigging type shackles I am using on the new to us camper came with jam nuts for both ends of each shackle.

 

[roverjohn]

+1 for ratchet straps. Much better for preventing movement of the camper too.

I know the damage looks bad but we really don't know what the guy was doing . Maybe he cased a triple using all 700hp in a Raptor.

/just kidding sort of but it's why we all need a NOS bottle.

 

[PackRat]

Whatever method you choose, whatever product you purchase and install....that damage was REALLY caused by what they call "Pilot Error". There is a reason you do a "pre-flight inspection" before taking off....because "STUFF HAPPENS". In this case, I think checking any style of tie-down you have BEFORE you head out and then again when you get off on rough roads is imperative.

Now I don't think that the more sophistocated locking tie downs will themselves come loose, but what if one of them starts to pull through the side of your camper? On the other hand, wiring or using nuts will usually secure the turnbuckles, but again, you are looking for the mountings to be secure as well.

If you ASSUME everything is secured properly and not loose anywhere.....that isn't enough. A physical inspection and a wiggle or two will let you know if each tie-down is secure or not or if the camper wall is being pulled apart.

I'm not even going to address how a driver may choose to negotiate off-road surfaces or what speeds should be used to SAFELY do that without damaging the truck/camper....as in "Dude, where's the fire?" unless of course there actually IS a fire!

 

[57Pan]

Has anyone tried safety chains, so if the turn buckles do come loose or off you don"t loose your camper.