Rain flap on front of camper- use it or lose it?

[brownbear]

I mentioned in another thread that my camper shifted ever so slightly forward, and the rain flap, which is I assume to prevent water from entering the truck bed in front of the camper, began rubbing on my brand new paint on the truck cab, and caused significant damage over the course of several hundred miles. Well, I do NOT want this to happen again, so I am thinking of completely removing this flap altogether. My thinking is: this will eliminate the possibility of ANY contact between the camper and the cab of the truck, there are drain holes in the front of the bed to eliminate any chance of standing water should water enter this area, and water is getting in the bed in the rear, anyhow, so I fail to see what the front piece is really accomplishing. Your sentiments are greatly appreciated.

 

[Rusty]

Directly below the drip cap is the bottom extension of the camper....the floor of the camper finishes to that point and directly above that...if you haven't set up some kind of offset from the bed.....will be the rub line. Years of rubbing at that line will eventually wear right through the aluminum siding. The drip cap helps to divert the water from running directly down on all of that and does divert a bit off of the camper body.

A little something I added a few years ago....a pair of 3" rubber offset stops which lag directly into the floor/bed risers you might have on the forward end of the camper.

When you load the camper it keeps the Camper body 3" from the bed, which works out to about 1.75 from the top rail of the truck bed...tie downs in the rear hold it there. I think another addition will be an extension of pirelli/like material which would complete the drip/drain from the edge of the drip cap to the front of and over the forward edge of the bed.

I'll come back to this in a bit with a photo of the rubber offset....my front wall was already worn through when I installed the bumpers.... but the rub stopped there

I would not recommend removing it....I'm going to make sure the water is diverted as completely as possible to the front of the bed so the bottom of the camper remains as dry as possible....one of the rot points of the design.

 

[banderswipe]

Hi Bear, I would keep the drip shield if you can,as Rusty suggested if you put a spacer,say a 2x4 on edge up against the front of your truck bed wall this will prevent the shield from rubbing against the cab.Or failing that cut the shield shorter all the way across.
Aligning your camper might ba as simple as putting spacers in the gap if there is one, between your wheel wells and the camper.

Do not try and load the camper on your own especially the first time. Take your time have all your windows open on the truck so you can hear directions from helpers.When jacking a little at a time on each side try and bringing it up level. If you crank too much on one side you can flip the camper on its side.

Make sure that the ground is level for the full length of your truck and camper if not you will have to compensate for this. Have extra people around. Put a tall jack even if you have to rent one at an angle or a couple of 2x4's at an angle up against the back of the camper to prevent it from falling back when you are backing in.

Try not to to touch the camper at all when backing in make sure the camper is high enough . Keep pulling forward and backing up no matter how many time it takes, till your helpers say its aligned and "GO SLOOOW!".

Ignore this advice at your peril.
Read the thread on loading that is current.

Good Luck loading your camper Bear.

Cheers,
Kevin.