PackRat
Senior Member
Over Labor Day weekend, seven of us were invited up to a friend of one of ours' cabin for some off-roading in the jeeps and such. I did not take my jeep but pulled my Bantam 1/4 ton trailer behind my F250 and my CO 8 ft Alaskan. We stopped at his place outside of Chico in Cohasset and then proceeded up the nxt 20 miles or so to his cabin. After a few miles, the pavement gave way to to gravel, then to red dust and rocks. the three jeeps, my truck and another F250 followed as the "road" got worse and worse...not to mention we went up to over 4000' and then down to 3700' feet to the cabin.
My trailer was going crazy because while I steered my truck around ruts/rocks, the narrower trailer left the wheels bouncing over rocks and through the washouts we had to follow.
OK, you get the picture...
So, upon return I found the Alaskan had shifted position in the bed of the truck...probably more than once going up and down the steep "road". I had not yet got to drilling and mounting the Reico brackets so I was using the eyebolts a PO had mounted for my Happijacs. There was just enough slack to allow the camper to twist one way and another and now the truck bed rails have the scratched paint to prove it was moving around.
I have decided to use some scrap 1" x 4" x 12's' to fabricate a pair of 8' sections to slide in between the bed wheelwells and the side of the camper make any movement impossible and to put less strain on the corner Happijacs.
The jeep owners dropped their trucks/trailers for the last 20 miles or so but one of the guys said to me "Well, we can scratch THAT trip off the bucket list"! before we came back. Scratches on the paint on the truck and camper and red dust like Mars all over EVERTHING and I had just installed new Pirelli seals but it seems just enough of a gap where the rear lower door closed let in that stuff....
Anyway, enough of that, just a thought when you get your Alaskan mounted in the truck that if there is any space on either side of the camper/wheelwells you should fill it. I also use a 2x4 spacer in front so the camper does not ride on the top front rail.
Just a suggestion to keep that camper from moving and bringing stress to any of the four corner points where it is secured to the truck bed.
My trailer was going crazy because while I steered my truck around ruts/rocks, the narrower trailer left the wheels bouncing over rocks and through the washouts we had to follow.
OK, you get the picture...
So, upon return I found the Alaskan had shifted position in the bed of the truck...probably more than once going up and down the steep "road". I had not yet got to drilling and mounting the Reico brackets so I was using the eyebolts a PO had mounted for my Happijacs. There was just enough slack to allow the camper to twist one way and another and now the truck bed rails have the scratched paint to prove it was moving around.
I have decided to use some scrap 1" x 4" x 12's' to fabricate a pair of 8' sections to slide in between the bed wheelwells and the side of the camper make any movement impossible and to put less strain on the corner Happijacs.
The jeep owners dropped their trucks/trailers for the last 20 miles or so but one of the guys said to me "Well, we can scratch THAT trip off the bucket list"! before we came back. Scratches on the paint on the truck and camper and red dust like Mars all over EVERTHING and I had just installed new Pirelli seals but it seems just enough of a gap where the rear lower door closed let in that stuff....
Anyway, enough of that, just a thought when you get your Alaskan mounted in the truck that if there is any space on either side of the camper/wheelwells you should fill it. I also use a 2x4 spacer in front so the camper does not ride on the top front rail.
Just a suggestion to keep that camper from moving and bringing stress to any of the four corner points where it is secured to the truck bed.
