tie down strap versus turnbuckle

[Wandering Sagebrush]

I've only had my FWC Grandby for a few weeks and have had turnbuckle issues. After an hour of rough dirt road I checked them and they had all come completely loose, one lost on the road somewhere, and one lying on the truck bed. Camper drifted 4" backward and 4' sideways. This was with jam nuts and lockwashers on the RH thread of the turnbuckles.

Ordered a rubber bed mat hoping it will help. And I think I'm going to safety wire them so they can't rotate loose. I may end up using the exterior Happijac mount points that came with the truck in addition to the typical internal turnbuckles that seem to be on every FWC I see around here. I can't recall seeing an FWC with the external tiedowns. Is there a reason for that?

Not having a mat or plywood base for your Grandby is almost certainly why you had issues. With a mat, the campers don't move much after you retighten the turnbuckles when you have a few miles on.

There are several reasons you don't see external tiedowns. First, the turnbuckles work. Second, in rougher terrain, external tiedowns can catch on things when you're in tight terrain.

 

[jonb96150]

Glad to hear a bed mat should solve the issue. I should have put one on the truck before I picked up the camper. This is my first slide in camper so I'm learning!

 

[ntsqd]

No worries Jon, I learned the same lesson AFTER the camper bent the bed rail. doh!

Also, I'd loose the lock washers - let the jam nuts do their job properly. Doubt that you'll need lock-wire then.

 

[Atlin]

I'm using the external torklift tiedowns on the front and some jaw-jaw turnbuckles on the back (also exterior). I have an 8-foot ATC cougar on a 6.5-foot bed F150 with the tailgate down. The tiedowns on the front are only a couple inches outboard of the truck bed, unlikely to be an issue for clearance. They attach to the jack brackets. Tiedowns on the back also attach to the jack brackets and are pretty close in to the camper. Under the camper I attached several 1/4" thick pieces of wood (ripped off a 2x4) to keep the bottom above the bed and allow circulation and water drainage. They are oriented L-R (crosswise) under the camper. Lighter and simpler than the bed mat, which can trap water. Under these pieces I cut a trapezoidal piece of redwood that fits into the grooves in the truck bed and screwed it in the center of the camper (it's about 3/8" thick x 2" wide x 6' long). This piece centers the camper when loading and keeps it from moving laterally while driving.

For the jaw-jaw turnbuckles, I thought about safety wiring, but a simpler solution is to drill a hole across the end of one of the threaded sections and insert a clip (similar to the clip on a trailer hitch pin) when the turnbuckle is tight. Since this clip is inside the body of the turnbuckle, it prevents the threaded part from unscrewing. No need to mess with jam nuts and/or lockwashers and simple to remove if/when you take the camper off the truck.

 

[ntsqd]

The safety wire on my jaw-jaw turnbuckles runs from one side of a jaw around the threaded section once and then to one side of the turnbuckle's body. The trick is to wrap around the threads in the right rotation direction so that when you cinch it up that is as loose as the turnbuckle will ever be allowed to be, it can tighten on it's own.

 

[BrianG]

I've used the 1/2 inch Black Armor bed mat, expensive but it really prevents any camper movement and I've seldom had a loose turnbuckle with it.

 

[jonb96150]

The bed mat did the trick! Spent three days last week in the Sierra Nevada near Bridgeport, lots of low range roads. The kind that have endless rocks embedded in the road and made me wish my 1st gear was a bit lower. A very good test of the turnbuckles and with the mat there was no loosening of the buckles. I still am using jam nuts, but did not replace the safety wire.

Thanks for the mat advice, I wish I had known prior to picking up the camper. In my newb opinion every new owner should get a mat in the bed prior to picking up their camper.