F-350 DRW flat bed/8' Six-Pac advice needed.

[bumblebus]

Need advice. Have an 8' 1986 Six-Pac camper that I was using on a GMC Sierra 1500 with extra leaf/timbrens etc. Worked fine, but was obviously pushing the limits even as "light weight" as the Six-Pac was. Anyways... long story short sold the GMC and inherited my father-in-law's 1999 Ford F-350 dually flat bed, which will gobble up the Six-Pac no problem.

Advice is... what's the best way to mount this to the flat bed? The bed has steel.. uh... "loops" on the side and that was how my father-in-law previously mounted his, much, much heavier, 1972 10' Chinook camper (since sold) with straight chain and it worked great, but my wife and I tend to camp much more off the beaten path up forest service roads etc. in Montana where we live. Would some Torklift Basic frame mounted spring loads be enough for this setup or should I look into bolting the camper to the utility bed also or welding on guide rails?? Needs to be able to come on and off as easy as possible also as we're weekend warriors and I use the truck daily during the week. I'm told that because the camper will mount directly to the flatbed itself that truck/camper frame flex is much less an issue than bed mounted solutions. What I'm worried about is taking unexpected/unseen bumps too fast and having the whole camper "jump" around on the flatbed too much. All in wet weight is probably only about 2-2.2k lbs. In camper sticker claims ~1,335lbs dry, which I think may be a bit light, but it is a Six-Pac, which are famed for their lightness... all things considered.

Thanks for any advice!!!

 

[4x4JeepCamper]

Need advice. Have an 8' 1986 Six-Pac camper that I was using on a GMC Sierra 1500 with extra leaf/timbrens etc. Worked fine, but was obviously pushing the limits even as "light weight" as the Six-Pac was. Anyways... long story short sold the GMC and inherited my father-in-law's 1999 Ford F-350 dually flat bed, which will gobble up the Six-Pac no problem.

Advice is... what's the best way to mount this to the flat bed? The bed has steel.. uh... "loops" on the side and that was how my father-in-law previously mounted his, much, much heavier, 1972 10' Chinook camper (since sold) with straight chain and it worked great, but my wife and I tend to camp much more off the beaten path up forest service roads etc. in Montana where we live. Would some Torklift Basic frame mounted spring loads be enough for this setup or should I look into bolting the camper to the utility bed also or welding on guide rails?? Needs to be able to come on and off as easy as possible also as we're weekend warriors and I use the truck daily during the week. I'm told that because the camper will mount directly to the flatbed itself that truck/camper frame flex is much less an issue than bed mounted solutions. What I'm worried about is taking unexpected/unseen bumps too fast and having the whole camper "jump" around on the flatbed too much. All in wet weight is probably only about 2-2.2k lbs. In camper sticker claims ~1,335lbs dry, which I think may be a bit light, but it is a Six-Pac, which are famed for their lightness... all things considered.

Thanks for any advice!!!

I would make some "guide rails" to keep it from shifting around, and then just pull it down to the "loops". You could make the guide rails removable, so they don't interfere with "work". Weld some 1/2" or 5/8" nuts to the underside of the flatbed deck, and then bolt the guides down from the top. With the welded nuts, you don't ever need to crawl underneath again. I used to carry a large job site box in the bed of my truck this way. Made installation/removal about a five minute job.