Surfboards on truck camper??

[LeftCoastKiteboarding]

I'm trying to come up with a good way to carry a couple of SUPs on the outside of our AF990. The roof is out as we have tons of solar and starlink up there. Inside is less than ideal as they have to come out every time we stop for lunch or.a pee.

Anyone come up with something that is easy to access??

Whatcha got?

 

[llamalander]

Why not hang them off the side?
Might keep a window from opening, but the access is good and it won't tank your aerodynamics.
I've seen padded hooks on campers that probably have a means to lash/lock down the boards, looks pretty easy.

 

[LeftCoastKiteboarding]

That's what I've been thinking. Possibly using L-track? Thinking of 2 tracks mounted vertically. Could use various mounts to attach anything.

Hoping someone has already pioneered something I can borrow from.

 

[simple]

How wide is your camper? Does it have a slide out?

 

[calicamper]

Neighbor stows them on the side of their Mercedes 4x4 van for short trips. Longer higher speed highway trips they strap them to the inside roof. They travel with 5 usually and have a mid height van with pop top. Full rear box system hanging off the back with bike trays on the box top. They use it a bunch their kids aren’t into sports so they have lots of free weekends to do trips😆.

The wind loads on the boards at 45+mph is no joke. Even a long surf board can be challenging a surfer buddy had his long board rip his Thule rack off this Tacoma on I5 a few yrs back. He watched it launch off and clear the Central Valley canal a good 500+ ft from the highway. Took him over an hour to find a way over the canal and to recover his board still attached to his Thule cross bars. Had the nose of his favorite board rebuilt by a well known board builder. After that his board traveled under a new bed cap😆

 

[LeftCoastKiteboarding]

How wide is your camper? Does it have a slide out?

It's 96" wide. Has a slide on the pass. side.

 

[LeftCoastKiteboarding]

.......

The wind loads on the boards at 45+mph is no joke. Even a long surf board can be challenging a surfer buddy had his long board rip his Thule rack off this Tacoma on I5 a few yrs back. He watched it launch off and clear the Central Valley canal a good 500+ ft from the highway. Took him over an hour to find a way over the canal and to recover his board still attached to his Thule cross bars. Had the nose of his favorite board rebuilt by a well known board builder. After that his board traveled under a new bed cap😆

Indeed. We lost a bunch of boards when I was much younger. Came off somewhere near Catavina. Never did find them. That was the last time that ever happened.

 

[Deleted Member 183]

I guess the question is... How stout are your rack mounting arms? The idea I am going to suggest to you is a "no go" if you have flimsy "off the shelf" rack support arms ( like Thule and so on).

If you have "BEEFY" support arms, then I'd think about doing a 2 tier rack! The top shelf being the solar panels, communication, nav, & lights (and as light as can be). The lower tier having "slide in" pockets for your SUP's (even better with removable skeg's) and maybe a "neetly" tucked in awning on your camping side and a water storage "tank" (aka: large dia. PVC pipe with fill/ shower head ports) on the other side.

 

[Darwin]

I would think 96" width + surfboards on the sides would =too wide for Baja.

 

[SDDiver5]

What Calicamper said. I know of a few guys that strap them to the roof inside for longer travel times, then mount on the side when they're around town or on trail.

Search for the build by basil lynch and his awesome camper "Bruce". He had some long boards mounted to his camper while travelling in baja.

There's something out there for sure. There's only 10,000 sprinters running around San Diego on the weekends with their boards on the side.

 

[LeftCoastKiteboarding]

Ok, following up on this. I ended up making a custom rack using 'Airline Track'. It's super sturdy, permanently mounted and just did 5 weeks in Baja with no issues.