Moving a Flatbed FWC Without a Flatbed Truck

[Cashew]

Looking at purchasing a flatbed FWC about 1.5 hrs away from home, but my truck and flatbed are still a few months away from arriving. The camper is 80” wide and 8ft long. Any advice for how to transport a flatbed FWC without a flatbed truck?

My initial ideas are:
1. Rent the F250 Home Depot flatbed for a day - not sure if the side walls can fold down or be removed during transit. Dimensions according to Reddit are 76” wide and 10ft long.

2. Rent a flatbed or similar trailer, then build a platform out of 2x10s (or similar) to raise the bed of the trailer above the side walls and/or wheel wells. If the trailer + wheel wells are wider than 80”, I would also need to buy or build jack extension brackets.

Any other options? I’d much rather rent or borrow a flatbed truck instead of going the the hassle of getting a trailer to work. The Home Depot F250 is the only flatbed truck I’ve found so far that isn’t a dually with at least a 96” width.

 

[GlennA]

Rent a "deck-over" trailer. The kind you see heavy equipment hauled on.

Use some 4X4's for spacers and you can load it with a fork lift.

 

[Superduty]

Flat bed tow truck, but that won't be cheap.

You could rent a large moving truck with a lift gate. Ryder has a 26' I think with a pretty large liftgate.

 

[Trestle]

I would go to HD and measure/confirm their flatbed can work. Since you're only traveling 1.5 hours, it makes decent financial sense.

Second, build jack extensions/cradle for a trailer that could haul it.

I did just what you're trying to do some months ago, but had to do it over five days due to time/distance. I purchased a Granby near Portland, and had to get it to AZ. I borrowed a trailer from a friend, built a cradle using some extra 3" angle and 1"x 2" square tubing I had on hand - using the rough dimensions I found for that model. I thru bolted the cradle to the trailer with only 4x 5/8" bolts, but also had some HD tie downs pin the loaded camper to the trailer as well. I had to build some front jack mount extensions to get it so I could back the trailer under the camper due to the width of the wheels. I ended up "backing" the trailer in by hand so I did not knock anything over. Front trailer leg on a furniture moving dolly, and help from the wife. The jack mount extensions worked, but were a bit suspect in the front to rear direction when the jacks were extended. I would have used larger diameter cross tubing if using it for anything more than getting it on/off once.

My tow vehicle took a dump on me, so I had to rent a u-haul to tow it back...then retrieve the tow vehicle at a later date. The same cradle was modified for the flatbed to sit in the driveway until my truck and flatbed arrive. Flatbed arrives today..."American made" truck still in Mexico where it was actually built a few months ago.

It towed for two days without any issues at all, but I kept it at 65 to 70 as the tires on the borrowed trailer were not the newest. The 6" x 6" dunnage on the front are what the seller stacked the camper on when not in use, so I used them to even out weight distribution on the trailer. This trailer has a 16' deck.

The only pics I took of the trip for reference:


I had to add leg extensions (from when it was on the trailer), remove the front jack stand cross piece (shown below), and beef up the casters (cast steel vs. HD nylon), and add some flooring support underneath to the below pic, but it sits and works well now as a cradle while waiting for a truck. I simply move it around with a come-a-long, and raise all four jacks up about an inch after securing the come along first. Then drop the jack legs back down to keep it from rolling due to driveway pitch.