Stabilizing FWC Eagle in raised position off truck

[camperdave]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to pop up campers, and I have just finished retrofitting my newly acquired 2005 FWC Eagle onto my 2014 F-150 Supercrew. To fit above the bedrails I constructed a 6" tall spacer frame of 2x6's and 3/4" plywood. In order to clear the truck bed and 6" riser, I need to jack the camper up 41". I would like to find a way that I could keep the camper in this raised position when unloading because I feel jacking the camper up and down each time for load/unload puts a lot of stress on the camper frame and it takes just too long. But as I have read, you need to support the base of the camper if you want to use it on the jacks with the lightweight FWC campers.

So here is what I would like to try. I would like to attach the 6" riser platform to the camper base semi-permanently by using eye hooks mounted to the riser frame and attaching to the turnbuckle hooks on the camper. Then I would like to attach stabilizer jacks to the riser platform to put down when the camper is not attached to the truck. These stabilizer jacks would need to be about 36" tall so that I would not have to jack the camper up and down (36"+6" riser gives me the 41" of clearance I need).

Is this possible to do while keeping the camper that high off the ground? What types of jacks should I use? I looked around and there are pyramid looking manual jacks, 30" tall scissor jacks, and camper slide out stabilizer jacks that go longer than 40"...everything else is much shorter.



Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

[icediver]

You could also just skip adding more jacks and use something fixed. I used to store mine on top of three 55 gallon drums to avoid jacking up and down when storing. I'd have to jack it up just a few inches off the drums to load onto truck. When stored on the drums I'd leave the camper jacks extended to provide some stability.

 

[sourdough]

I made a couple heavy duty saw horse's. Others made X brace stands out of heavy plywood. Check out http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/

 

[gsanders]

Saw Horses

I use these sawhorses: http://www.homedepot.com/p/TOUGHBUILT-47-in-Folding-Sawhorse-TB-SH-01002A/205068379. They are great. I have a ~1700 lb Phoenix camper and it sits on a pair of the sawhorses just fine (they are rated at 1100 lbs each, 2200/pair). They are cheap and they also fold up easily for storage. In fact, they are so small and light I threw them in the camper this past weekend and dismounted it at the campsite. Very stable to sleep in and move around, and I was able to drive the truck without the camper. I would highly recommend them over any other option out there for the cost, ease of use, and ease of storage. However, they are not the exact same height as my truck. So, I still have to raise and lower a bit to get the camper on the truck. For me, it takes about 15 minutes to walk a quick circle while hand cranking it up off the horses. At camp this past weekend, it took a total of about 35 minutes to crank the camper up, back the truck under with the help of a friend, and secure it via the turnbuckles (which was about the same time it took our friends to take down their tent).

On another note, I like your base but you are losing out on a ton of storage potential under the camper. Did you think of turning the blocks horizontally, or adding another sheet of plywood on top for shear strength? If you eliminated the blocks you would have nice long slots that are ~5.5" high that could be used to store camp chairs, firewood, skis, fishing rods, etc. If you attached some slide out trays they would be really nice for storing lots of gear. Just a thought for you...