camper tie downs?

[Haggis100]

Morning all,
I'm approaching a time I need to be thinking about how to secure my camper to the pickup. I've got a turnbuckle set up thought through for the rear but would appreciate some advice for the front.
If anyone is happy to post a shot of how their camper is held on to give me food for thought I'd appreciate it. I'm thinking some sort of turnbuckle again but wonder if quality ratchet straps would work too? I'm conscious of needing to mount to the chassis not the bed too but again, advice gratefully received.
Cheers

Matt

[zildjian]

Going well I take it then Matt, that's good news on the Tischer.

Turnbuckles are the preffered method certainly, shouldn't really be necessary to go onto chassis unless you especially anticipate some rough terrain or road surface.
I do in fact use truck ratchet straps on the front but only to avoid turning the interior seating upside down to access the manufacturers turnbuckle system,

Mine, I can stand beside truck at road side and do instead,
I'll find picture's

[Que]

we have gone for the Torklift solution. Luckily our Navara is marketed in the states under a different name. Torklift USA manufacture chassis mounting tiedowns (no drilling required) and sprung loaded lever operated turnbuckles called fastguns. We think the solution is the bees knees. But the import costs and shipping doubles the cost. However, since discarding ratchet straps for the Torklift system we have never had the demountable shift by a fraction, it's rock solid, easy to use and doesn't scratch the paintwork. We love it. And the wife can fit and remove them easily too.

[Haggis100]

Thanks Que and Zildjian. I've seen the torklift system and it looks brilliant. I think the cost might be prohibitive this year? I need to get to a point where I can try the rig for a while before throwing loads more brass at it sadly! I've got rear airbags in the back of my mind and I think I won't be able to avoid those?
Que did you ratchet strap to the factory tie downs or the chassis?

[zildjian]

In normal use ratchet straps will work fine, they are a little bulky sometimes, but at this stage and from what you've said they are the easiest source option.
as far as where-to-hook-to goes, over a few different pickups i've owned, the Navara came with a welded bracket and eye-hole in exactly the right place (alongside fuel tank) and I've not seen it repeated elsewhere since!

so occasionally I've taken the tail of the strap and passed it around chasiss rail>back through its own hook and up to ratchet & that will work fine.

You might do what we do and use ratchets on the front only and turnbuckles on back corners

[zildjian]

on the plus side however, these don't seem so bad


hebergement d image


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Torklift-Truc ... fresh=true

[Que]

We used the ratchet straps a few times and hooked em up to the internal eyes in the Navara truck bed. The ratchets themselves were dificult to operate as they invariably rested on the top edge of the truck bed, luckily we had fitted both a liner and edge protectors to the bed but we still had to pack old cloths between the ratchets and where they touched to prevent damage.

We did find that some movement always occured during a journey as I could never ratchet up tight enough due to the damn things fowling either the camper body or the truck bed tops. On one particular outing the camper had slid to one side enough to almost prevent fitting the leg which was the last straw for the straps and we ordered the Torklift system. To date this system has been everything we would want, secure, easy to fit and safe.

A further niggle in my mind has always been the load rating of the internal fixing eyes on the Navara, I can't remember what this is but it didn't rate high enough for my liking ( it's been several years since we did all this).

We still have one issue to resolve, that is the Apollo was designed to take straps not hook on turnbuckles. A previous owner had drilled holes in the leg sockets to take hooks and thats what we use, but over time the aluninium is wearing so I have to make some modifications to do a proper job which means removing all of the corner plates and doing some aluminium fabrication and welding and fitting steel loops to take the turnbuckle hooks.

All that said, we did a number of journeys with just the straps but soon realised that air suspension and the Torklift Fastgun system was the way to go for our peace of mind and comfort.

I'm writing this sat in a field looking out at the rain. Yup I'm afraid it's a rally field but in our defence there is not a straight line in view

[zildjian]

"I'm writing this sat in a field looking out at the rain. Yup I'm afraid it's a rally field but in our defence there is not a straight line in view "

Rules are rules Que

picture, or it didn't happen!

[TrueDink]

on the plus side however, these don't seem so bad


hebergement d image


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Torklift-Truc ... fresh=true

That's what came with my Northstar with it being Merican.

[zildjian]

so like a mini-shock absorber, but working the other way around
(absorbing the shocks on expansion instead)