I was able to repair the wing walls by jacking them up and adding some custom made steel angles. It's an Outfitter camper with an aluminum frame, though the wing walls (I believe Outfitter calls them 'short bed dress kit') were added after the main part of the camper was constructed. The original anchor points were 'J' hooks attached with the two carriage bolts (seen in the picture).
I've added new anchor points just in front of the wing walls by placing three carriage bolts through two pieces of 1" x 6" steel plates sandwiching the 1/8" plywood that forms the horizontal platform over the bed rails as close to the edge of the frame as I could get.
When the damage occurred, the tie down were definitely not loose, if anything they were tighter than usual. I have a 3/8" rubber mat in the bed and the camper did not slide back. After I noticed the damage, I had to remove the rear tie downs all together to finish the trip. One thing that really supprised me, was that with no tie downs, even the smallest bump would cause the rear of the camper to raise up 2-3 inches.
So two votes for spring loads all around and one vote for cushioned tie downs.
I didn't bother to contact Outfitter since the camper is a little over two years old (and I'm in Phoenix and Outfitter is in CO). The picture is before I fixed the damage. The original anchor point was attached by the two carriage bolts seen in the picture (no t-nut and did not go through the frame).
I'm not necessarily overly concerned about the damage (not that I'm too happy about it), but this is the sort of thing that will happen when you get off road. When this one wears out I'll just have to get another one.
darmes wrote: I was able to repair the wing walls by jacking them up and adding some custom made steel angles. It's an Outfitter camper with an aluminum frame, though the wing walls (I believe Outfitter calls them 'short bed dress kit') were added after the main part of the camper was constructed.
The wing-walls are NOT added after the fact but are an integral part of the framing for the sidewall. It is just the lower filon piece that is added separately during construction. They are also by no means a tacked-on "short-bed dress kit" (such as other brands use) as they are integral to even the long-bed Apex9.5.
Quote: The original anchor points were 'J' hooks attached with the two carriage bolts (seen in the picture).
Not sure why the tie-down point was placed on the wing-wall, as it is normally placed through the sidewall framing just forward of the wing-wall (which is a much stronger location). I don't see it in your picture but there is usually a plumbing access door on that sidewall, right above the normal location for the tie-down point. Are you the first owner? Does your camper have some type of special order layout?
Quote: I've added new anchor points just in front of the wing walls by placing three carriage bolts through two pieces of 1" x 6" steel plates sandwiching the 1/8" plywood that forms the horizontal platform over the bed rails as close to the edge of the frame as I could get.
Given the seeming lack of access to the sidewalls framing your solution seems to be as good as you will get.
Quote: When the damage occurred, the tie down were definitely not loose, if anything they were tighter than usual. I have a 3/8" rubber mat in the bed and the camper did not slide back. After I noticed the damage, I had to remove the rear tie downs all together to finish the trip. One thing that really supprised me, was that with no tie downs, even the smallest bump would cause the rear of the camper to raise up 2-3 inches.
A substitute tie-down could have been fab'd from a ratchet strap hooked to the Torklift and the strap run through the jack leg mount.
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In the past I would take an Alaskan camper on dirt roads, some pretty rough (washboard type surface). I never had a problem. I found that the tie downs should be only handtight, never tightened with a wrench and for off pavement surfaces you might loosen until just the point that there is no slack in the chains. That allows the camper to not hop up and down in the back as you describe nor does it allow for excessive stresses on the eye bolts when the body and bed flex in response to the irregularies of the dirt road surface. If you use TorkLifts be sure to allow for some movement as that type of system ties the camper to the frame alowing little if any wiggle room for the bed to flex in response to the road surface. If the tie downs are too tight, something will give. For off road applications, there can be a case made to use the Happi Jac system as it allows the camper to flex with the bed.
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We too have the Caribou 8, however, it is made for our 8-foot bed. The difference being that both our rear and front tiedowns are secured directly to the steel jack brackets (that in turn are secured to the Caribou's main aluminum support members).
Unless your rear tiedowns were mounted to the inside wall of skirt dressing (highly unusual), Steve's description is correct.
Have a look (and, read) Don Curley's excellent article on reinforcing his Apex rear tiedowns (illustrated with photos) for their White Rim Trail expedition, here-->
For others, the article is located in the Truck Campers forum Sticky called: Trip Reports, under the sub-heading: Expedition Pre-preparation & Mechanical Modifications
Let us know how you proceed. Additionally, as Steve suggests, post in Outfitter's Owner's Forum. There are numerous experts there to help you, including the actual builders of your camper
Cheers,
Silver-
*For future reference, loosen-up those tiedowns if you do offroading. Additionally, we use high-density foam blocks all around the front of our camper tub from wheel-well to wheel-well. This keeps our camper fairly square when offroading when our tiedowns are loose (but not too loose; you don't want your spring-loads hammering the side of your fleetside truck panels!)...
I just realized that I somehow didn't catch that the OP has a Caribou and not an Apex. I am not all that familiar with those, so parts of my reply probably don't apply.
So just one more question. For those with Outfitters and Happijac tie downs on the front, the distance between the tie down point and the jack mounted anchor point is only 16". Too short for a Happijac spring loaded turnbuckle and Quickload (18"). I've been using a solid connection (no spring). Looks like I have three options.
1. Continue to use the solid connection. (no spring loads and tie down is vertical)
2. Relocate the camper anchor point towards the rear, allowing for a longer tie down. (requires adding new anchor points through the plywood deck and not using the stronger jack anchor point)
3. Change to TorkLift on the front. (lose ground clearance and have to buy the Torklifts)
Any suggestions?
I've read Don Curley's article about reinforcing his rear tie downs, problem is I don't have access to the inside of the wall/frame on the passenger side.
I will add this information to Outfitter Owners Group along with more pictures.
darmes wrote: So just one more question. For those with Outfitters and Happijac tie downs on the front, the distance between the tie down point and the jack mounted anchor point is only 16". Too short for a Happijac spring loaded turnbuckle and Quickload (18"). I've been using a solid connection (no spring). Looks like I have three options.
1. Continue to use the solid connection. (no spring loads and tie down is vertical)
2. Relocate the camper anchor point towards the rear, allowing for a longer tie down. (requires adding new anchor points through the plywood deck and not using the stronger jack anchor point)
3. Change to TorkLift on the front. (lose ground clearance and have to buy the Torklifts)
Any suggestions?
I've read Don Curley's article about reinforcing his rear tie downs, problem is I don't have access to the inside of the wall/frame on the passenger side.
I agree with the advice on holdowns I will add this information to Outfitter Owners Group along with more pictures.
We have an Apex 8 with Happijacs in the front. Our front turnbuckles are spring loaded. But they are the barrel style turnbuckle with no Quickload feature (shorter). On the rear tiedowns we use torklift and the spring loaded barrel style tiedowns and rienforced rear holdowns as illustrated in Don Curley post. About those washboard roads; did you air down your tires? There is an excellent post on this topic by Jefe'. Scroll down to his postmortem on the trip washboardroads
I have been in Alaska for the last week on business so I may have missed it...did you do a trip report with pictures that I missed?
* This post was
edited 05/18/08 10:24am by Nemo667 *
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