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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / RVs / March 2007Bought a used slide on ??
I bought an older 7 ft Sun Line Truck camper puting it on a dodge dakota Club cab P/U. Does any one have any recomends or links Re: type of tie downs,bed mats,any other Info? Thanks In Advance Down sizeing in LI NY > I bought an older 7 ft Sun Line Truck camper puting it on a dodge > dakota Club cab P/U. Does any one have any recomends or links Re: > type of tie downs,bed mats,any other Info? > Thanks In Advance > Down sizeing in LI NY Don't have any recommendations on the goodies, but a question before you buy the goodies. Did you measure your truck bed and the slide-in that you bought to go in that bed? All side-in bases and all truck beds are not the same size. Tom J > I bought an older 7 ft Sun Line Truck camper puting it on a dodge dakota > Club cab P/U. Does any one have any recomends or links Re: type of tie > downs,bed mats,any other Info? > Thanks In Advance > Down sizeing in LI NY I had a Sun Line slide-in. It was a 1990 8.5 foot model and our 3/4 ton full-size Ford pickup was barely able to get it up hill. It was a very heavy camper. I hope yours is lighter as the Dakota might have a hard time with it. We had a cheap auto store mat on the bed and a two by four at the front of the bed to keep the camper from rubbing. We had a chain and turnbuckle tie down system that was attached to the bed underside of the truck bed. It certainly kept the camper stable. Those things are top heavy so you really do need a good quality tie down system. Have a safe trip  SignatureJanet Wilder Bad spelling. Bad punctuation Good Friends. Good Life > I bought an older 7 ft Sun Line Truck camper puting it on a dodge dakota > Club cab P/U. Does any one have any recomends or links Re: type of tie > downs,bed mats,any other Info? > Thanks In Advance > Down sizeing in LI NY I sold my Sun lite 7.2 ft. (floor) Skyhawk fold-up camper and mini truck a few years ago, but remember these things. It's a good idea to have someone such as RV sales/service tech. look at your truck and suggest the strongest places to attach tie-downs. I had chains and turn-buckles, but the placement of these is important so that the forward base post on the truck is always in front of the front camper hook, and the rear base post is behind the rear camper hook. Basic physics for stability. You want those chains at a pretty good angle pulling in the right direction when accelerating and stopping. The other thing I came up with over the years of hauling the thing on and off the truck was a hard rubber matt on the truck bed which helped prevent sliding. It was about a half inch thick and covered the truck bed completely in between the wheel wells front to rear. I think it really helped cushion the camper as it kept it from moving. Once the tie-down chains were tightened, the camper did NOT move! And as Janet said, a board along the rim of the truck bed just behind the cab where the camper could bump. Wood works well, but I think I eventually used a 1/2 inch fiberglass slat/strip that let me pull the camper just a bit more forward. SignatureBarbara Thanks for the replies.As far as weight its only 1300 Lbs with water and propane so I hope my dakota will haul it OK.Its gona be a change from my 25 ft class C that I had to give up due to the cost of fuel and my meager SS ck he he.I hope to haul it home tomorrow and begin its restoring phase as its 25+ years old and needs a lot of TLC . Down sizeing here on LI NY > Thanks for the replies.As far as weight its only 1300 Lbs with water and > propane so I hope my dakota will haul it OK.Its gona be a change from my > 25 ft class C that I had to give up due to the cost of fuel and my > meager SS ck he he.I hope to haul it home tomorrow and begin its > restoring phase as its 25+ years old and needs a lot of TLC . > Down sizeing here on LI NY John, Sun Line always built a good product. At the venerable age of 25, I'm certain it was stick-built so check very, very carefully for water leaks in the walls and roof. Barbara mentioned a rubber bed mat. That's what we used. We got it at one of the discount stores. Not WalMart as there weren't any in NJ in 1990, probably at K-Mart. We went from a 20' Mini Winnie to the 8.5 foot Sun Line camper and the camper had more storage and a bigger bathroom. We loved having a camper. It was small enough that we could park it *almost* anywhere and we could be so spontaneous with our stops. I just got an email back from a place we want to visit next summer telling me that we can park the 37 foot motorhome with toad in their lot to visit their museum. We never had to check ahead with the camper. Both of us cried when we traded it in on our first fulltiming fifth wheel. The only thing I didn't like about the truck camper was having to unhook every day to sightsee. If we had it to do all over again, we probably would have towed a little car. We had a Nissan Pulsar stick shift that would have been ideal. Just remember that all the weight of the camper will be sitting on your wheels with no other wheels to help it like a trailer has. Truck campers are heavy! Good Luck SignatureJanet Wilder Bad spelling. Bad punctuation Good Friends. Good Life >Thanks for the replies.As far as weight its only 1300 Lbs with water and >propane so I hope my dakota will haul it OK.Its gona be a change from my >25 ft class C that I had to give up due to the cost of fuel and my >meager SS ck he he.I hope to haul it home tomorrow and begin its >restoring phase as its 25+ years old and needs a lot of TLC . > Down sizeing here on LI NY That is a lot of weight for a Dakota especailly with a hi CG too. Last month I saw one like that that had slide out of a Dakota on the highway going into a strong headwind and onto a trailer behind it that had a few Harleys on it (It was kinda standing on end on top of Harleys and wedged between them and back of truck, it was one hell of a mess) ----------------- TheSnoMan.com > That is a lot of weight for a Dakota especailly with a hi CG too. Last > month I saw one like that that had slide out of a Dakota on the [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > ----------------- > TheSnoMan.com You were most definitely in the "right place at the right time" to see a prime example of someone doing everything wrong. The instinct for self and property preservation generally inspires better pre-trip preparation and prevention of such disasters. There will always be some dork who knows better, however. I've even seen some cocky, smartie-pants drivers move a slide-in camper with NO tie downs! "Oh, I'm only driving 30 miles over to my brother's house to drop this thing off. It's heavy. It won't go no-where." Scary!!! SignatureBarbara >You were most definitely in the "right place at the right time" to see >a prime example of someone doing everything wrong. The instinct for [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >tie downs! "Oh, I'm only driving 30 miles over to my brother's house >to drop this thing off. It's heavy. It won't go no-where." Scary!!! Yes my onlt regret is that I did not see it soone enough to pull over and get a few pictures of it as they would have kinda been priceless. One of the strangest camper accidents I have ever seen. They appeared to be kinda scratching their heads trying to figure out what to do about it while looking at it. I would have like to see them explain it to insurance agent. ----------------- TheSnoMan.com
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