Cabover Clearance: Getting it Right to Avoid Damage to Your Truck and Camper

The words from my local Ford service manager hit me like a ton of bricks. “I’m sorry, Nick, but your sunroof frame is bent and there’s nothing that we can do to fix it.” Our truck at that time was a 2015 Ford F-350, long-bed, crew cab with a 6.7L Power Stroke Turbo Diesel. A Northstar Arrow 8.5 was mounted in the bed.

We realized that we had a problem a couple months before when we were returning home from a Christmas visit to Marcia’s folks in South Carolina. There was a whistling noise that I initially thought was coming from a worn side window seal, but we soon realized that it was coming from the sunroof. Sliding the sunroof shade back, we could hear and feel cold air coming through the closed sunroof. Puzzled, I pulled over and attempted to seal the sunroof from the outside with white Gorilla tape. That worked for a while, but had to be replaced every couple days.

Part of the problem is that most truck camper companies don’t build their campers for specific trucks, which is understandable. Dimensions of trucks seem to change with almost maddening frequency. Cab height changes, as well as the depth of truck bed rails seem to always be in a state of flux. Also, if campers were only made for a specific truck, resale could be a problem. Dealers want rigs that they can slide into an appropriately-sized truck bed, secure it to the truck, familiarize buyers with their new camper, and send the customer on their way. This is not to suggest that dealers do so in a cavalier manner because they don’t. Because of these changes, campers must often be raised to clear trucks cabs or rails by placing a variety of materials under the camper. Indeed, Ford trucks, in particular, almost always require some kind of riser underneath the camper to clear the cab.

Something else to consider is that truck campers themselves can flex when certain road conditions are encountered.  One of the worst that I have experienced is going over multiple train tracks, especially if not taken head on. It seems that the truck’s suspension starts bouncing and can’t be stopped. Turnbuckles with internal springs are designed to deal with this to a certain degree, but if over-tightened, damage can occur at the anchor points on the camper.

In addition, keep in mind that truck beds and cabs are independently attached to the truck’s frame, which can cause twisting. Videos are available online that show companies torture-testing trucks to make sure they can handle extremely rough road conditions. In some cases, truck beds had flexed so badly that tailgates couldn’t be opened.

Clearance lights can further complicate the problem. Both my 2006 Ram 2500 and 2015 F-350 had this option when I bought them off the lot. Our 2024 Ford F-350 King Ranch does not have them because we ordered this vehicle. The extra height of clearance lights requires adding more of a lift under the camper. Sure, they can give you that big rig look, but might cause later problems. Also, a friend, who was sure that his camper had sufficient roof clearance had his shark fin antenna put a karate chop-like gash in the underside of his camper!

We picked up our 2015 Northstar at the factory and during the install, a couple sheets of plywood were placed under the camper to act as a riser. All was good, but two years later we had to take the camper back to the Iowa factory for a repair. I dropped-off the camper in a bay in the factory, spent the night in a motel and returned 24 hours later to pick it up. While paying my bill in the office, the Northstar crew reinstalled the camper on my truck, but neglected to put the sheets of plywood back under the camper.

I didn’t notice the omission when I got in and drove home, nor did I spot it in the next year, although a couple times it seemed like the cabover tapped the clearance lights on rough roads. I just thought the roads were very bad, not suspecting that I had a big problem. Yes, that one is on me for not delving further into the problem.

The cabover, flexing and bouncing with the suspension and turnbuckles, had hit the clearance lights so hard that they dented the roof and bent the sunroof frame, causing the telltale whistling and airflow that finally alerted us to the damage. A close look at the accompanying photos show the damaged lights. After removing the camper from the truck, our Ford dealer diagnosed the problem as related in this article’s lead. Eventually, we sealed the sunroof with silicone and removed the fuse that powered it.

I’m the kind of type-A guy who takes pride in my gear and likes to keep it in top notch shape. When ordering a new vehicle, I had planned on selling the old truck as a camper-ready rig with upgraded suspension, oversize fuel tank, tie-downs and so on.  Explaining the damage was something that I didn’t look forward to doing. Fortunately, I sold it to the son of a friend who had admired the truck, but didn’t care about the sunroof.

I guess the big question that we all face is just how much clearance should be between the truck cab and cabover? I’m not sure that any of us can accurately answer that question because of the many variables affecting that decision. Some of these include worn suspension parts and whether additional suspension components have been added, such as airbags. However, it would seem that a minimum of 3 inches is a good start, with even 4 to 5 inches being preferable to cover any suspension difficulties or irregularities.

I’m sure that we have all seen some cabovers seemingly a foot above the truck and which is almost comical and makes me wonder how much extra wind drag is created by this large gap. Still others are so close to the top of the truck that I don’t think that I could blow smoke through the gap. Hopefully, our rigs will fall somewhere between these two examples.

One thing is definite for my wife and me: no more clearance lights, and since our camper pretty much stays on the truck all of the time, no more sunroofs as well.