Raising TC Off Bed

[Jerry]

Newbie here with a question about my first truck camper.

I have read that you can add rubber mat to the floor of the truck bed to raise the TC. This appears primarily to keep the shelf from contacting the roof of the truck.

So far, so good.

I would then assume that some sort of support would be added to the bed rails to support the TC full width.

Here are my questions:

What is a good material?
Should they be the full length of the bed rails?
Should they also span the width of the bed immediately behind the cab?
Should this supports be attached or are they retained by the weight of the TC?
Is a problem with water leaking around and filling the truck bed?
Anything else I should know about this technique?

Thanks Y’all,

[wellsdesigned]

The truck camper is not built to contact the bed rails. It is built to sit flat in the bed of the truck between the wheel wells. A mat is too thin to make a difference in height, but it is very helpful keeping the camper from sliding around in a bare truck bed.

If your camper is going to contact the roof or the bed rails when sitting in the bed, you need to consider something more to raise it up. I had to build one for my Ram truck that replaced a Chevy that did not need the bed riser. See the attached picture.

Tom
Sacramento CA
2003 Eagle Cap 850 Camper
2019 Ram 3500 SRW 6.4 L Gasser

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[Jerry]

wellsdesigned – Nicely done. What are the things on the sided of the bed? I don’t recognize them.

Thanks,

[wellsdesigned]

I have the Rambox built in storage that comes as an option on Ram trucks. This makes lining up the camper just right more challenging in some ways vs. open wheel wells in the bed. I adapted by adding some PVC trim and guides which I still use. The picture shows some wheels that also were there to help guide the camper in, but they turned out to be more of a hindrance than they were worth.

The Rambox comes with the aluminum rack that I use to easily mount and unmount the PVC guides. The PVC trim works great to keep the camper from contacting the spray bed liner and to give me a very good gauge on how straight I am backing in. The PVC material is more forgiving than wood to the camper if I slide up against it. I used to struggle with 2×4’s laid in the bed of my former truck that were there to keep the camper between the wheel wells but those weren’t fixed and prone to getting bumped out of alignment.

For those that are curious, the Ramboxes are accessible by raising the camper up with the automatic jacks. It isn’t so convenient that it becomes a place to store common items like food, but man they are excellent places for fishing gear and boat paddles and the like.

Tom
Sacramento CA
2003 Eagle Cap 850 Camper
2019 Ram 3500 SRW 6.4 L Gasser

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