Newbie with slide-in camper question.

[Rocky Veley]

Hi. I am a newbie ( to this forum ) square body truck fan. There is no better looking truck on earth in my opinion. Currently running a black 85 chevy K10 diesel with 3/4 ton springs, and a white 86 chevy c30 diesel. Last year I bought a 96 Northern Lite camper. The camper will work on either truck. Dry weight 583 kg's ( 1285 lb's .) I have the old style bed rail tie downs and I don't think they are strong enough.

My question is < does torklift make a frame style tie down for these trucks or is an underbelly bar the way to go ?

I appreciate any and all advice.

Thanks

ps ( could not find a slide in camper section )

 

[Jrgunn5150]

I've only ever seen belly bars and chains/straps on this era of trucks. Nothing wrong with the belly bar really, place it properly and you'll never have an issue.

 

[Rocky Veley]

Thanks. I have been leaning in that direction. Have looked to no end for Torklift tie downs. I think the plan is find a piece of steel , weld some brackets on then drill and mount to the frame. I don't want to weld directly to the frame rails.

 

[Craig 85]

I had an '87 K20 I purchased in the earlier 90's that had brackets that bolted to the front of the bed between the cab and bed. If I recall they bolted in place of the two bed bolts on the front panel. You can barely see them in the first photo (just behind the door locks). This truck had an aftermarket receiver hitch and the PO had some type of bar that slid into the ends of the receiver to secure the rear of the camper. The second and third pictures are similar to what I'm refering to.

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[SDJunkMan]

For the front mount on my stroke I ran a piece of fairly heavy square from side to side at about the front of the bed, used flats going up along side of the frame with a stop welded on the flat at the bottom of the frame. Attached it to the frame with J bolts, no holes in the frame.

Seemed to work fine, might have braced it a little if I used it more, but since I got the same mileage pulling my 35' 5 th wheel as I did with the slide in camper, I didn't use it much.

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The eyebolts that I attach the camper to go thru the running boards. As an added bonus, it strengthened up the running boards.

If you wanted, you could make the ends slip in like the rears on Craig's in the above post.

 

[Big Chip]

My ‘79 has brackets bolted to the front of the bed just below the upper body line.


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[bucket]

My ‘79 has brackets bolted to the front of the bed just below the upper body line.


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Those were available as part of one of the camper special packages. Or available by themselves too I suppose.

 

[Big Chip]

Those were available as part of one of the camper special packages. Or available by themselves too I suppose.

Mine’s a Camper Special so that must be it. I guess I just assumed they were aftermarket.


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[Rocky Veley]

Thanks everyone. Lots of ideas to ponder and some dandy pics . Just what I needed.

 

[bucket]

Mine’s a Camper Special so that must be it. I guess I just assumed they were aftermarket.


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From what I remember, there was 2 or 3 different camper special packages. My '79 is a camper special also, but it doesn't have those brackets included in it. I think it was just the cheapest way for the original owner to get the 400, dual batteries, 4.56 gears, etc. The camper wire harness is still taped up and unused under the truck.