yes that’s a Home Depot / Lowe’s item and it’s what the Dealer used for spacing on my Camper.

 

👍
I love it when a plan comes together!!!

 

I just picked up two, 2x8 x 2" sheets of 20psi pink foam board. Turns out I need 3"+ riser to get the NL clear of the cab antenna. Got some LePage foam board glue. Going to get two 4x8 sheets of 1/2" Baltic Birch ply and make a pair of 2x8' sandwiches. With my stall mat under this, and the truck bed mat on top, I should have the cab roof clearance I want.
Mucho $$ though. The foam board was $60/sheet and the BB ply is $109/sheet! Ouch.

 

For what it's worth, I have had bad results when using foam. I do not know the density of the foam I used so that could be a factor. However it started to squish down on me during an 8 thousand mile trip. When I got home I had about 1/8 of an inch clearance. on my cab. I would be leery of using it again.

 

Thanks for posting.
Was it the pink or blue foam and how thick?
Also, did you have it between two sheets of ply, or one on top, or just the bed mat?
Thanks.

 

Wow. We have been using pink foam under our eagle cap for a couple of years. No problem at all...and she ‘ain’t lite!
I’ll see if I can get a density off it.

 

Thanks Bill. Interested in seeing your boards psi is.
What was your set up under and on top of the foam board?
I suppose denting and/or compressing is sum of an equation. What's on top + What's under it + type of foam + road condition .

 

This issue has been the bane of camper carrying Ford pickup folks for a long time.
To appeal to the hat wearing cowboys amongst us, (yes, me too) Ford has the taller cab and the largest share of the big 3 in pickup sales.
When we purchased our F-350 to solely carry our Northstar Laredo hard side camper, something needed to be done to elevate the camper to clear the cab and rear mounted twin antenna blocks.

We came from a 2001 Dodge Cummins H.O. short bed truck to which both a 1998 Lance 165-s and the new N* Laredo had been unceremoniously dropped onto the 6.5 foot bed (over a thin rubber bed mat) with a perfect fit between four Lance Camper Guides to keep everything straight. The campers were as low and far forward as would fit in the bed, a slight plus in the clearance department for missing low hanging tree branches and departure angle.

It was then Ford's 6.75 foot bed and taller cab threw a wrench into the fitment process. The cab was variously taller and the bed longer so some offset needed to occur. With a long bed you don't have to consider the difference between 6-1/2 foot bed or 6-3/4 foot bed.

The whole issue varies around different years of Ford trucks.
Do you have those 3 to 5 front over cab clearance lights?
Are your antenna(s) at the front or rear and are they blocks or shark fin?

I started to ask questions about how much specific elevation we needed to clear our Northstar Laredo above the new 2020 rear dual antenna blocks.
There were several unknowns like how much bending/twisting of Ford's new frame had, and how much settling the camper frame bottom had into the extruded foam.
Using the best advice i could find on here and other internet truck camper sites at the time, it looked like a 4 inch lift and 4 inch backspacing would clear our N* with ease.
My first attempt was to use a thin rubber bed mat with a 4 inch block of 250 Blue foam both under and in front of the bed without some sort of camper guides.


I can report that there has been a little settling of the camper into the foam, maybe 3/8 inch at the rear which has pretty much anchored the rear, which I don't mind, but the front of the camper has tended to float around on the blue foam especially during extreme angles up/down/and especially sidehilling.
I found the frame is very stiff on the current crop of Ford pickups, so overkill on elevation to avoid hitting the top of the cab in fore-to-aft rocking is not the problem i thought it mioght be. Side sliding is a problem only discovered by checking the tension on the tie downs and finding some were very tight and some were very loose, sure signs of camper movement in the bed. I then noticed the Torklift turnbuckles were very close on one side and distant on the other in front, so that's where the sliding had occurred.

So, what to do?
There are different ways to go. If going with foam again,
1. I'll try a 2 inch, 250 foam (high non-compressibility) with a 3/8 inch exterior grade plywood overlay to give the sandwich some shear strength, and movement stoppers between the fender wells with that thin rubber bed mat topping the whole thing. Checking the front stopper foam block, I find I could use a 3 inch block to avoid hitting the back of the tail lights in the camper but that's too close to 4 inch to worry about it.

Another is to
2. make a 2x4 (laying down) frame right in the bed itself to take advantage of the dips with a plywood top with a rubber mat on top. This is the basic way OEM camper manufacturers lift your camper when you pick it up at the factory. Some even dispense with the plywood.
Yet another is to
3. do what Mello Mike does with his RAM and camper which is to use the thickest horse stall mat you can find, maybe 1-1/2 inch thick and carve it to fit,maybe in two pieces. You won't need a bed mat. No wood or foam. The only downside is the weight. They are very heavy to support a 1200 pound horse. I don't know if they are spongy or not and allow porpoising on pavement blocks.

Don't forget to find a way to keep the camper from moving around.

Lance Camper Guides in position on my Dodge Cummins
jefe

 

Thanks for the post Jefe! My new truck has the roof clearance lights and the block antennas on the back. Antenna was the highest point at about 46.5"
I should have about 3.5" of clearance over the antenna with my planned riser. Hoping the gluing the BB ply to the 2" foam will distribute the weight on the foam better and avoid 'hot spots'
Unsure what to do about side-to-side movement, is I have any. I don't think NL's shell would like anything rubbing on it, nor relatively small points of pressure to the side walls.
If shifting does occur, perhaps 2x wood spacers fore and aft of the wheel wells would work if I padded and carpeted them to prevent/lessen abrading the fibreglass.
Have to see after a few trips if something is needed.
Was going to get the BB ply today, but of course, as soon as I swept out the bed and unrolled the stall mat, it started to pour out of the blue......

 

Wing nut Bert, I think it was the blue with no plywood, just a bed mat.

 

For what its worth, I ended up with 1-3/4” plywood screwed to the camper and 1-3/4” plywood on a 2X4 frame (laying down) for a total of 3”. Worked perfect for my set-up. I have the cowboy lights on the cab and it gives plenty to clear them. 1994 F250 / 1992 Caribou camper.
PS. I painted the plywood deck with non-skid.

 

Thanks HG. Good to have specifics of the set up so people get an idea of what has or hasn't worked for them.

IMHO, foam without a plywood surface, at least camper side and likely bed side as well, is risky to damage. Either when moving in and out of the bed or from the camper porpoising or twisting or even when loading as you drop the front or back down and contact those respective ends first. Smaller contact point will/could result in crushing at that point. Plywood sandwich is going to help mitigate that. But there are going to those that have the magic touch, and haven't had issues.
I'm more a belt and braces kinda guy.
I'm going foam/ply sandwich for the light weight and up here, 2x lumber only comes in a few options: Hockey Stick, Taco and AYFS. And as of late, the price has been $WTF.......

 

Thanks Pickle. That's a whole lotta wood!
And thanks for the reminder!! I was eyeballing some of those stick on stair treads for extra grip. Add that to the list.

 

Very good information here. Picked up our new camper last weekend. Dealer used foam for a riser over the rubber mats (not horse stall mats) we had. The camper moved diagonally and there was at least 4 inches of clearance between top of cab and camper. Another member here with same camper and truck advised he was using the 3/8 inch mat (Recommended by NL) over a 3/4 inch horse stall mat. It worked perfectly and we have the recommended 2 inches of clearance.

Anyone know why NL recommends the 3/8 mat over plywood but not another shock absorbing rubber horse mat? We were baffled by this when talking to them on the phone. Great customer support btw.

 

It seems not to necessarily the thickness but durometer or the material. NL found the typical stall mats were too firm and slick and their smooth fibreglass bottoms slid. They suggest a "3/8 inch truck bed mat" is softer and therefore their campers stay put. And the plywood under the mat seems to be the same logic. Plywood surface offers more grip then stall mat. They have the most experience, so best to stick to what they recommend.

My issue is " 3/8" truck bed mat" seems a bit broad unless all brands are identical, which I doubt. They should spec brands/models of mats to at least spare us the guessing game. Especially since my reading between the lines detects there could be warranty arguments made.

And to be fair, my 10.5' Okanagan moved quite a bit on a stall mat and with the Fastguns tightened to spec.

My issue with things like this is the taking, unintentional or not, of a parental 'just do as I say' approach. Tons of discussions would have been moot had they stated the reasons up front on their site previously. Which, to their credit, they now do.