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I am looking for some kind of lightweight material to make a 5 inch riser for my truck bed. I added it all up and all the wood I am currently using comes to about 70#. Camper came with a factory 2 inch riser but I had to add three more to get the necessary cab clearance. Just like to save some weight if I can.
I have no idea unless you built some kind of aluminum frame. Five inches seems like a lot to raise your camper. What is your truck and camper combination, I can't remember?
Personally, I used two horse stall mats set side by side and cut out to the same pattern as my bed mat, which then sits on top of those. Those horse stall mats are heavy but it is a permanent solution (versus having a 3/4 inch piece of plywood under my bed mat) and I have the excess payload so I am not concerned about their weight.
WyoBull, I really don't know what the deal is as to why I need 5 inches. The Northstar Laredo came from the factory with a 2 inch riser and then I had to add 1 1/2 inches more when I put it on the 2000 F 250. Then comes the new truck and I find I have to add another 1 1/2 inches to get 2 to 3 inches of cab clearance as you know Ford put the antenna boxes on the rear of the cab and I wanted to make sure the TC did not hit them on some rough roads. We have been on some roads out west that had big dips in them and I actually dented the top of my old truck slightly on one of them. I did not want a repeat of that. My current clearance looks like what everybody else has .
I am looking for some kind of lightweight material to make a 5 inch riser for my truck bed. I added it all up and all the wood I am currently using comes to about 70#. Camper came with a factory 2 inch riser but I had to add three more to get the necessary cab clearance. Just like to save some weight if I can.
Foamular 250 sold at Home Depot. More than enough PSI to do the job. Foamular 150 may work but do the math for yourself. I am using 2 inch thick Foamular 250 for my camper.
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.
I have no idea unless you built some kind of aluminum frame. Five inches seems like a lot to raise your camper. What is your truck and camper combination, I can't remember?
Personally, I used two horse stall mats set side by side and cut out to the same pattern as my bed mat, which then sits on top of those. Those horse stall mats are heavy but it is a permanent solution (versus having a 3/4 inch piece of plywood under my bed mat) and I have the excess payload so I am not concerned about their weight.
WyoBull,
You have no roof clearance issues with your setup? We picked up a NL 811 this weekend and the dealer put a 3 inch foam on top of the rubber mats we used for our AF. This caused the camper to shift during drive back home. I felt there was too much clearance and that a 3/4 Stall mat followed by the recommended 3/8 rubber mat from Ford would work. We have similar setup so it should work. Our GPS antenna is the flat pancake type.
You have no roof clearance issues with your setup? We picked up a NL 811 this weekend and the dealer put a 3 inch foam on top of the rubber mats we used for our AF. This caused the camper to shift during drive back home. I felt there was too much clearance and that a 3/4 Stall mat followed by the recommended 3/8 rubber mat from Ford would work. We have similar setup so it should work. Our GPS antenna is the flat pancake type.
Cheers!
At the center of my cab, which is the narrowest gap between the bottom and the camper and the top of the cab, I have right a 2 inches of clearance. You can see from the photos that my SiriusXM antenna at the from of my roof is not a factor at all and the rear of the roof is completely clear of any antennae.
I use two, 3/4 inch horse stall mats cut to fit my bed sitting side by side and then my standard bed mat on top of those. Since I put the horse stall mats under my standard bed mat I have had no issues with the camper slapping the roof of the truck going over whoop-dee-do's going down the highway
.
At the center of my cab, which is the narrowest gap between the bottom and the camper and the top of the cab, I have right a 2 inches of clearance. You can see from the photos that my SiriusXM antenna at the from of my roof is not a factor at all and the rear of the roof is completely clear of any antennae.
I use two, 3/4 inch horse stall mats cut to fit my bed sitting side by side and then my standard bed mat on top of those. Since I put the horse stall mats under my standard bed mat I have had no issues with the camper slapping the roof of the truck going over whoop-dee-do's going down the highway
.
Excellent!
Thank you for the pictures. Ours was definitely 4-5 inches of clearance. I think the dealership wanted to get rid of us quickly since we found a birds nest in the AC unit and other minor things we made them fix before writing a check. Hope we run into you someday out fly-fishing on a river.
I decided to redo my wood riser and drilled a lot of holes in my 2x6 cross supports and removed the bed mat but used bed mat material under the supports. I shaved 65# off of what I had. I have used foam before and had bad results after it starts to squish down. I also saved 11# on my bed to camper spacers by using some yoga foam blocks instead of what I had. I also removed my extra battery and got a hollow trailer hitch extension that I use for my bike rack and saved another 75#. All total I figure I am down about 140#. I plan on going back to the CAT scale soon.
