Mounting Your Truck Camper

Owning a truck camper means that you’ve got convenient and comfortable accommodations for wherever you choose to camp. The nice thing about truck campers is that they don’t add any additional length or much additional width to your truck, so your truck’s footprint isn’t any bigger. This means you can park and camp pretty much anywhere that your truck will fit without having to worry about the added bulk of a trailer behind your vehicle. You also don’t have to tow them anywhere; driving around with them is not much more difficult than driving your truck typically is.

The one challenging aspect of owning a truck camper is mounting it onto the bed of your pickup truck. This can be a daunting task to the uninitiated, but we’re here to help. Camp Site RV in Cresco is your Iowa truck camper dealer. Read on to learn how to safely and securely mount your truck camper onto your truck so that you’re ready for your next adventure!

1. Raise Your Camper

Make sure that your truck and your camper are on flat, even ground before you begin. To start, you’ll need to raise up your truck camper until it’s approximately four inches above the bed of your truck. You’ll need to raise your camper in small increments until it’s at the correct height. Start by raising the front of the camper first, then lift the back up until it’s level with the front. If you raise the rear of your camper first, you’re liable to flip the camper forward, which will damage the overhang. Once your truck camper is high enough that you can get your truck under it, you can stop.

2. Reverse Your Truck

Next, get in your truck and reverse the truck until it’s completely underneath the camper. You’ll want to go slowly so that you don’t do any damage to the truck or your camper. Make sure that you’re centered under the camper and that your camper clears the wheel wells of your truck as you back it up, and don’t hit the jacks! Once you’re close enough to the camper to hook up the wiring, park your truck and put the parking brake on for good measure before you get out.

3. Connect The Wiring

It’s much easier to connect the wiring between your truck and camper now, before the camper is fully installed into place. Hook up the wiring and make sure it’s secured before you get back in your truck and finish reversing into place. Make sure the camper doesn’t bump your truck’s tail lights or bumper. If you’re concerned about this, you can buy a camper bumper kit that will prevent this from happening. Park your truck again.

4. Lower Your Camper

Now that you’re under the camper, you can lower it onto the bed of your truck. Check to make sure the wiring isn’t going to be crushed underneath the camper. Use the same method to lower the truck camper that you did to raise it, only in reverse: this means lowering the rear before you lower the front in small increments until it’s in place. 

5. Secure Your Camper

Now you’ll need to lock the truck camper in place using tie-downs and turnbuckles. The turnbuckles will attach to the anchor points on your camper and the tie-downs will hook to your truck. There are turnbuckles that have indicators to help you adjust the tension correctly; you don’t want the tension to be too tight or it could damage your tie-downs and rip out the anchors. Spring-loaded turnbuckles are a nice upgrade that can help prevent this calamity.

We hope our guide has made truck camper mounting a much easier task for you. Seeking truck campers for sale in Iowa? Browse our website to see the vast inventory of new and used truck campers for sale at our dealership in Cresco, IA. Camp Site RV proudly serves the cities of Cedar Falls, IA; Rochester, MN; and La Crosse, WI.