2019 Four Wheel Camper Flatbed and Australian-made Aluminum Norweld Tray on a Kitted Out 2017 4x4 V8 Toyota Tundra

Surf.Climb.Travel

New member
Woosah my dudes. They’re probably too busy snapping pics for the gram.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
actually, i've been too busy taking care of my dad as his primary caregiver. He was diagnosed with throat cancer just after i posted that ad and i flew out to help his as he is going through chemo and radiation now.

Jessica
 

Surf.Climb.Travel

New member
Having companies that sell said products tell you it will be fine doesn’t hold much weight

Cmon now
we didn't buy any of the products from the companies and we are solid friends with the owners of the overland companies, so they would not steer us the wrong way. also FWC will not endorse any mods, they are very strict when it comes to that, so they just offered their input. and i'm not a sir.
- Jessica
 

Surf.Climb.Travel

New member
sure, Dobinsons socks front and rear and Dobinson's leaf pack. Zero issues with fully loaded and even carrying my motorcycle on a rear rack.
 

sn_85

Observer
and you did nothing to the frame?

Are you going to do anything to your Tacoma's frame when you overload with a FWC as well?

 

dole

Member
Are you going to do anything to your Tacoma's frame when you overload with a FWC as well?

lol did i really hurt your feelings asking a seller for info on their vehicle?
 

rruff

Explorer
and you did nothing to the frame?
Nobody ever does. Probably safer that way since I've never heard of a 2007+ Tundra frame breaking despite people hauling 5,000 lb campers. Some of the offroad guys will box the rear portion, but that is for torsional stiffness not strength.

Speaking of... hard mounting the flatbed makes the rear of the frame very stiff, while ordinarily it flexes torsionally. The critical point would be the most forward mounts, but those are beefy structures and the frame rails from there forward are very stout as well... double the thickness vs the rear part.
 

DirtWhiskey

Western Dirt Rat
Hi there, what platform should I be posting this on? Thank you for your help.

Jessica

Hi there. I was referring to the base truck GVWR. It's not uncommon for trucks to be overloaded when loaded. It's just not good practice. I personally feel like a 3/4 ton truck is minimum for any real camper on a truck. I doubt your truck is much over GVWR and it probably performs amazingly, certainly better than any Tacoma loaded up with a camper. I think the reason that you got a little friction was that it was posted on this forum by a new member and then there were no replies for a while. We tend to be pretty hard on these for sale forums as we see a lot of "post and disappear" spam and a lot of flippers. This truck set up that you're selling is rad and I'm sure somebody will pick it up.

Saw that you mentioned you were caring for your father. Sorry to hear that hope he does well and good luck with the sale!
 

dstefan

Well-known member
Sorry about your Dad, thats always a tough time.

What’s the story on the big dent on the rear curve out of the camper itself? Penetration or other issues?

Also, what kinda mileage do you get with the current setup?
 

trabs00

Lifetime Social Distancer
Nobody ever does. Probably safer that way since I've never heard of a 2007+ Tundra frame breaking despite people hauling 5,000 lb campers. Some of the offroad guys will box the rear portion, but that is for torsional stiffness not strength.

Speaking of... hard mounting the flatbed makes the rear of the frame very stiff, while ordinarily it flexes torsionally. The critical point would be the most forward mounts, but those are beefy structures and the frame rails from there forward are very stout as well... double the thickness vs the rear part.

Hope I am not hijacking the thread, and I am definitely not bashing Tundras (I love my 2012 CrewMax) just responding about frame issues with overloaded Tundras... someone just made this aware to me recently.

Now this example is not a Double cab so not really a fair comparison, but a fair warning not to overload your truck inappropriately and expect to drive it like a desert racer. I was thinking of boxing / reinforcing my CrewMax frame and adding a tray to fit a camper for a 6.5 ft bed, kinda like this one. Not anymore!! I think I read they even did some work to stiffen the frame as well.
 

Attachments

  • CrewMax frame bent.jpeg
    CrewMax frame bent.jpeg
    109.9 KB · Views: 120

rruff

Explorer
I was thinking of boxing / reinforcing my CrewMax frame and adding a tray to fit a camper for a 6.5 ft bed, kinda like this one. Not anymore!! I think I read they even did some work to stiffen the frame as well.

In that video you can see that he was heading into the setting sun, and probably driving way to fast considering that he was blind. He hit something hard enough to bash in the skid and radiator as well as kink the rear of the frame. The kink is right at the forward bed mount where the frame starts bending down, which is also at the very front of the flatbed. This location is on the weak and flexy open C part of the frame (everything aft of the forward leaf mount).

I didn't see any evidence that the frame was reinforced. He shows the truck with the bed off here:

WolfPac Outdoors.jpg



and in the next post a few days later the Norweld tray is on. Welding on the frame would require removing everything... and on the shortbed Crewmax you'd need to remove the cab as well if you were boxing all of the open-C part. Major job.

The Norweld tray is very stiff torsionally, while the part of the frame that it is mounted to is designed to flex. This increases stress quite a bit at the transition, which is at the forward bed mount on this rig, which is not a strong location. In fact I've heard that truck frames are designed to collapse at that point to reduce deceleration in rear-end collisions.
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
185,527
Messages
2,875,534
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top