How to mount a camper onto a Fuso?

[Tich]

Hey,

New here and couldn't find (or perhaps I didn't know what to look for) how to mount a camper onto a Fuso to prevent sway when traveling. Would there be any foreseeable directional issues with taking the axles off a small trailer and mounting them to the flat bed?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[FusoFG]

Welcome to the forum.
.
Used advanced search to search for carl+hunter in the Mitsubishi large truck forum. He mounted a bigfoot trailer to a Fuso.

 

[pugslyyy]

Hey,

New here and couldn't find (or perhaps I didn't know what to look for) how to mount a camper onto a Fuso to prevent sway when traveling. Would there be any foreseeable directional issues with taking the axles off a small trailer and mounting them to the flat bed?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Like this?

 

[lehel1]

mounting a camper ?

Hey,

New here and couldn't find (or perhaps I didn't know what to look for) how to mount a camper onto a Fuso to prevent sway when traveling. Would there be any foreseeable directional issues with taking the axles off a small trailer and mounting them to the flat bed?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hi all

There is a bit written in the Mitsubishi big truck section. Personally I have mounted my camper directly to a flatbed and bolted thru. I did a lot of research early on and had long talks with the dealers and factory before deciding to do this. There are lots of ways that have been very successful. I have 60K miles on my rig now with lots of backcountry traveling, I have also participated in a few overland expo and ralley obstacle courses which taxed the full articulation of the fuso and have had absolutely no troubles with the truck or camper. I am certainly very careful and slow in those situations but it seems to work.
Cheers lehel

 

[haven]

Several mounting techniques have been used by ExPo members on Fuso chassis. The three or four point mount, similar to that used by Mercedes for their Unimog, tends to concentrate the stress on the Fuso frame. The result can be frame failure. See threads by Doug Hackney and Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski for examples.

The Fuso body builders manual describes a method that mounts a full length subframe between the truck chassis and the camper. The subframe and frame are joined by spring loaded fasteners like these

Similar mounts are often used to attach garbage truck and dump truck bodies to heavy truck chassis. Any reputable truck upfitter should know how to fabricate this sort of subframe and fastener.

 

[Tich]

Hi all

There is a bit written in the Mitsubishi big truck section. Personally I have mounted my camper directly to a flatbed and bolted thru. I did a lot of research early on and had long talks with the dealers and factory before deciding to do this. There are lots of ways that have been very successful. I have 60K miles on my rig now with lots of backcountry traveling, I have also participated in a few overland expo and ralley obstacle courses which taxed the full articulation of the fuso and have had absolutely no troubles with the truck or camper. I am certainly very careful and slow in those situations but it seems to work.
Cheers lehel

Hey Lehel,

Thanks! I believe that's what we would want to do. We also won't be doing much rock crawling or extreme travel, but obviously we do want it to be safe and secure. Is your camper detachable? That would be the only thing -- we would want to be able to leave our camper somewhere, while we use the truck for in town errands, etc. Is there any way to do that and have it bolted to the bed?

 

[Tich]

Welcome to the forum.
.
Used advanced search to search for carl+hunter in the Mitsubishi large truck forum. He mounted a bigfoot trailer to a Fuso.

Thanks! Will do!

 

[Tich]

Thanks, Haven. We would want to mount directly to the flat bed, so I don't think we would need all that. Or would we? Excuse my ignorance --completely new to this.

 

[Tich]

Like this?

View attachment 162772

Yes!

 

[pugslyyy]

Hey Lehel,

Thanks! I believe that's what we would want to do. We also won't be doing much rock crawling or extreme travel, but obviously we do want it to be safe and secure. Is your camper detachable? That would be the only thing -- we would want to be able to leave our camper somewhere, while we use the truck for in town errands, etc. Is there any way to do that and have it bolted to the bed?

There's two main options - bolting a camper to a (standard/off the shelf) truck bed, or bolting a camper to a (custom built) 'torsion free subframe'. There is a lot of discussion of the pros/cons of the subframe approach - a number of trucks on the forum have them (including mine), and a number of trucks on the forum have had issues with them (including mine).

As others have said, check the forum discussions and get educated/ask questions. You should learn about all the alternatives and make the choice that is right for you.

 

[6x6pinz]

Yes!

This is a buddy of mines Fuso, recently acquired from one of the members here. It is mounted to a flatbed via four very large bolts and has lifting points that allow easy removal. No real history on the truck or its use. I am sure my buddy will put it through its passes in the upcoming years. He did have it at the Overland Expo at Mormon Lake, which was his first road trip after doing some customizing to it. So far he is happy with the truck with the exception of its ability to maintain a safe speed (above 40mph) while going uphill. The previous owner had issues with the state of original registration and their laws governing how it could be done which is why it is mounted this way. clean installation and does make using the flatbed a very good option as you only have to undo four bolts and one power cable.

 

[pugslyyy]

This is a buddy of mines Fuso, recently acquired from one of the members here. It is mounted to a flatbed via four very large bolts and has lifting points that allow easy removal. No real history on the truck or its use. I am sure my buddy will put it through its passes in the upcoming years. He did have it at the Overland Expo at Mormon Lake, which was his first road trip after doing some customizing to it. So far he is happy with the truck with the exception of its ability to maintain a safe speed (above 40mph) while going uphill. The previous owner had issues with the state of original registration and their laws governing how it could be done which is why it is mounted this way. clean installation and does make using the flatbed a very good option as you only have to undo four bolts and one power cable.

Interesting - I had noticed that vehicle for sale but it sold before I could go lay eyes on it. It certainly sold for a good price at the end, IMHO.

I had always wondered about the flatbed mounting - the travel trailer does sit high up. Complying with PA state law makes sense.

 

[haven]

Here's another example of using spring-loaded bolts to connect the Fuso chassis to a full length subframe. This one is different in that it doesn't appear that the subframe rests on the chassis. The four bolt hangers carry the load. This is less than optimal, in my opinion, because it concentrates the stress at the attachment points. The full weight of the camper is supported on these mounts. Better, I think, to allow the subframe to rest on the chassis, using the mounts only to hold the subframe and chassis together.

And here's the vehicle that uses this method of attachment

The manufacturer is Top Form Alloy Campers from Australia. Their website is http://www.slideoncampers.com.au/

 

[pugslyyy]

I've found several images of spring mounts, but no source - are these locally fabbed or is there an OEM somewhere? And if you fab - what would the rule of thumb be for construction, especially spring rate?

 

[lehel1]

Hey Lehel,

Thanks! I believe that's what we would want to do. We also won't be doing much rock crawling or extreme travel, but obviously we do want it to be safe and secure. Is your camper detachable? That would be the only thing -- we would want to be able to leave our camper somewhere, while we use the truck for in town errands, etc. Is there any way to do that and have it bolted to the bed?

Absolutely, we needed the truck to be dual purpose to warrant the expense of doing a new camper. in the end it was very easy to remove. We built slots in the side of the camper and use four standard stand up manual tripod jacks. This also allowed us to carry the jacks with us so we could get the truck serviced on the road with the tilt cabover. We went with a cabover this build because we got tired of make the dining table into a bed every night like we had to in our previous unimog.
Another thought on mounting, in this case the flatbed frame we have is much stiffer and stronger than the truck frame. This allows for very little frame flex, and with the leaf spring mod's the articulation is very good before there is much if any frame flex. The cost is weight, the flatbed weights a bit. With that said though we are happy to come in just around 12500 lbs full up. There is a new fuso sitting at ta truck dealer in Medford OR with an aluminum flatbed on it, if I were to do it again that would be the ticket.
Cheers lehel