Fastening the Camper to the Bakkie Bed
There are two main ways of attaching a camper to the bed of your Bakkie: Inside mount and outside mount. (Inside the Bakkie bed or outside the bed)
# 1 Outside mount, this is the original way campers have been attached to Bakkie beds for years, both system are more designed to stop the Camper from sliding or shifting and moving backwards & forward when accelerating or breaking. The weight of the camper is enough to keep it in place but the shifting movement is what we want to stop. Never over tighten the Camper. Flexibility in the structure is needed to absorbed all the movement and stresses. The outside mount requires brackets to be made and mounted on the bed or the chassie frame of the bakkie
Front Attachments
Rear Attachments
# 2 The alternative method is using chassie bount brackets , This bracket is mounted to the chassie and has teloscopic arms that are removable when the camper is not being used
Electrical
Getting a Truck / Bakkie Ready for your new Camper
There are three things that will need to be done in order to get your Bakkie ready for putting on your new camper.
# 1 Electrical system for charging the house battery in your Camper . The vehicles alternator charging system is used to charge the house battery in the Camper. This happens when the car’s engine is running or idling. This is an important point, because when camping off the grid for long periods of time, all the lights, water pumps, fans, refrigerators, etc. use the camper’s house battery.
The oldest and most common system is very simple and basic.
# 1 Use a heavy duty copper wire (8 gauge or thicker) that can carry high Amps from the Alternator, running it along the chassis of the Bakkie all the way to the back ending with a female connector. Remember the higher Gauge the better (welding wire is a good cable to use)
# 2 Use a 50 Amp safety fuse or self-resetting fuse is good between the alternator and Solenoid switch (a good safety feature)
# 3 A Isolator Solenoid switch We recommend having a battery isolator fitted close to your vehicle battery to avoid it being flattened. If you flatten your camper battery then power will be drawn from your vehicle starter battery and in turn will flatten the battery. To avoid this scenario you can simply unplug the camper from your vehicle or fit a battery isolator
The cost of fitting and wiring is R 2,260.00 You can also fit it yourself or make your own arrangements.
# 4 Get a two point male with female connector that will accommodate the copper wire, this will be the main power source for carrying the power to charging the Campers house battery. If your Camper has wrap around tail lights you will need a trailer plug on the right , we will wire the campers tail lights into this connector be sure your vehicle has the female connector installed ,it is a common plug for all trailers but remember you will still need a two or three point connector on the left for your power supply )
A Brad Harrison connector plugs are a good choice
In order for your vehicle to provide 12 volt power to the camper and to charge the camper battery via its inbuilt 3 stage battery charger, this plug is wired into your vehicle and fitted to the rear of your vehicle .
# 2 Getting the Bakkie suspension ready for the best comfortable ride
All the one ton Bakkie suspension systems are designed by their manufactures to give the most comfortable ride without any weight or cargo in the Bakkie. This is to stop you from bouncing around and rattling all the fillings out of your teeth, so when you put a Camper in the back you will generally be using ½ + – of the leaf springs payload .What we want to do now is stabilize the load and stop any side to side movement that happens when cornering or traveling in high wind areas. There are three ways of doing this
#1 Add additional leaf springs. The down side to this is when the load is removed; the Bakkie has a very stiff and ridged ride.
#2 Air bags. this system can regulate the amount of Air in the bags, and the stiffness after the camper or weight been removed
#3 Stable load / Switch Blade watch this video link: http://www.torklift.com/video/qdca/qdca1.mp4 We do have a few sets in stock
