Be Careful What You Carry In The Truck Bed

All pride aside, I wanted to post this as many of us practice this behavior. I had placed one of our small landing gear leveling blocks in the bed of the truck. When we arrived at the campground the block was gone and the damage was done.

It appears that turbulance may have picked up the small block and it hit the front cap of the bighorn putting a hole in the fiberglass.

NEVER CARRY ANYTHING THAT ISN'T TIED DOWN IN THE BED OF YOUR TRUCK!

Moral of the story, no matter how embarrassing your situation may be, post it on the forum for all to see, hopefully saving someone else the grief, aggrivation and expense!

Thanks for the post I am a real bad offender when it comes to stuff in the bed of the truck.I guess I will have to change my ways.

Sorry to see the damage. I carry a 6x6 piece plus 2 landing blocks in the bed but haven't had a problem. I do have a 2x6 board across the bed near the end of the bed however.

Thanks for the post, my last trip I was sure I put the chocks in the bed of the truck, now I know where they went. Up and out!

Guilty here also!!! An empty 6 gallon gas can had the amazing ability to snake its way out awhile back and just last week the wheel portion of a, broke down for travel, 22" Webber BBQ almost got away. NEW RULE w/us nuttin in the bed of the truck unless it's strapped down or weighs a ton.

Man, I hate to see that Deb. Do you remember when we left Willowtree for OBX and we stopped just before the interstate? Well that stop was to take an empty 5 gallon bucket out of the bed that was flying around and bouncing off the the trailer.
I am sure John will be able to fix it and no one will ever know...

My blocks are made of three 12" lengths of 4x4 tied together with 5/4 planking perpendicular to them. The leveling boards are 1x8's and 2x8's, six and seven feet long. They're not going anywhere. Smaller pieces go in the basement.

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If it's any consolation Deb, you sharing this story taught me and others to stop doing what we have been doing, so thank you ! I too use short pieces of 2 x 6 because the rig slid off (while hitching) the heavy 20" long 4 x 6 pads I used to use. I'll store them elsewhere now. Tom

Thanx for the reminder. I had a similar occurrence with my wheel chocks a couple of years ago. I now use a plastic milk crate for my chocks and leveling boards and place a bungee cord over the top to prevent this problem.

Well, thanks to everyone for not branding me an idiot. Also, thanks to DH for taking it without leaving any marks!

It actually looks pretty good now that John sealed it with caulk. We'll probably be able to wait until the fall for the repair as long as we keep it sealed up.

Let's just say "LESSON LEARNED"!!!

Know the feeling well lost a patio rug last summer while coming back from the black hills. Lucky no damage

Well I lost a 4 gal plastic gas can. Thought someone stole it. Then I was going down the hwy and saw the small container I used to keep the dog poop in until I made it to the trash (kept it outside under the slide) fly down the road.

Then one day I saw something fly up and make a loud noise. It was the aluminum dog ramp I used to help get our German Shepard, Cowboy, into the truck. Didn't loose it but it was heavy and the wind got under it and it just flew around like a tornado was in the bed of the truck.

I to now tie almost everything down in the bed of the truck. Had the lid of of my firewood plastic bucket bolwo off and it was closed.

Good thread.

BC

I guess hind-sights always 20/20.

I only carry a few things in the bed. Dog kennels, fire wood and a 20lb propane tank.

While I don't think any will take flight the dog kennels are the only things actually tied down. The propane tank goes ina milk crate at the front of the bed and can't really move. As for the firewood I always stack this to bed rail height aft of the fifth wheel. I suppose I should start lashing it down.

Cheers.
Jeremy

Thanks for sharing Deb and John. It can happen to anyone and it's a lesson for many of us and a reminder if nothing else. I have lost 2 coolers in 6 years.

Now, like mdedgett and others, if it's in the bed, it's tied down.

Jim

It's not only what goes flying out of the bed, it's Who goes flying behind you trying to miss it when it does.

dbylinski said:

Well, thanks to everyone for not branding me an idiot. Also, thanks to DH for taking it without leaving any marks!

It actually looks pretty good now that John sealed it with caulk. We'll probably be able to wait until the fall for the repair as long as we keep it sealed up.

Let's just say "LESSON LEARNED"!!!

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Sorry about the damage Deb.If anyone could make the damage look better it would be John. He is the man!

WilmanJim said:

It's not only what goes flying out of the bed, it's Who goes flying behind you trying to miss it when it does.

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So true Wilma and Jim. In one case, I saw our cooler in the ditch so I think it levitated and flew out to the side. But I've often wondered if losses from the truck bed ever fly under the RV and in the road.

Not to hijack this thread but to remind others, that carrying bikes on the back of the RV, even on a bike rack, carries it's own set of risks and under failure, can be a hazard to other motorists.

Twice now, we've drug bikes down the expressway. I just did so going through DC. The piece holding my cross-tube to the rack, snapped and the front bike tire hopped out of the rack and onto the road. Another motorist alerted me. I pulled over to find the tire and wheel and bike cover pretty well ground up.

Two years ago, another motorist alerted me. I pulled over to find the "entire" bike rack with 2 bikes had slipped out of the receiver tube. The only thing holding on was the heavy vinyl coated cable the I looped through the frames and the RV ladder. So they were all being drug down the expressway on the way to the national rally in Branson. Oops. Ground off one pedal and one handle bar grip. I got real lucky but motorists behind me got luckier. The learning there was:
1. Don't trust that your hitch was installed right unless you've completely checked it over
2. Always, always cable lock your bike frames to your RV ladder as a safety chain of sorts, in the event you lose the bikes.

Jim

So, THAT is what happened to the garbage!!

<meta http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.2 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> I would just like to add my thanks to Debbie for this thread. Being new to 5th wheel camping we need all the advice we can get. And a thanks to everyone who post their experiences on this forum. We have learned so much from all of you.


With that said, I now have to go out to the driveway and remove several items from the bed of my truck. (I think I may invest in a permanent toolbox).


Jay

Just a couple of ideas:
For the truck bed, I wonder if it would be possible to cut out an elastic cargo net with a hole for the 5th wheel hitch, and tie down the rest to cover the bed area.
For the bikes, I used to have a front-bumper bike carrier for my class B bubbletop van RV. The two curved mount posts were mounted permanently and the bike carrier slipped over these. The truck grille had plenty of securing points for multiple bungee cords, and the bikes were in constant view of the driver.