NEWBIE Landcruiser Camper

[2000 LANDCRUISER]

Hello I have just just joined Expo, although have been a guest on several occasions. I spend my time between New Zealand and Australia. I have recently bought a HZJ79 Landcruiser set up for outback travel with a camper cabin on the rear. I have just completed a 1100 km trip on sealed highway ? very rough in places. I am concerned about the way the camper is mounted to the chassis, when driving on rough roads , if you look out the rear window the camper box is moving back and forth ,near the top , this tends to make the whole vehicle rough riding, kind of bucking and jumping. The camper is only mounted in 3 places, 2 at the front 1 at the rear.The mounts are like spring shackle bushes ( rubber bushes with bolt through the center). My thoughts are that this is allowing the camper to move way to much . I notice many large campers have 3 point mounts to allow for chassis flex , is this needed for smaller vehicles like the Landcruiser ? I am considering more mounts , maybe 2 at the rear and 1 each side 1/2 way between front and rear, any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated, thanks

 

[Lajning]

I am by no stretch of the imagination an expert on the matter, but. If you fix the camper to the chassis, there's a good chance you will warp the whole thing. It will probably not like moving with the chassis. I'd say stick with the 3 point system, but maybe beef it up a bit.
Sweet looking ride by the way, more pics!!

 

[MarcFJ60]

Have you tried replacing those bushings? That alone, or possibly swapping to polyurethane may help. Cheap to try.

 

[redthies]

What you are describing is a standard way to mount a camping cabin to higher dollar expedition rigs. It is possible that the bushings are worn if the LC has seen extensive corrugations, but they are designed to flex a lot, and independently from the chassis.


Some reading and searching in the two sub forums below will give you some more insight into this style of mount.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/forums/26-Unimog-and-MB-Truck

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/forums/73-EarthRoamer-Global-Expedition-Vehicles-Unicat

Great ute by the way, and welcome to ExPo!

 

[2000 LANDCRUISER]

Thanks for your replies . Yes will look at bushes and maybe strengthen things up a little , and then do some suspension work.