caper

What are you guys useing , saw a home made one the other day on the rear , he used a square tube and used two 1/2 inch bolts to bolt it under his reciever hitch ,looked like it will work fine but dont like the idea of drilling my hitch , for strength purposes, also saw a two piese one that used 2 U bolts on each side of the reciever to hold the square tube under the hitch.Can't decide what to use any info or pics would be great thanks

RATTLINRAM

OK,,,,,,,,, I'll bite,,,,,,,,,
What's a belly bar?

Boatnik

Yeah, me too! Whattsa Belly Bar.Sounds like some place to pick up fat girls.

CTD NUT

A belly bar is front support cross member for chain downs when using a slide-in camper. I personally don't like belly bars as they are a pain to install and remove quickly - had one, ditched it.....I made my own mounts that slide into either side of the receiver at the rear and I made my own receiver-like mounts on the front that accept an individual bar on either side of the truck instead of one long belly bar that goes under the chassis and spans the entire width of the truck. There is a couple pics of the truck and camper in my gallery but it doesn't really show the mounts for the chain downs well.

RATTLINRAM

Thanks for clearing that up CTD NUT,,,,,,,,,,,,, I was having awful mental pictures going on in my head!
The only thing that Google turned up was the doo-hickies the girls pierce their navels with.

hotdram

Me too
I thought it was some sort of body piercing.

~Rob

CTD NUT

I just about fell out of my chair when I read that definition of a "belly bar"!!

Luckily, Caper isn't interested in the latter!! LOL!

Marine

I have seen the ones that insert into the left and right sides of the receiver hitch frame. They had collars that were welded to the end of the frame, with a bolt to lock the inserted belly bar into.

triplenickel

These http://www.campertiedowns.com/ are a bit pricey but they are very nice. No drill, super strong and low profile when you pull the insert out.

PistolWhipt

It is .... Belly Bar, downtown Subic City !!!

PISTOL

PistolWhipt

Did you see the set up in the DTR classifieds ?? It's for an 01 I think, if nothing else it might be good for an idea.

PISTOL

caper

I can't believe you guys never heard of a belly bar before LOL. Some funny replies thanks

CRXsi

I have the torklifts on mine and they are very well designed with no drilling needed to install. I have had to perform an emegency avoidance maneuver with the camper on and the camper didn't move at all in the bed. They are slightly pricey but are quality and fit very well. They are not very obvious when the actual arms are not installed.

http://www.campertiedowns.com/

Moose10

When I had my old '95 Caribou 11K, I used two pieces of square tube stock into the sides of the receiver, and drilled a hole for a hitch pin for each side to hold them in. The front I used the standard HappiJack bar....the kind that sticks out between the cab and bed. Also, with that setup on the hitch I towed a 8x12 flatbed with a 36" hitch extension on a regular basis with either two four wheelers or two sleds on the trailer plus firewood & gear. Total trailer weight is probably around 2k lbs. With regular inspections of the hitch, I never saw any cracks.
Two pics in my gallery...pg 1 "all loaded up" and page 3 "BLKDOG2"

tweeter

I also have the Torklift set up and am very happy with them. I don't know about you guys, but finding the cheapest way to hold down a $35K truck camper doesn't seem like the best idea. If you want to get real fancy, Torklift also makes a tie down called the long rifle; really cool with a price to match.