One issue Jason and I have been discussing since we started on the camper is how we were actually going to move it in and out of the truck bed.  It turns out that actual camper jacks, even the shittiest mechanical ones, are extremely expensive and require brackets to be permanently mounted to the camper.

This may not have even been possible because we made the sides of the camper flush with the edges of the truck bed and there would have been no way for the jacks to work anyway.

So we switched gears a little bit and pondered a way to make a structure in the backyard to hoist the shell up off the truck instead.  We originally thought to make a nice looking decorative pergola between the shed and the neighbor’s fence.

We argued back and forth about how big to make it, how to make it attractive, etc etc.  At the end of the day we’re reaching the point in the camper build that we actually need to have it on a level surface and need it to be in its final resting place because it’s quickly starting to get heavy! The decision was made to just start with the bare minimum because that’s something we could quickly and easily get done and if it looks bad, we can “pretty” it up later!

I ended up putting some Bondo on the roof of the camper while Jason made the top pieces.

It does stick up a little  bit above the roof line of the shed, but it’s not nearly as tall as I thought it would be. We should have ample room to lift the camper out of the truck.

We still haven’t figured out the actual hoist situation, but now we have a permanent place to keep the camper!