I am picking up a used GFC in 2 weeks and would like to get some feedback from others that have purchased used, how did you make the swap?
Did you just get a bunch of friends to show up, everyone grabs a rail at a corner, and muscle it onto the new truck?
Did you build some sort of wooden fixture to lift the camper?
Did you pay someone to help you?
etc.
The seller and I live on opposite sides of the country, and are meeting in the middle.
Option #1 is ideal distance wise, but we don’t have any friends that can help.
Option #2 is farther away, but I do have some friends that can help.
we used 4 people - two inside with the tent closed then you can use more leg power to lift - have to be careful of the overhang and the sat antenna.
make sure you have the appropriate seals - 2nd gen tacoma to 3rd gen requires and extra piece of seal across the headboard for example
should get new thread lock nuts too - is best.
I made the transfer between my truck and the seller’s truck with us and two friends, each person on a corner. It’s very manageable with 4 people. It might take a bit of effort to break it free from the bulb seal, but once that’s done its not hard to move. Plenty of places to grab and lift the tube frame.
A few other tips:
Get a new bulb seal from one of the links in the thread that @d.shaw linked above. Measure the center to center distance between the camper tubes that lie along the bed rails. That measurement should be your guide to laying down the new bulb seal on your truck. You want to aim to have the frame tube lie right in the middle of the bulb seal.
The rear hatch seal is different between 2nd and 3rd gen tacomas, the latter being a much smaller piece. If your truck is not the same gen as the seller’s, you’ll need to get a new one of these. I’ve heard you can reach out to GFC and they’ll sell you one, or you can buy directly from trim-lok. I think DD1201 is the product# for 2nd gens (the picture on the website looks correct but I can’t confirm).
If you have a 2nd gen, some people recommend getting new bed rail caps from KB Voodoo. I bought them, but they didn’t show up in time before I installed the camper. It’s sitting on the stock plastic bed rail caps and they still look fine - no bending or warping.
@d.shaw - Thank you for the insights - Super appreciated.
I will definitely be getting new seals and thread lock nuts.
@yeezus - Really appreciate your nitty gritty here - very confidence inspiring to be hearing these experiences from others that have gone thru the process.
@Beater_Bimmer - That is GENIUS. Thank you, will be looking into this.
For the double layer seal at the front… you actually stack two layers of the bulb seal on top of each other and they adhere alright? Or are you saying a “shim” type solid layer on the bottom and the bulb seal on top of that? Sorry for the silly question, I’m trying to figure out how many feet of bulb seal I need to buy… thanks!!
Yeah, I stacked 2 layers of bulb seal and that brought the front to the right height to match the sides on my 2nd gen Tacoma. The bulb seal I used had a peel-away adhesive strip along the bottom that was just wide enough to stick to the tops of the lower layer’s ridges, if you can picture that. Something else you might consider is this seal which is made specifically for this situation as a 1st layer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C0WVV72/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Hi, are the 5ft (Short bed) GFC campers transferrable from all compatible vehicles? only need to change the seals? Are the v1 GFCs transferrable from tacoma (gen 2 &3) to rangers etc?
Tacoma to Tacoma should be transferrable between generations as long as they are the same bed length. I don’t think many of the different brand trucks are compatible with one another. I believe Tacoma might be compatible with one other truck brand, but definitely not all.
Can the seller give you dimensions for where the tubes land and how much clearance you need from the top of your bed rail to the top of your cab? That should get you to 95% certainty.
“We do not recommend swapping campers, as they are all built to the specific dimensions of the trucks they are on. For this reason, the only way to see if it will fit is to test it out.”, GFC support.
Such good information here thought I’d add in my $.02 worth of additional research. I looked into Yeezus thought on a shim seal. Makes sense to me because presumably one wants even support at the bottom of the bulb seal. Only issue is the link here is for a 1" seal but the doubled bulbed seal is 1.5". Probably overthinking but one has to make the decision as to same foot print v. more ideal weight distribution. Trim-Lok has a decent alternative profile as well but is even worse at .5" I believe. With the front seal acting more as a weather seal given the rails I’m going with the same footprint. Nonetheless I was glad so see other folks has weighed these same considerations with some critical thought.