# Flatbed Truck Camper Repair, Deck and Subframe Work > A flatbed truck camper bolts to a deck rather than dropping into a bed, so repairs at OCRV Center focus on the deck, the welded steel or aluminum subframe, the mounting hardware and corrosion at deck fasteners. Full width boxes and outboard lockers add exposed corners. Camper body repair runs $750 to $50,000, performed in shop. Source: https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/campers-trailers/flatbed-truck-camper-repair/ Business: OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. (949) 799-3387. Serving Tustin, California. Ballpark range: $750 to $50,000. Posted rates at https://ocrv.biz/prices/ ## The deck is part of the camper, not part of the truck ### Why that distinction changes the estimate A slide-in drops into a factory bed and borrows its support. A flatbed camper sits on a purpose built deck that replaced the bed entirely, and the deck is where the camper transfers every pound into the truck frame. Treat the deck as a truck accessory and you will misdiagnose almost everything on this subtype. Decks come in a few flavours. Some are a welded steel platform on cross sills with a treadplate or wood surface. Some are all aluminum extrusion, lighter and far less tolerant of a bad weld repair. Some are a composite deck over a steel subframe. Each one wants a different process, and mixing them, which is what happens when a steel bracket is bolted to an aluminum deck without isolation, starts galvanic corrosion that shows up two seasons later as a chalky white bloom under the hardware. Frame and structural welding and repair, performed in shop by a certified tech, runs **$750 to $20,000** over 5 to 80 hours. Rust treatment and anti corrosion coating runs $400 to $3,500. Both bands are posted on the [prices page](/prices/). ## Mounting hardware, and the rust that starts at a fastener The camper attaches to the deck through a set of mounting points: bolt through plates, clamp brackets, or a captive rail system. Each one is a hole through a painted or coated surface, and every hole is a corrosion start point. What we see, in the order it develops: - Sealant at a fastener head dries and shrinks, opening a capillary path down the shank. - Moisture sits between the fastener and the deck plate, where it never dries because the joint is clamped. - Rust jacking lifts the plate a few thousandths, which loosens the clamp load and lets the joint work under load. - The working joint elongates the hole, and now the camper moves relative to the deck on every road input. - That movement transfers into the camper floor structure, and the first interior symptom is a cabinet door that stops latching. Proper repair means removing the hardware, cutting out corroded deck material rather than coating over it, replating or reinforcing, isolating dissimilar metals, and bedding the fasteners so the shank is sealed rather than just the head. It is unglamorous work and it is the single highest value thing you can do on a flatbed unit. ## Full width boxes and outboard storage lockers The reason owners go flatbed is width. Without bed rails to clear, the camper body runs the full width of the deck, and the space that used to be lost to the truck bed becomes outboard storage: long lockers running down each side, often with gas strut lids, sometimes with slide out trays for tools, water or a generator. Those lockers are where the damage lands. They sit at the widest point of the vehicle, lower than the main body, and they are the first thing to meet a post, a rock face on a forest road, or the concrete pillar in a parking structure. They also carry weight in a cantilever off the deck edge, so a loaded locker with a fatigued mount will droop, and a drooping lid stops sealing. Compartment and baggage door repair and replacement is $200 to $1,800 over 1 to 10 hours. Entry, baggage and compartment door work more broadly is $400 to $4,500. Custom storage fabrication, when a locker is worth rebuilding rather than replacing, goes through the fabrication shop. Locker lids also need their gas struts treated as a wear item, because a lid that no longer holds itself up gets slammed, and slamming is what cracks the hinge line. ## Aluminum framed walls versus composite panel construction ### Two very different repair paths Flatbed campers split roughly into two camps. The first uses an aluminum tube frame with an aluminum or fiberglass skin over insulation, essentially a stick framed wall in metal. The second uses a bonded composite panel: a foam core between two fiberglass or aluminum skins, with no internal framing at all. On an aluminum framed wall, damage is repaired by opening the skin, straightening or replacing the affected tubes, and reskinning. The frame is findable and fixable. On a composite panel, there is nothing inside to straighten. The panel either has intact core to core bond or it does not, and once the core is crushed the repair is a bonded insert or a panel section replacement, done with the right adhesive system and clamped under controlled pressure. Aluminum skin and sidewall replacement runs $2,500 to $25,000 over 16 to 120 hours. Delamination repair on sidewall, roof or slide face runs $1,500 to $20,000 over 10 to 100 hours. Knowing which construction you have before you authorize matters, and it is one of the first things we identify. The extra width matters here too. A wider body means the outer corners project further than on a slide-in, so corner strikes are more common and the damaged area sits further from any supporting structure. ## Rear entry, side entry, and getting one into the bays Door placement changes the structure around it. A rear entry flatbed puts the door in the back wall, which keeps both sidewalls unbroken and leaves the rear wall carrying a large opening plus a step assembly and usually a ladder. A side entry puts the door in a sidewall, which interrupts the wall at exactly the point where the deck to camper joint wants continuous structure, and which is why side entry units are more likely to show cracking at the lower door corners. Step replacement is $400 to $2,000. Entry door repair is $400 to $4,500. Roof rack and ladder install is $400 to $3,500. Camper roof repair, reseal and full replacement is $500 to $14,000 over 3 to 70 hours. Work is performed in shop at the 35,000 square foot Yorba Linda facility, which has the door height and the floor space to take a full width camper off a deck and put it on stands. Tustin owners come up the 55 to the 91, or the 5 to the 57. Collision estimates carry no charge for insurance walk ins, and a systems evaluation is $150 applied as a credit against an authorized repair. Jobs over $2,000 take 50 percent at authorization, jobs over $10,000 take an additional 25 percent when parts arrive, and the balance is due at pickup. We stand behind our work. [Request a Quote](/contact/) to get on the schedule. ## What is included - Deck flatness and subframe weld inspection with the camper removed - Every deck to camper mounting point unbolted, cleaned and assessed individually - Corrosion mapping at fastener penetrations, including under clamp plates - Dissimilar metal isolation check at any steel hardware on an aluminum deck - Outboard locker mount, lid strut and seal condition report - Wall construction identification, aluminum framed or bonded composite panel - Door opening corner inspection on side entry units, both lower corners - Written estimate with labor hours separated from parts and materials ## Questions ### Can you weld a cracked aluminum flatbed deck, or does it need replacing? Most cracks in an aluminum deck are repairable in shop by a certified tech, provided the extrusion is not distorted along its length. Frame and structural welding is a posted operation at $750 to $20,000 over 5 to 80 hours. We measure the deck for flatness before quoting either path. ### My cabinet doors stopped latching. Why would the deck cause that? Because a loosened deck mount lets the camper move relative to the platform on every road input, and that movement racks the box slightly. Cabinet doors are the most sensitive indicator of a body that is no longer square. Check the mounting hardware before adjusting a single hinge. ### Are outboard lockers worth rebuilding or should they be replaced? It depends on the mount. If the locker shell is damaged but the cantilever mount to the deck edge is sound, rebuilding is usually the better value. If the mount has fatigued and the locker droops, the mount gets addressed first regardless of what happens to the shell. ## Related - [Campers and Trailers](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/campers-trailers/) - [Truck Campers (Slide-In)](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/campers-trailers/truck-camper-repair/) - [Pop-Top Truck Campers](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/campers-trailers/pop-top-truck-camper-repair/) - [Overland and Off-Road Campers](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/campers-trailers/overland-off-road-camper-repair/) - [Welding and Metal Fabrication](https://ocrv.biz/services/custom-fabrication/welding-metal-fabrication/) - [Custom Storage Solutions](https://ocrv.biz/services/custom-fabrication/custom-storage-solutions/) - [Frame and Structural Repair](https://ocrv.biz/services/frame-structural-repair/) - [Prices and Posted Rates](https://ocrv.biz/prices/)