How much does a Ram 3500 frame flex?

[RKCRLR]

I have a 3500 long bed crew cab on order to haul my slide-in truck camper. My current truck (2000 K3500 long bed crew cab) has 2 1/8" clearance between the center of the cab and the bottom of the camper sleeper overhang and hasn't hit in 20 years. Measurements show I'll have about 1.5" clearance between the center of the cab and the bottom of the camper overhang and about 1/2" between the shark fin antenna at the front of the cab. I'll have a better Idea of the actual measurements when I get the truck and plan on somehow relocating the shark fin antenna. The question becomes how much clearance is enough clearance at the center and front of the cab is enough to accomodate frame flex? Are there any numbers anywhere that quantifies the frame flex?

Thanks for any input.

 

[dgstandard]

The shark fin made a mess of my camper on my first trip out. I now use a rubber mat, a sheet of thick plywood and a sheet of hard insulation to build up enough space (about 2.5 inches).

I am interested in finding an alternative to the shark fin.

 

[RKCRLR]

The shark fin made a mess of my camper on my first trip out. I now use a rubber mat, a sheet of thick plywood and a sheet of hard insulation to build up enough space (about 2.5 inches).

I am interested in finding an alternative to the shark fin.

I haven't figured out yet what I'm going to do about the shark fin antenna. I've seen several posts about clearance problems with them but no good solutions. One person relocated to the dashboard, another person made a magnetic mount for it and put it on the front fender. And they don't discuss plugging the square hole.

I've attached a Ram upfitters guide that discusses antenna relocation but it says to leave the original antenna in place (due to leakage concerns) and purchase another antenna for relocation. It looks like this antenna like this might work if mounted backwards because of the roof slant but I'm not sure it works the same (but it does have 2 wires).

Amazon.com

I might take the current antenna cover off and see what is in there. It may be possible to remove some of the cover and mount that antenna backwards. Also my camper (2000 Bigfoot 10.6) starts to turn up at the top of the windshield so that might help.

The problem with foam/rubber pads is they can compress and in turn cause more camper movement that needs to be accounted for. And in my case I have perimeter frame construction so a foam pad will compress in that area. There have been cases where the pad compressing actually caused damage to camper cross members because they weren't designed to be loaded.