Unleash Your Inner Craftsman: Construct Heavy-Duty Sawhorses Like a Pro

This is the plan download page for the Heavy-Duty Sawhorse Truck Camper Support shown in my YouTube video.

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Download the plan I used: Heavy-Duty Sawhorse Plan

Heavy-Duty Sawhorse Design

In this episode I’m going to build two new sawhorses. I already have a collection of them in various sizes. Some are simple and lightweight like these two for painting or these ones for most cutting and general carpentry. But I need to build a pair that can carry more load, specifically for storing our truck camper.

I’ll need them to support the approximately 4000 lb camper and be large enough to cover the dimensions of it’s base. So I’ll make the new sawhorses from 2×6 lumber. And as they will be outside most of the time, I’ll build them from pressure treated stock.

I decided on a height of 30 inches with a length of 52 inches. That will cover the standard 48 inch width of the camper and have it supported high enough that I can still walk under the cabover bunk without hitting my head. And the stairs can still fold all the way down.

The sawhorses will relieve most of the load that the electric happy jacks carry. I’ll still have them in contact with the ground under enough load to help stabilize the camper. So it does not move when we are inside.

This sawhorse design is not a new idea. People have been building variations of this simple configuration for years. What I like about this design is it’s strength and simplicity. You don’t need any expensive tools to build these. A speed square and a circular saw can do all the cuts. And an impact driver and glue for assembly is really all you need.

My sliding compound miter saw is overkill but it’s what I already have so I’ll do all the cuts on it. I’ll start by cutting the three pieces that make up the “I” beam top. A 52″ 2×6. Then a 48″ 2×4. And a 48″ 2×6.

I estimate that to make two sawhorses from my plans you would need to buy nine 8′ 2×6’s and one 8′ 2×4. There will be a bit of waste (but not much).

I’ll mark a center line along the length of the top 2×6. Then drill 4 equally spaced 1/8th pilot holes.

I used all GRK Screws on this build. The top of the legs will get some glue and the #10 x 4″ screws will be run in 5-1/2″ down the leg and into the 2×4, at the point where it makes contact with the leg.

I’ll apply some glue then screw this end stretcher to the legs and to the long sided stretchers. And for this I used #9 x 3-1/8″ GRK screws.

Sawhorse Support for Truck Camper

With blocks added under the legs and the horses level I can lower the camper. And that seemed to work pretty well. The idea was to take some of the load from the happy jacks and add stability.

Finally I’ll attach the sawhorses with two diagonal 2x4s. This will stiffen the supports front to back. The design of the sawhorses already provided stiffness side to side so I don’t think I need to do anything there.

I built these for a specific purpose but this simple strong-design for a sawhorse can be modified to suit almost anything. The height and length can be easily adjusted on the drawing to suit your needs.

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