Ram 3500 Crew Cab Diesel/ Knapheide service body/ Camper install

gun45boat

Adventurer
Great pictures... I like the set up.. AND the view from where the pics were taken... Bad ***.. I saw your truck in a build thread a year or 2 ago, and was very envious... Great job.

I special ordered my truck when I bought it. I HATE duallies, I knew I wanted a cummins drivetrain, and I could not pass up the Aisin transmission upgrade. SO I ordered a 3500HD non-dually and a C&C chassis, but I wanted all the bells and whistles (Power windows, Heated seats, cruise control, etc.etc.) and then to ad to that,,, I wanted the rubber floor like in the base model work trucks. When the truck arrived, I took it to Knapheide in Orlando, fl and asked them to install the 9.5' Service body that was made for the single rear wheel C&C. I was stoked when it was done, I asked them to ad 4 more flanges to the bed to weld to the frame for an EPIC strong bed to chassis.

I soon did the full delete, Ordered up the 3.5" lift kit, and had to have custom made rear U-bolts for the rear axle to make the lift work with lifting a C&C truck. It all worked out great. It is low enough,,,,,but tall enough.

as far as the installation into the bed of the service body, I made some custom brackets that bolted to the front/lower of the camper, and welded 2 catch brackets in the bed of the service body, at the rear of the bed... So when the camper slides into the bed, the last 6" the bracket on the camper slides just below the bracket that is welded to the service body, then you just reach over, and drop a 3/4" 4" long bolt into both the brackets when they are joined.. It stops the camper from sliding back,,,and also catches the camper from lifting. All plates were plasma cut from 1/4" steel. 6" long x 4" wide.
The rear of the camper I have not "lashed down" yet. The reason I have not, is that I have not found a great way to do it,,, and being that it is such a tight squeeze into the bed with the camper, there is NO WAY it will slide side to side, if the truck leans really hard it will not move at all because of how tight it is in the bed. The only thing it might do is lift a little from the bed if I go over a WOOP really fast. This truck was built to tow my crawler and get into some slight off roading to get to a good camp site, and do the trails in the salt flats of Baja, Mx to get to scorpion bay etc.etc. I will get some pics of the brackets when I have time.

This is a work of progress, so if any of you all have any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it.

It looks really top heavy from the pictures, but it really isn't It stands 11' total from the ground, and is a really light camper (1780 pounds) which is REALLY light considering what it is. When I picked up the camper from tennessee, I had it up to 84mph and it was still stable at those speeds. I will probably upgrade the rear sway bar to a HUGE Hellwig unit to make it more stable while towing the crawler on a trailer.

Thanks Wild1 for the pics, If I think back, I think you were the one that motivated me into building this truck with a camper/service body set up, I found your build thread somewhere.. thanks again for thinking out of the box..
 
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redthies

Renaissance Redneck
My dream set up would be a service box too, or maybe if I had $20,000 to spare, a custom service box along the lines of the Texas style welding truck bodies that mimic the stock box lines. I'd also really like to get a pop-up camper like a Hallmark Everest/Ute hybrid. The problem is my wife loves the camper we have. It's awesome , but at 3000 lbs and as tall as it is, it makes getting in to small lakes etc a bit of a challenge. Getting more than 11-12 mpg would be nice too.

imagejpg1_zps7f1c5bbd.jpg
 

Regcabguy

Oil eater.
Boy,you know those Northstar 850SC's are sure nice. Self contained and with a homemade arctic pak, pretty warm. The canvas on the sides has been increased by 3" I believe making it much easier to move about in the bunk.
Two peeps only though in my book.
 

redthies

Renaissance Redneck
Yeah, I like the Northstars too. Hallmarks are $30,000+ spec'd as I'd want, so they are a lottery dream at the moment. Below are pics of the "North Texas" style welding tub I was talking about. They are apparently made of much heavier gauge than stock steel. Build them a bit taller and make doors open out instead of up... Like I said, it's likely a very expensive utility box!

imagejpg1_zps07aeb76a.jpg


imagejpg2_zpsa67ddfef.jpg
 

zelatore

Explorer
Nice rig you've put together there. I'm still drooling over the mileage you're nocking down - that's pretty impressive.
 

gun45boat

Adventurer
Holy ****, those are great looking trucks!!!!!!!!!! Redthies, I like the camper... AND the fact that it is sitting on a Cummins:) You got the LARGE camper that is about 14" wider than mine, I was debating going the larger route (wider) but I liked the fact that the camper on the back of the service body is almost even on the sides with no overhang,,,,BUT DAMN those wider ones have SO MUCH MORE ROOM IN THEM!!!!! Love your set up..

I REALLY like the half bed from that welding truck,, that is a bad *** tricked out design, makes working in/around that truck a breeze!!!!! I love the fact that people are willing to take their skills and come up with cool **** like that...

I got my camper pretty well loaded up with everything, and I got this camper (new) on the cheap @$14,699.00 (after WEEKS of haggling) marked down from $24,300, as it was a left over 2014 model. I priced out other models Lance/northStar/ and others and they were in the $30K range (and made of much better quality) but were VERY heavy!!!!! Well built comes with weight.. This Palomino camper was the easiest to make work inside a service body with just a single 7"x34" notch on the passenger side, and I liked the fact that it came with a "cassette" style black water tank. And the others had that annoying rear bumper on some that I looked at, and then then others had gas lines hanging too low off the sides to make work with the service body. But I liked that the rear facia board covers the entire rear of the camper to make it look more uniform. The quality of the camper is very nice considering, very well built on the outside and inside, but only the test of time and abuse will show its weeknesses.. I was going to spend more on a nicer camper, but I knew that I would just destroy this unit, beating it up around Baja and the many trips out west. Figured if I could get 5 years out of this thing, than it would pay for itself.
 

gun45boat

Adventurer
Scoutman, I am sure that if you bought the winch plate, that you could fab it up to work with your year truck. Cheap enough to try anyways.
 

Scoutman

Explorer
Scoutman, I am sure that if you bought the winch plate, that you could fab it up to work with your year truck. Cheap enough to try anyways.

Agreed. Would you mind posting some more pictures of it? Maybe get an overall width? I really hate the thought of a few hundred pounds of un-necessairy weight up there and most of the winch bumpers I'm finding are HUGE. I like this minimal approach and I have a Huskey winch collecting dust waiting to be mounted.
 

gun45boat

Adventurer
Yes, that is exactly why I went with this winch mount, it was tough, but simple and light weight. I didnt want a heavy *** bumper that I would never need sitting on the front of my already heavy rig. and the $200 shipped was enough for me to give it a try. VERY STOUT, and have used my 12k winch WITH a snatch block to pull out a crane truck that was stuck in the mud, and it held up great.

The plate is 43 1/2" wide.
 

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Scoutman

Explorer
How deep front to back is the space for the winch? Thanks for the picts. I gotta go get a tape measure now.. :sombrero:
 

redthies

Renaissance Redneck
Holy ****, those are great looking trucks!!!!!!!!!! Redthies, I like the camper... AND the fact that it is sitting on a Cummins:) You got the LARGE camper that is about 14" wider than mine, I was debating going the larger route (wider) but I liked the fact that the camper on the back of the service body is almost even on the sides with no overhang,,,,BUT DAMN those wider ones have SO MUCH MORE ROOM IN THEM!!!!! Love your set up..
Yeah, there is a ton of room, especially when you open the tent trailer style bed on the passenger side. It's a full queen, and makes the camper almost 14' wide when it's open. Makes a great awning too. When we're on the beach in Calif or Mex, it's pretty awesome to open it up and enjoy the sea breeze and view. But, it all comes at a cost. Weight, fuel economy and access to tighter spots are a bit more of a challenge. Great to see some other 4th gens showing up on here!
 

gun45boat

Adventurer
Updates.

Installed 3 150W Mono panels on the roof of the camper
Installed 3 Optima blue tops with a 4K inverter inside
Installed a custom water tank inside one of the cabinets (44 gallons) for a total of 74 gallons of water


I have been working on the Expedition trailer lately a M105A2 see pics.
 

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chilliwak

Expedition Leader
I love your rig there Mr Gun. Mr Redthies is also an impresive set-up. You Cummins Dodge guys have all the fun...:)
 

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