Dodge Ram 5500 motorhome
- Thread starter Healeyjet
- Start date
pappawheely
Autonomous4X4
Glad everything worked out for you with the shocks! Nice to see the big truck worked so well off-road. What is your overall length and height?
sarconcepts
Adventurer
Just one question Ward,
& no one seems to have commented on this.. ...
why is it for sale so quick? this was your first trip!
(i noticed your first mention of it at the bottom of your post 521, but thought you were joking)
Steve
& no one seems to have commented on this.. ...
why is it for sale so quick? this was your first trip!
(i noticed your first mention of it at the bottom of your post 521, but thought you were joking)
Steve
Healeyjet
Explorer
Steve,
I loved the building process a lot and am the kind of guy that always needs a project. We NEVER EVER thought we would put it up for sale but were encouraged to do so by almost everyone that came in the camper. Everyone asked if we would be mass producing them and we always said no. It did get us thinking though that what we could do though is build one, use it while it is for sale, sell it to finance the next one.
Total honesty here.
Ward
I loved the building process a lot and am the kind of guy that always needs a project. We NEVER EVER thought we would put it up for sale but were encouraged to do so by almost everyone that came in the camper. Everyone asked if we would be mass producing them and we always said no. It did get us thinking though that what we could do though is build one, use it while it is for sale, sell it to finance the next one.
Total honesty here.
Ward
pappawheely
Autonomous4X4
I could share some of my projects to help you stay busy.
elcoyote
Supporting Sponsor, Overland Certified OC0004
It was a great trip Ward & Annie. Glad you came along withus. We'll have to plan another oneTrip report time.
4700 miles or 7700 kilometers
23 days
2 provinces
8 states
25 days
9 or 10 quilt or fabric stores (I lost count to be honest)
Ate Oryx as well as Antelope
We set off to do a shakedown cruise for the truck and camper thinking it would be some light gravel at most but lots of highway. We started off by stopping in Missoula to meet up with Dave, Kent and Jordan from AEV. Without AEV being involved in the project we wouldn't have been able to switch out from DRW to SRW as no one was or is making flares for the front of a Dodge 5500. Dave was good to us a couple months ago by providing us with one of the first sets of production flares so we could do some testing to see if their new flares would fit on our truck. It was great to meet up with them and we would end up hanging out with them again at Expo.
After leaving Missoula we headed down Highway 93. A bit of snow in the higher passes but nothing too serious.
Overnighting in Mackay MT where they have a parking lot for overnight guests that provides a sewer dump and water fill. A sure stop for us again in the future. The view when you wake up isn't bad either!
Then it was off again down 93 past Arco ID. This one is pretty self explanatory.
Back in the truck we were off to Pocatello, ID to hook up with I-15 to take us right into LA. One night in Malibu RV park was fun but wasn't the type of camping we were looking for. A great place to have breakfast though if you get there early enough.
After breakfast on the beach it was off to Huntington Museum and garden. For those waiting for some off-road details stay with me.
Monday morning was over to King Shocks in Garden Grove CA. I was met there by Mike who took a look at our issue of the shicks not fitting and immediatley put his best installer Chris on the job. After about a half hour it was clear that Chris was not going to be able to make the shocks we were sent fit on our truck. There was obviously a disconnect somewhere as they were built to the spec by Kelderman but were no way were able to fit the remote reservoir shocks on our truck. Mike and Chris then had the guys in the shop build us a set of shocks and bushing to mount our new piggyback shocks. I was out about 5PM with our new shocks instaled (WAY ABOVE THE CALL OF DUTY AS KING IS A SHOCK MANUFACTURER NOT AN INSTALLER. That being said what they did was considered R&D by them and they now have the proper specs for mounting 2.5" shocks on a Ramn 5500.
Then over to Daniel's Tire in Santa Fe Springs for a quick balance on the tires. Again, another excellent crew of guys to work with and they did a great job!!
With the truck all up to spec now we were off to Overland Expo in Mormon Lake. I hadn't booked ahead as the trip was last minute for us and we weren't sure we were going to make it to be honest. That being said all of the camping spots were gone by the time we checked in so we ended up parking in a campground about a mile down the road. At the suggestion of the guys from AEV we moved to a spot just behind where their booth was which turned out to be very good.
We met some amazing people over our three days at Expo and became quick friends with lots of them. One new friend asked us to join them after Expo for a couple days of off-road travel to which we quickly agreed. So we waited until Sunday at 3PM and headed into Flagstaff to provision for the trip and meet up with the other travelers. Then off to a secret location for the first night of camping past Valle, AZ where we took this photo op.
That night we assembled with a crew made up of about 20 people in Sportsmobiles (both the E350 and the Sprinter), an Earthroamer, two motorcycles, a Jeep with an AT Habitat, a Tacoma with an AT Habitat, a Faat deck with a four wheel camper, a IHC Scout on a Wrangler chassis, an original Scout with a roof top tent and ourselves in the big Dodge.
It was a great camping spot so I took the opportunity to get up on the roof and take some areal photos of the other campers and some distant shots of the mountains.
The next day we were off for a trip through the bush and rocks on the south side of the Grand Canyon. Once I get the exact route I will post it up. That being said it really put our camper through it's paces off-road and we gained some pin striping down the side. It was a blast to navigate the big camper through the tight trees and over the rocks with the help of the experienced travelers we with with. Here is the Earthroamer ahead of us. We took the same lines as he did and I think did just as well. The driver of the Earthroamer has way more seat time in a big rig than I do so I followed his lead and he was very helpful as was everyone else.
Once out of the bush we traveled through Mexican Hat and on to the Valley of the Gods to our camping spot for the night.
In the morning we exited the Valley of the Gods via the Moki Dugway. Anyone having traveled this route knows what we were in for. I grabbed the following photo off the net as we didn't have one that showed our route that well. We only had to back up once for the trip up and the Cummins 6.7 made the climb so easy. While I'm at it the exhaust brake on the truck made easy work of any of our trips down the hills as well. A steep drop onto a plain around a river that was home to some Anasazi dwellings. Very Cool !!
The trip out the next morning was quick drive over to Newspaper Rock where part of the crew left us to venture home. We continued on the the hopped up scout, an E350 Sportsmobile and the Dodge with the flat deck and Four Wheel Camper. We travelled light that day and ended up at the Buckeye Reservoir for a nice night of camping and visiting around a roaring campfire. The forest service was doing a controlled burn about 1/2 mile away from our campsite but luckily the wind changed direction and everything cleared off for us. The sign was more informational but the owner of the hopped up Scout took it as an opportunity to make that engine growl a bit.
A quick photo op about 20 miles south of Moab and we were off for another drive.
Down through Gateway CO (where I had the Antelope burger)
On to Fruita CO where our host had us sample the pizza at Hot Tomato Cafe
The next morning was in to Moab for coffee and then off out of Moab by about 2:30 which turned out to be a great idea. Moab went from a sleepy town at 8AM to a growling mess by 2:30 mostly due to the fact that it was Friday of the first long weekend of the year (Memorial Day). Next time we go back we will hit some of the trails around Moab for a little more fun. We were on a schedule going home so that will have to wait until next time.
Annie's motto for this trip was one she heard at an Expo session two years ago, "Have a plan but be flexible". That was exactly our experience for this trip. We had a blast, met a crew of amazing people and saw some amazing sights. I will add in the fuel costs etc once I have them all figured out. All in all the truck got fuel mileage of between 10 and 11 MPG which I was trilled with as our Jeep Wrangler with the Habitat only gets about 13! We supplied the camping crew with Tim Horton's coffee every morning which was part of our contribution to the trip.
I will add more details as we go. The camper was viewed by many people and the reception was great. So much so that we have decided to sell this one and build another. Our design will be the same with some very small tweaks but overall exactly the same. If the Cruiser happens to sell I will do another build thread for Cruiser 2 but we will have to wait to see if Cruiser 1 sells. If anyone is interested send me a PM and I can give details. That being said all of the build details are right here, LOL. People liked the fact that the truck is built on a Dodge Ram chassis, the cabinets are all aluminum an attracted absolutely no dust and that the bed is on the main level and the bathroom worked out perfect. We even had other campers on our Expo after tour that tried it out.
Thanks for reading this long post.
Ward
Your Earth Dominator performed amazingly!Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
Healeyjet
Explorer
Thanks Mario. It was an amazing group of people and we cannot wait to do another trip post Expo or otherwise!
Thanks for the kind words on our rig. It is much appreciated especially coming from someone who has seen more than their share of Expo rigs. We do agree, the camper worked as designed and we are thrilled with how it turned out and performed for us.
Ward
Thanks for the kind words on our rig. It is much appreciated especially coming from someone who has seen more than their share of Expo rigs. We do agree, the camper worked as designed and we are thrilled with how it turned out and performed for us.
Ward
I think it's funny that you're selling after putting this much time into the camper build, and interesting that you've been asked about the commercial aspect of it. We've had a similar thought process, the idea of selling the build after finishing/using it for a while has come up and most common question I've had during the process is whether it's for commercial build purposes.
What are you thinking of changing?
What are you thinking of changing?
Healeyjet
Explorer
The changes would be very small for sure. Possibly change the storage boxes below to create different sized storage spaces. Our closets in the bedroom area could possibly be smaller but Annie may disagree with me on that one. I would go with a smaller TV simply as in the three weeks away we used it 1 time for about an hour. Granted if we lived in it for three months at a time which is our hope we MAY use the TV more often. On a three week trip like we just did there was not enough "Camping" for my liking. We were in urban areas for about 6 of the 18 nights away. We didn't have our outdoor cook-top installed yet so all cooking was done inside on the induction cook-top. The induction worked perfect considering we had that last minute surprise about it being 240V and having to add the transformer but we would do it exactly the same way next time. The Cruiser is going tomorrow to have the outdoor cook-top installed as well as probably have some bed-liner applied to the front corners of the cab. With the width of the tires that front wall of the camper is a hot spot for rocks. We sustained a few chips in the paint but I want to do a little something to soften the front wall so a rock doesn't end up ricocheting into the side window and breaking it. We never had a rock hit the side window but it is more about taking precautions before we need to. As I mentioned, very few changes really. We were asked probably 10 times before we even got to Expo if we would be making them commercially and we consistently said no. The last thing I would want to do is produce a camper for sale and sit on inventory of any kind. What we can do is build a camper and use it until it sells then build another. My stress level can handle that. That way if it never sells we are using a camper we designed for our purposes and enjoy it. If it does sell then I can build another. The beauty of selling this one now is that after this week of the upgrades it will be ready to go. Trail proven off-road and very comfortable on road. Some of the other large camper manufacturers have a wait time of 6 months to a year. This one will be ready to go June 20th if someone was to buy it that fast (our son is getting married this weekend so I promised myself I wouldn't actively try to sell the Cruiser until after the wedding). I will probably do a for sale ad early next week then let the chips fall where they may. If it sells, cool, if it doesn't that's cool too. Our plan was to head to the North West Overland Rally the weekend after the wedding but we will have to see how the house clears out after the weekend. We have a solid two day drive to get to Plain, WA from here so it will be a last minute decision for sure. After that we will lay low around home for the summer just using the Cruiser for weekend getaways and to a family reunion in August. After that we plan to drive the Cruiser from home here in western Canada to the East coast of Canada then down to Overland Expo East in Asheville, NC early October. Then home for a special event in November. If the Cruiser does happen to sell before fall we will use our Jeep with the AT Habitat for the trip to Expo East.
Ward
Ward