And so it begins...

[Code Monkey]

A couple of weeks ago I bought a farm truck - a '97 Dodge 3500, 5 spd. manual, 4x4, 12 ft. long by 8 ft. wide steel flat bed, ~165" WB, DRW, regular cab and I think probably 4.10 diffs.

It will take a little while for me to recover from the dent in my wallet, and then I will start on making the mechanicals at least halfway right.

It seems to be suffering from a bit of fuel starvation (in upper gears it won't reach redline, otherwise it seems to have power). The steering seems loose, it needs new shocks, and a few other minor things.

But I am already planning how to turn this into some kind of camping/expo/adventure rig. That is why I got such a large truck with a large bed - otherwise I would have just got a compact truck or something similar. I have little use for a truck except to haul my dirt bike to the trail heads and you can do that with most anything, but I do want to go camping and traveling again like I used to - take my dirt bike along and ride off-road areas west of the Rockies.

So the idea is to toss the steel bed, get some kind of aluminum bed, maybe convert to SRW and build some kind of camper to go on the bed.

The one requirement that I have that will most likely mean a custom build is hauling my bike within the camper and keeping it in there while I am inside. The reason for this is I have over $12K into the bike and I keep adding stuff to it. I don't want to lose the bike to some pimple faced joy rider who will just trash it and then dump it and the insurance company won't pay half what it would cost to replace it. So inside it goes, out of sight.

Problem is, besides taking up space and being in the way, most motorcycles, especially dirt bikes, outgas from their fuel tanks and you can't stay in a small area with that smell for long and not come out with at least a sore throat and bad sinuses - maybe brain damage for all I know. So it has to go inside a 'garage'.

 

[Code Monkey]

Like I said, I don't want to store the bike outside the camper for a number of reasons:

1) Its an expensive bike. So I don't want to tempt anybody with stealing or messing with it. Especially when I stop somewhere to eat, camp, visit.

2) I prefer it be inside out of the weather and such when I am going down the road.

3) I don't want it hanging off in space off the back or the front of the truck.

With a ramp and non-skid coating on the ramp, I can ride the bike on/off the bed - probably. A 4 foot rise over 12 feet is 1 foot up every 3 feet. Not too bad.

After all, I ride up and down steeper trails all the time and over 2 foot trees across the trail. Most pickup beds are about 2 to 3 feet high and an 8 foot ramp is used to put the bikes into the bed, so a 12 foot ramp (which I can store on the bed or under it between the rails) should work fine.

That said, there should be an easier way - and more importantly, I want to build a camper onto the truck and naturally I want to take my dirt bike with me. First, the camper base will probably be more like 3 feet high as I am probably going to get rid of the current steel flat bed.

So, what I am thinking so far, is I will put it on some kind of platform using these mounts:

Which seem to hold bikes at almost any angle.

Then somehow (a bunch of hand waving here) get that platform up into a box from an external access door in the camper I build. This 'box' will be within the camper, but will be separate from the internal part of the camper. The idea is that you don't want a bike inside a camper with you - the outgassing of the gasoline will not make you want to stay inside it for long - believe me; I have my bike in my living room right now to work on it (no garage or shop) and I had to take the tanks off it.

That is all the further I am right now. I was thinking that I could have a ramp into the box and a winch in the box to pull the platform up the ramp. The platform would maybe have really small wheels on it. To get the bike out I would pull it out (against the winch letting out the rope) until it tilted down onto the ramp and then let the winch slowly lower the bike down.

The bike is 7 feet long and 4 feet high (top of the handlebars), and that is before I do this to it:

Which will probably add a few feet to it.

So I am thinking that my bed inside, and maybe a table or shelf will be on top of that box. I would make the box wide and long enough to store two bikes side by side, one in front end in first, one in back end in first first so they can be close together.

Not as easy as just rolling the bike up onto something, but it would be secure and I would not be breathing the gasoline fumes inside the camper.

 

[Code Monkey]

As for the camper design in general, I want it to be:

1) Secure.
2) Insulated and windproof because I will be going up in the mountains in the snow.
3) Low profile - i.e., I want the height to be as minimal as possible.

So I am thinking 'popup', but a hard sided popup, kind of like Soenke's build:

Only scaled up to a 10 to 12 foot length, 7 to 9 foot width - with the garage.

One of the big advantages I see there besides the low height while traveling, is the security. No looking in windows or breaking in easily.

 

[Code Monkey]

BTW - the purpose of this truck is not to go extreme four wheeling - but to get me to the general area, unload the bike(s), go riding, come back, eat, sleep, rinse and repeat.

Any real rough terrain will be covered by the dirt bike.

The truck is 4WD because sometimes there is mud or snow between me and that spot (hell, two years ago I could not get my car out of my driveway because there was a foot of snow) - i.e., I am not too concerned about getting the truck in and out or over very difficult terrain - just to the edge of it.

 

[chilliwak]

What engine do you have in your Dodge? That might help some of us to come with solutions to your fuel starvation problems.:Wow1:

 

[ColoradoBill]

I had a '96 3500 12 valve CTD that developed the same engine problem on a trip to Montana. After crawling around under the hood I noticed I wasn't getting full throttle. The throttle cable on the engine end was fraying. The Dodge dealer in Helena hooked me up with a redesigned cable and said it was a common problem. Ten minutes to change and it was good to go.

 

[Code Monkey]

What engine do you have in your Dodge? That might help some of us to come with solutions to your fuel starvation problems.:Wow1:

Oops! Sorry. 5.9L Cummins

 

[Code Monkey]

I had a '96 3500 12 valve CTD that developed the same engine problem on a trip to Montana. After crawling around under the hood I noticed I wasn't getting full throttle. The throttle cable on the engine end was fraying. The Dodge dealer in Helena hooked me up with a redesigned cable and said it was a common problem. Ten minutes to change and it was good to go.

Yes, I looked at the throttle linkage. It looks like the throttle cable has its own full travel. The primary bellcrank, the one at the front, looks to be rather wobbly, but the rod that goes back to the IP seems to be running up against a stop in the rear, so I assume that while it isn't optimal it is probably getting full throttle.

When I am in second gear I can stomp it and it goes right to 3K. When I slowly bring it up to full throttle in third it goes to 3K but if I stomp it then it stops at 2.5K. Same in higher gears only worse. So I don't think it is a throttle problem, I think it is either the fuel filter or the lift pump or the waste gate on the turbo.

Generally you start with the simplest thing to check so I am going to change out the fuel filter. If that doesn't work then there is a good shop in a nearby town that will diagnose it further.

I used to be a diesel mech (marine and then industrial/ag), so I have an idea of how stuff works on this truck, I just don't have a shop/garage (only a carport that floods in the winter) or tools (they were stolen) and it is easier/cheaper for me to work (contract s/w engineer) and have someone with the tools/etc. fix my vehicles for now.

 

[Code Monkey]

I was thinking about the 'garage' for my bikes. Initially I was thinking about loading the bikes lengthwise, but it bugged me that they took up so much room that way and that I would have a long hallway on one side of them with mostly wasted space.

It also bugged me that I would have to build the whole camper myself to do it this way. I could do it, but I would much rather be out riding than building.

So it occurred to me that I could load the bikes laterally. I could build a 'garage' across the truck because I have at least 8 feet to work with (I could make it narrower, but I need at least 7 feet). I have almost 7 feet from the cab back to the front of the rear tires, so I can build a 'garage' that looks kind of like a sleeper (and in fact, when the bikes are not loaded I could use it as a sleeper), and load the bikes from either side.

This was I could set the 'garage' almost all the way down on the frame because I don't have to worry about the 'garage' clearing the wheels/tires. So I can get some extra height.

I need at least 45 inches of height (maybe a little more) but it would be better if it was somewhere between 5 and 6 feet high. Overall height above the ground would then be 8 to 9 feet and that should clear most anything except maybe some wood covered bridges (saw one in Vermont that had 8'8" clearance).

This way I could use just about any cabover camper on the market because I could set it up so the cabover portion went over the 'garage'.

I would probably want an Alaskan though (8' or 10' depending on how big I make the garage) because it would give me a hard sided popup to keep my overall height on the road less than a conventional camper. If I later wanted something different or newer, then I could sell/trade easily enough. Also the truck itself would have more value this way because it would be more flexible. The 'garage' could stay attached and I could use the bed behind it for other purposes - maybe someday I would want to tow a fifth wheel instead of having the camper on. I don't know.

I would build up the bed with storage/tool boxs/etc. enough that the height of the bed would have the cabover portion of the camper high enough to clear the 'garage'.

 

[Code Monkey]

I am also thinking that I would have a 'bedslide' in the garage so that I could roll the dirt bike out on the slide to work on it at that height. Some of these products are claiming up to 3200 # capacity, so they should be able to handle one or two 280 pound bikes.

When I want to unload the bike I would lock the bedslide and use a ramp.

 

[Code Monkey]

Oh, and another little quirk of this truck; it was brought in from Canada. I don't know when or how, but apparently some time ago. Most of the gauges are metric (celsius, kpa, etc.), except the speedo which is MPH primary with the typical KPH background.

 

[Code Monkey]

I took some approx. measurements to get an idea of what would fit where/how, and what would not:

I currently have 215/65-16 tires on the rig and a set of studded 235/85-16 M&S
on spare rims.

Full truck length: ~22'
Bed length: 12'
Bed width: 8'
Bed sticks out 8" on each side of cab
Bed is 6" thick around the edges.

Cab to front of rear tires: 70"
Cab to rear axle: 85"
Rear of rear tires to rear of bed: 48"
Axle to rear of bed: 63"
Rear of frame to rear of bed (not including bed subframe): 20"
Bed height: 44"
Frame height front (right behind cab): 29"
Frame height rear: 36"
Frame to top of cab: 48"
Bed to top of cab: ~34"
Bed height above frame: ~11" at cab
Rear tires clearance to bed: ~12", maybe more - being conservative there
Hitch receiver:~22"

The frame raises up at the tires to provide clearance for the axle, so in front of the wheels the frame probably averages about 30" in height above the ground with the current wheels and tires.

I am thinking about getting 19.5" wheels and 33" tires, the current tires being 28 to 29" tall. So I am thinking I can build a 'garage' in front of the wheels, that extends back from the cab 4 to 5 feet, is 7 to 8 feet wide, 6 feet tall (I am 6'6" tall so it would be nice to have some headroom in there while moving the bike and and out) with a overall height above ground of 9 feet. Then a popup overcab camper above that would probably add another foot at least for a total of ten feet in height. Higher than I would like, but still okay.

Most of the weight would be down low, attached to the floor. There would be a couple inches for the subframe which I hope could be made to accomodate a ramp sliding into it. Then on top of that would be a bed slider. So there would be about 5.5 feet inside height, at least 5 feet. A dirt bike is ~4 feet high at the handlebars.

Hmm, maybe I should make it another 6" to a foot higher depending on what height the floor would be.

So, the garage would be at least two to three feet above the cab - unless I decide I never need to get inside *with* the bikes, then I could just keep the height down to about 5 feet.

I guess I need to get a drawing/CAD program and draw some of this out.

Also, I am thinking that a ten foot camper would work - it would extend the length out 2 to 3 feet more

 

[TheGuyJones]

For a CAD/Drawing program, Google Sketchup is nice (and Free). Post some pics of the truck as even with the dimensions you give it is hard to envision (maybe just me though).

 

[Code Monkey]

For a CAD/Drawing program, Google Sketchup is nice (and Free). Post some pics of the truck as even with the dimensions you give it is hard to envision (maybe just me though).

Thanks.

Yes, I intend to take some pics - but it is just a long wheelbase (165") regular cab 4x4 with a flatbed.

Think of the 'garage' as similar to a sleeper cab on a semi, but lower to the ground, not attached to the driving cab, with a wide tall door on each side to allow the loading of motorcycles.

This is similar to some other builds out there where they have used a conventional overcab camper on a flatbed, and filled in the space between the camper and the bed.

Here is one with an Alaskan where Alaskan Campers filled in the space:

But yes, I need to do some sketches to get across the big picture.

 

[Code Monkey]

BTW - this is what I want to put into the 'garage':

That is my actual bike just after I bought it. I have a Ducati too, but I am going to sell it - it has been sitting since I got the Hussy. The Hussy is just too much fun and the Ducati will someday either cost me my license or my life.

I am thinking of also getting a trials bike, or maybe something like this:

for putting around while traveling - to run errands and such. Of course, that, being as light as it is, could probably be hauled on a bumper or something, but I would just as soon have it inside the garage too. In my experience motorcycles hauled outside in the weather get beaten up without a purpose - I drop my bike on rocks and trees and such all the time, but I am having fun doing that (usually), having the bike getting beaten up while transporting it seems pointless. Not to mention having it sit out where someone can mess with it when I stop somewhere.