adventurebuddies
Adventurer
Here it goes: After many years with the most incredible 80 series LandCruiser, we have taken the plunge and started toward our goal of owning a rig for full-time international travel. It's been a progression to get us to this point: We started with the 80, then added a roof tent to the 80, then moved the roof tent to a trailer towed by the 80, then built a teardrop trailer to be towed by the 80. As we get closer to our goal of retiring young and traveling around the world on a permanent basis, we realized that we don't want to live full time out of the 80. Camping for the weekend, or even a couple of months is great. But living full time out of such a small space, cooking on a camp stove, not having a proper bathroom, etc just isn't how we want to live on a long term basis.
This led us to the conclusion that we needed a vehicle that was large enough to have a bathroom, a kitchen, and a dedicated bed but it still had to be "containerable." I realize that roll-on shipping is an option, but I decided that any vehicle that can fit in a shipping container is inherently small enough to be manageable for driving in countries that don't feature an 8 lane wide interstate network. Based on my research, I had narrowed the options down to Sportsmobile and EarthCruiser/ATW to give us the interior volume we want without being overly large.
We attended this year's Overland Expo with one of our primary goals being to check out the available vehicle offerings to determine if we preferred one of the two options over the other. What we didn't expect at all was to see a 3rd option on a completely different platform - the XP Camper. It took us all of about 30 minutes chatting with Marc (owner of XP Camper) to determine that his V1 camper is exactly what we are looking for. Due to whatever ingrained prejudices I have, I would have never considered an American made pickup truck as a platform for global travel, but actually the argument for me was quite sound. XP Marc recommends the Ram 3500 platform primarily because of the Cummins engine. It turns out that variations of the Cummins 5.9 are used in nearly every country in the world and in nearly every industry. That makes for a pretty solid parts/service network and was good enough for me. I won't get into the benefits of the XP Camper here because we are still almost a year away from taking delivery on it, so for now this will be about the truck build. Suffice it to say that I think the XP fills a much needed market niche and is clearly engineered for self-sufficiency in the developing world.
I am afflicted with the same over-researching brain as many forum members, so of course I read everything there is to read about the Dodge Ram 3500 after getting home from Overland Expo. That research led me to the conclusion that I need to find a 2006 Ram 3500 diesel 4x4 with low miles, factory limited slip rear diff, 4.10 gearing, and the Laramie package with heated seats (for my wife) and dual zone A/C (to keep us from arguing over cab temps). I also wanted 4 wheel ABS disc brakes and front and side curtain airbags for that just-in-case safety margin. Also, I really wanted the truck to be white and it needed to come from a rust-free zone.
I live in SoCal and have no problem flying anywhere in the country to buy the right vehicle (I purchased my 80 in Miami and drove it home) so I searched all over the country for the right one. Ironically, I found the exact vehicle with every option that I wanted located about an hour away from my house. We drove out to take a look, mostly out of curiosity, and realized we had stumbled upon something special. The truck is in mint condition with just under 38,000 miles, one owner, CA its whole life, and appears to have been garaged since it was new in 2006. It has every option we wanted and we bought it on the spot. My concern was that a year from now, the XP Camper would be ready and I still wouldn't have the truck so I thought it's better to buy it now and store it than to look back and wish I had bought it.
This will be my build thread for those who are interested in following along. Here is a picture of the new truck. Bone stock and shiny new looking:
This led us to the conclusion that we needed a vehicle that was large enough to have a bathroom, a kitchen, and a dedicated bed but it still had to be "containerable." I realize that roll-on shipping is an option, but I decided that any vehicle that can fit in a shipping container is inherently small enough to be manageable for driving in countries that don't feature an 8 lane wide interstate network. Based on my research, I had narrowed the options down to Sportsmobile and EarthCruiser/ATW to give us the interior volume we want without being overly large.
We attended this year's Overland Expo with one of our primary goals being to check out the available vehicle offerings to determine if we preferred one of the two options over the other. What we didn't expect at all was to see a 3rd option on a completely different platform - the XP Camper. It took us all of about 30 minutes chatting with Marc (owner of XP Camper) to determine that his V1 camper is exactly what we are looking for. Due to whatever ingrained prejudices I have, I would have never considered an American made pickup truck as a platform for global travel, but actually the argument for me was quite sound. XP Marc recommends the Ram 3500 platform primarily because of the Cummins engine. It turns out that variations of the Cummins 5.9 are used in nearly every country in the world and in nearly every industry. That makes for a pretty solid parts/service network and was good enough for me. I won't get into the benefits of the XP Camper here because we are still almost a year away from taking delivery on it, so for now this will be about the truck build. Suffice it to say that I think the XP fills a much needed market niche and is clearly engineered for self-sufficiency in the developing world.
I am afflicted with the same over-researching brain as many forum members, so of course I read everything there is to read about the Dodge Ram 3500 after getting home from Overland Expo. That research led me to the conclusion that I need to find a 2006 Ram 3500 diesel 4x4 with low miles, factory limited slip rear diff, 4.10 gearing, and the Laramie package with heated seats (for my wife) and dual zone A/C (to keep us from arguing over cab temps). I also wanted 4 wheel ABS disc brakes and front and side curtain airbags for that just-in-case safety margin. Also, I really wanted the truck to be white and it needed to come from a rust-free zone.
I live in SoCal and have no problem flying anywhere in the country to buy the right vehicle (I purchased my 80 in Miami and drove it home) so I searched all over the country for the right one. Ironically, I found the exact vehicle with every option that I wanted located about an hour away from my house. We drove out to take a look, mostly out of curiosity, and realized we had stumbled upon something special. The truck is in mint condition with just under 38,000 miles, one owner, CA its whole life, and appears to have been garaged since it was new in 2006. It has every option we wanted and we bought it on the spot. My concern was that a year from now, the XP Camper would be ready and I still wouldn't have the truck so I thought it's better to buy it now and store it than to look back and wish I had bought it.
This will be my build thread for those who are interested in following along. Here is a picture of the new truck. Bone stock and shiny new looking:
Last edited: