STREGA'S 2016 Ram 3500 cab/chassis adventure truck build
- Thread starter STREGA
- Start date
STREGA
Explorer
Well so much for the license plate mod, last week while filling up the fuel tank some lady who couldn't (or wouldn't) speak any English drove her car into my bumper bending up the frame and plate. The frame is toast but the plate was straightenable and didn't even get a scratch. She didn't appear to realize she hit it and when I pointed it out to her she looked at it said something in Spanish and turn around and walked off, I thanked her for her effort and just decided it wasn't worth getting hot about it, even though my truck just got violated.
STREGA
Explorer
Just pulled the trigger on the camper which should be ready to mount on the truck around the first half of October. After looking at a few different manufacturers I settled on a Bundutec. It is based off their Bunducamp popup camper but is totally custom built to my trucks dimensions and has quite a few changes to suit my needs. Ultimately all the other brands came up short for my needs, All Terrain Campers came the closet but the deal killer for me with them was although they were willing to do quite a bit of customization they would not increase the thickness of the cabover(like the FWC flatbed is) which would have left a large gap between the truck cab and cabover of the camper. ATC's are also a bit dated looking IMO but their pricing was pretty good compared to most of their competition.
First time I had heard of/seen a Bundutec was at the 2016 Overland Expo and was impressed with the quality of the camper as well as the Bundutec people. I learned that the owner (Rory) use to be a owner of Northstar campers and had sold his half to his brother so he could start up Bundutec. He wanted to build campers that he couldn't do at Northstar with a emphasis on a more overland style camper. A lot of their campers have been going to Australia and it sounds like quite of few of them are flatbeds or tray style. Their website doesn't mention that they build flatbed/tray campers so earlier this year I called them up to see if they were willing to build a camper for my flatbed which they replied that it would be no problem. Since they were coming back to the Expo again I set up a appointment with them and brought some rough drawings of what I had in mind with me. The 2 month wait for the Overland Expo to come to Flagstaff seem to take forever.
Rory looked over my drawings and said he could build that, later that day he walked over to where we were camped and took measurements of the flatbed, determined how to mount camper to the bed and we did a little brainstorming together on the basic camper layout. I have to say the personal attention I have received from the Bundutec crew has been fantastic, Jenn who does the office work is quick at responding to questions and sending emails. The only downside for me in choosing Bundutec is that they are located in Iowa which will make for a long drive to pick up the camper but at least it will be done before bad winter weather sets in so the drive should be good. The next 3 months are going to take forever to pass.
First time I had heard of/seen a Bundutec was at the 2016 Overland Expo and was impressed with the quality of the camper as well as the Bundutec people. I learned that the owner (Rory) use to be a owner of Northstar campers and had sold his half to his brother so he could start up Bundutec. He wanted to build campers that he couldn't do at Northstar with a emphasis on a more overland style camper. A lot of their campers have been going to Australia and it sounds like quite of few of them are flatbeds or tray style. Their website doesn't mention that they build flatbed/tray campers so earlier this year I called them up to see if they were willing to build a camper for my flatbed which they replied that it would be no problem. Since they were coming back to the Expo again I set up a appointment with them and brought some rough drawings of what I had in mind with me. The 2 month wait for the Overland Expo to come to Flagstaff seem to take forever.
Rory looked over my drawings and said he could build that, later that day he walked over to where we were camped and took measurements of the flatbed, determined how to mount camper to the bed and we did a little brainstorming together on the basic camper layout. I have to say the personal attention I have received from the Bundutec crew has been fantastic, Jenn who does the office work is quick at responding to questions and sending emails. The only downside for me in choosing Bundutec is that they are located in Iowa which will make for a long drive to pick up the camper but at least it will be done before bad winter weather sets in so the drive should be good. The next 3 months are going to take forever to pass.
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STREGA
Explorer
Bundutec campers are wood frame construction, old school for sure but if done right is a legit way to build. Rory has been building campers for a long time, learning his trade from his father who founded Northstar I believe in the 60's. Looking at his camper at the Expo I was impressed with the fit and finish of it, cabinets were well made, good hardware used, nice windows/skylight, modern appliances and electric roof lift mechanism. I'am confident I will get a nice camper built from them.
Wood does have it's downside though, it is heavy, if not built right will fall apart going down washboard roads and can rot if leaks occur and are not addressed. Also has upsides as well, cheaper to construct, easy to repair compared to some other building methods and condensation is not as big of a issue with wood. Have had quite a few campers and trailers over the last 40 years all but one were wood construction. Two of them were Northstar popups and had good luck with both of them although the 2nd one I didn't have for to long, I sold it and replaced it with a outfitter apex which ended up being a total disaster, it was a Aluminum frame camper.
While deciding on which way to go on campers for the last few months I did quite a bit of research. Should I go with a FWC/ATC aluminum frame camper? the light weights of aluminum was enticing but there was alot of people complaining of excessive amounts of condensation inside of their campers due to the thermal transfer of aluminum. I also felt that the FWC are fairly pricey for what you get, the cabinets although are nicer now than they use to be are still a little flimsy IMO. The roof lifting system is simple and works but should a camper with this setup be this costly? Also with FWC there was no customization available which meant the camper would not really fit my truck all that well. ATC's had a lot of the same problems as FWC but was able to get some customization not available with FWC which would of made the camper fit the truck better....except for the fact that they would not increase the depth or thickness of the cabover portion of the camper. That caused a few problems, first being a huge gap between the truck cab and camper that would cause a huge wind buffeting issue unless the gap was filled with something. 2nd by not having a deeper cabover your giving up valuable storage area and there is never enough storage in a popup camper. And 3rd it would just be butt ugly IMHO.
Thought about composite campers for a awhile and like the advantages they have, but ultimately they were all out of my price range. Don't think I mentioned in my earlier post on this build and really should have at the begining but my budget for this build was between $65-70K. With the truck, flatbed and other goodies for the truck there just isn't enough left over for a composite camper.
That left wood construction for my choice and not a lot of brands to consider from either. I really like Alaskan's campers and like Northstar have been around forever but they didn't fit my budget either, they are not giving them away for sure. They are well built which makes them heavy but are pleasant to sit inside reminded me of our camper we had back in the 60's.
Wood does have it's downside though, it is heavy, if not built right will fall apart going down washboard roads and can rot if leaks occur and are not addressed. Also has upsides as well, cheaper to construct, easy to repair compared to some other building methods and condensation is not as big of a issue with wood. Have had quite a few campers and trailers over the last 40 years all but one were wood construction. Two of them were Northstar popups and had good luck with both of them although the 2nd one I didn't have for to long, I sold it and replaced it with a outfitter apex which ended up being a total disaster, it was a Aluminum frame camper.
While deciding on which way to go on campers for the last few months I did quite a bit of research. Should I go with a FWC/ATC aluminum frame camper? the light weights of aluminum was enticing but there was alot of people complaining of excessive amounts of condensation inside of their campers due to the thermal transfer of aluminum. I also felt that the FWC are fairly pricey for what you get, the cabinets although are nicer now than they use to be are still a little flimsy IMO. The roof lifting system is simple and works but should a camper with this setup be this costly? Also with FWC there was no customization available which meant the camper would not really fit my truck all that well. ATC's had a lot of the same problems as FWC but was able to get some customization not available with FWC which would of made the camper fit the truck better....except for the fact that they would not increase the depth or thickness of the cabover portion of the camper. That caused a few problems, first being a huge gap between the truck cab and camper that would cause a huge wind buffeting issue unless the gap was filled with something. 2nd by not having a deeper cabover your giving up valuable storage area and there is never enough storage in a popup camper. And 3rd it would just be butt ugly IMHO.
Thought about composite campers for a awhile and like the advantages they have, but ultimately they were all out of my price range. Don't think I mentioned in my earlier post on this build and really should have at the begining but my budget for this build was between $65-70K. With the truck, flatbed and other goodies for the truck there just isn't enough left over for a composite camper.
That left wood construction for my choice and not a lot of brands to consider from either. I really like Alaskan's campers and like Northstar have been around forever but they didn't fit my budget either, they are not giving them away for sure. They are well built which makes them heavy but are pleasant to sit inside reminded me of our camper we had back in the 60's.
STREGA
Explorer
Me too! I might start a thread in the pop up camper section for the camper build portion so people interested in pop up campers will be more likely to see it. Then once the camper is installed on the truck fold it back into this thread.
STREGA
Explorer
I'am going to use (GVW) it all!
The Hemi has the option of an Aisin transmission? That's the first time I've heard of that. I'd tried building an Aisin-equipped Ram with the Hemi on Ram's website, but it didn't seem to work.
peculierboy
Member
You have to build it as a Cab/Chassis truck
STREGA
Explorer
Well the Road Runner just turned 1 years old the other day, not much to report on it as of now but in a month or so some things will happen finally. I have only put on about 5700 miles on the odometer but now that the FJ Cruiser has been sold the miles will be going up.
Overall I'am very happy with the truck so far but since it hasn't had any load on it yet I really don't know how well it is going to perform. Since it's a 3500 cab/chassis with no real weight on it the ride has been less than supple on the pot holed roads here in the Grand Canyon Village but out on the highway where the roads are slightly better the ride was OK. Once the camper is on the truck the ride should improve for sure, it will be interesting to see how well it handles the weight in stock trim.
The fuel mileage has been OK for a heavy duty gasser truck, average has been around 14 mpg and have seen a high of 17.2 mpg. Of course this is a truck that had no load on it so probably will see 11mpg average and maybe 14/15 hiway when it has it's intended load on it which is not great but can live with it.
Other than going to Flagstaff or Prescott I haven't done any long roadtrips in it yet but will be going to Iowa in October to pickup the camper. This will give me a good feel for the difference between a loaded and unloaded truck. May also be towing a small trailer from Colorado back to Arizona which will give me some indication for how well it's going to pull extra weight.
Once I get back from the trip to Iowa I will have a lot more to talk about and will post it up ASAP.
Overall I'am very happy with the truck so far but since it hasn't had any load on it yet I really don't know how well it is going to perform. Since it's a 3500 cab/chassis with no real weight on it the ride has been less than supple on the pot holed roads here in the Grand Canyon Village but out on the highway where the roads are slightly better the ride was OK. Once the camper is on the truck the ride should improve for sure, it will be interesting to see how well it handles the weight in stock trim.
The fuel mileage has been OK for a heavy duty gasser truck, average has been around 14 mpg and have seen a high of 17.2 mpg. Of course this is a truck that had no load on it so probably will see 11mpg average and maybe 14/15 hiway when it has it's intended load on it which is not great but can live with it.
Other than going to Flagstaff or Prescott I haven't done any long roadtrips in it yet but will be going to Iowa in October to pickup the camper. This will give me a good feel for the difference between a loaded and unloaded truck. May also be towing a small trailer from Colorado back to Arizona which will give me some indication for how well it's going to pull extra weight.
Once I get back from the trip to Iowa I will have a lot more to talk about and will post it up ASAP.
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STREGA
Explorer
The last 3 weeks have finally seen some more progress on the truck. In order to get the truck ready for the camper install I needed to get a 7 pin trailer connector wired in and get a spare tire carrier since it's been just strap down on the flatbed. The 7 pin connector was a bit of a problem at first. The truck had a wire loom that went all the way to the rear of the truck with a couple of connectors that were not being used, my thought being they were for the 7 pin. So I go to the dealer figuring they sell a connector that would plug right in and be done with it, well not so fast there cowboy they do have a 7 pin connector but the plugs on my wiring loom did not even match their connector. So the parts guy thought that maybe there was a wiring loom available that my truck didn't have but could not find one either so that idea went nowhere. His next idea was to run the truck through the service department and let them scratch their heads and figure it out and charge me up to $400.00. I thanked him for his help and left, $400.00 for a seven pin connector I don't think so. I then had someone recommend a guy in Flagstaff that was the best in all the land and could get the job done, well not so much. At that point I'am getting a little concern that I won't be able to get a connector installed in time, but it just didn't make sense to me that a truck that can tow 17,500 lbs would be so hard to wire in a trailer plug. Anyway I drove past the Uhaul store and thought why didn't I think about them as a place to go after all they specialize in hitch installs. A young man checks out the wiring and declares he can install a connector no problem and wasn't even going to charge me any labor if I bought the connector there. About 45 minutes later I had a functioning 7 pin connector on my truck. He did a nice job and it cost me $53.00 including the $20.00 tip I gave him, would have given him more but that was all the cash I had on me.
Thankfully the Spare tire carrier was easy, just give them the credit card number and wait 3 days on shipping and install. I went with the Wilco Solo XL hitch carrier after seeing one at the Expo. It's well made, a bit heavy at about 60lbs and they do not give them away. But it solved the problem of where to put the spare and more importantly it cleared the folding steps when extended out, barely. Since the truck has a 2 1/2" receiver I had to get a special 2" reducer that would work with the anti wobbler that is built into the carrier, more $ and weight. Overall I'am happy with it.
Thankfully the Spare tire carrier was easy, just give them the credit card number and wait 3 days on shipping and install. I went with the Wilco Solo XL hitch carrier after seeing one at the Expo. It's well made, a bit heavy at about 60lbs and they do not give them away. But it solved the problem of where to put the spare and more importantly it cleared the folding steps when extended out, barely. Since the truck has a 2 1/2" receiver I had to get a special 2" reducer that would work with the anti wobbler that is built into the carrier, more $ and weight. Overall I'am happy with it.
