Work hard play hard

[Xbcasey]

I've had a few Dodge rams over the years, and always sold them because none were quite what I wanted. But a couple months ago I found a deal on an '04 2500 that I couldn't pass up, so I drove three hours away, bought it, hooked my jeep to the back, and towed it home!

The plan is for this truck to pull double duty as a work truck for my business, and to be the ultimate camping rig on the weekends.

Since I spend I'll be spending a lot of time in this thing, an Edgestar fridge was first up. The 45 quart model fits perfectly with the driver's side of the split seat folded up.

Then it was on to a campershell. A good friend had an old shell off a mid 90's Chevy laying around, and since the price was free, I took it and figured I'd make it work. The length was right, the width was close enough, but it was 2.5" too short. So I built a riser out of some 2.5" square tube to solve the problem. Since I also wanted a rack on top, and absolutely hate the flat plate campershell rack mounts, this worked out perfectly.

Once that was done, it was onto the inside of the bed. I added a storage organizer to keep small parts right at the back, and a shelf along the passenger side.

Next on the list was the instabed. A trimmed down piece of plywood, a 4" foam mattress, and some pulleys make for a quick and easy camp setup, all the bedding stays right in place and ready to go. Add the SUV tent onto the back and you have a pretty comfortable camp.

That's about where I'm at right now. I've added another shelf to the driver's side, and plan to mount my toolbox in the rear driver's side corner. Then I need to wire in the second battery and inverter.



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[Xbcasey]

Finally stopped by Home Depot and picked up the fitting to attach the hose sprayer. Of course I had to test it out in the parking lot!

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[legendaryandrew]

Looks awesome!

 

[Xbcasey]

Oh, I guess I left out the part about the water tank.... I was going to do the 6" black pvc pressurised with air solar shower thing, but when I was at the hardware store to get the parts, I spotted this 15 gallon sprayer with 12 volt pump on sale for $50.

I bought it, painted it flat black, and mounted it to the roof. On a slightly overcast day, the water temperature inside got to 94 degrees. I figured it wouldn't heat the water up as well, due to less surface area per gallon of water, and a much bigger area to heat, but that's plenty good enough for me

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[XJLI]

I like your sleeping platform idea. Nice build so far, simple and gets it done.

 

[Xbcasey]

I'm a big believer in the "keep it simple stupid" way of thinking. I like things to be as straight forward and simple as possible, no need to over complicate them and make it any more difficult than it has to be. The pulleys and winch are an example of going a little farther than I wanted. Originally I had it set up so that I just lift the back and hooked it up, then crawled in to lift the front and hook it in place. It worked just fine but my wife had trouble with it, so I added the pulleys, then ended up adding the winch

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[DaveInDenver]

I dig it, looking good!

Can you show a photo of how you adapted the back window and tailgate interface? After raising the whole shell 2.5" I'd expect that there'd be a gap between them that needs to be sealed from dust & water as well the little bit of theft deterrence of preventing the tailgate from lowering when you close and lock the back window.

 

[Xbcasey]

I just used a garage door seal to extend the rubber lip at the bottom of the window. It works for now but isn't ideal, the tailgate can still be opened with the window closed and locked. It would be a little tricky to make it hold the tailgate, since the one on this truck is shaped very differently than the truck this shell was meant to be on. But I could easily solve that by getting a locking latch for the tailgate.

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[Xbcasey]

But first and foremost this truck has to work, which it has been staying pretty busy doing. At first I ordered a cheap ladder rack of off Amazon to mount my oversize sign to, and it worked great while I built the rack for the shell. But now I've finished the folding sign that lays down in the rack, then pops up and locks into place

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[JJEH]

Very nice!

 

[Xbcasey]

I figured the best way to organise what I need and what I don't, was to set up camp in the driveway!

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[rayra]

Good call on the riser, looks like it was meant to fit that way all along.

 

[Xbcasey]

Thanks​, it worked out perfectly for adding the rack, much better than how most camper shell racks are mounted.

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[Xbcasey]

Since I'm always working around big trucks and equipment, having my little toolbox with me is really handy. But I can't stand it sliding around the floor, sooo....

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[Sock Puppet]

Love a fella who isn't afraid to scratch, dent, and otherwise modify his stuff to make it work. I dig it!