Shadow Cruiser popup on a a flatbed Dodge Cummins

[LSchulz]

I posted a picture of my setup in the photo thread the other day, and figured that it's finally time to post a full writeup on the build. This whole adventure started in 2012 when I tore my rusted out truck down to the frame and gave it a new lease on life. It started as a 4wd 2001 Dodge 2500 long box quad cab with the 24 valve Cummins and NV5600 six speed transmission. More than a decade of winters in Vermont had taken its toll on the body, and with rotted out fenders, doors, rockers, and floor pans, I couldn't get the thing inspected anymore. The truck had 150k on it at this point, but still ran like new. Unwilling to fork out the $50k to replace it with a new truck, I decided it was time for a rebuild, and started stripping it down.

So, here it is the day I started. It looks pretty good, but there is a lot of paint, bondo, and spray foam holding the body together.

The teardown commences...

 

[LSchulz]

With the body entirely off, it's time to roll the truck back into the shop and get after some mechanic updates. I rebuild/upgraded the whole front end - wheel bearings, ball joints, u-joints, brakes, swaybar links, track bar, steering box brace, control arm bushings, and so on.

You'll also notice a new 4" stainless turbo back exhaust, fuel lines, and intercooler boots.

Valve adjustment and RV275 injectors while we're here.

Clutch upgrade? It's really easy to pull the transmission while the cab's not in the way. South Bend 3250 street double disc with new hydraulics.

 

[LSchulz]

Fast forward and I have the frame all cleaned up and painted with Chassis Saver. In the meantime, I've prepped rust free cab off a Colorado truck.

Excavators are handy machines to have in the yard...

On to the rest of the body. New outer fenders, and after drilling out all the spot welds to separate them, I had the innners sandblasted and primed. I used self tapping stainless screws to join the two parts together.

Interior! My truck was a plain Jane model, with AC and nothing else. My donor cab was an SLT with lots of power accessories that I wasn't going to use. It also had a different color dash that was cracked, so I split the wiring harnesses and recombined things as needed. In the end, everything worked except the dome light doesn't come on when the doors are opened. It will chime when the key is in the ignition or the lights are left on, so go figure.

Coming together!

New fuel system. The stock setup Dodge used on these trucks totally sucked, and the Bosch VP44 injection pump on this engine will cook itself if you starve it for fuel. In the end I ended up with a tank sump, 1/2" lines, a FASS HPFP, and a custom Cat filter setup with a 2 micron final filter. The only stock thing left on the entire fuel system is the set of lines between the IP and the injectors.

 

[LSchulz]

Ready for paint. The hood is original, and that's it.

Ooooh, shiny!

 

[LSchulz]

I seem to have not taken any pictures of the truck once it was completely done with the paint shop. Skip ahead another year, and a cracked alloy rim forced me to find a new set of wheels. I ordered a set of Rickson 19.5" rims and put a set of Sailun S737 245/70R19.5s on them. You get what you pay for. These tires were cheap, and shook like crazy at anything above 55mph. I tried multiple methods of balancing them, gave up, and bought a set of Goodyear G622s. Night and day difference.

The complete setup as I ran it for a couple years.

 

[LSchulz]

By now you've probably realized I like to tinker with things. The service body was nice. It was aluminum, so not too heavy, had good door gaskets so it kept everything dry, and I was able to squeeze an 80 gallon transfer tank into the front cross bed compartment. It did have some drawbacks though - namely it was 47.5" wide on the inside. Simple tasks like bringing home a piece of plywood were a real pain. The sides were very tall, and I wanted to pull a gooseneck, so I decided to put a flatbed on it. My only regret in doing this was that I couldn't reuse the bumper I had built to go behind the service body. It was 6" channel with a hinged lid and chain boxes. I still have the thing sitting on a pallet, saving it for someday...

Flatbed!

Trailer!

 

[LSchulz]

Ok, on to the camper!

Last spring, my better half and I decided it was time to go on a cross country road trip. She's a teacher, and has the whole summer off. I work in the ski industry, so summer is a fairly quiet time of year compared to the steady 100 hour work weeks I deal with mid winter. I had contemplated building a camper from scratch when I happened upon a real gem on the side of the road a few towns over. Behold the the Shadow Cruiser in all its glory the day I dragged it home:

Calling this thing gross was an understatement. All the windows and screens were ripped, there was a hole in one corner of the roof, the back window was broken out with an AC unit stuffed into, and there was mouse **** everywhere, but overall the thing was solid, and the perfect candidate for a rebuild on the same scale as the truck it would be going on.

 

[LSchulz]

The gutting commenced immediately. The cushions and mattress were the first to go, and proved to be comfortable outdoor dog beds.

They were quickly followed by the shag carpet, linoleum, and most of the interior cabinetry. Everything that remained got a hefty bleach wipe down.

 

[LSchulz]

The camper came with a dometic 12v/120v/propane fridge. This was the result of it being turned on for hours.

So out it went. I had to take the entire door frame out to get the fridge out -there was no other way for it to fit.

I tore out the cabinet the fridge had been in, and built a new enclosure for a 50 quart ARB fridge/freezer.

I mounted it on a sliding platform so it can hide under the upper countertop.

 

[LSchulz]

While all this was going on, the canvas came off and got shipped out to be used as a template for a replacement. A brand new one was only slightly more than getting all the windows and screens replaced in the old one. All the old wiring has come out, along with the sketchy shore power hookup. I intended to build this camper as a fully off grid rig, so no need to keep something that looked and smelled like it was going to burn the whole place down.

The roof came off too...

To deal with this nasty spot:

All better!

Wallpaper (roofpaper?) gone, time for paint.

 

[LSchulz]

I had also started working on a frame for the whole thing to sit on. I wanted to make a nice clean setup without all the jacks and tie downs that a lot of campers use, so I welded up steel frame that the camper would be permanently attached to. It has 2"x5" tubing running the whole length of the thing, and I can slide the forks on my skid steer into the open ends and lift the lot onto and off of the truck. A series of 5/8" grade 8 bolts through the steel frame and through the truck bed hold it down.

Cutting steel (remember that bumper I mentioned earlier in the thread, there it is, two years after it came off the truck...):

Welding:

And a test fit:

 

[LSchulz]

The camper had originally been for a shortbed truck. The overhangs made for a weird space to try to fill in on each side, so it was time for those to go.

Much better, but not there yet.

As I was tearing the whole back end of the camper apart, I found all the rot where the rear window had been leaking. I reframed the back wall and put in a new scratch and dent window I picked up on super cheap on ebay. The aluminum trim ring had a small scuff on it, but 2 minutes with a piece of sandpaper and a shot of black spray paint made it look like new.

 

[LSchulz]

Batteries!

As I mentioned, I wanted the camper to have a standalone power system. No power from the truck, no external power hookups, just solar panels and a battery bank. At work I had recently taken apart an old backup power system and had free access to 24 Trojan T-105s. Unfortunately the system they had been in hadn't been properly maintained, and every single battery was junk. Bummer. Anyway, I got a good deal from one of the local auto parts stores on a set of Deka GC2s, which are almost the same as a 105.

Caution! The cheapo hydraulic crimper set I bought worked just fine for making up battery cables. I connected them in series pairs for a 12v system.

All wired up with a dedicated lead from each solar charge controller.

For the interior electrical, I made a custom switch plate.

And installed.

 

[LSchulz]

Time for panels. The roof still has moss and crap growing on it from being parked under a tree for ages, but here's a test fit of one of the two panels. I used low profile aluminum unistrut to make a mounting rack. The other panel went on the other side of the roof hatch. I put on two 140w panels. In hindsight this was seriously overkill, but I have an unrelenting tendency to overbuild things.

More wiring. The backside of the switch panel and cooling fan for the fridge space below it.

Dual Genasun 10A MPPT charge controllers, one for each panel. Overkill again, but this way I can park with one panel in the shade for an extended period and the other one can still crank out some juice.

And the main electrical compartment starting to come together, hidden back behind where the ARB cooler resides.

 

[LSchulz]

Panels mounted, along with some extra illumination to light up the back yard.

New canvas is in! Exterior painted! It's starting to come together! At this point the trip departure date was rapidly approaching, so there are fewer pictures of the work in progress (and the pictures get crappy again as I was using my cell phone and not my DSLR).

Floor is down, interior is painted, benches are in, lights are hooked up, sink is reconnected.