Flatbed questions -Ram 2500 ccsb

Kach

New member
In the seemingly never-ending quest to figure out our next rig, I've been researching getting a flatbed truck and building my own flatbed-style camper for it. I've been focusing on finding a 1-ton or greater dually 4x4 platform, but they've proven to be tough to find with a crew/extra cab, 4wd, relatively cheapish, and not beat to hell.

I figured it would be dumb to proceed without at least seeing what I could do with my current truck. - a Ram 2500 CCSB 2003 Cummins. I love my truck and have put a lot into it in the past couple of years.

What decent flatness are available for my platform? What is the weight of my current bed vs. a steel or aluminum flatbed? What size would I be dealing with for my shortbed frame?

Anyways, I figure someone on here has been there and can hopefully help! I'm sure payload will become an issue, but at least getting an idea of what I'm working with.
 

nitro_rat

Lunchbox Lockers
Your existing front axle can easily be converted to duals with a set of unit bearings or a free spin kit. I’m pretty sure that duals will fit your existing rear axle once the bed is out of the way. Just grab a wheel and tire and make sure it doesn’t hit the brakes, spring, or frame. Now you just need some c-channel and a longer driveshaft. Viola! You have what you want!

I’ve seen may mega cab/long bed swaps so the frame stretch can’t be too hard...
 

Kach

New member
Your existing front axle can easily be converted to duals with a set of unit bearings or a free spin kit. I'm pretty sure that duals will fit your existing rear axle once the bed is out of the way. Just grab a wheel and tire and make sure it doesn't hit the brakes, spring, or frame. Now you just need some c-channel and a longer driveshaft. Viola! You have what you want!

I've seen may mega cab/long bed swaps so the frame stretch can't be too hard...

Front axle duals?!? Not interested in that, but would possibly consider rear duals or more likely super singles if weight got out of hand.

I don't think I would need a longer frame either. I sketched up a pretty workable plan that would go on a 7x7 flatbed with a queen size (east-west) cab overhang.
 

GoinBoardin

Observer
I don't know what your build plans are, or if you travel light/heavy, but if you engineer weight into the equation I think you can make this work. I fab'd a steel flatbed, 90"×90" on my old supercab short box F150, along with an old FWC Fleet that I rebuilt as a flatbed model. Half tank of fuel, me, tool box, recovery gear, tire chains, etc, but no water or food, it was 6300lbs. Truck is around 5200 empty. Ready to camp a week I'm well under 7k lbs and it feels like a castle space wise. I love the flatbed spaciousness.

I built a tube frame floor pack in the FWC. It doesn't need a flatbed under it this way. Now that I know I really like this setup after using it with the camper bolted to the flatbed, my plan is to remove the flatbed in summer (minus 440lbs) and bolt the camper to a skeletal 3pt pivot frame (should be ~150lbs, saving 300lbs). I'll add fenders to keep road spray off the camper. Just something to consider if you're building from scratch. If you plan to keep the camper on the truck full time I don't see a reason to put it on a heavy flatbed.

Not Ram specific but my short box was 280lbs, tailgate 75, and bumper was 85. Yours is probably within 100lbs of that. M flatbed weighed 440lbs when done. Many steel beds can be 1000lbs. I planned it to work out that way. After 4 years of use things are still solid despite my "light" build. I was told by a few people it would bend in half with 1.5"× 14ga square tube frame. Keep in mind many people don't calculate anything, just throw 0.180" wall tube at it then complain about weight, while telling everyone else to over build.
 

fl0w3n

Observer
Front axle duals?!? Not interested in that, but would possibly consider rear duals or more likely super singles if weight got out of hand.

I don't think I would need a longer frame either. I sketched up a pretty workable plan that would go on a 7x7 flatbed with a queen size (east-west) cab overhang.

In a dually the front axle width is wider to better match the rear. What he meant was you should be able to easily convert your front end to factory dually width.
 

Kach

New member
Now we're getting somewhere! GoinBoardin said what I've been wondering which is can I just skip the bed altogether. I am still hanging on to the idea of a poss flatbed and removable setup though. If I go full-time camper, I'd need another solution for firewood gathering (we heat with wood) and other truck tasks. With a removable camper/flatbed my truck could still do most of what I'd need a truck for. 400 lbs would be no problem - I was nervous when I started to see beds getting up to 1000 lbs. that cuts into a lot of payload.
 

nitro_rat

Lunchbox Lockers
I don't think I would need a longer frame either. I sketched up a pretty workable plan that would go on a 7x7 flatbed with a queen size (east-west) cab overhang.

A friend of mine converted a 2wd QCSB 2nd gen to a dually flat bed. Even with an 8’ flat bed it didn’t look bad. It did have more rear overhang than normal but it wasn’t bad. A 7’ flat bed would work fine.
 

GoinBoardin

Observer
That modular type setup is pretty trick, and similar to what I'd like to do, albeit with a different mounting setup.

I too haul firewood with the truck in the fall, then snowmobiles on the flatbed in the winter. Summer time I just camp & mtn bike. So I'm planning to swap to a lighter camper mount system for late spring/summer, then back to flatbed in fall/winter. The nice thing is the camper can be dropped onto the flatbed: the flatbed doesn't exclude camper use.

As for flatbed length, I went with 90" long because that puts the deck even with the factory receiver hitch. 8' would tuck the receiver 6" in from the deck end. 7' would have the receiver sticking way out. I'd grab a tape measure & do some checking on the Ram before spending much time on design. Obviously the receiver can be moved/removed/changed but it's something to consider.

In terms of weights, I'm trying to be extra vigilant because I have a light duty, semi floating rear axle. 450 lbs is a substantial fraction of the GVWR & GAWR. On your 3/4 ton, it might not be as much of a concern? That AAM 1150 full floater of yours is much stronger, and that is something to keep in mind.

Some things I would ask myself:
Are you staying primarily on graded roads, or will there be wheel lifting 4x4ing going on with the camper installed?
Pop-up camper or hard sided?
What construction methods & materials will be used?
How much will it weigh?
How much extra stuff/gear do you (& traveling partners) bring on trips? What does it weigh?
What is the GVWR of the truck?
 

c7train

Observer
I have asked this same question before, currently we have a Lance 825 as our camper, and a flat bed would allow for awesome storage under the sides of the camper for sure. I'll be following this thread to see what comes of it. Best of luck!
 

Gatordoc

Adventurer
I own a very similar truck ('03 4x4 Ram QCSB 2500 w/Cummins) and have often though about doing a flatbed with eventual camper. I'm curious to hear what the peanut gallery has to say about such an arrangement.
 

redthies

Renaissance Redneck
A lot of good ideas here, and with truck campers payload is the biggest hurdle. If you want to stay legal, you really have to work at it. The Cirrus 920 mentioned above is 2,900 lbs in its LIGHTEST form. That’s a base model with no water onboard. That will likely run 3,500 lbs wet and with a weeks worth of gear. I factory ordered a 9-6Q Northern Lite and picked only the options I felt necessary, all in the hopes of being as light weight as possible. I still ended up at 2,600 lbs dry. Loaded for an adventure, I’m within a few hundred pounds of my 12,300 GVWR. Any 2500 or even pre 2013 Dodge 3500 srw will be way overweight. DRW is fine if it comes that way from the factory, but adding an extra set of tires to a 2500 still has you “legally” way over. Are you comfortable with that?

Building your own camper allows you to be really creative with where you add weight. As would buying a 4Wheel Camper bare shell. They make a flat bed option now too. If you don’t have the time, skill or desire to build the entire thing from scratch, that would be a fantastic starting point. If you don’t need a big fridge, a shower, TV etc etc, you can get away with a much lighter camper.
 

Darwin

Explorer
I think it's possible if you stick with an aluminum flatbed and go with a light camper like the four wheel camper pop up. Beyond that, and you will definitely be overloaded, heck you could be overloaded with just the pop up camper. You can't have too much truck, if your travels are weekends or short trips and the camper is light I don't see a problem with being overloaded, but you plan to go off road in say Baja I think being overloaded will really tax the truck, and have poor driving charecteristics.
 

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