Dodge Ram 5500 motorhome

[Letsgomoreplaces]

Where did you get these tires? And how do you like them? Looking for an alternative to the MPT81

Awesome build by the way, I love it!

Tires and wheels arrived in Red Deer. Thanks Mark!!

Ward

 

[Healeyjet]

Thanks we love it as well.
The tires have been great so far. On road there isn't excessive noise. Off road they worked as they should. They are large heavy tires but I wanted something other than the MPt81s. I bought them from Mark at lite Industries in Red Deer AB
Ward

 

[rossvtaylor]

Healeyjet... I just found this thread, sadly too late to have seen your rig at the Expo. But, I just read through all 55 pages and finding that you're selling it, after the dramatic build, was like watching a movie where the lead dies unexpectedly.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to document all of this. I took screenshots, and even some real handwritten notes, during my read-through and I've got a couple of questions, if you don't mind.

Regarding the induction cooktop, how did that work off your battery bank and inverter? They seem to be efficient and work quickly, so the draw is fairly brief. We plan to have about your same solar setup, so your experience would be helpful.

And, about that Cradlepoint internet setup, how did you like that? We're planning a mobile work platform, so that looks like a great option. But, I saw you mention that you didn't have good wifi while at the Expo. And, since we live in Flagstaff, that concerned us - if your Cradlepoint didn't work at Mormon Lake (which isn't terribly remote), it might not be an option for us as we move around.

Thanks much and best wishes with the commercial project. We had the same wheels turning in our brains after the Expo, where people were asking us about selling our brand-new-to-us ambulance. We had only picked it up the week before and just brought it to the Expo for show and tell, and to get ideas. We already have 3 jobs between us, plus the rig project, so we'll pass for now. And we'll continue to watch your updates.

Ross and Kara

 

[Healeyjet]

Ross and Kara,
Thank you for the compliments.

The induction cook-top works great. We have a 3000w inverter and can use one element on high or both on medium so it just takes a little planning. You are correct, the induction works so quickly that the draw on the batteries is not really even noticed on the total charge. That and the combination of the solar panels and the two alternators on the truck charge our battery bank nice and fast. Totally thrilled with it so far. We do have provision to add one more solar panel and will do that down the road if we find the batteries aren't keeping up when we are totally parked. We usually travel somewhere during the day so the batteries are charged up all the time.

As for the Cradlepoint, not so much. We were sold on it being a dual SIM card system that was smart enough to switch from one sim card to the other when we crossed the USA/Canada border. So far we have not been able to get it to do that. Worse, since I am not very computer savvy, we were told we would have to re-flash the router every time we switch from one SIM card to the other. The camper has been at ITB for a couple weeks getting some upgrades but as soon as we get it back the Cradlepoint is the first thing I need to work on. As far as signal strength it is excellent though. The other issue we ran into was that we blew through 10GB of data in a little over a week with no real idea how, LOL. We are used to doing everything we can when we have Wi-Fi and we were going hard I guess. I was told that things like Facebook, when you have them set to instantly play the videos, is like downloading a movie all of the time. We have to figure how to better use our Wi-fi going forward but the strength of the Cradlepopint was not an issue, we like that. Just keep in mind it is a cellular system and not a satellite system so remote use wont be very strong.

Ross, lastly, I want to dispel any thoughts that we are going forward with any sort of commercial project. While we were building the camper, Annie and I, as well as everyone else, expected that we would never sell Cruiser 1. Fast forward a couple months and the pain of construction has been (I am told) like the pain of childbirth. As soon as you hold the baby the memories of the pain disappear. We will continue to share our progress on Portal both our upgrade process and use. While we use it, if someone wants to purchase it, we would move ahead with that and begin construction on Cruiser 2. Now that our son's wedding is over I will go forward with making an ad for the classifieds on Portal but that will be it. If it sells great if not that's great too.

Our next trip will be some small camping trips around home then to a family reunion in August. Then, come September we plan to head East to the coast of Canada then down the coast to Asheville NC to Overland East in October. If we sell the Cruiser before then we will go ahead with the trip but in our Jeep with the Habitat. We would probably be skipping the East coast part and just drive straight from home here in western Canada to Asheville.

I will have the Cruiser home here probably this Thursday so I will be documenting and showing the upgrades we have done.

Thanks again for reading all 55 pages.

Ward

 

[rossvtaylor]

Ward,

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I appreciate the info and we'll learn from your experiences.

Many thanks, sir.

 

[Healeyjet]

The camper went back to ITB for a week for some upgrades while we were enjoying our son's wedding. It was a good week for us and the Cruiser.

We had Line-X installed on both sides of the front camper corners. The tires stick out past the fenders about 3-4 inches at the bottom and the front wall needed a little "protection" from the rocks that were being thrown up.


We also had ITB install a handle by the entry door. We weren't sure if we would need one but now that it is installed everybody uses it when they go up the stairs so it must be an asset.


We also installed a Partner Steel cooktop in a drawer on the curbside of the camper. We had the drawer made oversize so we could use it to store some of the items associated with the cook stove. The propane bottle resides in the swinging box on the back of the camper.








We took care of some other issues as well, things I hadn't thought of during design. We needed to add a small fan to the cabinet where the inverter lives. This will aid in keeping the inverter cooler.

As well, we did not have a shut-off for the heated loop going around the grey tank. The loop around the grey tank is on the same line as the ones going to our heaters. What I realized was that when it is above freezing and we might need cabin heat or hot water we didn't need the heating system to cook our grey liquids for us. They also installed a back flow valve into the shower drain. We were getting some nasty cooked grey water smells once in a while coming through the shower drain. All fixed now!

As well we had to add an aqua stat to the heater line. What was happening was that the thermostats in the camper would call for heat whether the Oasis boiler was on or not. Now with the aqua stat the fans won't run unless the water is up to temp. What we were experiencing was that we had to leave the main switch on so that the fridge would stay running but that meant that due to the fact that the cabin thermo's only went down to 5 degrees Celcius they were calling for heat when we were doing things like loading the camper, even when we didn't have the boiler on. Now that the aqua stat is installed we are all good.

We did another 650 miles this last weekend but only got in two nights sleeping. Grey tank is all good now. It wasn't cool enough to test the new aqua stats but I will update when they do come into play.

Ward

 

[rossvtaylor]

Love how you did the Partner stove installation - most that I've seen are just the stove on sliders. Your creation of a drawer, to use the full width and depth, makes nice use of the space. I'm still taking notes... We're also going to bedline (is that a verb?) the forward-facing portion of our box, and the lower edge around the perimeter. It's nice to see how yours looks. Thanks for the update and photos.

 

[Healeyjet]

Thanks. We used the Partner stove for the first time last weekend and the drawer works perfect. It is a great place to store lighters and tools.
Ward

 

[Healeyjet]

Annie just finished our latest upgrade yesterday so I thought I would share it.

I had always wanted fasteners of some sort over the door area in the bathroom to hold a shower curtain to add a little water security as it is a wet bath. When discussing what type of fasteners my son said how about those studs around the top of the elevators to hold furniture moving pads used to protect the walls of the elevator. After a quick search I came up with a company called Lustre Products in BC that had what we were looking for.

http://lustreproducts.com/pad-hooks



My thought was to use the studs and use a shower curtain hanging from the studs. Complications came when I realized I required an over length shower curtain. Luckily they sell them in 84" long which was perfect for our needs. Second problem came when we realized that the only over length shower curtain we could find had metals grommets not just button holes. We discovered in our process that the metal grommets would not fit over the studs we had installed. The guy in me went down to the local boat cover manufacturer and had larger grommets installed in our shower curtain. It ended up looking like crap and we were very disappointed.
Annie and her sewing skills to the rescue. She took a plastic shower curtain and a fabric shower curtain and made a custom shower curtain for us that now goes right to the floor and has button holes that fit perfectly over the studs. She even purposely sewed the curtain in reverse so that when it is in the closed position, which it will be most of the time, the pattern is on the correct side of the curtain.


Close up shot of the button holes over the studs


Here is a full length shot.


We are very happy with how it turned out.

Ward

 

[Healeyjet]

Here is a short video that Annie shot on our post Overland Expo West trip.

https://youtu.be/tsB9GUbK3pI

Ward

 

[Hobietim]

Nice Ward and Annie!

Our Malayan "Tyeger" is in build, the Firestone is installed and we are talking with King about your chocks after delivery.

 

[Healeyjet]

Will you be heading to Expo East? I realize the Tiger wont be ready by then but wondering if you are attending anyways.
Ward

 

[Hobietim]

Thanks Ward,

Thinking about it but currently scheduled on Ocracoke Island with a bunch of Aussie and EU air medical friends so less than likely.
Best Tim

 

[zb39]

Is this rig for sale, I can't find the add............

 

[Healeyjet]

It is.
Here is a link to the ad.
As well, we will be at Expo East this year so it will be able to be seen there as well.
Ward

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/160889-2015-Dodge-Ram-motorhome-for-sale