Recent content by vwhammer

(hard sigh) Regretfully this van is gone. I have been feeling nostalgic lately and that always gets me thinking about the things that could have been. I also think of simpler times. I used to live in a small college town in one of the poorest counties in Ohio. I worked a pointless 9 to 5 job...

If I recall, the weight on one of those tire and wheel combos was a bit over 250lbs. That's probably double that of the stock tires and wheel.

There are a handful of molds and the parts are bonded together after being removed from the mold with or without extension pieces. This is so they can build for both short and long bed models with the same molds more or less. With the Ram they added 12 inches to the length of the long bed model...

It is a foot longer than their standard Baja and 9 or 10 inches wider. The F550 shown at the beginning of this thread is a longer wheelbase option and would likely have a longer box. I think it's all dependent on the wheel base of the truck but the box length can be adjusted accordingly. I also...

Well I got permission to post a couple of sneak peek pics of Rossmonsters new Ram 5500. These are from early on in the build

Oh. Well they don't currently have an F550 with their shell on it but there is a Ram 5500 that will be at Overland Expo in flagstaff this weekend. I am sure there will be pics available after that.

Like are the shells shown anywhere or the whole, new, bigger baja?

Indeed GT did make the box on the F550 that started this conversation and is seen on GT's website but the new boxes that could go on the 550 and 5500 platforms are Rossmonster's design with the fiberglass shell and aluminum internal frame.

Apparently, Globe Trekker is making the skins on their panels much thicker because they were definitely at least 6mm thick if not more. I should also point out that they claim their panels are 2-1/2 inches thick vs 2 inches normally used. It is also my understanding that Rossmonster uses a...

It is my understanding that the F550 was within 2000 pounds of its GVWR. However, it does have like 120 gallons of water on board as well as a washing machine, wood burning stove and an oven Those last couple of things don't add a ton of weight but with all the things that went into this build...

If you like the features of Rossmonster's Baja but might want a bigger truck, wait until you see their newest build at Overland Expo West. It's quite the unit.

In CO you generally want to supply the vehicle to the builder. If they buy the vehicle and do the build then you pay taxes on the vehicle and the build then go to register the van in your name and pay more taxes on the vehicle. If you supply the vehicle you have already paid the vehicle tax...

I feel like you can't talk about a budget "performance" car without mentioning several generations of the VW golf. You can get a bunch of them for well under $5000 which leaves a lot of room for improvement The MK5 is a good example. Whether you get the GTI or base model with the 2.5 (which is...

Ha! I literally started thinking of some kind of cab-over camper with HMMWV suspension about a month ago after a trip to Moab. Been thinking about the best way to go about it. Custom frame rails with HMMWV bits fitted? An NPR with HMMWV bits fitted? For whatever reason I never thought to just...

I must have missed it but what are you using to raise the rack