This has been a long time coming, and some of you may have read about the crazy drama with my flatbed.
With that all taken care of, I was able to score a reasonable deal on a thoroughly used 2010 Grandby shell with a few small issues. My goal here wasn't a full on "camper" (kitchen, bath, etc.), and I reused as much material as possible which meant foregoing cosmetic perfection.
I just wanted a warm, comfortable place to sleep for at least my wife, my young son, and myself, and I wanted to be able to move around without setting up and tearing down camp regularly.
So, I built out the shell accordingly:
There are two 30x75 6" mattresses in the cabover and extension, and one on the driver side. I installed a 2kw diesel heater, and included some simple storage on the passenger side, and storage for larger items under the lower bed.
Since this was going on a flatbed, I built some side boxes using prehung, surplus RV doors that I scored online. I mounted them upside down and secured them with thin cable so they drop down into workspaces.
I just got back from my first trip, which ironically included a pass through Grandby, CO while I was hunting Elk (unsuccessfully).
The whole setup (including the heater) worked beautifully, even at nearly 10k feet, single digit temps and 30+ mph winds.
I just used a cheap Chinese diesel heater, I actually bought two so I'd have a spare of everything. Before I left, I bought and installed a smaller fuel pump, which ended up being perfect. It ran very clean, even at altitude, and I ended up using less than 3 gallons of fuel running for 7 days, more or less the entire time it was dark.
As a side note, I'm aware that these are not supposed to overhang the bed. However, it's actually less than 12" and it's hard to see, but it is reinforced a little in that area. I had every intention of fabbing a bed mounted bracket of some kind to support it further, but there's virtually no weight back there and zero deflection even with 250 lbs bouncing on the door frame, so I skipped it.
And, honorable mention to one of the best things that I did to the truck, installing a True Trac. It had a non-functional factory limited slip and even in 4wd, it left a lot to be desired in terms of capability offroad. With the True Trac and the extra weight on the back, I was able to tackle some very nasty stuff in 2wd, and 4wd got me back in places that I probably had no business taking a rig my size. I was very impressed. The next big thing on my list will be swapping my Dana 50 for a Dana 60 and installing another True Trac in the front.
With that all taken care of, I was able to score a reasonable deal on a thoroughly used 2010 Grandby shell with a few small issues. My goal here wasn't a full on "camper" (kitchen, bath, etc.), and I reused as much material as possible which meant foregoing cosmetic perfection.
I just wanted a warm, comfortable place to sleep for at least my wife, my young son, and myself, and I wanted to be able to move around without setting up and tearing down camp regularly.
So, I built out the shell accordingly:
There are two 30x75 6" mattresses in the cabover and extension, and one on the driver side. I installed a 2kw diesel heater, and included some simple storage on the passenger side, and storage for larger items under the lower bed.
Since this was going on a flatbed, I built some side boxes using prehung, surplus RV doors that I scored online. I mounted them upside down and secured them with thin cable so they drop down into workspaces.
I just got back from my first trip, which ironically included a pass through Grandby, CO while I was hunting Elk (unsuccessfully).
The whole setup (including the heater) worked beautifully, even at nearly 10k feet, single digit temps and 30+ mph winds.
I just used a cheap Chinese diesel heater, I actually bought two so I'd have a spare of everything. Before I left, I bought and installed a smaller fuel pump, which ended up being perfect. It ran very clean, even at altitude, and I ended up using less than 3 gallons of fuel running for 7 days, more or less the entire time it was dark.
As a side note, I'm aware that these are not supposed to overhang the bed. However, it's actually less than 12" and it's hard to see, but it is reinforced a little in that area. I had every intention of fabbing a bed mounted bracket of some kind to support it further, but there's virtually no weight back there and zero deflection even with 250 lbs bouncing on the door frame, so I skipped it.
And, honorable mention to one of the best things that I did to the truck, installing a True Trac. It had a non-functional factory limited slip and even in 4wd, it left a lot to be desired in terms of capability offroad. With the True Trac and the extra weight on the back, I was able to tackle some very nasty stuff in 2wd, and 4wd got me back in places that I probably had no business taking a rig my size. I was very impressed. The next big thing on my list will be swapping my Dana 50 for a Dana 60 and installing another True Trac in the front.
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