ExpoMike
Well-known member
Let's go back in time, to Oct 2021. I had been working on my M1010 project ( Desert Turtle ) off and on for a bit. After a lot of consideration, I felt it would be easier to buy a newer truck, with modern features and swap the ambo box over. I started looking for suitable options. Sadly this was the height of COVID pricing and used truck prices were just off the scale for what I was looking for. In my constant looking on Facebook Marketplace, this 2000 Ram 2500 4x4 long bed popped up. I called and setup to view/buy it the next day. Price, though higher than I wanted to pay, was at a reasonable level given the market. I would have loved another 2nd Gen Ram Cummins like my '97 I had owned but I didn't want to pay a $5000-$10000 premium for it and most were over 200K miles at that. The market hasn't gotten a lot better in 2024....
We drove up to Long Beach area to check it out. It looked fairly clean, was an 8.0L V10 with 83,000 miles. This was a fully optioned model with camper package and towing package. The owner had built a flatbed, which wasn't a big deal as I was going to remove it and put the ambo box off the M1010 on it. We made the deal and we drove it home. Fast forward a few months and it was time to take the flatbed off. That was challenging in our driveway as it was HEAVY. Okay, I started getting things prepped to take the box off the M1010. I had done my measurement and length and wheelbase looked to work fine. Before I got the box off, I happened to notice a neighbor's truck sitting behind the M1010 on the street. I noticed the newer truck was wider than the M1010. Hummm..... tape measure in hand, the one measurement I didn't check was width. The Ram was 3" wider than the M1010 box. With the way that box is built, there was no easy way to make the wheelwells wider and once I started chopping, there would be no turning back if it didn't work. At that point I scraped that plan...
At that point, we were not sure what we would do with the Ram. Since the M1010 project was not making as much progress as quickly as I hoped, we talked about getting a camper and using this setup until the M1010 was done. I started looking for one in Oct 2022 and found this one while we were on vacation. We happened to be up in Prescott Valley and the camper was in Mesa, AZ. On our way home, we stopped by to look at it. It was a 2014 Northstar TC800 popup camper. The couple had bought it new and have used it over the years. It has been to Alaska and back. Since they were getting older, they decided to buy and Alasken camper and was selling this. We agreed on a fair price and that we would come over during our holiday break in Dec. to pick it up. I prepped the flatbed so we could tie the camper down and headed over to pick it up. Loading it went as plan and we headed back to San Diego.
Once back in San Diego, I went to get the rig weighed and much to my surprise, it came in at 8760 lbs with a 8800 lbs GVWR. I knew the flatbed weighed a lot having weighed the truck with and without it. It was almost 900 lbs. Much of 2023 things sat, since I had knee replacement surgery and that killed much of the year. 2024 rolls around and it's time to start thinking of what we are going to do. I decided I was going to swap back to a truck bed and the hunt was on. I managed to find a guy not far, who was looking for a flatbed and had a clean 2nd Gen bed. With a deal made, I drove up where we pulled the flatbed and installed the truck bed. Okay cool. A couple days later I got the truck weighed again and lost 300 lbs. Not as much as I hoped but still better than nothing. Now with the camper I was at 8460 lbs. That gets us up to Aug 2024.
First bought the truck in Oct. 2021
Removed the grill guard and installed new headlights.
Pulled the flatbed off before realizing the truck was too wide.
After picking up the Northstar TC800 camper
Replacing the flatbed with a truck bed
Camper on with new bed and currently how it looks.
Parked in the driveway with the M1010 project.
We drove up to Long Beach area to check it out. It looked fairly clean, was an 8.0L V10 with 83,000 miles. This was a fully optioned model with camper package and towing package. The owner had built a flatbed, which wasn't a big deal as I was going to remove it and put the ambo box off the M1010 on it. We made the deal and we drove it home. Fast forward a few months and it was time to take the flatbed off. That was challenging in our driveway as it was HEAVY. Okay, I started getting things prepped to take the box off the M1010. I had done my measurement and length and wheelbase looked to work fine. Before I got the box off, I happened to notice a neighbor's truck sitting behind the M1010 on the street. I noticed the newer truck was wider than the M1010. Hummm..... tape measure in hand, the one measurement I didn't check was width. The Ram was 3" wider than the M1010 box. With the way that box is built, there was no easy way to make the wheelwells wider and once I started chopping, there would be no turning back if it didn't work. At that point I scraped that plan...
At that point, we were not sure what we would do with the Ram. Since the M1010 project was not making as much progress as quickly as I hoped, we talked about getting a camper and using this setup until the M1010 was done. I started looking for one in Oct 2022 and found this one while we were on vacation. We happened to be up in Prescott Valley and the camper was in Mesa, AZ. On our way home, we stopped by to look at it. It was a 2014 Northstar TC800 popup camper. The couple had bought it new and have used it over the years. It has been to Alaska and back. Since they were getting older, they decided to buy and Alasken camper and was selling this. We agreed on a fair price and that we would come over during our holiday break in Dec. to pick it up. I prepped the flatbed so we could tie the camper down and headed over to pick it up. Loading it went as plan and we headed back to San Diego.
Once back in San Diego, I went to get the rig weighed and much to my surprise, it came in at 8760 lbs with a 8800 lbs GVWR. I knew the flatbed weighed a lot having weighed the truck with and without it. It was almost 900 lbs. Much of 2023 things sat, since I had knee replacement surgery and that killed much of the year. 2024 rolls around and it's time to start thinking of what we are going to do. I decided I was going to swap back to a truck bed and the hunt was on. I managed to find a guy not far, who was looking for a flatbed and had a clean 2nd Gen bed. With a deal made, I drove up where we pulled the flatbed and installed the truck bed. Okay cool. A couple days later I got the truck weighed again and lost 300 lbs. Not as much as I hoped but still better than nothing. Now with the camper I was at 8460 lbs. That gets us up to Aug 2024.
First bought the truck in Oct. 2021
Removed the grill guard and installed new headlights.
Pulled the flatbed off before realizing the truck was too wide.
After picking up the Northstar TC800 camper
Replacing the flatbed with a truck bed
Camper on with new bed and currently how it looks.
Parked in the driveway with the M1010 project.
