2021 Ram 2500 Power Wagon (Gigantor 2.0)

[bikelanta]

I did the same and decided against. My buddy had them in his PW with RSI topper and they really squeeze the head space. The other draw back is they are pretty heavy I think around 200lbs. The drawers are not square so the taper hinders certain things like his blackstone grill would not fit due to the shape of the drawers. They would not have worked with my GFC as they took up too much space. They are well built tho and I can see for some applications they would be nice just not for me.

I’ve run into many of those same issues. The taper makes it awkward to fit our camp kitchen bag, so there is airspace underneath. The boxes aren’t sized ideal for our gear, though they are nice and fit the drawers well.

Your comment on the GFC is appropriate, because that is one of my concerns too for our SP. I’ve thought about building something out of 80/20 for the sides and then having open space in the middle and somewhere to sit on the sides. Just not sure where I’ll get the time to do it. And Goose Gear is pricey to just buy. We’ll see. I have a feeling I’ll take it out, but not until the SP is on, because otherwise, we have little secure storage.

 

[ColinJ]

Really nice build I'm just waiting on my PW to be built and getting some ideas from your build.

Question: It looks like you have the 360 camera do you find it still works with the topper? I wasn't sure if it used the cab camera or not.

 

[Etoimos]

Thanks for posting up your build. I've got a '22 PW on order and also live in Colorado (down near Colorado Springs), so it is really nice seeing the places that you have been in your truck.

 

[bikelanta]

Question: It looks like you have the 360 camera do you find it still works with the topper? I wasn't sure if it used the cab camera or not.

The topper blocks the cargo bed camera and the digital rear view mirror camera, but not the cameras that create the 360 view. Love having that system, given how big the truck is and how narrow some trails area. The rear view comes from the camera in the tailgate that also acts as the backup camera when in reverse.

 

[bikelanta]

Thanks for posting up your build. I've got a '22 PW on order and also live in Colorado (down near Colorado Springs), so it is really nice seeing the places that you have been in your truck.

Sweet! Kinda wish I had the ‘22 for the full screen Apple CarPlay, but we’ve been able to make some great trips with it and it came in handy two days ago when we had to evacuate our home from this insane wildfire that just hit. 991 homes destroyed in 24 hours. I still can’t even process. Our home survived and we’re safe, thankfully, but man it came scary close. And the truck helped us take more and get out quickly not having to pack it efficiently. Hope yours arrives soon!

 

[Etoimos]

Sweet! Kinda wish I had the ‘22 for the full screen Apple CarPlay, but we’ve been able to make some great trips with it and it came in handy two days ago when we had to evacuate our home from this insane wildfire that just hit. 991 homes destroyed in 24 hours. I still can’t even process. Our home survived and we’re safe, thankfully, but man it came scary close. And the truck helped us take more and get out quickly not having to pack it efficiently. Hope yours arrives soon!

Glad to hear you and your family are safe that that you did not lose your home. That fire was just crazy.

I opted not to get the 12" screen on my build. I don't use CarPlay are Android Auto either (I don't like how it works), so I just opted for the 8.4" screen. I already have a 10" tablet that I run all of my overlanding apps on.

 

[ace944gs]

Sweet! Kinda wish I had the ‘22 for the full screen Apple CarPlay, but we’ve been able to make some great trips with it and it came in handy two days ago when we had to evacuate our home from this insane wildfire that just hit. 991 homes destroyed in 24 hours. I still can’t even process. Our home survived and we’re safe, thankfully, but man it came scary close. And the truck helped us take more and get out quickly not having to pack it efficiently. Hope yours arrives soon!

damn, glad you're safe and house is ok...but yeah that number of burned houses is crazy. We have our trailer packed all fire season ready for an evac here in MT, but I guess there aren't even seasons anymore at this point...maybe we need to keep the trailer ready all year.

(I have a '21 f-150 tremor, which I absolutely love...but if I'd had the space I'd also be in a PW!)

 

[bikelanta]

I opted not to get the 12" screen on my build. I don't use CarPlay are Android Auto either (I don't like how it works), so I just opted for the 8.4" screen. I already have a 10" tablet that I run all of my overlanding apps on.

Makes sense. Many times I’d rather just have the hard buttons to turn things on and off. The buttons at the bottom of the screen don’t offer as many choices, so you have to go a few screens in for things that could just be visible all the time. And since the screen is split, you get the equivalent view using CarPlay now. I have a tablet also for Gaia, because the CarPlay implementation sucks and isn’t full featured.

 

[bikelanta]

damn, glad you're safe and house is ok...but yeah that number of burned houses is crazy. We have our trailer packed all fire season ready for an evac here in MT, but I guess there aren't even seasons anymore at this point...maybe we need to keep the trailer ready all year.

(I have a '21 f-150 tremor, which I absolutely love...but if I'd had the space I'd also be in a PW!)

Thanks @ace944gs. I’d been doing a lot of things lately to get us prepped for an emergency, especially after seeing all the wildfires since we moved out here from the east coast 18 months ago. Didn’t have everything ready when this hit, but was definitely able to get out of the house faster than we would have just six months ago. My wife has been making fun of me and calling me a doomsday prepper. After this event, she said she’s thankful I had a plan and she wouldn’t make fun of me anymore. Ha!

It’s crazy how all this happened in 24 hours and then we got 8 inches of snow and below 5 degree weather after it. Without heat, we (and others whose homes survived) have had to cut power so we then don’t have to deal with busted pipes destroying your home.

Anyway, thanks for the sentiments

 

[phsycle]

Glad you are safe. We had a scare a couple years ago when an earthquake hit. Luckily didn’t do much and didn’t have to evacuate, but scared the crud out of everyone at 2am. We did bulk up our 72 hour kit for each family member. And it’s nice to know we’ve got a capable escape pod (aka truck) to get us out in case we need to make a quick get away. We’re not “doomsday preppers” either, but we do have some measure of emergency preparedness in place.

 

[D45]

What mpgs are you seeing in this truck?

 

[jadmt]

What mpgs are you seeing in this truck?

not mine but mine is similar and I get good mpg. I don't think I have ever gotten less than 12mpg except when I was in Moab. usually mid 14's just running around and on the highway if under 75 can easily get 16-17mpg with Toyo 35's. My speedo/tripometer are calibrated and spot on.

 

[bikelanta]

What mpgs are you seeing in this truck?

My experience is a little different than jadmt in that I'm general seeing an average around 10-11. I can see up to 13-14 on the highway. I have noticed that if I run my tires around 50-55psi, it will get better. I generally run fronts around 42 and rear around 37. Living in Colorado, my driving is often going from 5k feet up to 10k-12k feet and back, which I did twice this week and saw around 11 mpg. I get 9-10 mpg on the way up and by the time I come back down it's gone back up to 11mpg. Of course, this is all based on the gauge in the truck, which honestly has read a little high when I calculate at the pump.

I am still on the stock Duratracs and I have a Decked system in the bed with probably 100-150 pounds of gear in it, so call it 400 pounds of weight in it constantly.

 

[cycleman4]

@bikelanta the truck looks great. Obviously a hard shell topper is a tighter fit but how has the Softopper worked to keep dust out when your off-road? I am thinking of picking one up but can’t find any real world reviews of how clean it keeps stuff inside. I will be sleeping on a platform in the bed and prefer not to set up camp in a dust bowl. Thanks for the input.

 

[jadmt]

@bikelanta the truck looks great. Obviously a hard shell topper is a tighter fit but how has the Softopper worked to keep dust out when your off-road? I am thinking of picking one up but can’t find any real world reviews of how clean it keeps stuff inside. I will be sleeping on a platform in the bed and prefer not to set up camp in a dust bowl. Thanks for the input.

not who you ask but I had one on my pw and I sold it. One moab trip convinced me it had too many cons vs the pros. inside was very dusty and lifting the rear cover resulted in getting covered with dust (or water if it was raining) as they do not open like a normal topper. I had a solid rear panel on mine. I came out of Walmart and someone had unsnapped the side facing away from the store. Sure people can break into a locked topper but the softopper offers zero security.