2022 Ford F250 Tremor + Mits Alloy Flatbed + Supertramp Flagship LT Camper

[DTAdventure]

I am a long-time lurker here, but it is time to jump in on the action. My name is Christoph. I don’t have a name for my rig yet, but I am super stoked to be close to the finish line and to start long-term travel. So, here is my build: 2022 Ford F250 Super Duty Tremor

Over the last few years, I came to realize the hard way that tomorrow is not guaranteed. I decided that I needed to act now. I will not wait until I am 67 and then find out I cannot do those things I want to do anymore.

The Plan

Build an expedition vehicle that I can live in and work from. I work in information technology and have a remote job that I can take anywhere (within the US and possibly further). Back in 1988, I stumbled into this crazy adventure that led me four times across the North American continent in 10 weeks, and then in 1990, I traveled all over the United States and Canada for months in a van. These trips changed my life; they changed me, and it is almost the logical outcome that I will do something crazy like this again.

It has been my dream to a) do this type of travel again, and b) take it a step further. So, I want to travel all over the US and Canada and then go up to the Arctic Ocean and then loosely follow the Pan-American highway down to the bottom of Argentina. We’ll see where it goes from there.

I want to travel primarily off-road and go to unique and remote places as much as possible. Ghost towns, mines, historic sites, airplane crash sites, forgotten trains, random memorials, and so on. Then, I follow the BDRs in the different US states (Backcountry discovery routes), drive the longest dirt road in North America, and do whatever else I can find along the way.

In the spring of 2022, I sold my house and started renting a small house in the same neighborhood. Then, in August of 2022 (after a long and grueling search) I bought a new 2022 Ford F250 Super Duty Tremor and ordered a Supertramp Flagship LT camper. From there I had about 12 months to build out the truck and come up with a more detailed plan.

Little did I know what to expect, but it has been a journey. It's not cheap, not smooth – but fun and exciting.

Like any good project, I am over budget and over time, but I think the end of this is in sight. I have been on a couple of shakedown trips already and now it is really just tweaking things to where I need them to be.

In the next posting, I will talk more details about the truck and the camper and what I have done so far. I will also talk about cost and other related things.

But for now I just want to share pictures from how it all started to what it looks like right now. See you in my next posting below.

 

[DTAdventure]

Continuing on from my original posting.

Must-haves

I need to be able to work remotely. Satellite internet and space/room that so I can work inside the camper are a must – especially for when it is cold and wet outside. I want to travel mostly off-road, so the rig needs to be able to handle tough trails and terrain and make it through harsh environments. Air Conditioning (non-negotiable). Storage (non-explanatory). As I am planning to travel for a few years, I do not want to rough it - I am 55 years old, I want certain creature comforts.

The Truck

2022 Ford F250 Super Duty Tremor with the 7.3 Liter Gas “Godzilla” engine. Would have liked to have Diesel, but with the situation south of the border that is not something I want to mess with. Of course, payload and maintenance also play a role. It is a Lariat Ultimate edition with some additional extras. I specifically wanted to have the Tremor package due to its off-road capabilities.

With the supply chain issues from the pandemic, it seemed impossible to find a truck that would fit my needs and wants. Most delaerships were taking advantage of their customers and jacked up pricing to ridicioulus heights. I got lucky and found my truck at a small dealership just outside of Salt Lake City. I paid MSRP for my truck. Drove up there from San Diego and came home in a brand-new Super Duty.

The truck has received the following upgrades since I purchased it:

• ARB Twin Compressor with a 2.5 Gallon air tank
• Switch-Pros 9100 switch panel (truck came without upfitter switches)
• Morimoto 4Banger lights installed as ditch lights or A-Pillar lights
• Diode Dynamics Stage Series 6" SAE Amber Light Bar (2 / installed behind the grille)
• Diode Dynamics Stage Series 3 Pod Lights in the rear
• Ford Warn Performance 12,000 lb winch
• Carli Pintop suspension – including 1,800 – 2,000 Carli XHD Leaf springs
• Method Race Wheels 305 | NV HD | 18x9 | 8x170 | 18/5.75
• Falken Wildpeak AT III 37x12.50R18LT 128Q
• Carli Trophy Hitch
• TransferFlow 58 Gallon tank
• Hellwig Sway Bar
• Firestone Airbags
• Sherpa “Thunder” roof rack
• Mits Alloy Evo 2 7 ft. flatbed (heavily customized at this point)
• Mits/Mule Expedition storage boxes above and below the bed
• Wolfbox Digital rearview mirror with dashcam
• Builtright Dashmount with RAM mounts
• Miscellaneous smaller upgrades here and there

When and why did I go with a flatbed?

I bought the truck brand-new from a dealership near Salt Lake City (I live in San Diego). It took me a while to let go of the thought cutting this beautiful Super Duty truck into pieces. I could not do it. Too much money and too beautiful of a truck. But the idea of a flatbed grew on me over time. My Supertramp camper was slated for delivery in July/August of 2023 and so I had time to get the truck ready. During those months of working on the truck and getting a better understanding of what I would need to have, my mindset changed and I came to realize that a flatbed truck would be the best choice for me and my plans.

I did a lot of research and ended up buying a Mits Alloy Evo 2 7’ flatbed. The decision was made in May of 2023 and even though the flatbed journey was not as smooth as I had hoped it would be, I am super happy to have made the decision to get a flatbed. The Mits is an Australian-mae flatbed.

I did talk to several to US-based (and Canadian) flatbed companies as well, but either it was not a good fit for my needs (SherpTek, etc.) or the lead times were ridiculously long (I am looking at you Bowen Customs). The Mits Alloy was a proven product and readily available within 6-12 weeks.

The flatbed installation went well, but the outcome did not turn out to be what I had envisioned. I was actually quite shocked when I saw the truck after having the Mits Alloy installed and the camper sit on the back, but more about that later.

The Supertramp Flagship LT Camper

Once I had the truck I started looking at off-road capable truck campers. I put an emphasis on off-road capable truck campers, because not everything that is out there is able to survive the abuse I was planning for.

I visited several truck camper companies – including Tiny Rig company in Los Angeles to see their Alu-Cab Cabin on a RAM truck. I love the rugged looks and features of the Alu-Cab, but it is not something that would work for me as I need to be able to work from the road. The Alu-Cab is great for living outside and have shelter, but not really to be inside and work from it online.

I also went to Four Wheel Campers and looked at their Hawk Slide-in camper, but that camper has no storage. And at that time I was not ready for a flatbed. That’s why I did not even consider the Hawk flatbed version. Under different circumstances I probably would have ordered a flatbed Hawk, but not this time.

“My off-road shop” had an OEV slide-in camper onsite that they were selling for a customer, but it lacked a few things I wanted to have and I decided to look elsewhere. In late August of 2022 I flew out to Denver and visited Supertramp Campers in Golden. After seeing their camper and manufacturing in person, I was sold on the Supertramp for more than one reason. I placed an order the same week, but was facing a 12-month leadtime.

Side note: At the end of July 2023 I was able to pick up my Supertramp camper in Golden.

My Off-Road Shop & Truck + Camper modifications

I live north of San Diego in Vista. Once I had my truck I started looking for a shop that could help to build out the truck. Back then I did not think or knew that I was building an expedition vehicle. I found a shop called Basil’s Garage just 4 miles away from where I lived. I hopped into my truck and gave Basil a visit. He was on the phone when I arrived and so I just strolled through his shop and looked at everything. The first thing I noticed was how clean and organized everything was. Once I talked to Basil I think we connected quickly. His first-hand knowledge filled a lot of gaps in my own knowledge and we quickly developed a high-level plan, but also identified first steps (Switch-Pros 9100, ARB Twin Compressor, air tank). I liked what I saw and scheduled the first work right away.

Since then Basil and his team have done the heavy lifting for me. Most of what you see on my pictures is their work. The one thing I can say is, I am so glad that I discovered Basil and his shop. In a way I am pioneering things around my build and the Supertramp camper and Basil has had my back. I have not counted, but we are way past $50K in material and labor cost, but I feel good about that. The money came from my house sale and I am looking at my rig and see it as my house for the next 5-7 years.

Basil is a cool dude and I highly recommend that you go and visit him at his shop if you are in need of work done to your truck, 4Runner, or Jeep. He works on all the makes and models, but Toyotas are his favorite.

Issues / Problems

When I upgraded my suspension and tires I knew that I would need to find a different solution for my spare tire as the factory tire carrier cannot carry a 37” tire. I ended up buying an Octane series bumper with two swing arms from Chassis Unlimited. The quality of the bumper was great, but installation instructions and customer service sucked. I spent way too much time and nerves on this. It really took the fun away from me and stressed me out. The bumper came with zero instructions and I had to figure things out myself.

Even basic stuff like what torque level to use to tighten the mounting bolts – there was nothing. I got the bumper installed, but the moment I mounted the spare tire the dam thing started sagging. Customer service was useless and even gave me wrong advice. I escalated this to Cody, the owner of Chassis Unlimited and while he was helpful and tried to make things right, it became clear that even he was winging it. I received 10% back of my purchase price, but also had the chance to return the bumper. I needed (so I thought) the functionality of the bumper and so I kept it. In hindsight, I wish I would have been further along in my process regarding the flatbed. In the end I took a loss of about $1,100 on the bumper. I was able to sell it though when I got my flatbed. Again, the quality of the bumper was good, but everything else sucked.

Flatbed Conversion

When I dropped off the truck for the flatbed conversion I had a certain picture in mind of how things would look like after “surgery”. Well, the result of the conversion shocked me. The Supertramp camper sat way too high. Too high for my liking and looks in general and too high for driving and safely off-roading. The reason was less the flatbed, but the mounting brackets for the flatbed. I assume they were generic and are being used to mount a Mits Alloy flatbed onto trucks of different makes and models. So, in case of my 2022 Ford F250 Tremor it pushed the camper way up high.

I tried to get used to the new looks, but I couldn't stomach it. When you spend that much money and time on an expedition vehicle, you want it to look good, too. Basil and his team came to the rescue and designed custom mounting brackets for me. Mits did not want to get involved, which I found a bit disappointing, but I understand it as well. Basil did a fantastic job to fix the situation and I am super happy with the outcome and what my expedition vehicle looks like.

 

[DTAdventure]

The truck was now in a state to put it through the paces and find the shortcomings and limits.

I took my truck and the Supertramp on a few trips already and it has been a learning experience for sure. Each trip shows a few more things I need to adjust or change. The biggest one so far is that I am using too much battery power/energy and that the existing solar and Victron components are not big enough to keep the batteries at appropriate levels. There is a mismatch between the four 100A Lithium Battleborn batteries and the charging capabilities of the Supertramp.

I need to be able to stay off the grid for a week before coming back to civilization. And even then – the system takes too long to recharge the batteries. It four (4) of days of my truck sitting in my driveway under blue skies for the solar to go from 38% to 100%. With no load on the system other than the fridge.

So, this puts my ability to go off-grid at risk and needs to be addressed. I am not good with calculating solar power, watts per hour, amps, and so on – but I probably should have spent more time on it earlier. Talking to Basil we decided on a plan and this problem should be a thing of the past in 4-5 weeks.

But that is what these shorter trips close to home are for. Find what works and identify what doesn’t. Change what needs to be changed now and what can wait a bit longer before addressing it.

A lot of things at this point are custom or come from other places not necessarily intended to be used the way I am doing it, but that is Ok. I am trying to as much as possible myself. For one because of cost, but also to understand my rig and know how to deal with issues when out in the boonies. It is fun, not always cheap, but I know why and what I am doing it for.

Below is a list of additional customizations or add-ons that have been done or going to be done soon.

• Acuva water filtration system installed
• Starlink High-Performance In-Motion installed
• Weboost installed
• 12v and 120v power from camper to inside of the truck installed
• 120v outlet for outside of camper installed
• 2 x 12v outlets outside of the camper installed
• Replaced Thetford Porta Potty with a Trelino Evo M “composting” toilet
• Dog platform installed into truck (rear seat delete)
• External solar connector in camper – coming soon
• External portable solar panels – coming soon
• Camper internal organizing with hooks and baskets
• Recovery gear and tools added
• Gazelle Gazebo bug tent
• FireCan propane fireplace
• All the usual camping gear one needs

Money. How much did this built cost me? Yes, I kept track of every single expense, but for now let me just say that the cost for this rig is north of $245,000. This includes gear to outfit the truck and camper. Here is a list of the high ticket items for a total of $236,783.77:

Truck	$76,450.00​
Registration + Tax	$7,306.00​
Carli Pintop Suspension + Labor	$10,085.00​
Method 305 HD Wheels + Falken Wildpeak Tires	$4,575.00​
Ford Warn Winch	$2,340.00​
TransferFlow 58 Gallon Tank + Labor	$4,300.00​
Lights Diode Dynamics for grill and rear bumper	$441.66​
Lights Morimoto 4Banger HXB	$594.00​
Rear Bumper	$2,825.31​
Switch-Pros SP-9100 Switch Panel (8 switches)	$808.90​
Tax, labor, etc.	$1,583.41​
ARB Twin Air Compressor (incl. remote coupling kit)	$633.00​
Window Tint	$950.00​
Morflate Tire Deflation/Inflation System	$278.23​
Flatbed Tray	$24,920.62​
Carli Hitch	$4,077.80​
Airbags	$1,080.75​
Sway Bar	$964.27​
Supertramp Camper	$78,104.38​
EcoFlow Glacier Fridge	$1,432.87​
Camper tie-down	$1,206.87​
Sherpa Roof Rack with installation	$1,794.25​
Exterior Power Outlet	$287.27​
Starlink Conversion and power ports	$2,140.52​
Supertramp Bracket	$230.38​
Torklift Steps	$640.83​
Flatbed Tray Upgrade	$3,000.00​
Dragon Fly Tarp	$1,039.00​
Starlink In-Motion High Performance Dish	$2,693.45​

Not included in this is my own time aka labor. I did quite a few installations myself (Winch, bumper, lights, etc.).

This entire endeavor is currently paid for from the proceeds when I sold my house. There is not that much left at this point as I had to pay off a mortgage, pay out my ex-wife and put money on the side for my son’s college education.

I am working on turning this endeavor into a small business (Instagram, YouTube) to eventually become independent from my full-time job and to cover things like health insurance and the running costs for the truck. In addition, I am building out another YouTube channel where I offer IT career coaching for additional income. I am planning to approach vendors for partnerships and sponsorships to help with the day to day cost. If anyone is familiar with these type of things, I would love to learn more about it from you.

That is it in a nutshell.

I will use this thread for updates and probably travel reports as well.

 

[Tex68w]

Interested to see where you mounted the small tank for your ARB Twin. I love the build and where you are going with it, sounds like some amazing adventures lie ahead. I agree about the FWC, it's still my preferred option of everything on the market but I like what I see with your Supertramp as well.

 

[DTAdventure]

Interested to see where you mounted the small tank for your ARB Twin. I love the build and where you are going with it, sounds like some amazing adventures lie ahead. I agree about the FWC, it's still my preferred option of everything on the market but I like what I see with your Supertramp as well.

It is mounted in the lower storage box at the right rear of the flatbed. That way it is protected from the elements. The tank is mounted in a cavity above the spare tire = very close to the compressor.

 

[Klutch7]

Great looking build. I remember seeing this on the shop's instagram. Looking forward to seeing where you go with it!

 

[SimplyAnAdventure]

Glad to be following you over here as well as the Tremor forum. As an early adaptor your a pioneer in sorting out some of the issues as they come up.

I am also very worried about the power (or rather lack there of) for my ST. Going to be watching closely how you tackle this.

In the meantime I will likely add a second DC/DC charger in parallel and or just plug in my propane converted Honda 2200i generator. 15A of solar just isn’t going to cut it lol.

 

[DTAdventure]

Power consumption and power production via solar have been challenging. I worked with my off-road shop "Basil's Garage" here in Vista, CA to address the situation. Basil suggested to remove the Victron MPPT and DC/DC controllers and instead put two (2) Redarc BCDC1250D controllers into place. In addition, route a 2 gauge wire from the truck's battery/alternator back to the camper to the Redarcs. But was only partially addressing the problem. I spent a few hours scouting for solar panels that would a) fit onto the roof of the Supertramp and b) would play nicely with the existing solar panels and c) of course work with the Redarcs. I found some no-name brand of solar panels that fit the description and they were only 1/3 of the cost compared to the Go Power panels currently on the roof.

So, last week we replaced the Victron equipment with the Redarcs, upgraded the wiring, and doubled the solar on the roof from 330W to now 660W. In addition, Basil also installed an external solar connector. I did order three (3) external, portable solar panels from EcoFlow. I ordered the 220W bifacial panels and I am very happy with their performance. I also opted to buy an EcoFlow Delta 2 Max solar generator aka power station which offers 2 kwh of power. That is about equal to 1.5 100ah Battleborn batteries that the Supertramp camper has.

Once everything was installed, I started testing different scenarios. i used the EcoFlow Delta 2 Max to charge the Supertramp camper while my high-performance Starlink satellite dish was heavily consuming batter power. The EcoFlow did not have any problems keeping up with Starlink and charging the batteries at about 700W charging "speed". The I turned of Starlink, disconnected the EcoFlow and let the now 660W of solar go to town. On a sunny, mid-December day in a non-optimized position the onboard solar recharged the batteries at 300W-370W on average. On the next day I ran a different test. Before the camper came into the sun I connected two (2) of the external solar panels to the camper. I turned on Starlink and it started draining the batteries. Once the sun came up the situation changed and the combined 1100W of solar, non-optimized for the sun's location on a sunny December morning brought in almost 700W - all while Starlink was sucking energy out of the batteries. The 3rd external solar panel was recharging the EcoFlow Delta 2 Max.

Then I stopped charging the batteries from solar by professionally disconnecting the solar panels from producing energy aka I threw a blanket onto the panels. I started the truck and holy cow - 1400W coming from the alternator/battery while idling the truck.

I am super-happy with this outcome. Now I feel confident that I can go out and make it through a work week without fully running out of power. The goal is to be able to stay off-grid for 6 days without depleting the batteries so that I can continue to work my day job. It looks like this is now do-able. More testing coming soon.

I also re-arranged my internal storage and think I found a great solution. So far I had used some baskets from Amazon for easy to access storage. This has been used for my toiletries, but also as some sort of a pantry and overall stuff I need on a day to day basis without having the need to get the dog off the couch. These baskets fit perfectly onto the bed area even when the camper roof is down. I am super excited now to go on a trip between Christmas and New Year's.

 

[SimplyAnAdventure]

Power consumption and power production via solar have been challenging. I worked with my off-road shop "Basil's Garage" here in Vista, CA to address the situation. Basil suggested to remove the Victron MPPT and DC/DC controllers and instead put two (2) Redarc BCDC1250D controllers into place. In addition, route a 2 gauge wire from the truck's battery/alternator back to the camper to the Redarcs. But was only partially addressing the problem. I spent a few hours scouting for solar panels that would a) fit onto the roof of the Supertramp and b) would play nicely with the existing solar panels and c) of course work with the Redarcs. I found some no-name brand of solar panels that fit the description and they were only 1/3 of the cost compared to the Go Power panels currently on the roof.

So, last week we replaced the Victron equipment with the Redarcs, upgraded the wiring, and doubled the solar on the roof from 330W to now 660W. In addition, Basil also installed an external solar connector. I did order three (3) external, portable solar panels from EcoFlow. I ordered the 220W bifacial panels and I am very happy with their performance. I also opted to buy an EcoFlow Delta 2 Max solar generator aka power station which offers 2 kwh of power. That is about equal to 1.5 100ah Battleborn batteries that the Supertramp camper has.

Once everything was installed, I started testing different scenarios. i used the EcoFlow Delta 2 Max to charge the Supertramp camper while my high-performance Starlink satellite dish was heavily consuming batter power. The EcoFlow did not have any problems keeping up with Starlink and charging the batteries at about 700W charging "speed". The I turned of Starlink, disconnected the EcoFlow and let the now 660W of solar go to town. On a sunny, mid-December day in a non-optimized position the onboard solar recharged the batteries at 300W-370W on average. On the next day I ran a different test. Before the camper came into the sun I connected two (2) of the external solar panels to the camper. I turned on Starlink and it started draining the batteries. Once the sun came up the situation changed and the combined 1100W of solar, non-optimized for the sun's location on a sunny December morning brought in almost 700W - all while Starlink was sucking energy out of the batteries. The 3rd external solar panel was recharging the EcoFlow Delta 2 Max.

Then I stopped charging the batteries from solar by professionally disconnecting the solar panels from producing energy aka I threw a blanket onto the panels. I started the truck and holy cow - 1400W coming from the alternator/battery while idling the truck.

I am super-happy with this outcome. Now I feel confident that I can go out and make it through a work week without fully running out of power. The goal is to be able to stay off-grid for 6 days without depleting the batteries so that I can continue to work my day job. It looks like this is now do-able. More testing coming soon.

I also re-arranged my internal storage and think I found a great solution. So far I had used some baskets from Amazon for easy to access storage. This has been used for my toiletries, but also as some sort of a pantry and overall stuff I need on a day to day basis without having the need to get the dog off the couch. These baskets fit perfectly onto the bed area even when the camper roof is down. I am super excited now to go on a trip between Christmas and New Year's.

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Nice work Chris! She’s coming along beautifully! Thanks for pioneering a lot of this stuff.

 

[Macfly]

Great looking rig, bravo!

 

[DTAdventure]

If you are interested, I made a video tour of my rig - separated into a video for the truck and one for the Supertramp camper. Please feel free to check it out.

Truck Tour:
Supertramp Tour:

 

[SDDiver5]

So awesome! You 100% found the best shop for this type of build. Basil is a great dude, have spoken to him numerous times and a bunch of my friends have used him. The fact he lived nomadic in Bruce for so long definitely helps, too.

Best of luck on your trip. Sounds so awesome.

 

[DTAdventure]

So awesome! You 100% found the best shop for this type of build. Basil is a great dude, have spoken to him numerous times and a bunch of my friends have used him. The fact he lived nomadic in Bruce for so long definitely helps, too.

Best of luck on your trip. Sounds so awesome.

Thank you and the feedback about Basil is spot on.

 

[DTAdventure]

Anyone who builds an expedition vehicle probably knows that the initial projected cost for building something like this is just a number that evaporates quicker than water in the desert on a hot day. Happened to me as well. Like any good project, I am over budget and over time with my build. I made a video about how much my Supertramp camper really cost, when all the extras – planned and unplanned were completed.

 

[DTAdventure]

She got some love today. Fully detailed and then ceramic coated. She looks better than new. I guess now I can only go to the mall and back for a while ...