2nd Gen Dodge Ram 2500 5.9 Cummins / The “Puller” Project

[Spencer for Hire]

Hey Spencer! I hope you’ve been well. Thanks for the questions.

1) I dont know how much the walls are slanted in a degree measurement. That being said, they are slanted as much as standard campers are. The slant more or less lines up with the cab to make a flush look. It’s important to note, that @HiatusCampers can make them a square box with no slant, if you’d prefer that. The lines and look wont be as sleek, but if you’d prefer the box shape you have that choice - 100% up to you.

Here are some pictures (with and without the build out inside) that might give you a better idea on the amount of slant it has:

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2) Now the slant on the driver side seating area does stop you from fully leaning against the wall. If you wanted to do that you would need to sit against the cab of the truck. For me, its not uncomfortable at all. It kind of feels like sitting on cooler for a chair (we’ve all done it!). I normally sit against the back of the cab, with my legs stretched out down the drives side bench area. When you do this though, you can only see out the back windows / doors since your head is too high to see out the pop panel on the drivers side. So, when I really want to take in the view, I actually site in the isle with my back against the back bench and my feet points towards the doors of the Hitatus, which is super nice.

If I really want to lounge around I can jump up in the loft and use that with even more comfort.

Last ditch effort, you can simply pull the bed platform out (takes literally 2 seconds) and hang out that way.

ALL that being options - you will still normally find me in a camper chair (+IPA) outside enjoying the views that way. Even though its a ”live in” style camper, old habit die hard for me and I use it more like a “live out of.”

Ill send some pictures of me sitting in the different locations I mentioned tonight and post them to you can see everything I’m talking about.

3) I am not sure what you saw in the video, I re-watched it on our IG. I am assuming this is the March 1 video of me opening the Hiatus. Regardless, no I do not have any scratches from opening and closing it - I am not sure what you are seeing. Maybe you can screen shot it and show me?

Cheers.

Thank You. Toward the end of the video, while you are pushing the top left side shut and turning the left handle to secure it you will see black marks running along the bottom of that panel. Maybe they are shadows. Now I see with your new shots it looks like the grain of the wood.

 

[Spencer for Hire]

No plans for further insulation. In the isle area we have heavy rubber mats due to the corrugation in the bed (with the rubber mats you cant feel them while standing). Then we have heavy bathroom like mat carpets on top of the rubber mats. This keep the major truck bed area on the inside of the Hiatus relatively well insulated I suppose.

The storage boxes / bench’s in my Hiatus have no insulation between them and the truck bed it’s self. I considered it, but it would take up real estate inside the benches which I would prefer to use for items I need vs the minor (my opinion) insulation qualities I could add. I suppose I could carpet (bed rug) the inside area on my benches, which would add insulation, but when I considered that originally I though it would be more of a pain to clean and vacuum if carpet was in that area. To keep it clean now, I just use a shop vac between trips and having the truck bed down there makes that job easier.

Also, 90% of my time I seek good weather camping and don’t enjoy fair weather camping for the most part. So, personally, I don’t have the need for the extra insulation. In the event when I get cold, I just simply turn on our Little Budddy heater and it work perfectly! First 5-10min I set it on high, then after that I have no choice but to turn it down to low before it becomes an oven in the Hiatus.

When running your heater, how much condensation has there been? I am the opposite of you, four season all the way!

 

[landman]

Thank You. Toward the end of the video, while you are pushing the top left side shut and turning the left handle to secure it you will see black marks running along the bottom of that panel. Maybe they are shadows. Now I see with your new shots it looks like the grain of the wood.

Yea, must be the grains in the wood. There are no scratches.

When running your heater, how much condensation has there been? I am the opposite of you, four season all the way!

I have had no condensation when running my “little buddy“ heater. I do leave the window or roof vent with a slight crack in it though, so keep that in mind.

 

[chet6.7]

Yea, must be the grains in the wood. There are no scratches.



I have had no condensation when running my “little buddy“ heater. I do leave the window or roof vent with a slight crack in it though, so keep that in mind.

I have recently seen a couple of mods for the little buddy heater.FWIW.
@ 8 min in and

 

[landman]

Well it has been awhile since I’ve given an update on my build, I’m sorry about that. I haven’t done any major changes, but I have been taking care of some smaller improvements. Currently I am in the process of installing a slide out counter top top from between my kitchen counter top and the top of my fridge slider. I wanted this table to act as a drink table “bar” when my buddies and I are hanging out + I wanted a counter top I could more easily/comfortably sit at and work on my computer.

Here are some pictures of where I’m at right now:

 

[landman]

Test fitting some raw mahogany wood below:

 

[Traumaemtp]

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Test fitting some raw mahogany wood below:

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I can’t wait for my pocket or belt loop to get caught on that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[landman]

 

[landman]

Below I have sanded down the raw mahogany wood and applied some tong oil.



Interesting quick version of the story behind this Mahogany wood that will be used as my table. My father was on an expedition in the Congo many years back when he found a massive wooden crate with a crashed airplane packed in it. He looked into the crate and saw what he though was a “cool looking plane” and decided to buy it for my Uncle and then ship it from the Congo to him in Georgia, USA. My Uncle is a retired A10/Delta pilot who’s main hobby is doing back country flying in remote areas.

The airplane inside the crate ended up being the original Aircam. This airplane was made by Lockwood for National Geographic. It has two push engines that allow it to fly low and slow over hostile terrain with confidence that if an engine failed, the second has no problem safely flying you home. The other unique part of this airplane is that it’s a tandem seater, but the person in front sits way out in from of the airplane creating a full 270 degree panorama view. This is excellent for photography and videography. The pilot would sit in back and the person in the front would be able to shot some pretty incredible footage.

My uncle ended up completely resorting the original aircraft and flying it for many years before it went into the EAA museum.

The wood that I’m using for my table are from the boards from the crate that the Aircam was in while in the Congo. It was the same crate shipped all the way to the USA. We saved the wood from the entire crate since it was made of some incredible Congo Mahogany and has a awesome story behind it.

Here is a link to the story behind the Aircam: https://www.flyingmag.com/aircraft/pistons/web-exclusive-origins-aircam/

I will post some photos later of the airplane + wood crate showing up to my Uncles hanger, but here is a pI turn of the plane for now:

 

[landman]

The next thing I did was deal with my cracked dodge dash. Sigh. These dash boards always had issues. I was contemplating getting a whole new dash board, but I read horror stories of them not fitting great and then always squeaking and shaking loose over time. Plus pulling on 20 year old clips, what could go wrong!

I then found a company called Dashskins who see dash layovers that use adhesive to basically glue right over the old dash. They are a USA made product and have outstanding reviews, so I went with it. On the test fit I was super impressed with how perfectly it fit. Once glued I doubt anyone would even know its a “glue on” unless I told them. Here are some pics of my cracked dash:

 

[landman]

The new glue on from Dashskins:

 

[landman]

 

[landman]

One of my biggest annoyances with my benches/storage boxes is that at night you can see inside them at all. The over head lights would basically silhouette the inside of the boxes. Plus me being over the boxes with the lights above me made it even darker in them. I would have put on a head lamp if I was trying to find something deep in there. So i installed some LED strip lights all the around the underside of the inside lip of the boxes. I also ran them behind my fridge and under my sink for the same reason. This added a super nice ambiance lighting actually! The LEDs plug into my Yeti 1400 and I have a wireless remote for them. I mounted that next to my other switches. The LEDs have many color options and can be dimmed. A surprising nice touch all around I must say.

 

[landman]

Ok, just installed the wood onto the sliders:

 

[landman]

Hey All,
Its been WAY too long since I’ve updated my build thread. Both my wife and I have been super busy working and taking on some new life goal - BUT we’ve still been getting out there to camp, explore, bike, climb, 4wheel, but…..to be honest we’ve just been bad about posting. So on that subject, one of those goals is leaning into starting a YouTube Channel. We have spoken about doing it for a long time, but we have been changing a few things in our lives to make time to start making consistent content. We are gunna start reasonable and plan on making 1 video a week.

Our channel is going to focus on our lives, who we are, what we do, and our weekend adventures - wherever those might take us. We will start doing some some rig videos soon (in the works now actually), but in the mean time I will be doing some flight vlogs and taking you guys with me wherever we might fly. Gabby will be doing some bodybuilding videos and sharing he passions. We will be doing weekend adventure videos as the big highlights. We are excited to give this whole thing a shot, so here are some quick facts about us:

• My name is Anders (33 years old) and my wife’s name is Gabby (31 years old). ? - together since HighSchool.
• My wife is a Probation Officer & and a Body Builder. ?
• I am a Commercial Corporate Pilot - I fly a Challenger 605. ?‍✈️
• I also work in my family company that manufactures some unique stuff (more on that down the road maybe).
• I am originally from South Africa and Gabby is originally from Alaska.
• We mountain bike, rock climb, 4wheel, overland, and always try to be outside.

The overland community has been a massive positive influence on both Gabby and I’s lives. We have meet amazing people over the years so we are excited to share what we do with all of you. Below are some introduction pictures of Gabby and I PLUS a link to our YouTube channel. If you all are interested in seeing what we do we would appreciate your support !

Here is our YouTube Channel Link.






-Gabby & Anders