Dodge Ram 5500 motorhome

[Healeyjet]

Busbart, mine is the truck in the first photo. Sarconcepts truck, the Sterling, is shown in the second photo.

Dropped it off today to have the Kelderman air suspension put in. Drove it over there from the dealer and it is unbelievable how rough a 5500 rides with no weight on it. The suspension should be finished in a week and a half or so then off to get the body built and installed.

Ward

 

[xracer144]

Ha, I drove mine home from Mission Viejo CA to Winnipeg with nothing on the back. 4000Kms. 80 km/hr was the fastest I could handle. I had plenty of hours to question my decision making abilities. It took forever and I would never do it again.

 

[busbart]

I would suggest strapping something heavy on the back, such as a concrete or wooden block, only to smooth out the suspension making the trip more comfortable?

 

[Healeyjet]

The next time we drive the truck the air ride will be installed so hopefully that makes a difference. If it doesn't I am in the trucking industry so I will load it up and ship it the 5 hours to where they are building the box.
Ward

 

[guidolyons]

Looks good, hope it goes from design to fruition smoothly, can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[Healeyjet]

Thanks Guido, me too! We have obsessed about thew smallest measurements and the smallest details so hopefully we didn't forget something large, LOL. We obsessed about decisions like window height and size. If we bought an RV that was already finished we would live with whatever it was. Having made the decisions as to where the windows should be if they are two inches too low or too high we only have ourselves to blame. That is where we are at now. Soon we will have to sign off on the design then it is full steam ahead. Hope to have some progress pictures soon. The company building it has built approx 10,500 units (very few campers though) in the last 40 years so they have their skill set pretty dialed in.

Ward

 

[Maninga]

I can completely understand - let me know when you get to the level of having the wife sit down and use a tape measure to figure out where her eyes are. Then change the design to make vehicle taller to accommodate sitting in the seat being able to look out the windows comfortably.

Will be very interested to see how it turns out. Am sure as you see things progress, variations will be made and you'll see things that didn't think of before but it's an interesting process to go through and very rewarding at the end.

 

[Healeyjet]

Maninga, oh, we are there!! LOL.

Yes, construction of the camper portion should start very soon. Today we are just trying to make "room" for the suspension compressor etc. I thought I was going to have a lot of undercarriage storage but it quickly gets eaten up by batteries, hydronic water heater, air compressor system etc.

Ward

 

[xracer144]

I'm installing my windows last in case we scrap the design during construction. Any other holes can be patched or hidden. Not quite so easy on the walls.

 

[PoloTurbo]

Incredible build. Love that it is Canadian. Subscribed.
Looking forward to it. It is exactly a project I would love to do some day.
Hope to see you on the road soon.

 

[Healeyjet]

Thanks! I must say that I am relieved that we chose a Canadian builder with the drop in the value of the Canadian dollar lately. If we had gone with an American builder our cost would have gone up about 20-25% just based on the dollar value.

The frame is finished and it headed over for walls late yesterday. The panic is on for me as changes are free before construction starts but costly after.

Suspension should be close to done by the end of this week. Then I can get the truck over to start installing the camper portion.



Ward

 

[Jeep]

USD conversion today for those thinking of shopping in Canada:

$50 000 CAD is only $38 334.30 USD

But

$50 000 USD costs us $65 220 CAD

I would guess you are going to save a few bucks!

 

[Healeyjet]

Drivers side air suspension being installed



Ward

 

[guidolyons]

Well, that is one way to save a few bucks.:sombrero:

 

[PoloTurbo]

Looks awesome