wanderer-rrorc
Explorer
After deciding we wanted to camp more..and missing my old van...but having had a slide in for a truck...and having a new truck..a new truck thats my daily work truck for my handyman buisness...
a flip pac was figured to be PERFECT!!
untill
I saw the price first off...(seriously $4000-$6000???)
I saw torsion bar failures..
I saw lackluster rainflys.
I also saw that my 2015 ram design wasnt the greatest for the bed support posts....
and after asking around and hunting...I cannot figure out why they stopped flipping the bed towards the back...and having build many vehicles and being a fabricator..I decided WHY NOT??
little info...I used to race WEROCK..built many vehicles..modded many many others....can weld and fabricate...also my mother was a seamstress and I have made several large sewing projects and have no fear running yards and yards of fabric thru a machine...
so here we go...
$130 in steel and had my local machine shop supplier go ahead and chop them to length (cus I was lazy and delightflully paid him $15 to cut it all on his equipment!! and talked to him about being able to skin it in aluminum diamond plate as the roof bed will be a queen size and its 60x79 with 2in lips bent into it..problem is that it only comes in 48in wide and 60in wide materials...so we are gonna use the 48 and bend a 1in lip to take 2 35in widths and make a 60in box with 2in lips all the way around.
4 1/2hrs of tacking..trimming and fitting..getting good lines and once it was tacked pulling it off..fully welding it and a quick wipe down and spray of krylon black heavy duty enamel so it wont rust tonight in the rain...frame probably weighs 120lbs but I didnt wanna scratch the truck so I got a buddy to help me load it once it was dry (
borrowed shop has a forklift I pulled it off with..
all in all really cool...the new rams do taper about 3in in the back...I canted the bars in the front to keep the bed/cap space looking good and it also let me angle the rear delector shield...wait...rear window frame a little so it wasnt a flat vertical surface to catch dust dirt and rocks..
2x2x1/8 wall square and angle.
a flip pac was figured to be PERFECT!!
untill
I saw the price first off...(seriously $4000-$6000???)
I saw torsion bar failures..
I saw lackluster rainflys.
I also saw that my 2015 ram design wasnt the greatest for the bed support posts....
and after asking around and hunting...I cannot figure out why they stopped flipping the bed towards the back...and having build many vehicles and being a fabricator..I decided WHY NOT??
little info...I used to race WEROCK..built many vehicles..modded many many others....can weld and fabricate...also my mother was a seamstress and I have made several large sewing projects and have no fear running yards and yards of fabric thru a machine...
so here we go...
$130 in steel and had my local machine shop supplier go ahead and chop them to length (cus I was lazy and delightflully paid him $15 to cut it all on his equipment!! and talked to him about being able to skin it in aluminum diamond plate as the roof bed will be a queen size and its 60x79 with 2in lips bent into it..problem is that it only comes in 48in wide and 60in wide materials...so we are gonna use the 48 and bend a 1in lip to take 2 35in widths and make a 60in box with 2in lips all the way around.
4 1/2hrs of tacking..trimming and fitting..getting good lines and once it was tacked pulling it off..fully welding it and a quick wipe down and spray of krylon black heavy duty enamel so it wont rust tonight in the rain...frame probably weighs 120lbs but I didnt wanna scratch the truck so I got a buddy to help me load it once it was dry (
borrowed shop has a forklift I pulled it off with..
all in all really cool...the new rams do taper about 3in in the back...I canted the bars in the front to keep the bed/cap space looking good and it also let me angle the rear delector shield...wait...rear window frame a little so it wasnt a flat vertical surface to catch dust dirt and rocks..
2x2x1/8 wall square and angle.
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