Low budget First Gen Cummins Flatbed.

[RandomWreckless]

Welcome to my low budget home and exploration rig. I live and and work in the forest and have enjoyed traveling all over by foot, boat, bike and truck.
I've been living full-time for over 2 years in a 2WD '96 Second Gen Dodge Cummins with a 1989 Wilderness camper.
I traded the second gen to my friend for a '93 W350 Clubcab Cummins Flatbed 4X4 dually that he had as a farm truck and needed a good going through! Lots of wiring and tinkering with any system that wasn't deemed 100% vital to hauling stuff on the farm.
I just picked up the 2004 9'6" Bigfoot camper and am finishing some repairs and stripping the old camper to make the swap.
Here's the truck just after I got it. The old camper with an already damaged aluminum frame nearly disintegrated during the mounting. It was really a near cotastrophe. Only 1 jack was salvaged after it was all done.

 

[RandomWreckless]

Photo didn't attach the first time.
Some other background is I work as a wildland firefighter and haven't had any time to work on this all summer. I've been gone constantly but am having time to catch up now.
One of my first mods was ditching those trucker mirrors for some second gen mirrors mounted to aluminum diamond plate and secured with VHB tape and screws

 

[RandomWreckless]

The suspension needed some work next. While away on a fire I decided to order a Skyjacker 2.5" system. My memory was that lift springs were pretty firm and with the good price that they would be a good starting point. Wrong.

The rear springs were intended to be about 2" lift without the factory 6" blocks. With all they weight the truck rode lower than the worn out factory springs. I had some airbags so I installed them. I spaced them as far from the frame as the hardware allowed and to clear the inner tires but they did contact the frame eventually and failed.

Next I installed an extra leaf from skyjacker.... Better but the shackle angle was all wrong.

Next try! Skyjacker pack plus add-a-leaf with factory main leaves (rearched with a hi-lift jack) and added the factory blocks back in. Seems workable
I was trying to find factory-style top mounted overload springs but failed and purchased some hellwig LP-35 helpers that should be showing up tomorrow.
Here are before and after ride heights.

 

[RandomWreckless]

While trying to figure out the rear suspension and driving to work my 2 of 4 of the bolts that hold the steering box of to the steering box frame bracket broke. I borrowed my old 2nd gen to grab the new camper.

It's a 2004 Bigfoot 9'6". Yes it's a shortbed and handled well mounted like that. My idea is to make a bike and ski garage in the space between the camper and truck cab.

If I don't like it I can always move it forward with a new custom bed. The current bed looks way too overbuilt to me, too high and it's 8'5" wide. The width makes it impossible to practically and legally have the jacks mounted while driving.

 

[RandomWreckless]

Even the 2wd made it some cool places in dry weather. I gotta get this thing to going and get out in the Desert for a bit.

 

[RandomWreckless]

I'm really wishing that I didn't waste my time and money on trying to make these skyjacker springs work out. I finally got the rear to be firm enough to control the body roll and now it's too high!

I used hellwig helper springs for an OBD chevy, since they didn't have any specified to the dodge.

The front suspension is having the same issue the rear did. It doesn't hold the weight and the shackle is very near it's limit. The ride height actually looks pretty good. I could
(a) add a leaf to the front
(B) change the main leaf to factory
(C) build 1" longer shackles
(D) Some combination of the two.

I'm really thinking the bed is causing a problem with it's weight and height. The idea of building a simple low mounted bed was sounding great until I went down the rabbit hole of mounting systems. The good thing about my current bed is it has very little torsion due to it's rigidity. It actually prevents the frame from twisting.

I'm hoping that I can use 2x2 steel tubing and build a bed that mounts low and has wheel wells. I'm thinking rigid mounts for the front of the bed and a single pivot in the rear. Just a big ass bolt in a greaseable steel bushing for the rear pivot. I don't have a shop and I've got fun to be had.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

You're going to love that Bigfoot. I had one for 13 years and I'd venture to say that I would still have it but it caught fire several years ago when the refrigerator malfunctioned. I am assuming that yours has a Dometic refrigerator and if that is the case make sure to check your model number with their website for recalls. There was a design flaw in their design which caused my refrigerator to catch fire. Had I known it could have been avoided.

Good luck with the new rig.....

 

[RandomWreckless]

Thanks Jerry! I will check that. I am enjoying the new big fridge as I'm coming from a 70qt wynter compressor fridge.

I'm tinkering around this morning and stripping the old camper. Did a quick calculation and the 3/16 sheet steel and 3" channel on this bed weighs 1000lbs by itself. That doesn't include the heavy duty headache rack and a few other odds and ends.

I found a good tree to rig a hoist so it's coming off!

I would appreciate any suggestions for threads of ideas for a simple steel bed to mount the camper and toolboxes. I'm sitting 6.5" above frame hump now, it would be cool to get it to 3" + decking above the hump.

The bed is sitting at 46" from the ground now on 30" tires. I'm going to try pulling the factory lift blocks. Hopefully without the blocks and with a lower bed I would sit at 37" camper is 102" to top of ac that makes 139" or 11'7". After I add 2-2.5" for 315/75/16 tires I would be at 11'9-11'10" or so and that would make me happy.

 

[toastyjosh]

Enjoy your time off next summer is most likely going to be ************ as well!

 

[RandomWreckless]

So I took the old camper to the dump! It was broken in a few places. With the empty camper, some tools and a sidekick I rolled into the dump at 10340 lb. Left the dump at 7980. After tallying some weights of the materials used to make the bed I arrived and estimate of 1500-1700 lbs that the bed weighs.

I grabbed a stack of 2x3x.120 and 2x2x.120 tubing and I'm going to give it hell and build a bed that weighs about 500lbs and costs $500. I'm going to use 1/2" plywood for decking on the first draft vs. $500+ of brite-tread.

I already made the mistake of getting my bedrails cut to 8' exactly when I really want to be able to fit 8' material inside the bed when done. I can probably make it up somewhere on the ends?‍♂️.

I'm currently taking the rear factory blocks out AGAIN .

Got new Redhead steering gear delivered and replacement joints for the flaming river shaft that came with the truck.

2.5" coined hubcentric rear spacers are coming from Motorsports Technology in Reno. Looking stick 315/75R16 Yokohama Geolandar M/T on stock wheels under it. I'm hoping the spacers show up so I can put tires on it before finishing the bed & rear fenders.

 

[RandomWreckless]

I was thinking about a SRW conversion using 24 Bolt HMMWV beadlocks and surplus Baja tires. The backspacing makes them work out for this truck with adding some small spacers in the rear, or not at all.

They seemed like a heavy tire and wheel and with bad road manners and hard to balance, that coupled with the production date (old) of the tires I have leaned away from the idea.

Anyone using these tires and wheels for a daily driving type of rig?

 

[RandomWreckless]

I got the heavy bed off the ol' girl. It really looks better already. I just used jacks and blocks and a few timbers as beams to get the blocks nice and outboard so we can back a trailer under it.

I made some progress on the frame. I used an angle grinder to make all of the cuts and just using a small 120v FCAW machine to weld. Getting 100% penetration and I think the mounts won't be much of an issue. I held back on buying a new drycut chopsaw. I know I want one eventually and didn't want to compromise on an abrasive one. I had an old wood chopsaw I used to use but I gave it away when I was scaling back.


The wheel wells feel like a little much, I hope they end up remotely relevant. I kind of copied the height of the front fender opening and some length the accommodate the new 35s. I didn't want to make then too long because they would interfere with the camper and storage.
The new bed is 6" lower than the old one and I did rub on the old bed at one point in my experiments.
I wish I had the new tires to use as models but I'm waiting on the spacers still.

 

[Todd n Natalie]

Based on the title I was expecting to see something along these lines? haha!

 

[RandomWreckless]

Based on the title I was expecting to see something along these lines? haha!

Yes I could use a better title. It's just a bigfoot camper. Thanks for stopping in. I actually just changed the title ?

 

[RandomWreckless]

The frame is in primer. I had to hurry up before the weather changed.
This reminded me of building a small building. It looks like a shed on the first day but there's endless details to work out.
The last day I built the tailight mounts. Really could have used a torch or a plasma cutter. I used a 2 1/2" holesaw and cutoff wheels to make the openings. It would have been a lot easier if I had known my holesaw arbor was bent when I was in town!
As soon as it gets warm I'm going to load up the airless sprayer. I've got the paint in the camper next to the furnace with me.