OVRLND CAMPERS ONLY : Post your OVRLND Camper build here or a link to your build thread to inspire others!

I can speak to a couple of these.
1) I think I only have the +2" (10" total) for cabover height and really love it. I haven't lived with the 8", but camp with many GFC folks and they constantly shuffle their bedding into their truck bed while traveling and have issues keeping it clean during the wet seasons. I really like being able to leave my comforter+sheets and other bedding or double sleeping bag above. I also can do that while leaving the soft top liner up which is great for heat/cold and quicker setups. There's been a couple rock crawly trails I've had to turn around on because of trees being a little low while navigating rocks and too dangerous to saw. Not sure if the 2" would've made a difference (I also have a roof fan). Increased cabover height also increases the height of the truck bed area when closed, this has been awesome for utility. Hauling bikes, changing in and out of ski clothing or other adventure gear, etc.

2) I have the anodized aluminum, so I sidestepped the paint question :) That has really held up and has been low maintenance with our mag chloride winter roads in MT.

3) My Gladiator didn't have too many holes, but doing a tailgate seal still leaked dust at the upper part of the gate, the PPV made that 90% stop. My square cab blocks direct airflow to the PPV so YMMV. I later added a bedrug and that really blocks the tailgate and would negate sealing any holes in the bed. The bedrug really up'd the comfort level and insulation.

4) My MPG dropped about 1-2mpg, but again my Jeep is a brick. The cabover is tucked pretty close to the cab, with a Ranger I'd experiment with a fairing since your windshield is more sloped than mine. Can't speak to the RTT vs OVRLND though.
Thanks for the responses! Fairing is on the list. I might talk to Jay about modifying their DIY fairing brackets to accept Maxtrax mounting pins. Similar to this setup on Justin B Mcbride's Gladiator.
1757967111791.png
 

Phessor

Active member
Hello! Long time stalker of this thread. My wife and I are very close to pulling the trigger on an all you can eat for our 2020 Ford Ranger.

We've been all over the place this summer looking into pop-up camper shells. We ruled out the Project M because we didn't like the flip up rear and the mandatory interior shelves. Ruled out the Tune M1 because of price, distance for install (located in Phoenix and not in love with the drive to Denver or added cost having it installed at a vendor), you can't insulate them as well (our black extruded aluminum hard shell RTT gets incredibly hot and we imagine the extruded black structure would be similar), roof longevity given that we are in Phoenix and don't have access to a garage. Ruled out the Bruin XL due to a lot of recent quality control issues we saw online, even though it ticked off all the boxes.

Ovrlnd is less than a 2 hour drive for us. The build quality looks excellent online and in person. The aluminum roof should last a long time in the Phoenix heat. I like that it can be insulated easily. Love the asymmetric bar doors.

Our planned current build is +3" bedding, asymmetrical barn door with a sliding window, rear barn door height adjustment, small cab slider, solid windoors both sides, Maxxair deluxe, head liner w. insulation, daisy chain, lift struts, solar port, vinyl windows, 3rd brake light, ppv, shore power, diesel heater port.

A few questions for you amazing people.
1) We're pretty sure we want the +3" on the bedding height, has anyone regretted that? We are leaning towards a no on the chubby option, since we are too tall to sleep east/west with that on a midsize and seems like that introduces a lot of other issues like drag and trail damage.

2) We can't decide on the color. Torn between white to match the truck/hopefully cooler or grey to match the trim on the truck. Black is still in the running but seems hotter? How well has peoples paint held up?

3) I know it's impossible to keep all dust out of a topper. For those of you that have sealed your tailgate and optioned or added the PPV, how much dust can I still expect? I know all trucks are different but just ball park.

4) MPG. Has anyone gone from a bed rack & RTT to an OVRLND camper and noticed a decrease in MPG? I lost 2-3 MPG when I installed the RTT, hoping to not lose much more lol.

Pic of current build for attention.

1) I went with the standard bed height, there are times I wished I had gone with the taller setup, but it is only me most of the time, so I leave the bed made and never had a need to fold it all up.

2) I went with white to match my truck, it has held up pretty good so far. But I am sure it wouldn't endure a lot of abuse from tree branches on a tight trail.

3) With a little work, you can mitigate most of the dust issues. It will take some trial and error to make it work for you.

4) I lost 2-3 MPG as well, but then mine is a Tacoma and not a Prius, so I just gas up more often.
 

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dstefan

Well-known member
Hello! Long time stalker of this thread. My wife and I are very close to pulling the trigger on an all you can eat for our 2020 Ford Ranger.

We've been all over the place this summer looking into pop-up camper shells. We ruled out the Project M because we didn't like the flip up rear and the mandatory interior shelves. Ruled out the Tune M1 because of price, distance for install (located in Phoenix and not in love with the drive to Denver or added cost having it installed at a vendor), you can't insulate them as well (our black extruded aluminum hard shell RTT gets incredibly hot and we imagine the extruded black structure would be similar), roof longevity given that we are in Phoenix and don't have access to a garage. Ruled out the Bruin XL due to a lot of recent quality control issues we saw online, even though it ticked off all the boxes.

Ovrlnd is less than a 2 hour drive for us. The build quality looks excellent online and in person. The aluminum roof should last a long time in the Phoenix heat. I like that it can be insulated easily. Love the asymmetric bar doors.

Our planned current build is +3" bedding, asymmetrical barn door with a sliding window, rear barn door height adjustment, small cab slider, solid windoors both sides, Maxxair deluxe, head liner w. insulation, daisy chain, lift struts, solar port, vinyl windows, 3rd brake light, ppv, shore power, diesel heater port.

A few questions for you amazing people.
1) We're pretty sure we want the +3" on the bedding height, has anyone regretted that? We are leaning towards a no on the chubby option, since we are too tall to sleep east/west with that on a midsize and seems like that introduces a lot of other issues like drag and trail damage.

2) We can't decide on the color. Torn between white to match the truck/hopefully cooler or grey to match the trim on the truck. Black is still in the running but seems hotter? How well has peoples paint held up?

3) I know it's impossible to keep all dust out of a topper. For those of you that have sealed your tailgate and optioned or added the PPV, how much dust can I still expect? I know all trucks are different but just ball park.

4) MPG. Has anyone gone from a bed rack & RTT to an OVRLND camper and noticed a decrease in MPG? I lost 2-3 MPG when I installed the RTT, hoping to not lose much more lol.

Pic of current build for attention.
Good choice on Ovrlnd! Ours has held up well over nearly 5 years (in Jan). The sun here does take a toll, as I’m sure you know, on rubber and plastic so get a good supply of 303 for any soft stuff on your rig, including the canvas and all the bulb seal — I missed doing the small gaskets outlining the latches and in a year they cracked. Not Jay’s fault at all, and were easily replaced, but just to say . . .

Are you considering a 180º awning on the rear? I added an awning after specing the 3rd brake light and so it’s now covered and just a waste of $$.

You can pretty much eliminate the dust issue if you’re OCD enough. The PPV definitely helps a lot, but really sealing things is necessary too. The Bedrug is super helpful. I’d suggest that after you pull the bed rack and tent and empty the bed before you go for install, really inspect your bed, especially under the bed rails and the tailgate. Even look from underneath with a flashlight at night. I had 30+ voids, no kidding, and many were hidden.

Beds are made to drain and there’s stuff I never noticed before I got really in the weeds. The lower corners of the barn doors at the bed rails were really difficult to plug on my Tundra. I found a line of tailgate seal on top of the tailgate where the doors swing shut eliminated a huge source of dust. Jay puts good bulb seal under the barn doors there, but I also added a second row that helped. The tailgate seal kits on Amazon are really helpful, but over kill it. I have my entire tailgate perimeter gasketed, to the point it was initially hard to slam the TG until things compressed, but it’s worth it.

+1 on the extra cab height. I’m 6’2” and love that I can sit up in bed with the extra 2” cabover space. Also+1 on the anodized skin. Like @montechie says, it really handles scratches well.

Welcome to the cult!
 
Good choice on Ovrlnd! Ours has held up well over nearly 5 years (in Jan). The sun here does take a toll, as I’m sure you know, on rubber and plastic so get a good supply of 303 for any soft stuff on your rig, including the canvas and all the bulb seal — I missed doing the small gaskets outlining the latches and in a year they cracked. Not Jay’s fault at all, and were easily replaced, but just to say . . .

Are you considering a 180º awning on the rear? I added an awning after specing the 3rd brake light and so it’s now covered and just a waste of $$.

You can pretty much eliminate the dust issue if you’re OCD enough. The PPV definitely helps a lot, but really sealing things is necessary too. The Bedrug is super helpful. I’d suggest that after you pull the bed rack and tent and empty the bed before you go for install, really inspect your bed, especially under the bed rails and the tailgate. Even look from underneath with a flashlight at night. I had 30+ voids, no kidding, and many were hidden.

Beds are made to drain and there’s stuff I never noticed before I got really in the weeds. The lower corners of the barn doors at the bed rails were really difficult to plug on my Tundra. I found a line of tailgate seal on top of the tailgate where the doors swing shut eliminated a huge source of dust. Jay puts good bulb seal under the barn doors there, but I also added a second row that helped. The tailgate seal kits on Amazon are really helpful, but over kill it. I have my entire tailgate perimeter gasketed, to the point it was initially hard to slam the TG until things compressed, but it’s worth it.

+1 on the extra cab height. I’m 6’2” and love that I can sit up in bed with the extra 2” cabover space. Also+1 on the anodized skin. Like @montechie says, it really handles scratches well.

Welcome to the cult!
303 is a rubber protectant, right?

Been lookin through tons of videos on how to seal everything. Sadly not a lot of Ranger specific content other than forum posts but good ideas none the less. Hoping I can sell the RTT and rack quick after we start the process because I live in a condo and I’ll need all the time I can get to seal it up.

Thinking I’ll go 270 awning but haven’t settled on one yet. I’ve always been weight conscience on awnings, so I may go Reign or FSR since they’re about 40 lbs. I’d love to figure out a gutter to fill in between awning and camper.
 

dstefan

Well-known member
303 is a rubber protectant, right?
Rubber, plastic, vinyl. Works very well for UV protection.
I’d love to figure out a gutter to fill in between awning and camper.
Alu cab has one for their 270° awning. Might give you some ideas.

Here’s how I did mine
DK about @AZflyer, but I made this gutter out of some coated ripstop nylon fabric I’ve had laying around and some Keder strip. I had it out today to further water proof it as it was slightly leaky when we had a LOT of rain recently while up in MN and MI.
View attachment 748803
Luckily, the 23Zero has an empty awning C channel groove at the bottom of the mounting plate. We just added a C channel strip to the camper above the doors and slide this into both channels. Works really well for the most part.

Got the C channel and the Keder strip at https://www.sailrite.com/ . We’re lucky to have a local shoe repair shop that will do heavy duty sewing for us on things like this. Just had the Keder sewn on the fabric and seam sealed it. The fabric is 8” wide at one end and 4” on the other to give it a slope. Its also about 8“ longer than the camper is wide to let it pour off away from the tailgate a bit.

One of the few downsides to Jays design when it rains overnight is that due to the curve of the roof, when we open the doors and drop the TG in the morning, the weight shift causes a small dump of rainwater thats been sitting on the rear of the roof. The gutter is super helpful with that.
 

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