STREGA'S 2016 Ram 3500 cab/chassis adventure truck build

[STREGA]

That turned out great! I like the boxes a lot. How heavy does it feel now that it is all married up?

Thanks it's pretty much what I had invision it to be. The truck has taken the weight of the camper very well, it did squat about 4" in the rear but it still not touching the overload springs. The truck feels very stable going down the road with no noticeable swaying or rocking even at 75 mph, fairly high side winds and behaved well when passing by oncoming trucks. I may look into installing Timbrens or something similar to get back some of that 4" of sag. Steering feel is a tad lighter than before camper was installed but not bad at all.

The truck still accelerates very well from a stop although it's not as quick as when it was unladen. When I went over Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado I was able to pickup speed going uphill after having to slowdown for a corner and I was also towing a teardrop trailer, It had no problem doing the speed limit. When going down the pass I put the transmission in 3rd gear which held the truck at the speed limit with moderate braking needed, in 2nd gear almost no braking was required, I'am very pleased with the Aisin Transmission.

 

[STREGA]

Really enjoyed reading about your camper exploration and discovery of BundutecUSA. Our search was similar but facilitated by our location in NE Iowa. Our BunduVry is under construction and should be ready in a few weeks.

Thanks for reading my thread Pateuni. I did get to see the frame of your camper while I was at the Bundutec factory looks like you will have a nice unit. You should do a build thread on the portal about it.

 

[STREGA]

That's awesome! Love that setup. Definitely an inspiration for sure.

What's your clearance from the camper overtop of your cab? Looks bloody tight, not worried about the frame flexing the camper into the cab?

Thanks, glad it's a inspiration for you.

The clearance is bloody tight at about 1" at the center of the cab it does taper off to the sides to about 2". Since the cab over is much shorter than most campers it won't flex much unlike a crewcab cabover does. Also the truck being a cab/chassis there won't be as much flex in the frame either so I'm confident the clearance is adequate.

 

[uscg2008]

Any shots of the camper interior

 

[STREGA]

Some interior pics:

 

[STREGA]

 

[STREGA]

Sorry for the not so great pics of the interior.

 

[STREGA]

I get asked a lot "what's behind the big doors on both sides of the camper?"



It's one of my favorite features of this camper.







Basically it's a built in tunnel box. Internal dimension are 79"L x 35"W x 38"T. The storage area is mostly clear of obstructions just a little in the ceiling where the sliding/disappearing dinette table goes and on the front wall there are 2 covers over the roof lifting arms. I also had Bundutec install 4 rows of E-trac to secure whatever cargo I might carry.

 

[STREGA]

Update on the truck weight after the Wilco swing out tire carrier, aluminum underbed boxes and mud flaps were installed.

new weight of truck: 6,980lbs.

weight on steer axle: 3,840lbs.

weight on drive axle: 3,140lbs.

Added 200lbs to the truck. The steer axle lost 120lbs and the drive axle gained 320lbs.

 

[STREGA]

The trip to Iowa to pick up the camper gave me a chance to get some real world fuel mileage numbers. Although most of the miles I put on the truck on the trip were on Interstate/hiway there was still quite a bit of city driving and even a little in 4wd. On the way out to Iowa The truck was unloaded of course and weather was good except when going over the continental divide. The trip back to Arizona I had the camper on as well as towing a teardrop trailer from Colorado and the weather was not as favorable encountering fairly stiff head/sidewinds about 2/3rds of the way.

On the way out I averaged 14.2 mpg. and back home it dropped to 11 mpg. These figures are by the old school method, the on board computer said I was getting about 1 mpg more. I don't know what the headwinds cost me really but I wouldn't be surprised if I had saw 12+ mpg. Not going to win any fuel mileage awards but for what it is not that bad IMO.

I averaged about 70mph to Iowa and about 62mph on the return trip.

 

[MTCK]

Nothing wrong with those mpg numbers at all.

 

[STREGA]

Nothing wrong with those mpg numbers at all.

Not unhappy with them at all by any means.

 

[Rubicon85]

Your setup came out awesome! As a fellow 6.4 owner I'm glad to see you getting those numbers, Im getting that about stock with my camper shell on a 2500 with 3.73 gears. Someday i'll regear for bigger tires/increased wind resistance i.e.. camper of some sort. Looking good!!
Alex

 

[Regcabguy]

Update on the truck weight after the Wilco swing out tire carrier, aluminum underbed boxes and mud flaps were installed.

new weight of truck: 6,980lbs.

weight on steer axle: 3,840lbs.

weight on drive axle: 3,140lbs.

Added 200lbs to the truck. The steer axle lost 120lbs and the drive axle gained 320lbs.

Your weight distribution is near perfect. The regcabs do well in that respect.
Mine's 4400 front,4000 rear. That's with the diesel and a Northstar TC800.
I hate sleeping bags and the sheets,blankets and quilt/bedspread work super.
That clearance is worrisome to me with the frequent twisting the frame will be subject to.
Very cool setup.

 

[STREGA]

Your weight distribution is near perfect. The regcabs do well in that respect.
Mine's 4400 front,4000 rear. That's with the diesel and a Northstar TC800.
I hate sleeping bags and the sheets,blankets and quilt/bedspread work super.
That clearance is worrisome to me with the frequent twisting the frame will be subject to.
Very cool setup.

That's one of the many reasons for getting a regular cab for me, crew cabs are great for carrying people at the cost of proper cargo weight distribution. The truck with camper on feels very balanced and handles well on the road.

The clearance between the cab and camper is a bit tighter than I wanted. Two things I do have going for me is that the cab over is only 36" long as opposed to the 72" a crew cab camper has and a cab/chassis frame is stiffer than a pickup truck frame which should mean less flexing from both. I will be keeping a close eye on it for sure.