Hello all !

I have quite if few questions and I was wondering if you all could help me out. I have a 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 Extended Cab with the 6 Foot Bed. I would like to take a road trip across the US to visit many of the Country's National Parks to photograph them as I am a photo enthusiast. I was originally thinking of just driving my Subaru WRX and camping in a tent. The more I thought about the remoteness of the locations & the duration of the trip, I feel like it would be nice to be in a camper or something along those lines. Not to mention, it would be nice to have a solid shell around me to avoid getting mauled by a bear! I looked at many conversions vans and they are in the ballpark of $5000 and they all need some work. Then I thought maybe I will get a camper for the pickup I already own. Upon searching for truck campers, I realized they can get very costly as well. I found this blog where a guy built an awesome home made truck camper. He said it was in the area of 1300 LBS. I would like to also build a home made camper for the back of my rig. My concerns are... will she be able to handle it and if so, how much. I read that the max payload for my truck bed is 1500 LBS. I was also contemplating removing the bed, and building right off the frame. This would save weight and create more room. The truck has ~125,000 on it. I am also wondering if the truck is going to die on the trip. The trans feels tight and it had the rear replaced about 20,000 ago. I was also thinking about adding airbags to the rear. Would this add to the payload capacity ?

Thank you for reading

Jon

 

Payload capacity is determined by the springs, but, also by the axle itself. Just adding airbags won't help the axle support the weight...... Stripping the bed off, and building your camper from there will save you a couple hundred pounds... and give ya more room to work with as well.

If your truck is in good shape, and it's various oddities have been addressed, it should do the trip for ya just fine. Make sure you read the plenum thread stickied at the top of this forum though.

Subaru will get MUCH better gas mileage though....

 

Thanks for a fast response ! I know I will suffer on gas but comfort & safety are priceless.

 

Gotta agree with ya there.

If it's just you going, build your camper accordingly. Save ya some weight.

 

What type of photography? Equipment?

And one more thing that is important here....WE LOVE PICTURES!

(coming from a large and medium format film enthusiast....)

 

Or just put a cap on it and throw in an air mattress.

 

That works good too.....

 

OMG, is it just me? LOL

 

The camera equipment is all Canon L glass on a Canon 7D. Hopefully before I leave they come out with the 5D MK III though :-/ I could just put a cap on it and an air mattress, however I suppose the camper would allow for more room & amenities. I have been talking to some other people and they suggested that the truck will not perform well in some of the higher climates.

 

That's one of the advantages of fuel injection. The computer will compensate for altitude. Shouldn't be a problem.