Truck Campers Only, w/ an Overland & Off-roading theme

[TX03RUBI]

20+ years on WTX lease roads, specifically Pecos/Mentone/Orla. I know the feeling all too well.

I was out on the Rocker B that specific incident. Spent plenty of time out west though. I try not to make it a habit lol

 

[TRAMPER]

I also have my truck (and many other vehicles) registered to my Montana LLC. I have been procrastinating getting insurance on the camper because I know its going to be a PITA with my useless agent and the lack of a VIN.

In general it seems insurance companies have been cracking down on the Montana LLC's and making it difficult to insure a vehicle with a Montana registration but a "garaging address" in a different state, along with trying to insure as personal use despite being registered to a commercial entity. We've had decent luck with Progressive Commercial who rarely asks any questions, but other carriers have refused to quote or dropped us after further investigation. Never had to file a claim, so hopefully no issues would come up at that point in time!

What camper do you have again? I’m Shocked that nearly every camper manufacturer doesn’t serialize their campers.

 

[rwalk]

What camper do you have again? I’m Shocked that nearly every camper manufacturer doesn’t serialize their campers.

OEV Camp-X. It has a serial number, but no VIN. Both Montana (where I register everything) and Utah (home state) appear to require truck campers to be registered, which require a VIN and fees/taxes. If not factory assigned, I have to get a VIN assigned by the state. So part of the reason I haven't insured is because I need to figure out where I'm going to legally own the camper and whether it will be under my personal name, my LLC, or a family member in a different state.

 

[Chris-DTA]

Ok, time for some distraction again ... I am working from my camper this week while traveling the Mojave Road (or is it the other way around )

 

[TRAMPER]

Ok, time for some distraction again ... I am working from my camper this week while traveling the Mojave Road (or is it the other way around )

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Nice Chris!!!!!

You filming??? Gotta keep that content flowing to keep the algorithms happy! How is the new solar working out??

Those are some really great pictures, I hope you’re posting and tagging Supertramp. They should sponsor you!!!

 

[PJPVI]

View attachment 136439
Before.
View attachment 136440
and after….

Finally got a chance to jump on a CAT scale with the camper onboard. Looks like I have near 50/50 weight distribution now, which makes this basically a sports car now right? Either way I found it interesting, clearly an F250, especially gas, would be plenty to haul this camper around even in a heavy configuration like I got. Still no regrets on the bigger payload for me. You never know what the future holds.

Both weights were with two people on board and the gas tank 100% full. Only thing missing is there is no water in the tank on the camper but all four jacks are in the back seat.

Bringing an old post back. I just got weighed yesterday with the camper on and thought I'd share for anyone else it may help:

W/O Camper (no people, full fuel):
- Front axle: 4340 lbs
- Rear axle: 3500 lbs
- Total: 7840 lbs

With Camper (no people, full fuel, 30 gallons (200 lbs) water)
- Front axle: 4380 lbs
- Rear axle: 6140 lbs
- Total: 10520 lbs

This is almost right where I thought I would land weight wise for the camper except I'm much more a$$ heavy than I expected or desire. The fact that adding the camper only brought the front axle up by 40 lbs really surprised me. I'm experiencing what I figured out is called porpoising. It was pretty bad at first when the rear shocks were set at full soft and I had forgotten to bring the tire air pressure up for the weight. Adjusting to full firm in the rear and bringing up tire pressure helped. Filling the water tank (forward of rear axle) and fuel tank also helped some.

I talked with the folks at AccuTune this morning and have decided to send the shocks back to be re-tuned now that we know vehicle specific weights and driving characteristics. Fingers crossed this helps the situation. For reference, I have Carli front springs (2.5 inch lift), Deaver rear springs, King 2.5 non-adjustable up front, and King 2.5 adjustable in the rear. Truck sits dead level with the camper on. Ride over rough roads is great. It sucks up everything. Expansion joints set off the porpoising pretty good though and oddly porpoising sets up around 30 mph on relatively smooth residential roads. I don't understand that phenomena.

Stay tuned ....

 

[TRAMPER]

Bringing an old post back. I just got weighed yesterday with the camper on and thought I'd share for anyone else it may help:

W/O Camper (no people, full fuel):
- Front axle: 4340 lbs
- Rear axle: 3500 lbs
- Total: 7840 lbs

With Camper (no people, full fuel, 30 gallons (200 lbs) water)
- Front axle: 4380 lbs
- Rear axle: 6140 lbs
- Total: 10520 lbs

This is almost right where I thought I would land weight wise for the camper except I'm much more a$$ heavy than I expected or desire. The fact that adding the camper only brought the front axle up by 40 lbs really surprised me. I'm experiencing what I figured out is called porpoising. It was pretty bad at first when the rear shocks were set at full soft and I had forgotten to bring the tire air pressure up for the weight. Adjusting to full firm in the rear and bringing up tire pressure helped. Filling the water tank (forward of rear axle) and fuel tank also helped some.

I talked with the folks at AccuTune this morning and have decided to send the shocks back to be re-tuned now that we know vehicle specific weights and driving characteristics. Fingers crossed this helps the situation. For reference, I have Carli front springs (2.5 inch lift), Deaver rear springs, King 2.5 non-adjustable up front, and King 2.5 adjustable in the rear. Truck sits dead level with the camper on. Ride over rough roads is great. It sucks up everything. Expansion joints set off the porpoising pretty good though and oddly porpoising sets up around 30 mph on relatively smooth residential roads. I don't understand that phenomena.

Stay tuned ....

Great information thanks for sharing.

My only guess for the low speed porpoising is the frequency and resonance of the road you were on in relation to your particular chassis and setup. It can and does happen. I don’t know the solution. Going to your shock builder seems like a great start.

So looks like your truck will be about 11k loaded up with gear and people. Not too bad but no featherweight either. Do you have a 1T or 3/4? Just curious as I realize it’s a moot point on a Tremor anyway.

Looking forward to hearing the results of the re-tune.

 

[PJPVI]

So looks like your truck will be about 11k loaded up with gear and people. Not too bad but no featherweight either. Do you have a 1T or 3/4? Just curious as I realize it’s a moot point on a Tremor anyway.

It's a ¾ ton so will be a bit over the tag GVWR of 10,000 but at or below the GAWR's of 4800 lbs front / 6340 lbs rear. From all my internet research, the frames and axles of an F250 and F350 are the same with the difference being suspension. Not sure if that is 100% correct but not looking to open a debate here as it's all over the internet already. I agree that I'll come in around 11,000 loaded for trips and I'm comfortable with that. Any additional weight added for the trip will be ahead of the rear axle (people in driver and passenger seat, gear in the rear of the cab, and food & clothes stuff in the forward cabinets of the camper).

 

[TRAMPER]

It's a ¾ ton so will be a bit over the tag GVWR of 10,000 but at or below the GAWR's of 4800 lbs front / 6340 lbs rear. From all my internet research, the frames and axles of an F250 and F350 are the same with the difference being suspension. Not sure if that is 100% correct but not looking to open a debate here as it's all over the internet already. I agree that I'll come in around 11,000 loaded for trips and I'm comfortable with that. Any additional weight added for the trip will be ahead of the rear axle (people in driver and passenger seat, gear in the rear of the cab, and food & clothes stuff in the forward cabinets of the camper).

They’re the same, exactly the same. Only difference is the door sticker.

Is your truck the oil burner or gasser? Seems like with that weight it must be the diesel.

 

[PJPVI]

They’re the same, exactly the same. Only difference is the door sticker.

Is your truck the oil burner or gasser? Seems like with that weight it must be the diesel.

It's 7.3 gas. I've had enough big diesel engine to last a while after the van for 17 years and the gas is enough for what I'm doing.

 

[TRAMPER]

It's 7.3 gas. I've had enough big diesel engine to last a while after the van for 17 years and the gas is enough for what I'm doing.

1000% agree. The diesel is an absolute monster and for towing there probably is none better. Seems like the gasser in this thread is a much better choice for what we, in general, do.

I wasn’t willing to have so much weight over the front end. Also as we have repeatedly mentioned ULSD isn’t really something you can get down south. At least not yet.

 

[kfvintx]

Bringing an old post back. I just got weighed yesterday with the camper on and thought I'd share for anyone else it may help:

W/O Camper (no people, full fuel):
- Front axle: 4340 lbs
- Rear axle: 3500 lbs
- Total: 7840 lbs

With Camper (no people, full fuel, 30 gallons (200 lbs) water)
- Front axle: 4380 lbs
- Rear axle: 6140 lbs
- Total: 10520 lbs

This is almost right where I thought I would land weight wise for the camper except I'm much more a$$ heavy than I expected or desire. The fact that adding the camper only brought the front axle up by 40 lbs really surprised me. I'm experiencing what I figured out is called porpoising. It was pretty bad at first when the rear shocks were set at full soft and I had forgotten to bring the tire air pressure up for the weight. Adjusting to full firm in the rear and bringing up tire pressure helped. Filling the water tank (forward of rear axle) and fuel tank also helped some.

I talked with the folks at AccuTune this morning and have decided to send the shocks back to be re-tuned now that we know vehicle specific weights and driving characteristics. Fingers crossed this helps the situation. For reference, I have Carli front springs (2.5 inch lift), Deaver rear springs, King 2.5 non-adjustable up front, and King 2.5 adjustable in the rear. Truck sits dead level with the camper on. Ride over rough roads is great. It sucks up everything. Expansion joints set off the porpoising pretty good though and oddly porpoising sets up around 30 mph on relatively smooth residential roads. I don't understand that phenomena.

Stay tuned ....

I'd be curious if you load some additional weight on front axle (basket on front bumper somehow??; don't recall your exact setup) if the porpoising goes away. Do you notice this on all roads with expansion joints? I only ask because I had this when towing my boat (similar load to rear of truck vs front) and would happen only on certain roads at certain speeds. It was explained that the spacing of expansion joints and speed would cause this effect within a certain window of rhythm caused by the spacing and speed. Interested to hear what you find out and how you solve it.

 

[TRAMPER]

EXCITING….


For anyone who cares it looks like Victron just released a new DC/DC Charger. Called the Orion XS.

This is a 50A charger that is actually significantly SMALLER and lighter than the 30A that came in my Supertramp and they can still be doubled up on!!!!!

Which means, I can ditch my 30A charger than came from the factory and add two 50A chargers more than tripling my charge rate and still having all the Victron integration.

In my head I’ll need to run a new much heavier cable from my battery back to the rear of the truck. Probably install a new heavier Anderson plug/ whip to go into the camper. Bring the single 100A cable to a fuse block and split it to the two new 50A DC/DC chargers than off to the battery bank.

I’m not saying I’m doing this tomorrow (they aren’t even for sale yet) but it seems like a great way to stick with Victron components while boosting the charge rate for the batteries from 360W to 1200W which seems MUCH more appropriate for a 400Ah battery bank.

@Chadx I’m sure you’ll look into this farther as you planned on upgrading the battery system yourself. Thoughts?

I’m sure I’ll make this improvement at some point. I do want to give the ST a chance as ordered first though.

Either way if you can’t tell I’m pretty excited about this. Seems like it’ll be more than enough power for my use.

 

[PJPVI]

EXCITING….


For anyone who cares it looks like Victron just released a new DC/DC Charger. Called the Orion XS.

This is a 50A charger that is actually significantly SMALLER and lighter than the 30A that came in my Supertramp and they can still be doubled up on!!!!!

Which means, I can ditch my 30A charger than came from the factory and add two 50A chargers more than tripling my charge rate and still having all the Victron integration.

In my head I’ll need to run a new much heavier cable from my battery back to the rear of the truck. Probably install a new heavier Anderson plug/ whip to go into the camper. Bring the single 100A cable to a fuse block and split it to the two new 50A DC/DC chargers than off to the battery bank.

I’m not saying I’m doing this tomorrow (they aren’t even for sale yet) but it seems like a great way to stick with Victron components while boosting the charge rate for the batteries from 360W to 1200W which seems MUCH more appropriate for a 400Ah battery bank.

@Chadx I’m sure you’ll look into this farther as you planned on upgrading the battery system yourself. Thoughts?

I’m sure I’ll make this improvement at some point. I do want to give the ST a chance as ordered first though.

Either way if you can’t tell I’m pretty excited about this. Seems like it’ll be more than enough power for my use.

I have the 30 amp in my build and I'm optimistic together with the solar will be plenty with 400ah of batteries. I'll be somewhat electricity dependent on this build with electric water heater and induction cooktop (and my wife's Kureg!) being big consumers. Of course the van had a microwave that this build doesn't (I think I'm going to miss it...). I'll know so much more after this first trip.

Thanks for the info.

 

[PJPVI]

I'd be curious if you load some additional weight on front axle (basket on front bumper somehow??; don't recall your exact setup) if the porpoising goes away. Do you notice this on all roads with expansion joints? I only ask because I had this when towing my boat (similar load to rear of truck vs front) and would happen only on certain roads at certain speeds. It was explained that the spacing of expansion joints and speed would cause this effect within a certain window of rhythm caused by the spacing and speed. Interested to hear what you find out and how you solve it.

That would be a good test but I just pulled and boxed up the shocks to send to Accutune. They come out much quicker than they go in!

Expansion joints are particularly bad but understandable. The ~30 mph oscillation on relatively smooth residential roads is the baffling one to me.

Hopefully a retune helps and doesn't hurt the problem.

 

[TRAMPER]

I have the 30 amp in my build and I'm optimistic together with the solar will be plenty with 400ah of batteries. I'll be somewhat electricity dependent on this build with electric water heater and induction cooktop (and my wife's Kureg!) being big consumers. Of course the van had a microwave that this build doesn't (I think I'm going to miss it...). I'll know so much more after this first trip.

Thanks for the info.

Hmmmmm…. I’m afraid my 30A DC/DC and 15A of solar is woefully small for my 400Ah battery bank lol….

Time will tell, like I mentioned I want to try the ST how it came but I like the option of more power. It doesn’t look like it would be too expensive for me to make it more powerful if I wanted.

Heck your setup could be doubled by just adding a second 30A charger identical to the one you have if you decide you need more. Victron stuff is very scalable.

 

[PJPVI]

Hmmmmm…. I’m afraid my 30A DC/DC and 15A of solar is woefully small for my 400Ah battery bank lol….

Time will tell, like I mentioned I want to try the ST how it came but I like the option of more power. It doesn’t look like it would be too expensive for me to make it more powerful if I wanted.

Heck your setup could be doubled by just adding a second 30A charger identical to the one you have if you decide you need more. Victron stuff is very scalable.

I keep thinking the truck camper build is lightyears ahead of what I had in the van (electrically speaking) and I did fine with the van setup for 17 years.

Time will tell ....

 

[TRAMPER]

I keep thinking the truck camper build is lightyears ahead of what I had in the van (electrically speaking) and I did fine with the van setup for 17 years.

Time will tell ....

So while I agree. And I’m not trying to convince you of anything I promise, just justifying my own thought process.

2024 just isn’t 2007 as much as I wish it was, hell it’s not even 2018. Covid changed the world and my life, for the better thankfully.

My wife left her previous job that was an 80 mile round trip commute for a new job that pays twice as much and is 100% remote. I’ve built up a lot of seniority at my job and currently have 5 weeks of vacation plus 7 personal days, in another 2 years I’ll have 6 weeks.

All that means is now I’m free to travel anywhere for much much longer amounts of time. Previously we had gotten away up to 3 weeks at once but now we are able to do a month or more or several long trips a year, but only if my wife can work from the road. Her job offers her “unlimited” vacation but she still has responsibilities to get done and if she left for a month she would be miserable.

When we built the truck we made sure it had 120v outlet in the cab and ordering the Ram Mount swivel laptop stand for her to work off of was one of our first purchases. Now when we are bombing across the whole country for 3 or 4 days she can work the entire time which maximizes our actual vacation time.

We had Supertramp install Starlink (that works while we drive). Air conditioning, and a 1500W inverter.

All this is to say the only reason we need more power now than we used to is because we can travel longer together thereby enhancing our experience.

I’ve said this before but if I was a single guy, I would be in a Tacoma with a GFC on it, single solar panel on the roof and a midsized GoalZero for power. That’s probably it.

I’m a ways from being retired and my wife even longer so. So the large power bank and faster charging just lets us go out for longer.

I know no one on here cares about my personal life but that’s just my justification for going big.

It is funny sometimes when we reflect back to the good old days, I used to camp in the back of my Jeep XJ, cook on a Coleman stove and I was probably happier for it. All these modern amenities don’t enhance my experience but they do allow me to share it with my wife.

I would also say that peoples style of travel greatly dictate their power needs. Christoph seems to be more stationary as he’s trying to get a work week in, there for he ramped his solar WAY up. People who move a lot DC/DC is going to be more important and if the drive is long 30A isn’t too bad.

My fear is mostly around having to use the air conditioner but I really think that’ll be more on the rare occasion than anything.

Anyway…. Long story short the Supertramp is very well designed but as they began to up the battery bank sizes they didn’t follow up with by changing the charging systems at all. I’m almost certain they will be upgrading chargers to match the larger batteries as I think the demand is quite high.

The way I see it if I ran my batteries down to 50% with only the 30A charger it would take almost 7 hours of drive time to fill them back up. That’s just too slow.

The entire battery bank is 400Ah or 4800Wh at a charging rate of 360W it’s over 13 hours for a full charge.

That same 4800Wh charging at 1200W (2 50A chargers) would cut that time down to only 4 hours for a full 0-100% charge. And 2 hrs to fill 50% back up. It’s just options I guess.

I also really like the idea of 2 DC/DC chargers so if one was to fail the second would still offer charging.

I think I’ve rambled on long enough, again this isn’t to convince you or anyone else of anything other than me explaining my own thought process.

 

[gmoon]

@TRAMPER or anyone else.. If anyone has Victron questions or orders feel free to ask here or in a DM. Perhaps Ill even start a thread.

Im a Victron Distributor that purchases annually several tremors worth of blue goodness. Happy to help.

Yes, the new Orion XS. Thankfully it is finally here. The Buckboost 100A was another great DC/DC but they have been pretty much unobtainable for the past 24 months in anticipation of this XS. We normally run 2x 30A Orions in customer vans if they are unable to fund a 280A dedicated alternator but 60A of DC/DC for any battery banks over 300Ah (in my personal opinion) is not ideal. Being able to run get 100A via 2x Orion XCs is a big improvement without the cost of complexity of dedicated alternator.

We opted for Lithionics ACR for our Lithionics batteries as we should be getting approx 200A at highway speeds, and the ACR was something like $150.00. Unfortunarely though, Lithionics will not sell to non-lithionics lithium owners... :/

 

[TRAMPER]

@TRAMPER or anyone else.. If anyone has Victron questions or orders feel free to ask here or in a DM. Perhaps Ill even start a thread.

Im a Victron Distributor that purchases annually several tremors worth of blue goodness. Happy to help.

Yes, the new Orion XS. Thankfully it is finally here. The Buckboost 100A was another great DC/DC but they have been pretty much unobtainable for the past 24 months in anticipation of this XS. We normally run 2x 30A Orions in customer vans if they are unable to fund a 280A dedicated alternator but 60A of DC/DC for any battery banks over 300Ah (in my personal opinion) is not ideal. Being able to run get 100A via 2x Orion XCs is a big improvement without the cost of complexity of dedicated alternator.

We opted for Lithionics ACR for our Lithionics batteries as we should be getting approx 200A at highway speeds, and the ACR was something like $150.00. Unfortunarely though, Lithionics will not sell to non-lithionics lithium owners... :/

If you don’t mind we can keep this conversation here for now. Though a dedicated Victronics thread might be interesting. I’d say most of the people that would use such a thing are on this thread though.

So i watched a video on the new XS, is WAY smaller and lighter. If it was you how would you wire it up in a camper?

What wire size from the the hood to the back is the truck, what breaker would you use under the hood? What connector would you use from the chassis to the camper? What fuse block would you use to land the big cable? What wire would you use to go to the two single 50A chargers?

I think that’s it? I’d obviously like to buy the stuff from you assuming the price is reasonable IE the same or less than everyone else lol.

This is my current setup…. The new chargers are smaller and thinner so I might even be able to build a bracket and stack two of them. But this is behind a panel that hinges up and cover everything.

Thanks in advance.

Oh one more thing. I see the new one isn’t isolated (yet) do you think it’s worth waiting for an isolated version?

Thank you for all your knowledge!!