BeefCake's build...a roll your own Earthroamerish family expo rig

lostih

Observer
From Hyder we really started turning for home. We had planned to do some camping in the Fraser river valley but it was super Smokey so we opted to head through whistler instead. It was a gorgeous drive but unfortunately entirely socked in with smoke. We spent a night at the campground just south of town and then made for home. One last fuel stop North of Seattle and we were home

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lostih

Observer
Trip Summary

So we drove 8,407 miles on this trip. It was an absolutely amazing experience. Many people have asked what my favorite part of the trip was. I’d have to say the best part of the trip was just being together as the four of us without a ton of distractions. Don’t get me wrong...the scenery was amazing, but we just really enjoyed the rhythm of traveling together with the camper. We were ready to keep going . It’s good to be home too but we all agreed we were just as happy on the road living in our box.

So here are my lessons learned thoughts in no particular order. If you have any questions about the setup, trip, or anything really just ask here and I’ll give you my thoughts.

1. MPG’s...I only checked a couple times by hand to see how accurate my lie o meter on the dash was. It was within 10% it appeared and doing the conversion of liters in Canada got old. All that said I think I was around 10-10.5 mpg for the trip.

2. We were heavy. 15,400 with our gear fuel and kids. If wishes were fishes I’d like to be at 10,000. It would make rig design so much easier. This will be my goal for the next build. Light.

3. Slide. AWESOME! Our camper is huge inside with the slide out. Simply incredible. I know it’s not Siberia ready, but I’d trade the 5% of places I may not take it for the 100% more comfort for a family of 4 to travel in. Oh yeah...here’s a tour my kiddo did for those curious about the rig:
4. Composting toilets are awesome! No regrets on rolling my own crapper. Emptied the urine jug daily (super easy) and emptied the solids twice on the six week trip with four of us using it. We used sawdust and it worked great. No odor. Not gross to empty. I just dumped it in pit toilets along the way. See earlier in the thread for my version. For $50 vs $1000 you won’t see me ordering a factory built one anytime soon. Building a composting outhouse now for the farm.

5. People who boondock and travel are largely my kind of people. We met people from all over the world and had great impromptu fires to hang out at.

6. Run what ya brung. Don’t get sucked into making your rig perfect before you go. Just go. I love the design build phase, but that’s usually a somewhat solitary endeavor. Traveling gets you our engaged with creation and people. Just go.

7. We all over build. We could have gone everywhere we went on this trip in a normal camper and two wheel drive stock truck. We couldn’t have done it as fast and we wouldn’t have gotten to all the campsites we went to, but if it’s what ya got see number 6!

8. Do an alignment when you get new tires. I meant to and then forgot about it until my Tires started wearing funny. Checked the tow and it was way out of spec. I pretty much ruined a tire in about 10k miles.

9. Mpt81’s. I’d say they are fine. If I had unlimited dinero I’d get the Goodyear g275’s or whatever they are. I like driving fast and I’m constantly weighing whether to slow down to not wear them excessively fast or not. It appears my fears have about .4” of tread and the new spare has .55” of wear. I don’t think it’s fair to check the fronts as they weren’t aligned. Also, these got noiser as they broke in. They are still relatively quiet but I don’t need a mud tire 98% of the time so I’d be fine with a less aggressive tread. Oh my axle weights were 2730 kg front and 4270 kg rear roughly.

10. Super singles. They look awesome. I had zero issues with my wheel adapters. However, there are few setups that really maintain load ratings if you are as heavy as I ended up. If I can pull off a lighter rig next time that would open up a ton of wheel options. I wish there was a taller, more aggressive dually setup that could be put on these trucks with factory wheels. My setup worked well but it’s big. It’s not subtle.

11. I’d like more water capacity. We had 40 gallons, but room for another 60 gallon tank. For more rural camping I’d want an additional 60 for our family.

12. Propane in North America is easy, cheap and makes building a camper a lot more affordable. We loved our propane fridge and on demand hot water heater. For us propane was easy.

13. My inverter is too small. I bought a magnum 600w off Craigslist right before we left. Worked fine but wife wanted to run an instant pot which would have been slick...so I should get a bigger one next time.

14. The simple plans for isolating and charging the house batteries using a solenoid that are outlined here work great. We never had issues with our batteries.

15. Take a nice camera...but not too nice. I bought a $600 Sony A6000 with two lenses before we left. It was awesome. It takes decent pictures and videos and isn’t so large as to be obnoxious or obtrusive.

Those are the lessons that come to mind at the moment. I’m sure I’ve forgotten many others but as they come to me I’ll post.

I’m ready to start another build
 

lostih

Observer
Awesome build and trip. I'd like to hear how the airbag front suspension is working out. Also your running the 41" Conti's with just 1.5" lift and a bit of sheetmetal massaging and your modified fender flares? Do you think the OEM front bumper would pose issues with fitting them?

When you were at buckstop getting your bumper did you see any of their single wheel conversion 4500/5500 rigs/kits?

Thanks
-Chris

Hey Chris-

Air suspension is working well. It’s pretty adjustable for ride height so not sure where my lift is at. I’m guessing the front bumper might be an issue but it wasn’t on with the big meats ever. I didn’t see any super singles at buckstop. I’d highly recommend the modified flares route. I think they look great and do close to the same thing as the aev ones for much less $$.

Andy
 

java

Expedition Leader
Thanks for all the insight! My thoughts are quite similar to yours.

Are you thinking of ditching what you have and building something lighter?

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lostih

Observer
Thanks for all the insight! My thoughts are quite similar to yours.

Are you thinking of ditching what you have and building something lighter?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I’m toying with the idea. We’ve decided that we won’t be traveling next summer so I’m two years out from the next possible big trip so thinking of selling this package and stewing for a while. We have some big projects coming up on the farm so I won’t have much build time anyways . I really could t be happier with how it turned out, just love the build process so would like to do it again
 

java

Expedition Leader
Thanks for all the insight! My thoughts are quite similar to yours.

Are you thinking of ditching what you have and building something lighter?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I’m toying with the idea. We’ve decided that we won’t be traveling next summer so I’m two years out from the next possible big trip so thinking of selling this package and stewing for a while. We have some big projects coming up on the farm so I won’t have much build time anyways . I really could t be happier with how it turned out, just love the build process so would like to do it again
I love to build too! But I'm not letting mine go any time soon!!

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Fatboyz

Observer
I've been wondering about your route with wheels and tires. I'm in the early stages of my 550 build and am leaving front suspension to last to see how weight is and height and tire decision. I replaced the rear spring packs with heavy duty 8000 a side. I'm toying with MRAP and 335 80 20 like you. I will be using mine for a lot of mud and snow in the fall for hunting. If I stay with the 19.5" I just saw a brand new Toyo test tire that's not even listed on their website yetand quite aggressive in a 245 70 19.5. The cost for 6 is $4800.00 and I need 7! The conti MPT 81's are 3800 for 5 and 350.00/MRAP here plus 80.00/adapter so not tons more. If you could do it over would you stay with the stock wheels? I have time to decide as I won't be ready for new tires until next year when I'm done building.
 

java

Expedition Leader
I've been wondering about your route with wheels and tires. I'm in the early stages of my 550 build and am leaving front suspension to last to see how weight is and height and tire decision. I replaced the rear spring packs with heavy duty 8000 a side. I'm toying with MRAP and 335 80 20 like you. I will be using mine for a lot of mud and snow in the fall for hunting. If I stay with the 19.5" I just saw a brand new Toyo test tire that's not even listed on their website yetand quite aggressive in a 245 70 19.5. The cost for 6 is $4800.00 and I need 7! The conti MPT 81's are 3800 for 5 and 350.00/MRAP here plus 80.00/adapter so not tons more. If you could do it over would you stay with the stock wheels? I have time to decide as I won't be ready for new tires until next year when I'm done building.
Add another $60 a wheel for hardware. For the adapter plates, and your track width will be funky... Not ideal in mud and snow. I'm battling thr same issue....

Details on said tire???


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chris_the_wrench

Fixer & Builder of Things
I've been wondering about your route with wheels and tires. I'm in the early stages of my 550 build and am leaving front suspension to last to see how weight is and height and tire decision. I replaced the rear spring packs with heavy duty 8000 a side. I'm toying with MRAP and 335 80 20 like you. I will be using mine for a lot of mud and snow in the fall for hunting. If I stay with the 19.5" I just saw a brand new Toyo test tire that's not even listed on their website yetand quite aggressive in a 245 70 19.5. The cost for 6 is $4800.00 and I need 7! The conti MPT 81's are 3800 for 5 and 350.00/MRAP here plus 80.00/adapter so not tons more. If you could do it over would you stay with the stock wheels? I have time to decide as I won't be ready for new tires until next year when I'm done building.

I'm curious about those new toyos you saw. I ran the M608z 265/70r19.5 on my truck for almost 100k miles(I re-grooved them once). They wore like iron, but I was not thrilled with their mud/snow performance. I live in rural Western Oregon where mud is a constant 6-7 months a year and I travel into the snowy regions for weeks on end.


-Chris
 

lostih

Observer
I'm curious about those new toyos you saw. I ran the M608z 265/70r19.5 on my truck for almost 100k miles(I re-grooved them once). They wore like iron, but I was not thrilled with their mud/snow performance. I live in rural Western Oregon where mud is a constant 6-7 months a year and I travel into the snowy regions for weeks on end.


-Chris

I’d stay away from the mrap wheels. The offset is just too hard to work out I think. If you do go that route you can get much better pricing on the MPT’s. I paid $385 a piece for mine brand new shipped of eBay. Seller was a tire shop on east coast with some sort of deal on them. Shipped to the local terminal in pdx for $250 I think.

I’m very pleased with my setup for the weight of truck that I have. But the Stryker wheels were key for me liking this set up. I think my front to rear track is within an inch.

If you can keep your rig lighter by 2000 lbs or so I think there are more options in light truck category. I was tempted by the m608’s as well but they were pretty pricey and I really wanted the overdrive of bigger meats. As far as suspension goes...I think reality is either air suspension with truck tires or flotation Tires and stock springs will make the trucks ride fine when loaded. My truck spends a lot of time unloaded so I like having both...though I wished I had stiffer rear springs when loaded.
 

Fatboyz

Observer
I'm curious about those new toyos you saw. I ran the M608z 265/70r19.5 on my truck for almost 100k miles(I re-grooved them once). They wore like iron, but I was not thrilled with their mud/snow performance. I live in rural Western Oregon where mud is a constant 6-7 months a year and I travel into the snowy regions for weeks on end.


-Chris

I’d stay away from the mrap wheels. The offset is just too hard to work out I think. If you do go that route you can get much better pricing on the MPT’s. I paid $385 a piece for mine brand new shipped of eBay. Seller was a tire shop on east coast with some sort of deal on them. Shipped to the local terminal in pdx for $250 I think.

I’m very pleased with my setup for the weight of truck that I have. But the Stryker wheels were key for me liking this set up. I think my front to rear track is within an inch.

If you can keep your rig lighter by 2000 lbs or so I think there are more options in light truck category. I was tempted by the m608’s as well but they were pretty pricey and I really wanted the overdrive of bigger meats. As far as suspension goes...I think reality is either air suspension with truck tires or flotation Tires and stock springs will make the trucks ride fine when loaded. My truck spends a lot of time unloaded so I like having both...though I wished I had stiffer rear springs when loaded.



I'll stop by the tire shop and see If they still have those Toyo's, I thought they were an M555? but I could be wrong. Also on Tire prices I'm in Canada and tires and Wheels are way more expensive!! I was going to phone Buckstop and see what a set of wheels and flares cost. Also we have to add almost 30% for exchange!
 

Darwin

Explorer
If you can keep your rig lighter by 2000 lbs or so I think there are more options in light truck category.
Curious about what options in the light truck catagory are available?

I would need to run singles for the ability to air down on bad washboard roads in Baja so singles are a must.

The highest load rating I have seen in a light duty single tire is 4000 lbs.

If my camper weighed in at 5000 lbs I think I would be over the weight rating of any light duty tire.
 

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