I downloaded the measurements for my truck bed from the RAM web site and sat down to design my camper. The first trouble I ran into was that the bed of a 6.5' RAM is not square. With my plans in hand I sat about the task of building it. I went down to the local lumber yard and purchased my first load of wood for the project. I decided to use pressure treated wood for the bottom supports and Cedar for the frame.
I took the bottom two 2x8 pressure treated boards out to my truck and clamped them onto my truck bed to be sure they were positioned correctly then screwed temporary board across them to hold them in place. Then took them back into the garage and started cutting, screwing, and glueing my camper frame together.
I used long #10 deck screws to hold the lumber in place along with lots and lots of glue.
Once I had the frame roughed together I used cheep 3/8" plywood to cover it with. This will be a mistake. I should have splurged for more expensive wood.
The back piece of plywood is 3/4".
You can see all of the knot holes and defects in the cheep plywood. All of these would need to be filled. I cheeped out again and used regular Bondo instead of the fancy wood version as it was much more expensive.
I spent several weeks applying then sanding Bondo. Then I applied a wood filler to the entire structure. I then spent several more weeks filling, sanding, primer painting and repeating. Every time I thought I had it nice and smooth, the grain of the cheep plywood would stand up again. I think I ended up with about 12 coats of primer on the camper. Then I applied some nice boat top deck gloss white paint to the outside.
In between coats of paint I started on the inside. I used 1.5" foam sheets that I construction glued between the frame members.
After a bit of shopping I found I did not like any of the wood paneling I was finding at the lumber yard. I thought about using the cheep laminate flooring or some fancy tongue and grove cedar. But, the price started to go way up. So, I purchased some more 2x4 cedar and had at it with my saw cutting into thin strips that I could glue to the inside. I found that construction glue would not work for this as the moisture content would warp the thin slats even after they were sealed. Good old contact cement wound up working just fine.
Once this was done I was ready to install the camper toper vent(Amazon), windows(eBay), and door. The door I had custom built at https://www.challengerdoor.com. The sales rep Stacy was very patient and took good care of me. Awesome door!
I wired in some USB ports with built in DC-DC converters at the front and back of the camper to power lights and other electronics. I found a 7way trailer connector on Amazon with a break out box to access the wiring. Found some cheep LED lights bars to augment the trucks rear lights.
Finally I was ready to mount it on my truck with a set of Murphy camper jacks. I removed the tailgate of my truck and hoisted it onto my truck. It went on nice and smoot. I used 8 clamps to attach it to the bed of my truck. It fit perfect. Then disaster struck. I was cleaning the windows and closed one a bit too hard and it shattered. So, I order up another window from eBay and was just going to swap out the broken part. But, the window would not come out of the new frame once it was assembled. It was too wide. It should have come out after removing the spacers at the top and bottom but, the window was 1/8" too big to come out. So, I had to remove the entire old frame and put in the new one. The old one did not want to come out. I could not even get a knife blade in-between the camper side and the window. After much prying I was able to get it out. Along with a lot of paint and wood. Again the cheep wood failed me leaving large chunks ripped off the side. I had to take the camper back off the truck and go back to the sanding and Bondo phase. :( Then repainting the side with three more coats of paint.
On the plus side my decal kits arrived and having the camper off of the truck made installing these much easier.
After watching several YouTube videos on how to apply vinyl decals I went for it. It was fairly straight forward. Then back onto the truck the camper went.
I made a couple of plywood boards to lay across the back for a bed. I placed several long strips across the bottom to make it stiffer. This will give me about 6' 5" of bed space. I found a nice 6" foam mattress on Amazon in a twin size that fits perfect.
I have some fun fabric for the curtains. I will update this when I have them finished.
This was a much bigger project than I had anticipated. If I were to do it again I would learn how to do fiberglass and put a coating of epoxy on the outside. I would also have purchased better plywood for the outside skin. It is sealed up very well as it is. I used several coats of the RV seal coat paint that they put on the roof of RVs on the top and around any seams that I felt may be compromised when driving down the road on a stormy night. All in all I am very happy with the results. My budget was to stay under $2000. I have not added it up yet but, I think I did. The most expensive parts were the door and windows. The Door was not too bad of a price but, the shipping was very expensive. Same with the windows. I started the project in January and finished in May.
Now, let's go camping!
