After formulating an idea to replace our loved 2013 Ford F450 Pepé with a new truck, it all came together while we have been visiting Yuma, AZ. We reevaluated our free-wheeling lifestyle on the road and we concluded that we are still loving the excitement, the freedom, the joy of visiting people, places and things. So much so, that we decided to replace our truck and address a few lingering issues. The result is a 2018 Ram 5500 Chassis Cab with a custom aluminum western hauler bed, which we have named Romeo (the Ram).
The main issues we had with Pepé were two fold; some of our weight capacities were right at limits (no margin), and we had no engine braking whatsoever. These two situations were the two highest priority requirements. We decided since we are looking forward to 10 or 20 more years on the road, or whatever the Good Lord will give us, that resetting the warranty on the tow vehicle was also not a bad thing. Romeo did all that for us.
Below is the first picture that we captured upon our arrival at Sahara Ram in Las Vegas. Pepé is in the foreground, Gari is already getting her first look at Romeo right behind. As we traveled north from Yuma last year we started to visit Ford and Ram dealers along the way. Our first stop was in Utah. Later we found a Ford and Ram dealer in Billings, Montana just down the street from each other. It was there we chose the Ram. We got a test drive with a 2017 F550 and a 2017 Ram 5500. We took each out of town to the same large hill grade and put the turbo exhaust brakes to the comparison test. Since this was the number one requirement, this was a most important test. Our almost 24,ooo lb trailer really pushed Pepé down the larger grades. That caused us to hit the truck and trailer brakes and would they get hot! Not good! For the results of the exhaust brake comparison test, it was our opinion that there was no contest. The Ram performed with outstanding engine braking, but the Ford was much less than impressive. We could hardly tell if the Ford was getting any engine drag or not. The Ram threw us forward in our seats. As we traveled around we also visited and spoke with several fabrication shops that could possibly fabricate a custom hauler bed. We visited and spoke with dealers and fab shops in Utah, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Indiana. What a project this has been. We ended up ordering the Ram out of the Las Vegas Ram dealership and the hauler bed and custom upfits from Utility Bodywerks of Elkhart, Indiana.
Gari takes her first walk around Romeo. Romeo is also a 6.7L Diesel just like Pepé only it's a Cummins which means that it is an Inline 6-cylinder rather than a V-8 like the Ford. Also since the Ram 5500 is sold as a commercial vehicle the engine is detuned for emission purposes. The Ford had 4oo Horsepower and 800 ft-lb of Torque while Romeo has 325 Horsepower and 750 ft-lb of Torque.
Gari inspects the seldom seen passenger side of Romeo. Romeo increases our weight and towing capacities over the Ford. Romeo has a 19,000 GVWR vs 14,000 in the Ford. Our towing capacity increased from 24,700 lbs to 29,670 lbs, this is good for our 23,000 lb 5th wheel trailer.
Gari tests the fold down bed stirrups. That gal knows her way around the stirrups! Romeo increases our Rear GAWR from 9,650 lbs to 13,500 lbs which was one of the specs we were maxing out in our truck trailer configuration.
Now the rest of the delivery story... the picture below you see our sales manager walking out the front door of the dealership. Coincidentally enough this picture captured the dent in the hood that we did not see until we were 60 miles south of town. This was about the 10th picture we snapped within 3 minutes of arriving.
Sitting in the driver's seat looking out the windshield the dent is very visible. It's about 3 inches across.
Fortunately the dent isn't all that visible from the side. The dealership is going to pay for a Paintless Repair, which is the recommended repair for damage such as this, especially on the hood.
Romeo takes an early trip to the grocery store in Yuma.
This day Gari is working on the trailer lights and camera hookups. Upon first check we had only 2 of five cameras working. We discovered unseated connectors installed in the front center console. The trailer lights worked first check.
We have 3 bulkhead connector jacks installed in the fender wall in the rear of the bed. The front two connectors are for the 3 trailer cameras, the other two cameras are in the truck and direct wired. One is the factory backup camera and the other is the hitch camera. The hitch camera is new to us and will help us when we hook the trailer up. The rear connector is for the trailer lights and brake controls.
The camera bulkhead connectors have special round pins which are a bit different from the standard trailer connector which has flat "pins". We isolated a problem on the trailer rear view camera to this connector. We recently received a replacement and will swap that out very soon to complete the camera checkout. That was a 3 week process!
In the picture below you can see the hitch camera, which is mounted on the auxiliary diesel fuel tank bung lid.
Below is a closer in view of the hitch camera.
The picture below shows the work in progress on the rear camera bulkhead connectors and a finished product of an installed brake controller adapter module. We installed an on/off switch with the brake adapter module and choose to install it in the truck rather than the customary trailer location. We did this because we did not have a good spot in the trailer and the switch tells the truck there is no trailer when in the off position. This is important because the truck accumulates miles towing the trailer, which is an easy way to keep track of trailer maintenance milestones for tires, bearings, brakes and such.
On the day below we decided to install the roof racks and test fit the kayaks up there. We are getting closer to the first test pull with Romeo!
The shot below has the front lead lines secured and everything seems to fit well.
We have taken several rides with the kayaks up top, including on the Interstate and everything stayed put very well. We added some foam to the front and rear lead lines to prevent fraying of the ropes and rub marks on the paint.
In the back of the truck we have the high running/brake/turn lights (Red) and work lights (White) wired to an upfitter switch. On the rear fenders we have nice large running/brake/turn lights mounted low and the reverse lights are white on the bumper plus a light bar in the center. All of these lights are LED. The auxiliary diesel fuel tank carries 61 gallons in addition to the OEM tank of 52 gallons. That should be way more fuel than we will ever use in one day. This way we can refuel at our convenience and when we see the best price. One other feature we love is the storage compartments in the bed. The front two compartments have a propane tank clamp and will be where we carry our two 20-lb propane tanks. We can't wait to hook up and pull. We are hopeful that will be accomplished by next week.
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