2022 Ram 1500 Rebel Boogielander Build

[ws6616]

What is Boogielander?

Boogielander is combination of two words: boogie and overland.

Boogie refers to the act of going fast through desert terrains, especially skipping through whoops, bumps, and dips. Catching air is not required, but strongly encouraged.

Overlander refers to people who participate in overlanding, which is an activity in which participants drive long distances to some remote locations to camp, and often off-road driving of various terrains is required. The process of getting there is a big part of “fun,” while destination is equally important. Modern overlanders are often associated as gear junkies or bougie campers, and I may or may not have the problem of carrying too much gears that I don’t use.

Combining the two concepts, it is easy to see what “boogielander” is: it is someone who enjoys overlanding and boogieing, and I will explain more on that later.

To see how I arrived at where I am today, you can read about my 4Runner build here and why I decided to let it go.

To save to get to the GFC build, you can read about the build here

Here’s an incomplete list of mods done prior to GFC (I just need time to create the images):

The plan was always to go GFC since I started the build in 2022, but funding was an issue at the time after all the mods. So I told myself I’d go GFC before summer of 2024, before my planned Alaska trip in September 2024. But one day, one of my customers at the shop expressed interest in my roof tent and before I knew it, hands were shaken and a verbal deal was made. So, I moved up my time table and found @redleader selling his.

After talking to some local guys and @redleader , I decided to buy Zach’s camper. Deal was made and arrangement made with GFC HQ for install, and here I am, sitting in my hotel room in Bozeman typing this up.

Really excited to start this journey and have inside access to the tent!

*If anyone’s looking for hotel stay in Bozeman, the Best Western Gran Tree Inn is great. Front Desk agent Autumn was really friendly and seems to know who GFC is lol

[ws6616]

Sorry in advance these two posts are so unorganized and poorly written. I’m too excited and too tired at the same time. It will get better I promise.

A little bit more background:

I came out to Bozeman from SoCal, took half off the week off to make the trip. That’s 16 hours drive one way but I spent one night in Provo, one night in Bozeman, and then last night will be in Cedar City before I make the last 6 or 7 hour drive back home.

Some pictures of the first 2 days of the trip:

Leaving home

Headinig up I-15 pass my playground - Barstow area

Crossing into Primm

This is the wrong week to pass by Vegas… construction on I-15 and SEMA. It was a mess

This is cheap by my standard…

Crossing into AZ near sunset

41F at Provo. Pretty cold lol

Day 2

Provo to Bozeman. I ended up not following a completely different route that’s not listed

Gas in Provo. Not bad but higher than I expected. I didn’t hunt for gas I just get whatever I could

North bound on I-15

This was the first time I see 18 wheelers taking any lane they please.

Clear sky at SLC

Crossed into Idaho

Welcome to Idaho sign

Crossed into MT.

Temp dropped and snow found on road in MT

18 MPG was the highest I got this whole trip with empty bed going 75-80 even on hill climbs.

I probably will be too excited to sleep tonight lol

[ws6616]

So on Friday morning I woke up, left the hotel, and headed to GFC HQ.

Arrived at 9AM right at my appointment time. @redleader was there already and we greeted each other. Then, they pulled his truck in to remove the camper from his truck. That whole process took no more than 5 minutes. We chatted while GFC did their thing.
Shortly after, they were done and redleader bid farewell.

While HQ was installing my camper, I walked around the showroom and looked at their displays.

My camper was in the air while being cleaned

prep work done, lowered to my truck.

installed!

drove all the way out here, gotta take a pic in front of HQ!

With camper fitted, time to head south.

Small town Bozeman. It kind of reminded me of my days in MI. Small town vibes. People much more friendly than west coast.

Overcast, better pick up my pace before it start to rain!

Clear sky, clear freeway, life’s good!

snow capped mountains

highest elevation registered for this trip

mpg went down so much with the camper. Later on I learned I was going against the wind coming back south.

restrom break.

back to SLC

And traffic…

UT at sunset is beautiful.

more desert susnet

Saturday I got home. nothing to write about that part of the trip lol because that’s the part I hated the most

[dmg5000]

Great tracking pics and descriptions. I live in SLC, and have traveled those same routes to SoCal and Montana frequently. I had to chuckle at the “back to SLC…and traffic” comments - that’s my daily grind to and from work.

[dmg5000]

And, good looking rig, before AND after the install.

[ws6616]

thanks!
That friday afternoon traffic was no fun. A lot more traffic than I anticipated!

[Vice_Chief]

Congrats! And long live the boogielander!!!

[ws6616]

Thanks!!

[ws6616]

Last weekend immediately after I return from my MT install trip I stopped at my friend’s place to install stabilizing brackets.

Before I got mine we had 2 GFCs in our group:

But the taco’s gone so now we’re down to 2 Rams with GFC.
Anyways, through our experiences with the Taco and the 2500, we found out that during high speed desert runs when going through whoops the rear end bucks around and momentum of this up and down travel shifts the camper. This is just physics and nothing we do to the suspension can prevent this bucking motion (the 2500 has Carli Dominator kit with Kings and proper leaf springs. the taco was on King and added-a-leaf, so not suspension issue) and as a result, the solution to camper shifting lies at the mating point between bed and camper.
The clamps GFC use are perfect. They keep the camper attached to the bed and prevents the left-right motion, however, there’s nothing that keeps the camper from moving forward and back along the bed. So we found some 90 degree brackets, drilled into the bed, and secure with nuts and bolts.

After a year’s of desert runs on the 2500 it’s proven this method solves the issue.

[ws6616]

This past weekend:

I started the weekend with an overdue oil change. Before I left for GFC HQ I only had about 1000 miles left before my 5k oil change interval, but for us doing any service or work before big trip is a big no no. So I just made sure the fluids were good and tires were inflated and setoff.

The Fumoto Valve is such a great addition. Keep the draining process nice and clean.

Then the wiring began:

I made a temporary mounting plate for the switches and fuse block. These were all stuff I used with my bed rack and RTT setup. I’m waiting for the shop’s fabricator to order some metal plates so I can cut them to the size I need and then do the swap.
I decided to use plywood for now and start wiring everything in because I needed a visual representation before I started to cut metal plate. Again, this is mickey mouse and messy but only temporary.

I also put the chase lights back on. These are 6 years old BD S2s that have been with me since the beginning. I had to cut and extend the harness but that was the easy part. The harder part was figuring out how to hide the wires without pinching them. I ended up routing the wires along the channel and looped them back in on the other side following the tubes.

Then installed some tent lights. These are truck bed led strips that I bought over a year ago but never used, that’s why there’s wire next to the right strip. I also thought I bought red leds and didn’t find out these are white till after I finished. Great! Now I gotta either take these out for reds or install red ones too.
I used the truck bed led strips because they’re just sitting in the garage and they come with a switch. So, the genius part of me hooked this to one of the switches at the panel for dual switch control. Now, I can turn the light off upstairs instead of having to go downstairs to turn the lights off. In addition, the lower floor switch acts as a master just in case the switch upstairs get toggled accidentally while the tent is closed.

Also installed cooking lights. These are takeoffs from before and I spent so much time cleaning up the tape residual and applying new 3M VHB that I should’ve just got new ones. Maybe next year or whenever I start attending shows.

Cleaned up the electrical panel a bit before calling it.

Propane tank went back in its original location.

[ws6616]

This week I made some improvements to what I did last week:

The wood panel was replaced with a metal one that I cut myself. This is the first time I did metalwork without using template or instruction, so basically means I eyeballed and freehanded everything.

If I was to do it again I’d probably use a different method of cutting to make the outside line more straight. If I was to make this to sell then for sure it’d be CNC-ed and powdercoated.

The panel started out as a scrap piece of metal plate that I found at the shop, sitting outside rusting away:

I marked the lines where I’d cut for the GFC mounts, and then after cutting I realized I cut off the wrong part… I followed my reference line instead of the cut line.
So I yeeted it across the shop and then went for a redo.

An hour later, I got the finished piece.

The result of freehand… the outside lines were wavy but maybe later down the line when I have more practice or learn how to use a plasma cutter I’ll give it a redo for more features.

Since this sits inside the GFC and is not a SEMA build, I just coated it with black paint. In a way, this is still a mock up and not something I’m 100% satisfied with. If the truck’s going to SEMA 2024 then for sure I’d get it CNC-ed and powdercoated.

I then installed the electrical components back in. My dumbass forgot to order the bolts and nuts for the Blue Sea stuff, so for now everything is VHB taped in place. VHB should hold, but I’ll add the nuts and bolts once they arrive on Tuesday.

So 4 hours after I started the panel finally went back in and is functional 100%.

I cut the slots for wires to pass through. Looking at it, I’ll slide the whole thing back a bit more when the electrical hardware arrive.

I also yanked out the bed light kit inside the tent and replaced it with RGBW

The light strips follow the entire tent for maximum light coverage and brightness.
I also installed a controller so I can control it with remote, and it also has a mic so it dances with music.
I will be doing the same for the camper area as well with another controller.

And the sheets arrived!

[ws6616]

Today I finished most of the things I had planned for “Stage 1” of the GFC:

Installed the overland softgoods foam

Installed the sheets

Started wiring the downstairs lights

Got the downstairs controller delivered so finished the project.

After burning my fingers at least 20 times I removed the VHB residues on the top

Loving the warm white

Also installed the starlink mount

[ws6616]

well today i edited the photos I took for the shakedown camping trip I did with my GFC over the weekend. Again, these are posted here before they go on my Instagram.

There are a few problems that I found immediately and need to be addressed as soon as possible:

1: Power and electrical
Problem: currently all the lights in the camper are powered by the starting battery. Although LEDs shouldn’t draw that much power, but power draw can be significant if used extensively. Plus the problematic stock starting battery doesn’t give me a lot of confidence. I am also planning to run a diesel heater as well so the power issue needs to be addressed. I also ran starlink for the night, had it on for about 8 hours. My Ecoflow system (3kw combined) went down 60% just running fridge and starlink. I think the problem is the dish was turning on the heating function too much due to the ambient temperature being around 30s.
Solution: I am adding a secondary battery (100ah deep cycle LiFEPO4) and pairing it with a DC-DC charger that has MPPT built in. That presents other problems too.

1-1:
Problem: camper secondary battery (house battery) charger is 50A, which is too much for ~10ft of travel distance for the 8AWG I installed previously.
Solution: replace 8AWG with 6AWG. I am going to attach the 6AWG to the 8AWG and pull so I can reroute it while replacing. 2 birds with 1 stone.

1-2:
Problem: Mounting of house battery and charger:
Solution: fabricating my own battery box and attach it to the bed rail and the plate I made the weekend before. Hopefully this requires minimum amount of work.

2: Tent/ camper Insulation
Problem: Camper and tent do not offer great insulation. Ambient temp was around 30s at night and I was inside the camper wearing a ski jacket. I ran propane heater but once the temperature got up and I turn it off the camper doesn’t have great heat retention.
Solution: instead of running propane heater, I will put together the diesel heater I got last year (finally) and run that instead. At least now I have multiple level of heater control instead of just low and high, and I don’t have to worry about carbon monoxide and condensation.

I will be running the diesel heater with the house battery instead of using EcoFlow to run it.

3: Charging
Problem: I replaced the DC-DC charger I have for the cab area for the EcoFlow. I went from 12/12 to 12/24, basically doubling the output so I can fully charge the Ecoflows (3kw) within one day of driving. I set the new charger to push out 30V, maxing it out. Then I tripped the fuse for the charger. Upon further investigation, I realized that pushing 450w out of the DC-DC charger requires more than 30A of fuse on the input side.
Solution: Solution 1 is to replace the 30A fuse on the input side with 40A and hope it solves the problem. If it doesn’t then solution 2 will be using a 40A circuit breaker that splits off the 8AWG that I ran into the cab. IF that still trips the breaker then I will try 50A. For now I downed it to 24V output pushing about 350W and all is good. So I have strong hope for 40A fuse will be able to handle 30V of output.

Overall, I am happy that I went on this shakedown one night trip to find all these problems. I wouldn’t have found these problems without actually putting it out there and field test everything!