Cache The Camper a.k.a Ol' Heavy

My Original idea was to make an extremely light weight, fast truck for my dog Fin and I to do Baja runs for surf and Mammoth runs for snowboarding. My family owned a Chevy store so it made perfect sense for a ZR2 with a GFC. Keep it simple, stupid.  Pop a fridge/freezer, battery, air compressor, boards, spare tire, and go. I had my deposit in with GFC and now the wait was on. My brother could find me a ZR2 no problem.

A few months later I met Molly. A little smoke show who’s bohemian spirit stole my heart. I started showing her my concepts for a lightweight GFC build and told her of the adventures that await. While she was as enthusiastic as I for the adventure, my spartan design and the lack of amenities my GoFast build offered seemed to dull her glow for life on the road with me. As we took practice trips up the California coast in my CJ5 with our 70lbs GSP Fin we quickly concluded that space was nice, and AC was even nicer.

I started searching craigslist for campers and found a mint SixPac camper that was built for Baja by a true San Clemente surfer. It was a proper 8’ hardside on a 2000 regular cab 7.3 Ford, manual transmission, 33” tires ready for it all. Molly and I went and checked out the SixPac and it was perfect. Big bed, no toilet or interior shower, made slightly narrower than traditional Sixpac campers, boardracks up top. This camper was built for what we wanted to do. It was light weight for what it was and talking to the guy it had served its purpose well in Baja for years.

The GFC lightweight Colorado build was quickly seeming like the wrong rig. It was for sure the wrong rig if I wanted to get laid on these epic trips I was planning with Molly. Molly loved the SixPac camper but I knew we needed more space than the regular cab truck. The search was on for a new rig and a new style camper.

After hours and honestly days of research online I found Mario from AT Overland Equipment’sDodge build on Tread Magazine. A 2008 Ram 2500 with a Flatbed Four Wheel Camper on it (Pepe I think is what they call it). It looked perfect. I even reached out to Mario because he was renting it on Outdoorsy.com to see if we could take it for a spin. I picked his brain on what to build and he recommended a quadcab Dodge 2500 with the extra seats for the dog, 6.4’ bed, short wheel base 140”, solid axels, and the pre-DEF diesel engine for south of the boarder trips.

Molly and I quickly found a low mile 2009 Ram 2500 about an hour south of us in San Diego. We drove down and checked it out and bought it.

I was then on the search for a similar SixPac camper that we found in San Clemente but one that would fit in Dodges six foot bed. Not the most common camper combo. Fate would have it I found a six foot Cache Camper in Tuscan, AZ a week later for $1,800. I had to see it. It was in rough shape but for the price, it was worth the drive. He said he had a woman coming in the morning to check it out but if she didn’t show he’d sell it to me.

The woman was a no show so I had first crack at buying it. When I pulled up to the property I saw the camper front and center. To my surprise the owner popped right out the back door of the camper. He was living in it right there in the front of his parents property. The camper was in pretty rough shape and I felt guilty because I was evicting the dude from his current domicile. I just drove 7 hours to pick it up though so I bought it for $1,300.

The camper fit perfectly in the bed of the truck but I didn’t have proper tie downs. We tried to chain it down but apparently we didn’t do it correctly. 20 miles into the trip back to San Clemente I realized the camper was sliding out of the bed of the truck. It was a fucked situation. The metal support stand for the camper slid off the tailgate and was dragging on the freeway for at least 3 miles. The camper was two feet from the cab where we had initially set it in the truck bed. I had never had a camper. I had no idea what to do.

I pulled over and ditched the stand. I then started to jack the camper up to get it back in the bed. 3 of jacks worked, one broke on me. I jerry rigged a fix and got the camper back on the truck but couldn’t seem to tighten the chains enough to keep the camper from sliding. It slid about six inches from the cab which was better than the two feet previously.

Back on the road I got about 3 miles down highway 10 and my back left tire blew out, and my phones about to die. I call Molly and she sends a tow truck. My phone dies. Tow truck shows up and says he can’t tow me because the camper and truck are too heavy. He helps me put my spare on but informs me all my tires look fucked and he wouldn’t drive too far on them. I’m pissed, tired, frustrated and at this point acting and feeling pretty dumb.

Back on the 10 I continue heading for home at 45mph. Arizona has these shitty bridges about every 1/10 of a mile that bounce the camper around the bed. My eyes are frantically scanning from my left side mirror, to the road, to my rear view mirror, to the right side mirror watching for any dramatic shifts the camper makes. I’m expecting the camper to slide off at any moment. It finally shifts causing one of the jacks to scratch the shit out of the driver side bed. I started pulling over every 5 to 10 miles to check if the camper was sliding further off the bed of the truck and to my surprise it wasn’t really moving. I was sick of driving 45mph and paranoid to the max that this camper was going to slide off the truck into the middle of the freeway.

I finally cross into California and the roads just get shittier. The bounce and shakes of the camper seem to become more intense and worse. I continually debate whether to pull over and sleep, and wait until morning to drive home. If I drive in the morning and the camper falls off people will for sure smash into it. If I drive right now and it falls off no one is around. I can call CHP and report it and hopefully get it out of the road. Nothing is making sense. I’m fried. I bought this huge truck, and huge camper when I wanted was a small truck and a small camper. I started questioning myself and judgement.

I made it home with the camper.

The next morning I evaluated the damage to the side of the truck and the scratches aren’t as bad as I thought. I can figure out a fix. I go and get the camper properly secured. Molly thinks the camper is gross but partially sees what I saw so we start to clean and give it new life.

Molly not super stoked…yet.

We find some creepy mold growing. Can this kill us?

We find dry rot.

After stripping everything down, re-sealing, painting, and basic maintenance this thing is starting to look pretty rad.

I ordered a set of black steel wheels, and some new 33’s to give the truck a proper stance.

The first trip down to San O the rig gets a standing ovation. People pre and post surf were coming up and complimenting the build. It feels pretty good. We have an adventure rig with space, power, and A/C.