Travel Plans & Truck Modifications

For the last three winters we’ve taken our truck camper plus utility trailer setup to Baja for several months of exploring.  Our experiences have been so rich and rewarding but what was once a place that felt outside of our comfort zone is now a place of familiarity.  While Baja ranks at the top of our all-time favorite regions, we’re ready to get back to the unfamiliar, to exploring the unknown.  This winter our tentative plans are to spend a few months getting to know mainland Mexico and while we’re at it, possibly dip our tires into Central America.  While our truck camper + utility trailer combo has served us extremely well, we’ve decided that we’d rather not tow anything this winter.

A few of the reasons why we’re not interested in towing anything around Mexico and Central America:

• Ease of navigating narrow city streets
• Ease of parking in towns and cities
• Better gas mileage.  We anticipate a lot of steep mountain grades in Mexico.
• Less maintenance and repair needs

This decision has left us to figure out how we’re going to outfit just the truck with all the resources and provisions that we need and want.  For many years we’ve dreamt of marrying the functionality of the truck and utility bed trailer while eliminating the trailer.  Meaning, we’ve dreamt of putting a utility bed on the truck.  If only it was as easy as installing an off-the-shelf utility bed and calling it a day.  However, to fit the truck camper, a custom size utility bed is required.  

Mark has spent the last couple of months on a deep dive into researching all of our options, gathering details on cost, dependability, build times, build quality, etc.  Custom flat beds and utility beds have become quite popular as a truck camper platform the last few years and there are a ton of options on the market.  

A general idea of what we’re working towards:

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We ended up narrowing our choices for a custom bed to the following options:

• Largo Tank out of Farmington, NM
• Alum-Line out of Cresco, Iowa
• Bowen Customs out of Denver, CO
• DIY by sourcing all the individual pieces and putting it together ourselves (and when I say ourselves, I mean Mark)

The primary factors we were taking into consideration:

1. Cost 

Since delving into the world of custom flatbed configurations, we’ve learned that we could easily spend tens of thousands of dollars on this project, and many people do.  This was a hard pill to swallow.  We don’t have bottomless pockets and the more we spend modifying the truck, the less we have to spend on the actual travel, which is the entire point.  A $20,000 bed, for us, is equivalent to approximately 6+ months of travel expenses.  Further, Mark and I don’t love having nice things.  The nicer and more expensive of a possession, the more we feel anxiety around protecting it.  We want to be able to go to Mexico with a truck that is functional but not something we’re afraid to beat up.  We also consider worse-case scenario, if the truck was stolen or we had to walk away from it, the less money we have in it the better.  However, on the flip side, we need a bed that can handle the rough terrain we’ll inevitably put it through.  This is the balancing act we’ve had to consider when deciding how much we’d like to spend.

2. Delivery & Installation Timeframes

Timing of all this is a crucial piece for us.  With plans to cross the border into Mexico late fall/early winter, we needed a company that not only quoted a timeframe before that, but one that we felt confident would deliver on that promise.  We’ve heard too many stories of delays and didn’t want to get into a situation where we were ready to head south but were being held up by the production of our bed.  Further, we needed a company that could do the installation itself in a timely manner.  Largo Tank, a company that appears to make a great product, said they would need our truck on-site for weeks for measurements and fitting purposes.  Living on the road full-time means we can’t be without our truck for weeks on end.

3. Aesthetics

I’ll admit that I care more about aesthetics than Mark, though I try to not let it impact my decision-making too much.  There are some really slick looking beds out there, there are also plenty that look pretty janky.  I would love a truck build that we’re proud of and looks awesome in photos, Mark would like a truck that doesn’t look expensive or draw attention.  With any luck, we’ll land somewhere in the middle.

Weighing our options

If we could have paired the excellent customer service at Largo Tank with the cost and turnaround time of Alum-Line, the choice would have been easy; but that wasn’t the case.  Bowen Customs was out due to the cost as well as the longest delivery time at 6 months; though they make a gorgeous product.  

A stroke of good luck

While trying to weigh the pros and cons between Largo Tank and Alum-Line, Mark began feeling more drawn to the idea of piecing it together himself.  The same day that he was coming to that conclusion, a deal on a flatbed came up on Facebook Marketplace that couldn’t be beat.  The seller happened to have the same make, model, and color truck as us and was in search of a stock bed.  Not only were we able to work a partial trade but it meant not having to watch our stock bed rot somewhere on our property.  And as if the deal couldn’t get any sweeter, the seller had a shop with a lift to facilitate the bed swap. 

We ended up walking away with a flatbed that retails for 13k but only paid what any of the aforementioned companies would have charged for installation alone.  Basically, we got lucky.  It is said that luck is when preparation meets opportunity and that is exactly what this felt like.  

What’s next

This project is far from completion, the bed is really just the beginning.  We now have to decide on the boxes that will fill the space that’s been created by the flatbed.  (Which is so much more space than I ever imagined.). There are off-the-shelf boxes that won’t fill the space exactly but are cheaper.  There are custom boxes that our flatbed manufacturer makes that will fit the space almost perfectly but will cost us quite a bit more.  Lastly there’s the option of paying a local fabricator to make us boxes or create an enclosure to close off the space rather than go with boxes at all.  And another question mark remains about how we’ll get in and out of the camper.  We no longer have a bumper and the camper is now higher off the ground.  

How to build out the bed, among a long list of preventative maintenance projects, is what currently consumes Mark’s psyche.  I’m here on the sidelines cheering him on, eager to see how it all comes together.  There is still a lot to figure out but this project is well underway and we’re pretty stoked about it.  If it all comes together the way we’re hoping it will, we’re going to be well-equipped for our longest and most adventurous trip to date.