*Truck Cap & Alt Energy for BOV*
There is probably nothing earth shatteringly new in this article about our
camping/BOV set-up, just maybe a few different angles. My wife & I have
enjoyed camping for years. We started with tents, moved to a pop-up camper and
now have opted for a cap on our 4x4 Dodge RAM with an attachable truck tent.
A bit of the history of this progression may be of interest. Tents are fine
for fair weather, but if you are waiting for fair weather in western NY you may
not camp at all, so we up-graded to the pop-up. This was great. It gave us a
hard top and greater interior space for those times of inclement weather. We
loved it! Only one problem, we decided that we really loved to take our boat for
fishing/camping trips, or our ATV for four wheeling camping trips. Here is a
news flash, it is not possible to tow both a pop-up and a boat trailer or ATV
trailer. So, we started looking for other options. We found a great truck bed
tent on the Internet and tried it out. It was great, but it didn't give us a
covered area for gear while in route like the pop-up did. About that time friends
found us a free truck cap that fit our truck bed. The cap allowed us to
transport gear under cover and also gave us a hard top over our heads in bad
weather. It is very difficult to get dressed for the day while lying down.
Another web search found us a specialized tent for use with trucks with caps. It
is a 10.5' x 10.5' tent with a snorkel that attaches to the back of the truck
cap. Now we have the added room we need.
We could have just tossed in an air mattress, or maybe a couple of cots. I
decided to build a raised platform for the bed. This is a hinged affair that
provides storage underneath and a platform large enough for a full sized futon
mattress. We enjoy warm comfortable bedding each night!
We often camp in state parks with electric available and we find it more
convenient to make waffles with the electric than with the cast iron waffle
iron. What about those times we rough it you ask?? Well, being a Rubie and
roughing it don't really go hand in hand. Why go with out when you can use
technology? I put some of that under bed storage to use by mounting 3 deep cycle
batteries in parallel. I then mounted one of our 2000/4000-watt converters over
the fender well and attached it to the battery bank.
voilla....power-to-go!
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