Finally…standing with the third member of our team – Tramp

A few years ago when Julie and I started planning this trip around the world one issue that focused our minds like no other is what vehicle we would travel in and where would we sleep.  We knew from experience that our selected vehicle/hotel would be the third member of our team and we would be totally dependent on it for transport, accommodation, security, storage, comfort and…well, friendship.  After a very long journey which was filled with many great highs and many painful lows, including some budget over-runs that would make small countries shutter, we arrived at the Chevrolet Colorado Extended Cab V6 four wheel drive and an XPCamper V2 sitting on its back.

I will write a more detailed report of how and why we finally arrived at this combination of truck and camper in a separate blog but here’s a snapshot of the decision making process.  My criteria for a truck was that it was a rugged and reliable four wheel drive that we could get serviced in many places around the world.  Julie’s criteria for the camper was that we could live indoors during inclement weather and that it had hard shell walls with no canvas or tent so that it would be safe and secure no matter what the circumstances outside.  And we both wanted a home that was compact and easily carried on the back of a truck – no big RV, trailer or monster rig for us.  Mobility, simplicity and reliability were our requirements.  Oh yeah, I kind of had a budget which I thought would easily cover all these requirements.

After much research our choice was the 2016 Chevrolet Colorado Extended Cab V6 4WD

Well…two years later we think we have the right vehicle and camper to meet our needs, even if the budget was spectacularly blown.  We did have to make some compromises along the way, including the move from a diesel truck to petrol because many developing countries in the world primarily sell ‘dirty’ diesel that won’t work in a US regulated engine and having to choose a smaller truck that our chosen camper will fit on.

Choosing the camper was the hard part.  We were aiming for some sort of a ‘hard shell pop up’ which basically means a camper whose roof could pop up at the end of the day to give you plenty of head room indoors but still not have any sort of canvas or tent fabric walls.  We wanted comfort, security and convenience.  We wanted it all.

Julie and I with Marc, the founder and owner of XPCamper, in front of the shell of our camper during construction

Unfortunately this combination was almost impossible to find but in a very narrow field we chose XPCamper, a small company in northern California who built a traditional larger pop-up camper with canvas walls and a smaller version which opened up like a clam and gave you surprisingly spacious living conditions with some very cool features without any canvas walls.  This smaller camper, which they creatively called V2, met all our criteria as a hard shell pop up.  See more at www.xpcamper.com.

The Colorado had many modifications done to it, including a new large front bumper

Okay, that’s the theory.  But the V2 doesn’t fit on the large full size trucks in the US such as the Chevy Silverado, Dodge Ram or the Ford F range.   So we went down to the best of the mid size and chose the Chevy Colorado V6 petrol, a highly rated truck which we fell in love with the first time we sat in it during a brief visit to the US in May last year.  Then we had to go back to Australia and buy the truck of our dreams online through brokers, dealers, and a helpful brother in law. That was the easy part.

The interior of the camper about half way through construction – very exciting

Buying the V2 Camper was much more complex because of all the variables related to the camper, our unfamiliarity with US camping conditions and campers in general and a product that had only recently been launched.  Through countless emails, phone calls and text messages we finally did the deal with Marc at XPCamper and began the journey of marrying the Colorado and the V2 camper.

And the final version – after an extraordinary journey of dreaming, learning, laughing, crying and paying was our handsome Colorado and camper which we have dubbed Tramp as a combination of the word ‘truck’ and ‘camp’ but is also referred to with equal love as Tramper for truck and camper.  Whether its Tramp or Tramper it is still our home away from home for the long foreseeable future – and we love it!

Hello Tramp…or Tramper. All shiny and new, a completely different type of camper

Here’s Tramp with his hard shell fully extended up so we can walk in the back door

The biggest issue for Tramp is that his shell was much heavier than what his body was designed to carry and yet it was too small to fit on a larger truck.  The whole thing sagged in the back and drove like a wounded cement mixer.  But we knew this was a problem so after XPCamper handed it over to us we took it to a place near Salinas that specialised in four wheel drive and truck suspensions.

Bill and Toby at his Lavender Brothers shop in nearby Seaside where he designed and installed a new suspension for Tramp

Toby at Lavender Brothers designed a new suspension system for Tramp that would lift the back end up and give it the strength to carry the camper.  So after more learning and paying (we were beyond laughing and crying by this stage) our Tramp had a whole new rear end which would be much more capable of carrying its camper.  We were delighted with the outcome and as a special bonus Tramp now drove like a truck and camper – not perfect by any means but much much better.

The Colorado was completely transformed and lost its pick-up tub along the way – now safe in storage

Having looked back on the last year as this project evolved I can say that what kept Julie and I focused was the big picture, our dream of travelling around the world for a couple of years in a fully self-contained, reliable and safe home on wheels.  We have had many emotional and difficult moments where lesser fools might have given up but we stayed focused on the end game and now we’ve made it.

We had a quick trial drive with Tramp to some nearby snow before he was finished

The challenges of packing up our home and life in Australia, leaving our family and friends and downsizing to two duffel bags of personal belongings nearly drained us.  Concurrently we had to deal with all the difficulties of building Tramp into our third team member, including the unexpected problems, the cost over-runs, the frustrations from suppliers and the continuous delays.  Would I do it again…draw a deep breath…hell yes.