The One Where We Upgrade Red Rover

When you decide to sell everything and travel for 400 days, you need to determine your method of travel. After much deliberation we decided that the best option for us would be a bumper-pull travel trailer with a diesel pickup truck and then an SUV as our secondary vehicle. When we started our planning, we did not own a diesel pickup truck or a travel trailer or an SUV. We did a ton of research and decided that the best truck for our purposes is a Ford F450 Super Duty with dual rear wheels.

I have never been someone to purchase new vehicles, preferring to save money by buying used so I started hunting for used F450s. I was shocked to see that 2-4 year old trucks with 50-80,000 miles on them were selling at the same price as MSRP for new vehicles. I then attempted to buy a new F450, but couldn’t find any available to purchase without a $10-15,000 markup above MSRP. Finally I decided to order a new truck for MSRP and wait many months for delivery.

Since I was placing the order, I picked the features I wanted such as the sunroof, the high output engine, and the snowplow prep package. (The snowplow prep package is just sturdier front suspension, I have no plans of using my truck as a snowplow). I also ordered it in the color I wanted, which Ford calls “Rapid Red.” If Ford offered a nice orange paint color like Toyota, I would have gone for it, but Rapid Red was the best I could do.

There is a lot of debate about F250 vs F350 vs F450. I wanted dual rear wheels which narrowed it down to F350 vs F450 for me. I ultimately chose the F450 as it has a wider front axle which gives more space in the wheel wells which allows sharper turning of the tires which gives it a smaller turning radius.

I ordered the F450 in July, 2023, so I had 8 months to plan what upgrades I wanted to perform on the truck once I had it in my hands. I created a plan to perform the following upgrades:

In early January, 2024, I received word from the Ford dealer that I would be receiving my truck by the end of the month, so the first thing I did was to order a canopy for my truck bed. I knew it would take about 3 months from order to delivery, so I placed the order with sufficient time to get it installed prior to receiving my trailer. I used my local canopy dealer, Canopy Corner, to place my order.

I also ordered a Ravelco antitheft system as well. Ravelco works by interrupting various electrical wires in the vehicle and then using a unique physical plug to complete the circuits. If you don’t have the physical plug, you can’t start the vehicle. Super Duty pickup truck are among the most stolen vehicles in the country, so I wanted to get the best antitheft system available.

I ordered a Buckstop bumper as soon as I knew my truck was coming as it takes about 10 weeks to get this as they custom fabricate each one. It seems inevitable that I will hit a deer somewhere on this trip, and having a Buckstop bumper will increase the chances of a successful outcome for my truck if such a collision occurs. The Buckstop factory makes a ton bumpers for ambulances and I figure if it is good enough for the paramedics, it is good enough for me.

The final item that I ordered prior to receiving my truck was a CargoGlide bed drawer. This allows me to access all of the contents of the truck bed easily. CargoGlide really needs to improve the packaging of their shipping containers. The first one I ordered was damaged in transit and returned without ever even attempting delivery. The second one I ordered was damaged in transit and returned without ever even attempting delivery. The third one I ordered arrived with damaged packaging, but the CargoGlide itself was in acceptable shape.

I took delivery of my 2024 Ford F450 Lariat on January 26, 2024 which gave me about 11 weeks to get the truck ready for taking delivery of our trailer in April. I like to name my vehicles and the first thing I did after I met my truck was to give it a name: Red Rover. I know it’s kind of lame and kind of obvious (it is a red truck and we are roving all over the country), but I’m sticking with it.

I started with a simple project: upgraded mudflaps. The F450 came with (tiny) front mudflaps and no rear mudflaps and I knew I wanted to protect the fiberglass front of my trailer from any rocks so I ordered Duraflap mudflaps. The mudflaps came soon after I received Red Rover and I got them installed without difficulty.

Next, I replaced the floormats with heavy-duty, mud resistant mats created by Weathertech. I’ve used Weathertech in prior vehicles and I have always been happy with their products. Installing these is as simple as pulling out the old mats and setting the new ones in to place.

I wanted to ensure that I could monitor tire pressure of all 10 tires simultaneously (Truck has 2 front tires and 4 rear tires, trailer has 4 tires), so I ordered a TST 507 TPMS system. This included a repeater to install in the RV to make sure that the signal from the RV tires makes it all the way to the dashboard of the truck. I installed the monitor on the dashboard and hard-wired it to one of the upfitter switches in Red Rover. I also installed a RubiGrid dashmount phone/gps/camera holder in anticipation of getting my Garmin 895 (RV Specific GPS).

My CargoGlide arrived a few weeks before my canopy arrived, so it had to sit in the garage for a while waiting to be installed.

I also installed a VanTrue N5 camera system that provides continuous monitoring of everything going on inside, in front of, and behind the truck.

By the time I had completed the above upgrades, it was time to drive to Prineville, Oregon to get my Buckstop bumper installed. I brought along a Badlands Apex 12,000lb winch to be installed with the bumper. Dexter and I made a quick 2-day trip and it was installed on March 27, 2024.

By the 2nd week of April, my canopy had arrived, and I had it installed on April 9, 2024. I originally ordered a canopy made by the brand ARE, but ended up having my order changed to a model called “High C” made by Century Canopies. I wanted something that was made of fiberglass, was elevated above the top of the truck, had doors that could open on each side and the back, and no windows. I wanted to avoid windows to keep the heat out as well as to keep people from looking in the back of my truck.

Once the canopy arrived, I was in a hurry to install my CargoGlide bed drawer. CargoGlides come in various weight capacities and how far you can pull them out. I got the biggest one that can pull out 100% of the way. Installation involved drilling holes in the bed of the truck to allow placement of threaded rivets (rivnuts). It is just a little bit intimidating to start drilling in to a brand new truck, but I managed to do it without causing any problems.

Once I had the CargoGlide in place, I bought a bunch of Husky waterproof storage bins to stack in the back of the truck. These allow me to store a ton (actually 2,200 lbs) of stuff in the back of the truck and keep it all organized.

We took delivery of our trailer on April 12th, and I focused my efforts on upgrading the trailer. Upon purchasing the trailer, I added the monitor for the RV cameras, added an Equalizer 14k weight distribution hitch and completed 2 additional upgrades prior to departure.

My Canopy has nice side doors that let me store various long and skinny objects next to the Cargoglide. Unfortunately, when you pull the CargoGlide out, those objects tend to roll towards the middle of the truck bed and prevent closing the bed. I developed a solution using plexiglass. Remember when Covid hit and all of these businesses put up plexiglass barriers by the cash register? Those were typically attached to a countertop and were freestanding. Inspired by those barriers, I eventually found the bracket I needed (a sneezeguard bracket), and attached those to the bed of Red Rover. Now when I place an object next to the CargoGlide, I does not roll into the way.

The final upgrade to my truck was to add a DC-DC converter. When you plug a truck into a camping trailer, it uses something called a 7-way cord that puts a very small amount of current from the truck to the trailer to allow the trailer brakes and lights to function. It does not provide sufficient current to charge the RV batteries in any meaningful way. My F450 has 2 alternators and 2 batteries, so there is plenty of current available to charge the trailer. I followed the instructions of another RV enthusiast and installed an Orion XS DC-DC converter. This allows me to send about 600 Watts (12 Volts x 50 Amps) of DC electricity to my trailer whenever the truck is driving. This is very nice on a hot day as my trailer air-conditioner uses about 1300 Watts of AC electricity and when I use my inverter run the air conditioner from my batteries, it depletes the batteries fairly quickly. By having the DC-DC charger going, I can run my air conditioner while I am driving and have the rig a comfortable temperature when I arrive.