Seeing the Country in a Douglass Camper Body

Doug Fowley travels the country, photographing the wonders of the United States with his faithful sidekick Kate the Border Collie. He came to Douglass Truck Bodies to design the perfect rig to both live and travel in full time, nicknaming his Dodge 5500 Cummins Diesel beast “Big Red.”

The biggest challenge the serious RV’er faces is storage space. Finding room for all the necessary supplies to make a cross country trip is a common problem, let alone finding space for the tools you’ll need to address an emergency. The Douglass Camper Body is custom designed to be a solution to this problem, designed to utilize the storage area typically wasted in a standard camper/pickup setup.

The cargo area sides were custom fabricated to match the foot print of Doug’s Lance 1181, to maximize the storage space we could get out of the comaprtments. The rear of his body was tapered back, to clear the rear camper skirting. The front of his body was notched inward to leave space for his camper jacks when folded back into their “stored” position.

Most customers usually have several special requests when it comes to compartment storage and access, and Doug was no exception. An camper harness extension was installed on the top of his body, for easy access when plugging in the camper. An electric onboard air compressor was installed between his frame rails, with quick connects plumbed to the front corners of his body. Behind his jack stands, Doug had a long compartment added to better utilize the gap between his camper and the headboard. A tray in extends all the way into the cargo area, for long tools or fishing rods.

Another feature to note is the integrated camper tie downs on the top of the body; this is a solution for typical cross body tie down straps that would keep the camper body doors from being opened. With this system storage space is always available even while the camper is securely mounted in the bed. This same example shows the spare tire securely mounted in the curb side front compartment as well.

The custom jack points are supported with cross members that run the full width of the body to provide safe lifting. At the back the custom receiver hitch that extends the back of the camper and the auxiliary air tank for electric compressor mounted to it.

Every custom Douglass Camper Body is built with your needs in mind, to make sure more time is spent on the road and less time is spent doing supply runs. Click here for more pictures and details about this truck. To get started designing your own custom Camper Body, give Douglass Truck Bodies a call for a quote at 661-327-0258.