Our AWESOME 2020 Ram 5500 Flatbed & Sherptek Custom Build! |E47

I know it took us FOREVER to get this video made but really needed to clean her up! We share our build for our 2020 Ram 5500 as well as what options we chose on our custom Sherptek flatbed. One awesome beast, if I do say so myself! PRODUCTS we’ve purchased & mentioned in the video:

Sherptek Beds: https://sherptek.com

Bottom line, we’re thrilled with the truck and what Sherptek upfitted for us.

Truck Specs

2020 Ram 5500 Crew Cab Chassis 60″
6.7 L I6 Cummins Turbo Diesel
52 & 22 Gallon Dual Fuel Tanks
6-Spd Auto Aisin AS69RC HD Trans
Uconnect 12.0 with Navigation
ParkView Rear Backup Camera
Parksense FT/RR Park Assist System
Dual Alternators
Cold Weather Group
Leather Bucket Seats
Laramie Level 2 Equipment Group

We bought the truck from Withnell Dodge in Salem OR so we could have it shipped directly to Sherptek. This was the cheapest route at the time (we lived in Illinois then). I could have purchased it cheaper locally but shipping was too expensive.

Truck Performance (Ride, Sway, Mileage, Turning Radius)

This is obviously subjective but from a ride perspective it’s definitely more harsh than our older 2016 Ram 3500 Laramie DRW that we sold. Though in my opinion not enough for me to have issues (I have joked about needing to wear a sports bra when driving, ha!). This concern alone drove me to push us into the higher-comfort options – I wanted a seat that was comfortable even on rough road. The Laramie bucket seats really do absorb a lot of the shock but YES, it will be a rougher ride when you’re un-turtled (when the camper is off the truck). It obviously rides much better with weight in the back – you can barely tell the camper is back there!

I’m a naturally jumpy person and had a HARD time with our old 2016 Ram 3500 DRW in off-ramps and on larger hills. I never really felt comfortable. In all honesty, it would have been fine if I wasn’t in the truck every day. With going full-time I needed to feel a lot more comfortable with our setup. With the camper on, you can barely tell it’s back there. I believe a lot of that has to do with the wider wheel base and the Hellwig sway bar Sherptek added.

As far as gas mileage goes, we’re averaging between 10-12 MPG with the camper on and 16-17 MPG with the camper off. I believe that’s not much different than our Ram 3500 when we had that! Interesting….

One of the big plusses of this truck is the wider wheel base – you can turn more sharply than on a Ram 3500. That’s been really helpful in tight campgrounds as well as tight parking lots. Oh, and speaking of parking lots – we can easily fit in 2 parking spots front to back. Usually, we’ll just back up in a space that has grass behind and we stick out just a little from the space.

Sherptek Specs

Sherptek Flatbed (includes cabguard, DOT tailights, fuel fill, secondary fuel fill option, edge and tail facade, and cab guard lighting) – Bed is 9.5′ long x 94″ wide
Marine Decking
Flank Sides
Front Storage Boxes
Rear Storage Boxes
Added Mounting brackets, hardware
Camper tie-down attachments
Custom lighting for both ground and storage areas
Front seal plates
Front and rear sealing to help with flank side sealing
Break away front and rear mud flaps
Dual Fuel fills for both tanks
Front and lateral camper alignment brackets
Compressor and airbag controller system with in-cab controls
Custom Rear bumper
Camper wiring at front of the bed
100A alternator charging
Torklift superhitch
Buckstop front bumper with Warn winch, PIAA fog and spot lights
Hellwig Sway Bars
Torklift FastGun tie downs
OEM Backup camera installation
Crossfire Tire Balancing with TPMS

We chose to fully deck out this truck as you can see by the specs here. The fun thing about Sherptek is that they’re always adding new options, so make sure to contact them and simply ask for the latest build options. They are great to work with and will be happy to give you a ton of info.

Why Sherptek?

There are obviously several other options available out there but we thought the Sherptek system looked the most put-together. We want our truck system to be functional but also look good doing it as well and Sherptek delivered hands-down.

Their infinite rail system on the bed has been invaluable many times (with the camper on and off) – we’ve hauled lumber, 30 lb propane tanks, tubs when we were moving, etc. on this and could easily tie down just about anything.

The biggest functional difference is that Sherptek uses the sides of your camper to form the “flank side” box. That means when your camper is off, the items you have stored in the side areas would be exposed to weather. This initially caused me concern – where were we going to put all that stuff? Well, we had to figure out what would really be going in those side flanks. Here’s what we have now (always subject to change, though):

Camping chairs
Our Gazelle gazebo (aka truck camper garage & outdoor dining room/kitchen)
Blackstone grill
Spare firewood between trips
Tub with spare blank tank hose
Tub with off-season shoes
Tub with fishing paraphernalia

We quickly figured out that first few items would be coming off the camper even if we weren’t un-turtling (removing the camper). And the others were in sealed totes we would simply place under the truck camper slideouts. So, in reality all of my worrying was silly.

The other thing to consider is that if you do end up getting fully-sealed bed boxes, you’ll not have as much potential storage space as this option (there would be space loss to create a back side and a top side of the box.

We truly love this system – it’s been so efficient that we generally have little in our back seat so we can even pick up folks if we needed! Let me know if you have any further questions, and I’ll try to keep updating this posting.

Organization

We’ve been using a combination of items to keep everything organized in the truck bins. One of the storage tubs we use are these ammo boxes. They are durable and small enough to organize heavier tools.

We’re also using fabric pouches similar to these that we got at Harbor Freight (but these look better and have different colors for easier identification – we just ordered these!

Weight

Here’s the last scale we weighed at. 3/4 tank fuel with both of us in the truck. Full water, empty black/gray with bike rack. We did not have our boat.