Ordered Host Mammoth

[zb39]

A couple weeks ago I phoned in an order. (After a few weeks of negotiating) My wife and I have been in a few of them. This will be out 3rd TC and our 8th RV. 4 MH 24, 34, 40 and 45 ft. 2 other TC and a 5th wheel.

We always have a MH and a TC at the same time. Now it is a 5th wheel and TC. They get used for diff things.

Didn't get a lot of options. I feel I can do a better job with the batts, inverter, and the TV's.

Ordered, double couch, leather or what passes for leather on both.
3 slides are now standard, no choice, thats what I was told.
micro/convection
sealed burner top
upgraded escape hatch
9k btu AC
gas electric hot water
swing out brackets, they should be standard.
power awning.

It is prob diff from what most people would order but we have ben camping traveling for a long time. I will add 4 or 6 6v batts and a 3k inverter. I also have a pair of honda 2 k gen.
I will only carry 1. I don;t think they have started the build. I was told it would be in around the end of Jan. Looking forward to it.

[mike_kellie]

Turns out the Host I saw on the Ram5500 was an acquaintance of mine and at one time Bedlam. He is on his second Mammoth and just returned from a 4 week trip looping through Utah, Nevada, Oregon and down through California arriving back to San Diego last night. he is 33K total moving down the road.
Small world!

[mike_kellie]

Unless he figired a way to lease them.

[Bedlam]

mike/kellie wrote:
I spotted a Host camper on a grey Ram 5500 with the 11' Douglass body towing a trailer carrying a Jeep just today southbound on 101 through my county. I threw out an email to whom I think it was that lives in S Ca. asking if he was traveling. This would be his second Mammoth.

One of those guys that just had to have the double couch...

[mike_kellie]

They are good about going over all details. Here it is before I decided that I wanted radius wheel wells in lieu of straight angles creating the opening. The front axel has round and I never had any consideration until I noticed many contractor beds with straight angles.

[mike_kellie]

Yes, it's the front end of a 9' body. If you go online, there are longer bodies with more (taller) storage in front.
I spotted a Host camper on a grey Ram 5500 with the 11' Douglass body towing a trailer carrying a Jeep just today southbound on 101 through my county. I threw out an email to whom I think it was that lives in S Ca. asking if he was traveling. This would be his second Mammoth.

[KhakiCUmmins]

mike/kellie wrote:


The shoe that my Mammoth footprint is going to fit into. This is the narrow storage against the cab of the truck. I'm delivering the truck later this month for fit, wiring, plumbing and then paint.

Is that a Douglass camper body?

[Rockfisher1]

Good choice with a couple caveats. We've had our Mammoth for 15 months and apart from the standard few post delivery problems (bad refrigerator, leaky PEX fittings, leaks around the door etc) it's been an excellent choice. Very well built. The first caution I would give you is that a SRW 3500 will not be suitable. You need a DRW along with upper and lower Stable Loads, 19.5 wheels and airbags. Some may argue the airbags but you'll find that the rear sagging can be mostly rectified allowing for a level ride. Hopefully you bought from a dealer who offers good post sale support. We switched over from an Arctic Fox 1150 dry bath simply due to the extra storage and floor space. Our Mammoth weighs in dry, with personal items at 5320 lbs. With water you could add close to 500 lbs. We anticipate buying a F550 and having a custom box put but that will have to wait until next January.

[zb39]

Looking forward to seeing pics of this going on the truck and then loading the camper...very nice

[mike_kellie]

The shoe that my Mammoth footprint is going to fit into. This is the narrow storage against the cab of the truck. I'm delivering the truck later this month for fit, wiring, plumbing and then paint.

[Bedlam]

15 minutes to clear out all the junk that has already collected in the cabinet, add the wire clamp on the cut off switch and organize the items back into the space. In the far reaches, I have my manuals and RV maintenance/repair guides. Up front are shoes on a 3-level wire rack.

I took about 30 minutes to install the breaker. This was mostly due to my paranoia of screwing into a water or gas line, so I opened up the panel above the generator to see where it was clear to attach from the other side. I used shorter sheet metal screws than what Host supplied since the breaker is just screwed into sheet metal with no other backing. This also gave me a chance to check water level in the batteries (no additional needed).

Another side note: I currently have my truck electrical connected to the camper all the time. With the addition of 480w of solar, it maintains my truck batteries at the same time. When I leave my enclosed trailer connected, the solar also charges my PowerArmor box. The little solar panel on top will stave off parasitic loss, but the camper solar will actually recharge it through the 7-pin.

[Spearfisherman7]

Bedlam wrote:
Host sent out a kit to its owners to address two items:

1. Lack of main breaker off batteries
2. wire harness not sufficiently secured under passenger side slide

Here you can see my batteries connected to lines running into the generator compartment. There is no safety until it gets to the DC fuse box.



Adding a breaker in the battery box solves this problem. By mounting the breaker above the rivets on the back wall, the screw ends go behind the control panel in the generator compartment.



Got my



The passenger slide mechanical bypass and wires in question sit under a cabinet floor on the Mammoth.





This floor is attached by one screw near the cabinet door. If you don't have the outside TV or external speakers, you will not see all of these wires.



Those wires above are clear of the mechanism. The ones that need to be secured go to the master cutoff switch.

Got my kit in a couple weeks ago but it's still sitting in my shed. How long did it take you to do it all?

[Bedlam]

That gap is much smaller. I now only have a 2x4 between the header rack and TC rubber bumper.

On side note to storage: All of the places I have contacted to build out TC side walls to enclose the wings have flaked on me. It must be their prime season and they are not hungry enough for my business. I have twice attempted to order storage boxes under the wings only to to have the companies come back and tell me that their supply count was off and they could not fill it - I really think their price was off (which is why chose them) and they didn't want to honor their goof. I'm looking at about $300/ea for four 48x18x18 utility boxes in steel or aluminum or can get poly-plastic boxes close to $200/ea in that size. There are a couple of 8' utility boxes available, but shipping is high due to the length and bulk.

[zb39]

Nice write up on the mod. I put mine in a few weeks ago. I know you have a ton of storage already, but the gap up front looks like another area for you. Any thoughts for that space??

[Bedlam]

Due to my wide headache rack on my flatbed deck, I could not move my camper as far forward as I wanted and could only get 8.5' on the deck. I still had plenty of room to scoot it forward, but the fresh water fill door couldn't be fully opened.







By notching out the top of the fill door hinge, I can open, lift and remove the door now instead of having to swing it fully open. I considered just removing the door, but the bug splatter in that area may actually get into the fresh water tank vent or expose it to other contaminates.

[Bedlam]

Host sent out a kit to its owners to address two items:

1. Lack of main breaker off batteries
2. wire harness not sufficiently secured under passenger side slide

Here you can see my batteries connected to lines running into the generator compartment. There is no safety until it gets to the DC fuse box.



Adding a breaker in the battery box solves this problem. By mounting the breaker above the rivets on the back wall, the screw ends go behind the control panel in the generator compartment.





The passenger slide mechanical bypass and wires in question sit under a cabinet floor on the Mammoth.



This floor is attached by one screw near the cabinet door. If you don't have the outside TV or external speakers, you will not see all of these wires.



Those wires above are clear of the mechanism. The ones that need to be secured go to the master cutoff switch.