A Ram 3500 AEV Prospector XL on 40-inch tires will take you a long way from pavement. The harder question is what you live in once you get there. One Tiny Rig Co. customer already owned a setup that turned out too small to wait out a storm in, let alone work from. So he built another truck around an OEV Hudson Bay.
Tiny Rig Co., an OEV dealer in Westminster, California, put this AEV Prospector XL camper build together around the Hudson Bay 6.75' flatbed pop-up, mounted on an Aluma Tray aluminum flatbed. The Hudson Bay 6.75' is a removable pop-up truck camper for 3/4-ton and one-ton flatbed trucks. It weighs 1,905 lbs dry, travels at 61.75 inches tall with the roof down, and opens to 78 inches (6'6") of interior height. Tiny Rig founder Daniel walks the whole truck on video, and this post follows the same route.
Photos are stills from Tiny Rig Co.'s walkthrough video.
The Build at a Glance
- Truck: Ram 3500 AEV Prospector XL, 6.5-foot bed, 40-inch tires
- Flatbed: Aluma Tray
- Camper: OEV Hudson Bay 6.75' flatbed pop-up, four-person layout
- Builder: Tiny Rig Co., Westminster, California
- Power: two 460Ah batteries (920Ah total), 220W of solar, 3000W Victron inverter
- Built for: long off-grid stays and remote work
Watch the Walkthrough
Daniel starts outside with the tray and the exterior, then goes through the camper interior.
Why the Owner Wanted a Bigger Camper
The owner, Jeffrey, has been a Tiny Rig customer since 2024, and this is not his first build with the shop. He already has a smaller rig for day trips on the trail, plus another Prospector XL with a compact camper setup on it.
That second truck is what pushed him here. He and a friend got caught in a couple of monsoons while camping in it, and there wasn't enough room to ride them out comfortably. He also wanted a place to work remotely. Daniel says the brief was simple: make it as comfortable as possible, so he can get off grid, relax, and still sit down at a table and get real work done.
That is how the Hudson Bay ended up on the truck. In Daniel's words, "the quality of campers that they build is really second to none."
Truck, Tray, and Camper
Tiny Rig helped Jeffrey find the truck, a Ram 3500 AEV Prospector XL with a 6.5-foot bed, and wrapped it in satin paint protection film.
The factory bed came off and an Aluma Tray went on. Aluma Tray is OEV's sister company under Lite Industries, and its aluminum flatbeds are designed to work as a system with OEV campers. Daniel points out the storage compartments around the tray, the mud flaps, and the entry ladder, which stores in the tray. Set up, it mounts to a plate in the L-track, so its position can shift, and the storage box still opens with the ladder deployed. His comparison is a well-planned kitchen, where everything has a spot that makes sense.
On top sits the Hudson Bay 6.75'. Daniel walks through the OEV lineup on camera, and his view of this one is that you get a lot of camper for what you pay.
The OEV Options on This Hudson Bay
Daniel reads the camper's option list off the work order. Here is what's on it:
- Four-person layout. This Hudson Bay has the shower in the dinette area, which is the dry bath floor plan. It sleeps up to four.
- Auto-lift roof. The roof goes up on Linak electric actuators with a manual override. Daniel pushes a button and it rises.
- Trekker waterless toilet, made by Wrappon. It's Tiny Rig's go-to. Daniel says it costs more and it's the cleanest option out there.
- Upper galley cabinet. A hard-sided aluminum cabinet that rides up and down with the roof. "That's one of my favorite things that they've added."
- Under bed storage and the king bed extension.
- Induction and propane cooktop. One induction burner and one propane burner, so there's a choice between using battery or propane.
- 3000W Victron MultiPlus inverter, with a GFI receptacle in the galley for a rice cooker or anything else that plugs into a wall.
- 12V rooftop air conditioner.
- OEV front off-road light bar. OEV supplies the bar and the buyer picks the lights.
- Rear ladder and spare tire carrier. The carrier takes the truck's 40-inch spare, which has no factory home on a Prospector XL.
The 220W roof-mounted solar panel, Truma heat and hot water, and the 130L Isotherm drawer fridge are standard on every Hudson Bay 6.75'.
What an Installer Notices About the Hudson Bay
Tiny Rig installs these campers regularly, so Daniel's comments come from someone who works on them all the time.
Headroom. Daniel says interior height is the most common question when customers look at OEV campers at the shop, mostly from tall people worried about hitting their heads. With 78 inches inside when the roof is up, "all of them were super pleasantly surprised."
Windows all the way around. From the dinette you can see out in every direction. Daniel likes it for the views and for knowing what's going on around camp.
Cable routing. The OEV light bar has a channel that hides the wiring, a slot to pass cables through, and spots for zip ties. Daniel's point is that a lot of products are designed by people who never install them. On this one, "OEV's thought of that stuff."
Factory wiring. Under the dinette cushion is where the electrical components and plumbing live. Daniel's verdict: "the quality of work that they do is pretty phenomenal."
Cold weather. OEV builds in Red Deer, Alberta. The floor, walls, and roof are composite rated R8 or greater, and the soft walls are fire-rated, insulated, and rated R4 or greater. Daniel mentions a longtime OEV dealer he knows who has taken their OEV to Vermont plenty, and says it does very well in cold weather. Worth knowing: the camper is four-season, and the water system is the three-season part that needs winterizing.
The bed. "I have never heard of a complaint of anyone sleeping in here in terms of comfort." There's a roof fan over the bed, and with everything closed up the soft walls black out the interior.
What Tiny Rig Added
The Hudson Bay ships with a battery box and no battery, so the battery bank is up to the owner and the builder. Jeffrey wanted to run air conditioning and work from the truck, so Tiny Rig went big.
- Batteries. Two 460Ah batteries, 920Ah in total. Each one weighs about 100 lbs. Daniel says they fit the compartment like it was made for them, and that getting them in was tight enough that serviceability is the trade-off.
- Switching. A Garmin power switch runs the added accessories from a phone, with manual buttons as a backup. It's mounted under the dinette cushion with countersunk hardware to match what OEV already used.
- Connectivity. A Starlink Mini on the roof, for the remote work.
- Onboard air. A twin compressor in a tray compartment feeds a four-hose system that airs all four tires down or up at once. A second air chuck at the rear handles a friend's tires or an inflatable.
- Lighting. Baja Designs all around: ditch lights, four lights on the AEV front bumper, five on the OEV light bar, fog lights, flush-mount chase lights in the tray, scene lights up top, and rock lights. The awning lights switch between white, amber, and red.
- Cab. A rear seat delete for storage and a Midland radio in the center console.
Every wire Tiny Rig adds is sleeved, heat shrunk, and labeled. Before a truck leaves, the shop tests the plumbing, heating, and electrical, and passes what it learns back to OEV. A suspension upgrade is planned for after Jeffrey's first shakedown trip.
Taking the factory bed off any modern truck can affect its driver-assist features, because sensors and cameras often live in the bed. On this Ram it took some work, and Daniel says the radar and related systems are all working.
His advice for any flatbed conversion is to go in with modest expectations and ask your installer what your specific truck will keep.
Which Truck It Fits
The Hudson Bay 6.75' is designed for 3/4-ton and one-ton trucks with a flatbed. It fits the Aluma Tray or an aftermarket flatbed, and it weighs 1,905 lbs dry, excluding jacks and batteries. The Aluma Tray 6.75' is sized for short-box trucks and pairs with the Hudson Bay 6.75'.
This build shows why the "excluding batteries" part matters. Two 100 lb batteries, water, a spare on the back, and a full load of gear all count against payload. Check the sticker on your driver's door, then talk to one of the OEV dealers early. They can tell you what your truck will carry and what it might need. The flatbed truck camper guide covers the wider picture.
Hudson Bay or Back Country?
Daniel covers the rest of the lineup on camera, and these two get cross-shopped a lot.
The Hudson Bay 6.75' needs a flatbed and a 3/4-ton or one-ton truck. In return you get a wet or dry bath and a longer interior. The Back Country 6.85 slides into a factory bed and fits half-ton through one-ton trucks with 6'0" to 6'8" beds. Daniel calls it "a fantastic value." There's also a hard-side Hudson Bay if you'd rather skip the pop-up roof.
All three use OEV composite construction. Which one fits comes down to your truck and how you travel.
Price and Build
The Hudson Bay 6.75' flatbed pop-up starts at $83,867 USD with the dry bath floor plan, the layout on this truck. That covers the standard build, including the composite shell, the auto-lift roof, Truma heat and hot water, 220W of solar with Victron charging, and the 130L drawer fridge.
The options on this truck, like the 3000W inverter, the rooftop air conditioner, the induction cooktop, and the waterless toilet, are priced separately, and you can add them up in the configurator. The truck, the Aluma Tray, and the dealer's own work are separate again. Your dealer quotes the complete build.
Configure Your Hudson Bay 6.75'
Start with the standard build, add the options from this truck that fit how you travel, and watch the price update as you go.
Want a Build Like This One?
Tiny Rig Co. sells and installs OEV campers and Aluma Tray flatbeds, and builds out the whole truck around them. Daniel's advice is to see it in person: "come by the shop, look at the quality of the work that we do."
The shop is in Westminster, California. Start with the OEV page at Tiny Rig Co., or call 657-400-2009. There's more about the shop on the Tiny Rig Co. dealer page.
Built to Conquer. Built to Last.
Jeffrey wanted a truck he could take off grid, stay comfortable in, and work from. A Ram 3500 AEV Prospector XL, an Aluma Tray, and a Hudson Bay 6.75' got him there, with a dealer who checked every system before handing over the keys. Build your own Hudson Bay in the configurator, or talk to the OEV team about what fits your truck.