How Elevation Off Grid’s Luxury Super Trucks Are Redefining Truck Camping

Walk around any Overland Expo today and one trend becomes immediately obvious: there are a lot more Class 5 luxury super trucks than there used to be.

Not long ago, Ford F-550s and Ram 5500s were niche builds—vehicles reserved for commercial fleets or a handful of extreme overlanders. Today, they’re becoming increasingly common among truck camper owners who have outgrown the limitations of traditional one-ton DRW pickups. Even more noticeable is the number of those trucks wearing the unmistakable styling cues of Elevation Off Grid (EOG).

Just a few years ago, spotting an EOG truck at an event was a rarity. Today, they’re everywhere.

During the 2026 Overland Expo Pacific Northwest, I sat down with Elevation Off Grid founder Jerime Monroe to discuss the company’s remarkable growth, the philosophy behind its Black Edition trucks, and why more truck camper owners are choosing purpose-built medium-duty platforms over heavily modified one-ton pickups.

The conversation quickly revealed that Elevation Off Grid isn’t simply building flashy trucks—they’re solving one of the biggest problems facing today’s truck camper owners.

Bigger Campers Need Bigger Foundations

Truck campers have changed dramatically over the past decade.

Manufacturers continue adding larger refrigerators, lithium battery systems, bigger holding tanks, multiple slide-outs, diesel heating systems, solar arrays, air conditioning, and residential amenities that were once reserved for fifth wheels and motorhomes. While these additions make campers far more comfortable for extended travel, they also make them substantially heavier.

For years, owners have tried to compensate by adding suspension upgrades, airbags, overload springs, sway bars, larger wheels and tires, and countless other aftermarket modifications to one-ton pickups. Those upgrades certainly improve stability, but they don’t increase a truck’s GVWR or factory payload rating.

That’s where Class 5 luxury super trucks like the Ford F-550 and Ram 5500 enter the conversation.

Both offer a GVWR of 19,500 pounds.

Instead of asking a one-ton truck to perform beyond its intended design, Elevation Off Grid starts with a platform engineered from the factory to carry significantly more weight. It’s a philosophy that gives owners a tremendous safety margin while preserving towing capability and improving overall ride quality.

It’s also why the company has become one of the fastest-growing names in the truck camper community.

From Passion Project to Industry Leader

Like many successful companies, Elevation Off Grid didn’t explode onto the scene overnight.

Monroe began building trucks in 2019, experimenting with ideas and refining concepts before introducing what would eventually become the company’s flagship product—the Black Edition.

“The Black Edition really took off in 2021,” Monroe explained. “Since then we’ve continued refining the product and making changes.”

Rather than simply assembling components sourced from various aftermarket suppliers, Elevation Off Grid made a decision that would fundamentally shape the company’s future.

“We began designing and manufacturing our own parts in 2023,” Monroe said. “Our goal was to simplify everything, create better parts, develop better installation methods, and ultimately build something that met our own standards because we couldn’t find that in the existing marketplace.”

That commitment to in-house engineering is evident the moment you walk around one of their trucks.

The bumpers aren’t off-the-shelf.

Neither are the fender flares.

The pickup bed isn’t borrowed from another manufacturer.

Even seemingly small details were designed specifically for these trucks rather than adapted from existing products.

Today, nearly every major exterior component found on a current-generation Black Edition is an Elevation Off Grid original.

That level of vertical integration is unusual for a company this young, but Monroe believes it’s the only way to build a truck that meets the standards he envisioned.

OEM Plus: A Different Design Philosophy

Many aftermarket truck builders seem determined to make sure everyone knows their truck has been modified.

Oversized fender flares. Towering suspension lifts. Massive bumpers that appear ready for military service. Bright accent colors and enough bolt-on accessories to fill an entire catalog.

Elevation Off Grid intentionally took a different approach.

Monroe describes the company’s design philosophy as “OEM Plus.”

“We wanted someone to look at the truck and know it wasn’t stock,” Monroe explained, “but if they didn’t know exactly what had changed, it would be difficult to pinpoint why.”

It’s an interesting design philosophy—and one that succeeds remarkably well.

An EOG truck looks factory-built. Panel gaps align perfectly. The bumpers flow naturally into the body lines. The fender flares don’t appear tacked on as an afterthought. Even the proportions feel intentional, despite riding on enormous 41-inch commercial-grade tires.

The trucks project confidence without screaming for attention.

It’s the kind of understated engineering that often goes unnoticed until you park beside a stock truck. Suddenly, every detail begins making sense.

More Than Just Good Looks

While the styling often grabs attention first, Monroe is quick to point out that nearly every design decision serves a functional purpose.

Take the front bumper, for example. Rather than simply bolting a winch behind decorative steel, Elevation Off Grid developed a structural winch cradle that mounts directly to the frame.

“The winch cradle is structural,” Monroe explained. “The recovery hooks are structural, and then the bumper itself installs over that structure.”

It’s the kind of engineering detail most owners will never notice—until they actually need to recover a truck deep in the backcountry.

That philosophy extends throughout the vehicle.

Nothing exists solely for appearance. Everything has a purpose.

The Black Edition Formula

Although every Elevation Off Grid truck can be customized, Monroe says the Black Edition starts with an impressive list of standard equipment.

Each truck includes the company’s proprietary 8-foot pickup bed, a single rear wheel conversion riding on massive 41-inch Goodyear G275 tires, LiquidSpring adaptive suspension, a 2-inch lift, proprietary front and rear bumpers, AMP PowerStep XL running boards, Tru-Earth Leveling, blacked-out trim, and a full chrome delete. Buyers can then personalize their truck from a menu of roughly 55 factory-installed options, ranging from truck camper tie-downs and onboard air systems to rock lighting, sound deadening, and gooseneck hitches.

What impressed me most wasn’t necessarily the length of the options list.

It was how cohesive the final product feels.

There are plenty of companies capable of building a highly modified truck. Very few can make one look as though it rolled off a Ford or Ram assembly line that way.

Growing by Reputation

Perhaps the strongest endorsement of Elevation Off Grid isn’t found in a brochure or specification sheet.

It’s found in the parking lots of Overland Expo.

During our conversation, I mentioned something I’d been noticing throughout the weekend. Everywhere I looked, there seemed to be another EOG truck.

Monroe smiled.

He admitted that during the company’s first Overland Expo appearance there were only a handful of similar trucks in attendance.

Today, the landscape has changed dramatically.

“People recognize the value in making a large purchase and only having to do it once,” Monroe said. “Our goal is to build a truck where someone who’s new to truck campers—or even coming from the van world—won’t discover six months later that they should have ordered something different.”

That’s a surprisingly refreshing philosophy.

Rather than chasing trends or constantly introducing cosmetic updates, Elevation Off Grid appears focused on eliminating buyer’s remorse. For many customers, these trucks represent the culmination of years spent upgrading lesser platforms.

Monroe wants their final truck to be exactly that—the last truck they need to build.

It’s a philosophy that’s clearly resonating with buyers.

By the end of 2026, Elevation Off Grid expects to have nearly 400 trucks on the road, an impressive milestone for a company that officially began building trucks only a few years earlier.

The Engineering Behind the Black Edition

Walk around an Elevation Off Grid Black Edition long enough and eventually someone will ask the same question.

“Why would anyone need an F-550?”

It’s a fair question.

For decades, truck campers have been hauled almost exclusively by 3/4-ton and one-ton pickups. Many owners have logged hundreds of thousands of successful miles with those trucks, myself included. But as truck campers have grown larger, heavier, and more luxurious, the safety margins have become increasingly thin.

That’s where Elevation Off Grid’s philosophy begins.

The company isn’t trying to convince people they need a bigger truck simply for bragging rights. Instead, Jerime Monroe believes the goal should be to create a truck that never feels like it’s working at its limits. Both the F-550 and 5500 offer a GVWR of 19,500 pounds with an amazing amount of payload.

“With our Black Edition pickup, you’re right around 10,000 pounds of payload,” Monroe explained. “With our Bowen Customs bed configuration, it’s about 9,000 pounds, which is still almost double everything else in the space. No matter what camper you’re carrying, you still have towing capability and you’re nowhere near the truck’s mechanical limits.”

That philosophy changes everything.

The Freedom of Excess Capacity

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding Class 5 trucks is that they’re only for the largest campers on the market.

While they certainly excel at hauling triple-slide behemoths like the Host Mammoth and Eagle Cap 1165, their biggest advantage isn’t necessarily the amount of weight they can carry.

It’s the amount of weight they don’t have to worry about.

When you load a traditional one-ton pickup close to its rated capacity, every additional accessory becomes another calculation.

Should I install a generator?

Can I add another lithium battery?

What happens if I tow my Jeep?

Should I fill the freshwater tank before leaving?

Owners begin managing weight like backpackers counting ounces.

A Class 5 truck changes that equation. Instead of constantly asking whether the truck can handle another piece of equipment, the conversation shifts toward where you’d like to travel next.

That’s a liberating feeling.

Why LiquidSpring Has Become the Gold Standard

Of course, payload alone doesn’t explain why EOG trucks have developed such a loyal following.

Ask almost any owner what they love most about their truck and chances are they’ll mention one word:

LiquidSpring.

When Monroe attended his first Overland Expo years ago, only a handful of trucks featured the hydraulic suspension system.

Today, it’s everywhere.

“I think it’s really become the gold standard,” he said. “People who care about quality and attention to detail want something they can simply get in, drive, and not worry about. Loaded or unloaded, there’s really no comparison.”

Unlike conventional leaf springs, LiquidSpring continuously adjusts damping based on road conditions and vehicle load. The result is a truck that behaves remarkably differently from what most people expect from an F-550.

Instead of bouncing over expansion joints and transmitting every crack in the pavement through the cab, the suspension smooths out rough roads with surprising composure.

Perhaps even more impressive is that the suspension is manually adjustable through eight inches of travel and now includes Tru-Earth Leveling as standard equipment.

For truck camper owners, that’s a game changer.

Pull into an uneven campsite, level the truck electronically, and you’re ready to start camping without driving onto stacks of leveling blocks.

It’s one of those features you don’t appreciate until you’ve lived without it.

A Truck Designed Around the Camper

As our conversation continued, Monroe pointed out several thoughtful design features that illustrate how closely Elevation Off Grid understands truck camper owners.

One example sits above the cab.

Mounted on the headache rack is a Baja Designs RTL light bar that serves as an elevated third brake light and turn signal. More importantly, it gives drivers behind the truck a much clearer view of your intentions when a large truck camper blocks the factory lighting.

Just below that sits another clever feature.

The factory rear view camera can be unplugged from the bed and quickly connected to a second camera mounted on the back of the camper.

Instead of staring at the rear wall of your camper in the digital rear view mirror, you regain a clear view of the traffic behind you—a simple but incredibly useful detail that many truck camper owners will appreciate.

Additional lighting mounted above the bed floods the cargo area with light, making it much easier to load or unload a camper after dark.

None of these features are flashy. They’re simply thoughtful.

The Super Single Difference

Perhaps no feature defines the Black Edition more than its massive 41-inch super single tires.

At first glance, they appear almost oversized.

Then you learn each wheel-and-tire assembly weighs 195 pounds and is rated to carry nearly 6,400 pounds.

Multiply that by four tires and the total weight capacity dramatically exceeds the truck’s gross vehicle weight rating.

That’s intentional.

Rather than operating near the limits of the tires, owners enjoy a tremendous safety margin while also gaining one of the biggest benefits of larger commercial tires—airing down for off-road travel.

Monroe shared a story that perfectly illustrates the capability.

After hauling a Host Mammoth to Moab, the EOG team removed the camper, lowered all four tires to just 20 psi, spent six hours wheeling the truck on the trails, then aired the tires back up, reloaded the camper, and drove all the way back to Denver.

Most customers are advised to stay closer to 25 psi for off-road use, but it’s impressive to know the platform is capable of much more.

Meet the Limitless

Although the Black Edition receives most of the attention, it isn’t the only platform Elevation Off Grid offers.

For buyers who prefer the appearance and familiarity of a dual-rear-wheel truck, EOG developed the Limitless.

Rather than converting to super singles, the Limitless retains dual rear wheels while utilizing EOG’s own forged wheel package.

The engineering challenge was keeping the rear axle close to factory width.

Many aftermarket dual-wheel conversions widen the rear track by 6-8 inches, making it more difficult to back beneath a truck camper and increasing mud spray down the sides of the truck.

EOG’s forged wheel changes that equation.

Depending on tire choice, rear track width grows by only about an inch and a half overall while maintaining true hub-centric mounting and factory lug nuts.

The result is a truck that retains much of the factory driving feel while solving many of the shortcomings associated with aftermarket dual-wheel conversions.

Like the Black Edition, the Limitless can be equipped with LiquidSpring suspension and still offers approximately 10,000 pounds of payload, despite riding with a remarkably compliant empty ride.

Monroe summed it up simply.

“It rides like an F-150 or F-250 when it’s empty, but still has 10,000 pounds of payload.”

That’s an impressive combination.

The Case for Diesel

One of the questions I receive more than almost any other revolves around engines.

“Should I buy the diesel or the gas truck?”

It’s a question that becomes even more relevant when you’re talking about a medium-duty truck carrying a 4,000- to 6,000-pound camper across mountain passes, into remote deserts, and over thousands of interstate miles.

As someone who currently rolls in an EOG Black Edition Ford F-550 powered by Ford’s 7.3L Godzilla V8, I was particularly interested in hearing Jerime Monroe’s perspective.

His answer wasn’t surprising.

“If it were my truck,” Monroe said, “I’d still choose the 6.7L Power Stroke.”

His reasoning is exactly what you’d expect.

The diesel produces tremendous low-end torque, climbs mountain grades with noticeably less effort, and generally delivers better fuel economy than the gasoline-powered alternative.

According to Monroe, most diesel-powered F-550 truck camper builds average somewhere around 10 to 11 miles per gallon, although weather, terrain, speed, and camper size can dramatically influence those numbers.

He shared one trip that perfectly illustrates just how much outside conditions matter.

While returning from Flagstaff to Denver with a Host Mammoth in the bed, the truck averaged an impressive 14 mpg during the first half of the trip.

Then the wind changed.

The second half averaged only 6 mpg.

Nothing about the truck changed. Nothing about the camper changed. Only the direction of the wind.

It’s a reminder that fuel economy discussions often oversimplify what are actually very complex variables.

There’s No Wrong Answer

One thing I appreciated during our conversation was Monroe’s honesty.

He didn’t dismiss the gas engine simply because he personally prefers diesel. Instead, he acknowledged that every buyer has different priorities.

If maximum torque, better fuel economy, and long-distance efficiency are your highest priorities, the 6.7L Power Stroke is difficult to beat.

If a lower purchase price, reduced maintenance costs, fewer emission restrictions, and easier fueling appeal more to you, the 7.3L Godzilla deserves serious consideration.

Fortunately, Elevation Off Grid builds exceptional trucks around either powertrain.

That’s really the bigger story.

Final Thoughts

I’ve had the opportunity to spend time around a lot of truck camper rigs over the years.

Some prioritize luxury. Some prioritize off-road capability. Others focus almost entirely on payload.

What impresses me about Elevation Off Grid is that they don’t seem interested in compromising.

Their trucks are engineered to haul virtually any truck camper on the market while delivering a level of ride quality that would have seemed impossible from an F-550 just a decade ago.

More importantly, they inspire confidence.

Confidence that you’re operating within the truck’s GVWR.

Confidence that the suspension was designed for the task.

Confidence that the wheels, tires, recovery equipment, and chassis all work together as a complete system.

That confidence is difficult to quantify, but anyone who has ever white-knuckled a heavily loaded one-ton pickup down a winding mountain highway understands exactly what I’m talking about.

It’s also becoming increasingly clear why Elevation Off Grid trucks are showing up at every major overland event in the country.

The company has built more than customized trucks.

They’ve built a reputation.

As Monroe told me, the goal has always been to create a truck that owners can purchase once, load with the camper of their dreams, and never look back wondering what they should have done differently.

Judging by the growing number of Black Editions and Limitless trucks roaming North America—and with nearly 400 trucks expected to be on the road by the end of this year—I’d say Elevation Off Grid is well on its way to accomplishing exactly that.

To learn more about Elevation Off Grid trucks and products or to get a quote, email the company directly at sales@elevationoffgrid.com.