How an FWC Ram Rig Saved Driver’s Life in Roll-Over Crash Down the Mountain

Every once in a while, expedition vehicles are also modern-day heroes. Chance and the quality of the build makes them that, as Marine veteran Sean Silvera recalls in a recent interview with Truck Camper Adventure. Until earlier this summer, Sean had a Four Wheel Camper Ram rig that he was incredibly proud of, one that he’d spent a small fortune to build. Today, the rig no longer exists – but Sean is still alive to tell the tale.

Sean always imagined traveling around the country, with or without his family. He started working on what he describes as his dream overlander sometime last year, starting with the purchase of a 2018 Ram 2500. He upgraded the suspension on it, and then slowly started making all the necessary changes to turn it into an expedition vehicle.

The final step was buying a Four Wheel Camper, which is a pop-up camper you can place over an existing truck, instantly turning it into an overlander. Four Wheel Camper has a solid reputation on the market, and for his own needs, Sean chose the FWC 2020 Flatbed Hawk, which starts at $27,995 and is compatible with a wide range of trucks, from the Ford F-150 / F-250 / F-350, to Dodge Ram 1500 / 2500 / 3500, Toyota Tundra, and Nissan Titan.

“I put a Hawk Ute flatbed camper on it and really built that out for off-grid travel,” he explains. “They put one of the very first Redarc systems in from the factory, put lithium batteries in, and put two solar panels on top. In the tray itself, I had another 30 gallon [113.5 liter] water tank put in with a pump. I mounted a big 16.5ti Warn winch on the front of the truck and another 12.5 Warn winch on the rear, so I figured I could get out of anything I ever got myself into.”

Sean’s rig was complete in January 2020 and, from what he’s saying, no expense was spared. He estimates that the rig cost somewhere around $175,000, but he was incredibly pleased with the result.

As he was making plans to hit the road, 2020 unraveled and became the terrible year it is right now. Lockdowns, travel restrictions and the possibility of health complications canceled all travel plans, but in the summer, as some restrictions were lifted, Sean was starting to feel optimistic. He started small, by taking a drive to the family property near Laytonville, California.

It was raining heavily as he was drawing near to the cabin and it continued to rain as he decided to drive to a nearby mountain in the hope of catching some cell reception to send important work documents over email. Sean admits that his wheels were slipping in the thick mud, but says he wasn’t worried about that: he was more concerned about scratches from tree branches, so he was doing his best to avoid them.

On a narrower stretch of the mountain road, the left side of the rig got closer to the edge of the road and the road itself collapsed under the weight. The rig went down backward, doing a rollover. And then another, and another, and another, and then Sean lost count and hit the bottom of the ravine, upside down.

“The first rollover was end-over-end, so I went back bumper to front bumper and hit a pretty big oak tree that broke. Oak trees don’t break that easy, but collectively the truck and camper weigh about 10,000 pounds [4,535 kg]. I don’t know how many times I rolled – I’m guessing five to seven times,” he says.

He estimates it was a 300-foot (91.4-meter) drop, yet he wasn’t hurt at all because the aluminum frame of the camper took the brunt of the impact and prevented the cab from crushing in on him, while the airbags protected him from injury. By the time they reached the bottom of the ravine, the camper had become separated from the truck, but it didn’t matter because it had served its purpose.

What followed next is the kind of scenario you see in survival story movies: Sean was trapped inside the cab by the airbags and couldn’t find anything to puncture one with. Even worse, he could smell gasoline from a small canister inside and thought he saw smoke, too. He reached for his .45-caliber and shot the passenger window, through the airbag, freeing himself.

Once out, he didn’t have a signal, so he used a Garmin InReach satellite communicator to send a text to a friend, who in turn, called for help.

Sean says that insurance covered the entire cost of the rig (truck and camper), but he still had to dig deep in his pockets to get out of the predicament. Extracting what was left of the rig was a headache because of the location and the depth of the ravine, and he ended up paying $11,800 for it.

Sean isn’t saying whether he’ll ever build himself another overlander, but he does say this: he’s not sorry he chose to go all out in terms of quality.

“Something that is very clear to me is that I should not have walked away from the accident without a scratch. I’m very grateful for the quality and durability of the products and manufacturers that I used on the build. Ram, PCOR4x4, AEV, Four Wheel Campers, Rhino and others all took the hit for me,” he explains.

He knows he sounds like a walking ad and he swears he isn’t one. A look at the photos of the crushed rig in the gallery above will probably make you believe him. So tonight, pour one out for the most unexpected hero of the summer: he fought the good fight.