RoamSpec field guide
How RoamSpec works in practice
A clear way to think through vehicle, gear, payload, and power tradeoffs before a real-world truck-camper build.
01 / Purpose
What RoamSpec does
RoamSpec helps plan truck-camper and off-grid builds by organizing a vehicle platform, gear, payload, and power tradeoffs in one place. It gives you a way to compare a modeled setup before committing to a real-world build.
The figures are planning aids based on the information and assumptions entered into the app. They do not certify a vehicle configuration or guarantee how a finished build will perform.
02 / Workflow
The planning flow
01
Choose a vehicle platform.Start with the truck configuration that anchors the build.02
Add and configure gear.Use the Virtual Garage and Gear Grid to collect equipment and set up its modeled details.03
Set placement and conditions.Adjust camper and gear locations, then choose Field Conditions for the scenario you want to examine.04
Review or save the build.Review the resolved build summary, then save a build to return to it later.
03 / Weight planning
Payload and attributed axle weight
Payload used is the modeled load: camper weight, added gear, and existing add-ons when the custom vehicle baseline is enabled. Effective vehicle payload capacity is the selected platform's capacity, or its configured override when that baseline is enabled. The remaining amount compares those two figures; it is not an axle rating.
Foundation items describe the vehicle baseline and are not counted as ordinary added gear. For axle attribution, RoamSpec estimates shares for non-foundation gear weighing more than 40 lb, plus the camper. A 100 lb gear item illustrates how its modeled placement changes the split:
Assumed split: 80% front / 20% rear
Illustrative 100 lb item: 80 lb front / 20 lb rear
Assumed split: 50% front / 50% rear
Illustrative 100 lb item: 50 lb front / 50 lb rear
Assumed split: 20% front / 80% rear
Illustrative 100 lb item: 20 lb front / 80 lb rear
The camper defaults to the rear truck bed in this model. These attributed shares are planning estimates—not scale readings or axle ratings—and do not replace checking the loaded vehicle against its actual limits.
04 / Scenario modeling
Field Conditions
Field Conditions aims to simulate a build's power performance under a selected set of real-world-style conditions. Choose one of four region presets—Southwest, Mountain, Coastal, or Northern—then select a season, sky condition, and modeled day and night temperatures. Optional temperature overrides let you enter values outside the preset defaults.
Each region-and-season preset supplies day and night temperature ranges and defaults, modeled sunrise, sunset and solar-peak timing, resulting daylight hours, and a solar-efficiency coefficient. Sky and daylight timing shape estimated solar generation; the temperature profile shapes estimated cyclical and compressor demand over the day.
The canonical simulation combines those conditions with the resolved build's active and configured loads, solar capacity, controller and generator inputs, storage, and starting battery state. Across the modeled day it estimates consumption, generation, net energy balance, and battery reserve.