Learn Me:Truck Campers/Slide In

I am interested in Truck Campers/Slide In for a midsize (Frontier or Tacoma) 5-6'ft bed. Pro's and Con's. Upgrades needed for the truck. From what I read someone added air suspension in the rear that helped.

Space is tight on these slide in campers when built for a full size truck.  Really tight when built for a small truck.  

Sample

Forget about then towing anything while the camper is there.  The load of the camper alone has maxed out the trucks ability.  

I think you'd be better off with a raised bed topper/cap with a midsize truck.   Lay a sheet of plywood over the wheel wells,futon matresses work well, then have slide outs underneath for gear/cooking like a tear drop.  I did this in college with my Dakota and have several friends that do this now.  This looks neat: 

But, can you lay down in that 5.5ft bed with the tail gate closed?  

Any reason you're looking at a camper and not a lightweight trailer? You'll get more living space, and not be saddled with the camper when you want to run some errands from where you're camped.

In reply to John Welsh :

*cough* Get a real truck *cough*

Have you looked at the AT Overland offerings? Those are really something I would be after if I was buying a trucklet.  They are basically a topper with a tent built in.  Expedition Portal always has a handful of them for sale in the classifieds.

93gsxturbo said:

Have you looked at the AT Overland offerings? Those are really something I would be after if I was buying a trucklet.  They are basically a topper with a tent built in.  Expedition Portal always has a handful of them for sale in the classifieds.

Whew! Those are pricey!

I had an Alaskan for several years. It was rather larger than you are talking and in the back of a F350 dually. The original plan was being able to camp while towing something, race car, boat, etc. It was a hard side popup. 

We put several thousand miles on it up into Canada and such. It got replaced by a bus. 

Alaskan Camper Build Thread

In reply to Turboeric :

Not a huge fan of pulling a trailer.

Growing up my family had a few. The last one was a 13 foot model with a small bathroom. 

The truck was a 1987 GMC k2500 with a 6.2 diesel and a 4 speed manual. It was 8600 GVWR. 

The plus side:

- towing the boat while taking the camper was convenient, even though it took some practice to get used to the over hang and hitch extension. Never had any issues with DOT or local police. 

- great for hunting or fishing, and could get away with parking in regular lots to grab some shut eye while waiting for the tides to change or sun to come up. 

- with the right gear you could take it over sand for surf fishing. So you had a fridge, freshwater, bathroom, and stove right on the beach with you  

The bad:

- breaking camp anytime you wanted to take the boat to the water or run to the store. 

- tight space inside

- even with the heavier spring the weight was high up and affected handling. 

z31maniac said:

93gsxturbo said:

Have you looked at the AT Overland offerings? Those are really something I would be after if I was buying a trucklet.  They are basically a topper with a tent built in.  Expedition Portal always has a handful of them for sale in the classifieds.

Whew! Those are pricey!

Go Fast Campers are really new but it looks like they're churning out some nice products. I think they're a bit less expensive than the AT offerings as well. 

I really want one of the GFC tents with an FJ mount. The mounts are available but the tents went from coming soon to sold out while I wasn't paying attention.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Yeah, they're blowing up right now. The estimated build date for a camper ordered today is March 2020!

I practically grew up in an old 1968 Dreamer slide in camper.  Good times.

I personally don't need a lot of space, so I would prefer a smaller camper in a  non-pop-up style.  Canvas will leak and deteriorate.  The other downside to a "convertible" or hybrid style camper is that they usually have to be set up before you use them.  If you decide to stop at a rest area and make some lunch you have to go through the activities of popping it up before you can use it.

Here in Flagstaff we've got a small shop called OVRLND Campers. They combine the best of a slide-in pop-up (FWC) with the simplicity of something like a clamshell RTT (ala GFC). 

The cool thing about OVRLND's design is that you can still use it like a normal truck topper/canopy. It's got barn doors or a normal hatch door. When it's closed up it's shorter than a high-top canopy. 

He also makes them custom, so it utilizes the full length of a crew cab truck. That's my biggest gripe about GFC - they make one length RTT and getting in and out of them is a PITA. GFC doesn't utilize the length provided above a crew-cab truck. The AT Overland Summit and SNAP Treehouse both have longer campers which means you don't need to do the "panel shuffle". 

SNAP Treehouse:

AT Overland Summit: 

I don't understand popups.

I bought a camper to avoid cold, clammy, drafty tents and then somebody decides to include the worst parts of tenting with my camper experience AND charge more for it.

If I was doing it on a small truck I would loom in to the flatbed models, you get a TON more space not having to fit into a bed. Con is you have to get a flatbed for the truck.

Having tried lightweight pop up slide inside in a couple of half tons here's my advice:

Sell your truck, buy a one ton, aquire slide in. Otherwise stick to a trailer.

If you modify your suspension enough to comfortably support a slide in the ride will be as bad or worse than a one ton.  A trailer will be fine to tow and leave you with a normal truck the 99.9999999% of the time you aren't hauling it including when you go camping.

^ What he said.

We had two lightweight campers on a half-ton with firestone bags and swaybars.

Upgraded to a 1-ton and much bigger camper.

Ditched the camper and truck for a 3/4 ton Suburban and a trailer.

I had a half ton GMC pickup, 6 cylinder,  3 on the tree. 

I rented a small slide in camper fo my wife and me to go to Watkins Glen for the Gran Prix.

Other than being a little under powered on some of the hills it was uneventful trip.

 We had two friends over fo dinner.   It made a nice place for my wife to lay down and still watch the race.

So it was what it was, a camper.    It served it's purpose quite well.