After renting a Class C to test the concept (and not liking it) we accidentally stumbled upon the perfect RV for our family.
We met a private seller in Chattanooga to look at this truck camper.
In previous posts I shared how we began talking about buying an RV and the various steps we took to finding one that would work for us. In the end we decided on something we had never considered or even heard of--a truck camper.
“The number of hours spent researching and miles traveled was exhausting, but we can relax knowing we looked at every option available and made the best decision for our family.”
If you have read our other posts we shared that in our journey to find an RV we watched lots of YouTube videos. If you have ever been down a YouTube rabbit hole you know that if you don't click to the next video you want to watch you may be served up a video you didn't intend to watch. And that is how we think we landed on truck campers.
What's a truck camper?
A truck camper slides into the back of a pickup truck. The only concept either one of us had of a truck camper is the shell that covers the back of your pickup truck. I actually slept in the back of a pick up truck covered with a shell when I was 10 years old while camping with my best friend and her family. Looking back I remember seeing truck campers but had never really thought about what was inside.
While doing our RV YouTube research one night a video about various truck camper types started playing. Intrigued, we watched other videos about what it's like to camp in one. We realized that with a truck camper we would be able to get into harder to reach places and travel off the beaten path--something we wouldn't be able to do in a Class A or fifth wheel.
UGH, more research
Unfortunately, once we started down the truck camper route we realized we of course needed a truck, which meant more research. The cost of entry into owning an RV was probably about the same for us whether we had to buy a truck to haul a truck camper or whether we bought a small Class A.
We mistakenly thought something like a Toyota Tundra would be all we needed to haul a truck camper. We quickly learned we'd need at least a 3/4 ton truck. And we almost bought one. Luckily, we dug a little deeper and realized we weren't comfortable with the payload a 3/4 ton truck offered and the truck campers we were looking at. Ultimately we settled on a one ton dually 4x4 four door Ram 3500. With a payload of 5486 we knew it could handle the estimated 2800 pound wet weight of the camper we were looking at. We wanted to overshoot on the truck for safety and liability reasons. We also realized we really needed to buy the truck before the camper, because some campers are made for short beds and some are better suited for long beds. It took a lot more research to find a good truck, because the used ones are beat up and have lots of mileage on them already. I'm telling you every time we thought we'd made progress on making a decision we found something else like truck bed length or used trucks that had to be figured out before we could move forward.
Our new truck
Finding the perfect truck camper
As we began our search online we looked at RVtrader and Facebook Marketplace, among other places. We decided to buy used for a couple of reasons:
It would be cheaper, especially since we had to buy a truck too.
Like cars, we didn't want to buy new due to the depreciation as soon as you drive off the lot. Plus, we'd read that brand new truck campers often have issues and it's better to buy used so that those issues (for example, leaks) can be corrected first.
It was difficult to find a used truck camper in our area. Our search results turned up tons of options out west, but finding one in the south meant we'd likely have to travel four hours to a nearby state to look at one.
We walked through some new ones to get a feel for what's out there, and then arranged to go look at four used ones we found from private sellers. This helped us narrow down the pool even further. The first one we looked at had a wet weight of 4400. We weren't comfortable with that. By the time we loaded ourselves, cargo and possibly our dogs we'd be pushing the payload on our truck. The second one was 20 years old and needed some love, but we were willing to put in some work because the price was right. The third one had a great deal of potential but was one of the furthest away and was a little more than we wanted to spend. The last one, our favorite of the four, was sold before we ever had a chance to go look at it. In the end, we made an offer on the third one, the seller countered, and we are now are the proud owners of a brand new used truck camper! We pick it up in two weeks and plan to renovate the inside before taking it out into the world.
The number of hours spent researching and miles traveled was exhausting, but we can relax knowing we looked at every option available and made the best decision for our family.
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