What if you want to turn your pickup truck into an overland camping rig and still be able to tow something else? A slide-in truck camper or a truck topper is the way to go, but there are so many options. Which truck camper is the best and also matched your budget and your truck?
We want your input on this.
Truck Size?
The first thing is to match a camper or topper with your truck. The Toyota Tacoma is a very popular overland truck choice. The Tacoma only comes with either a 5-foot or a 6-foot bed length options. The Tacoma 4×4 offers between 1,000 – 1,200 lbs of payload capacity, so a big and heavy slide-in camper would not work.
Slide-In Camper or Topper?
There are several truck topper solutions that also open up at the top to create a tent space for sleeping. This is more of a light-weight solution (starting at 350 lbs). The topper attached the bed rails of your truck, and it has a folding top section that turns into a tent. There are several styles of tents, including a clam-shell. These topper truck campers range in price between $6,500 – $9,000.
The downsize of a topper camper is that you still have a naked bed of your truck underneath the topper. This can also be good, as it allows you to customize your bed space just the way you want it. However, if you are looking for the creature comforts of a traditional motorhome, this is not it.
There there are also many different truck slide-in camper options. This Lance Altimeter is one of the larger ones. It features solid construction (no pop-up), and it has all the motorhome comforts. However, this Lance unit weighs nearly 3,000 lbs and has a starting price of $39,875. You need something like a 1-ton heavy duty pickup truck to utilize this large truck camper.
A large slide-in camper like this also limits the trails on which you can take your truck on.
Please let us know what are some of your favorite camper brands and features. Also, tell us about your truck camping experiences. You can email your story to us with images at ask@tfltruck.com.
