4X4 RV/Camper

Hall256

WKR
Joined
Nov 12, 2016
Messages
359
Location
Virginia
If your bank account is bottomless, earthroamer. But if you are a normal guy, four wheel campers make pop up truck bed campers made for off road use. I believe you can buy a shell and outfit it yourself if you're a diy guy.

Poking around expeditionportal.com will give you a million ideas.
I've never seen these...well looks like I need to start saving a couple hundred thousand dollars. I'm sure my wife would not mind if I drain the life savings, retirement, and kid's collage fund to get one of these.

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Joined
Dec 10, 2016
Messages
363
Location
Coast to coast
I plan on ordering a Unimog from England in the next few years.
It won't be this model, but when I heard you say 4x4 Camper, it made me think of this!

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Titan_Bow

WKR
Joined
Dec 10, 2015
Messages
1,116
Location
Colorado
The other thing to consider, especially with something like that Unimog, is reliability, and road worthiness on longer trips. I like in Colorado, and find myself driving 6 hours for turkeys, 2 hours for elk, 4-6 hours for deer, 3 hours for rabbits, 4 hours for big rainbows, etc. every year. I need a vehicle that is absolutely capable of reliable highway travel, followed by small stints of potential off-road capability. Thats why I got a small off-road trailer, I can drag it behnd me and have the cargo space if needed, but I am not sinking a ton of money into something that is not capable of, or really intended to be used, for long distance highway miles...
 

Felix1776

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 3, 2015
Messages
204
Location
Colorado
I went the roof-top-tent on a trailer route. That way my truck is not tied up as part of my camp.

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What kind of trailer is that?

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RoJo

WKR
Joined
Dec 5, 2016
Messages
403
Location
South Central Arizona
What kind of trailer is that?

Looks like a M416 military trailer with the pintle hitch replaced with a ball hitch.

It actually is not a military trailer, and it does have a pintle/lunette hitch.

It was built from scratch by a guy that isn't in business any more. He was doing business as "Mil Spec Off Road" in Lake Elsinore, CA, and this was what he called the "M8-A1 Mule", or something like that. He was obviously inspired by military trailers. This was one of his show trailers, I picked it up from him after he went out of business. It is a beast. After I bought it, I swapped the 5-lug brake drums (yes it has electric brakes) for 6-lug Toyota pattern drums, so the truck and trailer can share spares. The trailer will go anywhere the truck can drag it.

Here is a more recent photo, after adding a propane bottle, spare tire mount, and 19-gal. water tank:

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Ghost

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 28, 2014
Messages
206
Location
Pine Grove, PA
Could always go this route. I'v put ours in some places I probably should not have. :)

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RC
How did the camper hold up? Thinking about upgrading my truck to a 3/4 or 1 ton and would like to put a truck camper in it to use as a base camp for elk hunting, but Im worried the mountain roads would rattle it apart.
 

Felix1776

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 3, 2015
Messages
204
Location
Colorado
It actually is not a military trailer, and it does have a pintle/lunette hitch.

It was built from scratch by a guy that isn't in business any more. He was doing business as "Mil Spec Off Road" in Lake Elsinore, CA, and this was what he called the "M8-A1 Mule", or something like that. He was obviously inspired by military trailers. This was one of his show trailers, I picked it up from him after he went out of business. It is a beast. After I bought it, I swapped the 5-lug brake drums (yes it has electric brakes) for 6-lug Toyota pattern drums, so the truck and trailer can share spares. The trailer will go anywhere the truck can drag it.

Here is a more recent photo, after adding a propane bottle, spare tire mount, and 19-gal. water tank:

36055244532_f41eded071_z.jpg
Very very cool. Thanks.

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Joined
Feb 5, 2014
Messages
1,324
Location
Tulsa Ok
Awesome little setup there.

I've been considering the tent setup on a rack on my F150. How easy are they to setup and tear down? Whats stopping me now is I can setup and tear down my tents in a matter of 10-15 mins, so the $1500-$2k investment with a rack doesn't seem like it would save me much. Having that trailer and being able to leave it behind changes that though.

My tent literally takes just a few minutes to pop out. Unzip the cover, pull the ladder and pop it open. It does take a few minutes to extend out the window shades, but there is no requirement to do that if you don't want to. takes a few minutes to level the trailer.

They are very comfortable and have the foam pad. They are poly cotton ripstop, so relatively thick, so fairly warm too.

It's just something you need to look into to see if it is for you. We really enjoy ours.
 

Antlers

FNG
Joined
Dec 11, 2016
Messages
60
Location
Alaska
We had one for many years, (actually two over the course of about 12 years), it was the reason I bought a 1 ton diesel truck, and we loved it, but ended up selling it because we bought a cabin and just never used it anymore.
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Do you really need a 1-ton to run a truck camper?
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
7,391
Location
Chugiak, Alaska
For that camper, hell yeah. Dry wt. was just under 3k lbs. I also have air bags in the rear and would run with 90 lbs. of pressure in them, giving me almost 5k lbs. increased payload capacity, even with all that, I wished I had a dually when hauling that camper.


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tuffcity

WKR
Joined
Nov 2, 2013
Messages
557
Location
YT
How did the camper hold up? Thinking about upgrading my truck to a 3/4 or 1 ton and would like to put a truck camper in it to use as a base camp for elk hunting, but Im worried the mountain roads would rattle it apart.

Camper held up (is holding up) fine. I have the Torklift tie downs on it (removable ones). The camper has a metal frame instead of the old style wood one so I suspect that helps a lot. Put a locking system on your cupboard doors though!

If you're thinking of either a 3/4 or a 1ton... go with the 1 ton. Way more possibilities in camper styles and there really isn't any difference in the drivability.

RC
 
Joined
May 24, 2016
Messages
1,774
Truck campers unless they are 4 wheel campers Ilk will get destroyed during off-road use.

Go one ton. What's the downside?
 

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

WKR
Rokslide Sponsor
Joined
Mar 12, 2014
Messages
3,840
Location
Thornton, CO
The mentioned pop up four wheel campers and all terrain campers are quite nice and simple. Better than sleeping in a tent, not as roomy as a trailer. They are light and fairly robust with low overhead clearance. I've been hunting out of them (my own or others) for 8yrs now. Even when we go back country we have one parked at the trailhead so if desired we can crash back there for the night while doing haul laps. Basically whatever footprint a truck takes up is all you need so much easier than a trailer or very large hard sided truck camper. We've been out in -20F in them, the heater runs a lot more but its doable.

There is no denying a trailer is more luxurious though but you have to deal with the associated logistics.
 
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