A truck camper is a great way to travel the country. This camper will fit into the back of your truck and give you all the conveniences of home away from home. Some are pretty basic, but others will feel like a full sized camper! Truck campers are made to fit onto most trucks. There are even campers for ¼ ton trucks such as a GM Colorado or a Toyota Tacoma. These are smaller units given the size of truck they are designed to fit into, but will still get the job done. One of the biggest benefits of a truck camper is you can still choose your creature comforts in the truck vs getting into a motorhome whereas you are limited. You can opt for a truck with all the bells and whistles, or you can keep it basic. The other big benefit is it allows you to tow a boat or other trailer behind your truck and lets you bring a camper along. When you get to the camping area, simply unload the camper and explore from there. Being as it is on your truck, you can get into some pretty off grid areas. There are people who overland using truck campers. Most truck campers are solid, fiberglass units. There are also pop up types that the roof will raise up and provide more room inside. As the roof rises, canvas or vinyl soft siding will be exposed. Typically there will be windows all around with screens and zipper up plastic windows.  When the roof is lowered, travel is easier as there is not as much wind resistance of the higher height. This type of camper is normally designed for a truck that cannot carry as much weight as a larger heavier duty truck. 

The traditional truck camper layout has an entry door at the rear or side of the unit. Most will be at the rear, but there are some campers that have a rear slide out and will need a side entry. Once you enter the camper, you will have a kitchen, dinette and most have a bathroom or shower in the rear of the unit. If you are in a smaller unit without slides, it will look like a hallway with the amenities to either side. All the way forward is the main sleeping area. You will climb into a bed that will be over the cab of the truck. As you get into larger units with slides, the area will increase, however you will get a fairly similar floor plan. You are placing a bathroom, kitchen, table, and lounging area in a relatively small area. It will all be over the bed of your truck, so the longer the bed of your truck, the more space you will have. With the longer bed lengths, the camper can extend behind your truck bed some and will afford you with more space for the amenities. This area can also house an on board generator to power the camper while off grid. 

As the camper size increases, so must the truck. Most units with a slide out or more will require a 2500/F250 (¾ ton) truck to accommodate the weight. The larger truck campers with more than one slide will normally require a 3500/F350 (1 ton) truck or larger to go down the road. Lance Campers and Host Campers make units that weigh 4500 lbs+. In order to properly carry this much weight, and potentially tow a trailer behind the truck, weights need to be accounted for. While the majority of the campers this size will be placed onto a 1 ton truck, keep in mind how you intend to use the camper. You might need a bigger truck in order to go down the road. 

Price is always a consideration. As size increases, so does the price. You can purchase a brand new smaller unit for about the 20k range. As size and options increase, so does the budget. I have personally sold a truck camper approaching $140k. This was for a highly specialized unit, with a large solar assortment. Between the panels covering the whole roof, (6 of them at 200W each) and the lithium batteries, the camper was self sufficient. It did not need a generator or plug in power to use even the air conditioner!  This is an extreme case, but there are people who opt for a flatbed truck and out fit it to their specifications. Liquid springs and custom body work under where the truck camper sits are all things that have been done. I even had a customer design his own earth roamer utilizing a truck camper! The sky is truly the limit.