Best TC for 4x4 trip?

On future trips, we are considering towing our Jeep Wrangler behind the truck. This will allow us to take the Wrangler on 'real' offroad excursions.

On the upcoming trip to central America, we'll likely just drive the dually with TC. We're not going to be looking for off road excursions just for the fun of being able to drive 4x4. I assume a 4x4 truck (DRW or SRW) should be capable of driving on the (likely few) dirt roads we'll encounter.
The big reason why I wanted a 4x4 truck is because of the chance that it might rain and thus would need 4x4 to drive the dirt roads which are likely in poor condition in those countries.

With a dually you are going to be very limited in where you can go. It would be my last choice for trail use. Campers sit high as they are on the bed of the truck and the overhang is not going to be a problem anywhere that you can take your truck so long as you don't leave the steps hanging down.

The more weight in the bed the more stress on your truck's frame, suspension, rims, and tires, so the lighter the better. A full size camper can weigh anywhere from 1800 to 3600 lbs dry and this is before you add anything.

Popup type provide half the storage and will have a cassette toilet at best. They will also have half the fridge space and half the water capacity and half as much propane and half as much black water storage capacity, and these will all limit where you can go and for how long. Many primitive camping areas require that the camper be fully self-contained - i.e. a head with a holding tank and inside stove.

People go overboard in recommending solutions so you need to decide which opinions are valuable and which are best ignored completely. Don't expect to go places with a full size pickup and hard sided camper where you could go with a mini truck with a popup camper. They are completely different in their off road capabilities not the least of which is their width, length, and turning radius. They will also be very different in the creature comforts they can provide and where each will be able or allowed to go.

We can go on any surface ROAD and ford small creeks but would not dream of going on half the 4WD trails in the western USA with our full size 4WD truck with its 3,000 lb. camper load and our truck has a relatively short wheelbase and is SRW.

On the flip side we can also get into any gas station and stop at any store and fit in any parking space and get 13.5 MPG on average when traveling with a full load.

PS: Have you spent any time on TruckCamperMagazine.com? There are a number of articles on expeditions and lifestyle stories that would be good reference for you if you haven't. The link for the trip Brad Christ took in our rig before we bought it is here. I have a few photos from Brad he sent me when I bought his rig, but my favorite 'spooky' one is in the article above. Looks like good girders under there, but a lot of space between them and those steel sheets look a little to few for comfort...



On edit, YIKES! I now see the photos of your camper and rot issues. That's tough. I'm not so sure I'd say "just roll with it" after seeing the pictures.

There is a Capri Camper selling for $3950 (in New Braunfels). It apparently has air conditioner, heating, jacks, shower and porta-potti...bring an local RV tech with you; it'll be worth the ~ $100

I wouldn't rush into an fancy aluminum camper buy with only weeks allotted to research! There aren't many if any aluminum-framed pop-up campers in decent shape selling for less than ~$6,000/$7,000 that I could find today. I wouldn't even look at a used camper (pop-up or hard-side) that didn't have a full aluminum frame superstructure and non wood-backed fiberglass skin: tub, walls AND roof, and those genre *used* are selling in the ~ $8,000 ~ $12,000+ range in decent shape. Caveat: UNLESS it is a camper you can easily inspect at an extremely attractive price, like that $3k used Capri. We look at used (and some new) truck campers this way: we assume that THEY ALL leak to some degree; so the less organic materials used in the superstructure, the better

$8k to 12k for a pop-up (or, any used camper) is a big investment that you can't afford to make a mistake on.

On edit:

And, bear in mind that you don't want to try and escape Central or South America without that "huge piggyback" registered in your passport (if you ever want to go back to said countries in the future) !

You guys must have gotten more detail from another thread or more information. How'd you know he has a StarCarft and he's going south of the border? Anyway, unless you had a lot more time for research and/or looking for other campers.....I'd probably follow the other advice and look into cheap temporary fixes to the TC and just roll with it. The people down there are wizards at making what we would consider junk and making it last decades.

Otherwise, Hallmark and Outfitter pop-ups are pricey, very nice, and very well built. Other options Phoenix, 4Wheel, lite-craft.....what's that other no-nonsense one....."living Lite" or "real lite"?

Here's what Don and Janet's Outfitter/Dodge Ram combo looked like and last summer could have been bought as a combo for $50K.



Good luck! What, you got back from Texas to Alaska and back and decided to go the other direction? Very cool!

For what it is worth, People have made it down and back with rigs that aren't all that off-road capable. You wouldn't be exploring off on 4x4 roads in a rig like mine, but the people that took it down there mostly stuck to major roads and did other exploring by other means.

Since you're in Texas, you might want to check out Capri Campers, in Stephenville, Texas, off the I-20, between Abilene and Ft.Worth. They make nice basic small campers that alot of rodeo folks haul on their pickups, while pulling their horse/stock trailers.

I like the model called Rodeo Deluxe. It has a bath/shower and all the other features to be expected in a self contained truck camper, at a pretty good price.

The Rodeo Deluxe is their top of the line model and has a base price of only $9000 and includes alot of stuff as standard. Even fully optioned with every option they offer, including cedar lined interior, it's still less than $11,000.

The Rodeo standard model is only $6200 base price and has a bath/shower and kitchen just like the Deluxe model.

These campers are perfect for offroading because they aren't very wide (only 7' wide) or tall or long, so the truck can get into alot smaller areas off road. Zero rear overhang means no ground clearance issues with the camper at all. They're also light weight.





Capri Campers
26980 US Highway 377
Bluff Dale, TX 76433
800-295-0691

Limited overhang is the thing. You want an "east-west" bed, not a "north-south" bed. The long cab over flexes too much off road.

If you want to avoid a second lemon, I would suggest something other than a Palomino.

You may want to take a look at Outfitter - I believe they offer what you are looking for. We spent 21 months in an Outfitter, including 12 months in South America and 4 months in Mexico, and it worked well for us. (Link to our blog is here)

I believe Hallmark also offers an Al-framed camper.

Both of these manufacturers tend to have used campers for sale, may be worth checking them out.

As far as I understand from my research, an aluminum frame TC is better suitable for the stretching during off roading and a popup is best since it keeps the height to a minimum (overhanging branches).

Question: does it exist: an aluminum frame TC with popup and toilet/indoor shower?

1) fourwheelcampers = alu frame, popup, no indoor toilet/shower
2) palomino = wood frame I assume? , popup, indoor toilet/shower

Any others that offer all of our requirements?

P.S. We also own an Airstream, which we just took on a trip from Texas to Alaska and back (7 month trip). Is this why people pay more for an Airstream: the fact that you can actually make repairs to it and it keeps it value, as opposed to fiberglass 'SOB' (some other brand, as they are lovingly called in the Airstream community) trailers?

Unfortunately, it looks like fourwheelcampers doesn't have the option of a toilet/indoor shower; they only offer an outdoor shower option and an indoor porta potty. Not exactly my idea of an upgrade over sleeping in a much cheaper tent...