Cab over Camper shell?

Take a look at Bundutec campers . I have heard that they will sell just a shell .

jaycocreek wrote:
Half tons can be built up just like a 3/4 ton to handle the weight...

How does one build up the brakes?

Half tons can be built up just like a 3/4 ton to handle the weight..I remember well one of my good friends coming over to pick me up with his dad's 1960 chevy 1/2 ton with a 10ft truck overhead camper on it...It worked but was a bit squerly to drive..His dad finally beefed up the springs and added stuff to which it was much safer to drive..

Never understood why so many are 1/2 ton bashers..I had a super heavy 8ft overhead sturdi built camper on a 1957 GMC stepside 1/2 ton and even pulled horses with it in some of Idaho's worst backcountry roads..Once I had the springs rebuilt,it drove okay..

Even the empty shells weigh 700-1000lbs, which will squash down the springs pretty hard on a 30 year old 1/2 ton truck.

I was in search of a similar solution about 10 years ago, and you're just not going to find some magical lightweight shell that you can build out into a fully appointed camper. Nothing has changed much. Not enough market for such a thing to make it price competitive with existing solutions.

Since OP hasn’t responded in a few days, I’ll change the subject a bit.
30 year old 1/2 ton is not where I’d start for building any sort of truck camper unless it’s a cherry truck.

Google the term "mobile treatment center". You will find several manufacturers of fibreglass shells which could easily suit your purpose.

KD4UPL wrote:
You might try a fiberglass body from Fleetwest. They are meant for work trucks but would probably work for a truck camper.
https://www.fleetwest.net/product_type/fiberglass-bodies/
Sorry, I don't know how to make it a clicky.

Clicky, FLEETWEST.NET

This looks like a good choice, depending on the price.

Yes there are several mfgs selling unimproved shells.

I have seen one. It was a fiberglass (like a boat hull construction), similar to a topper, but tal enough to stand in, and had a cab over, yet the sides were the same width as the truck. Gel coat exterior like a topper too. It was brand new and still smelled of the epoxy bc it was one day old, and the owners slept in it that night. They probably are dead by now from the carcenogins.
The interior looked like a topper with the rough sprayed-in fiberglass strands.
They intended to build it out also.
It attached same as a topper and maybe had the truck bed fully exposed, but not sure about that.
I cannot remember the brand, but just to tell you it does exist.
I saw it in NC, so wherever they got it was in NC or very close.
This was 5 yrs ago probably.
They were super excited about it and mpg was better than a TC.

Likely it could have been one of these as posted above
https://www.fleetwest.net/product/335/

Fourwheel campers sell shell versions of their popup campers for exactly your purpose. No exactly cheap though.