Hey! How did you get here?
How did you get to own a truck camper? What kind of experience predated your TC ownership? This could be instructive and explain why some do not need or want 4WD; or a small camper; or air conditionin...
Forum Discussion
I tent camped with family until I left the house. Once on my own, I camped in my car, truck or tent until I had one too many nights of cold at the ski slopes without heat.
Getting a small fiberglass form travel trailer convinced me that tent camping was best suited for hikes while I spent many nights up in the mountains with snow and ice while toasty warm inside the trailer.
I scaled back after getting married and tested the waters again with a pop up tent trailer. Although it was heated, the wet weather of the northwest limited its use and required more dry time than camping.
As finances increased through better jobs, I started collecting motorized toys that I wanted to take camping with us that no longer fit in the truck bed. This led us to toy haulers that had combined living space and garage. We became quite spoiled with all the amenities and large capacities of a toy hauler. But with the amount of trips we made, we also added more and larger toys.
We decided we needed a toy hauler with a bigger garage, but didn't really want a bigger footprint than the previous setup because it would limit where we could travel - That's how we ended up with our current combination. Now we have dedicated living space on the same truck we had used in the past, but can bring a garage (trailer) with us if we want toys or to make a trip in very compact unit (under 22') and leave the length behind. We are at the same overall length and GCW as we were before, but now have 4' more of garage space and no longer have vehicles intruding into the kitchen.
There are some compromises we made due to our small class 2 truck having a short bed. We have been able to extend our capacities by carrying gray and fresh tanks in our trailer and even making the trailer a covered social area when the weather turns, but there are some things we will change in the future. In order to do this, I am now looking at class 5 trucks with a flat bed. Once the financial hit of replacing the tow vehicle is healed by time, we will be looking at a double or triple slide TC with dry bath. Since we tow something on about 2/3 of our trips, we will also be looking for a side entry door (Northwood - Arctic Fox, are you listening?). If the number of toys continues to grow in the future, I will look at a trailer that expands capacity by going vertical instead adding more length to our home on wheels.
Getting a small fiberglass form travel trailer convinced me that tent camping was best suited for hikes while I spent many nights up in the mountains with snow and ice while toasty warm inside the trailer.
I scaled back after getting married and tested the waters again with a pop up tent trailer. Although it was heated, the wet weather of the northwest limited its use and required more dry time than camping.
As finances increased through better jobs, I started collecting motorized toys that I wanted to take camping with us that no longer fit in the truck bed. This led us to toy haulers that had combined living space and garage. We became quite spoiled with all the amenities and large capacities of a toy hauler. But with the amount of trips we made, we also added more and larger toys.
We decided we needed a toy hauler with a bigger garage, but didn't really want a bigger footprint than the previous setup because it would limit where we could travel - That's how we ended up with our current combination. Now we have dedicated living space on the same truck we had used in the past, but can bring a garage (trailer) with us if we want toys or to make a trip in very compact unit (under 22') and leave the length behind. We are at the same overall length and GCW as we were before, but now have 4' more of garage space and no longer have vehicles intruding into the kitchen.
There are some compromises we made due to our small class 2 truck having a short bed. We have been able to extend our capacities by carrying gray and fresh tanks in our trailer and even making the trailer a covered social area when the weather turns, but there are some things we will change in the future. In order to do this, I am now looking at class 5 trucks with a flat bed. Once the financial hit of replacing the tow vehicle is healed by time, we will be looking at a double or triple slide TC with dry bath. Since we tow something on about 2/3 of our trips, we will also be looking for a side entry door (Northwood - Arctic Fox, are you listening?). If the number of toys continues to grow in the future, I will look at a trailer that expands capacity by going vertical instead adding more length to our home on wheels.
