slide in for Toyota Tacoma with tailgate down

To all who responded to my query with great suggestions and info, I really appreciate it. With all these leads, I'll start calling and researching.

Hi, we have the camplite 5.7 and carry it on a 2004 toco 4door which has a short bed. The camper sticks out of the bed about 4in. w/o tailgate. Our setup without stove and shower comes in at 1100lbs. With our camper fully loaded and 2 adults the taco has no problem getting us around. We went with the hardside so we could stop anywhere climb in back ond not need to do anything. Happy hunting Bill

California ...

Four Wheel Campers

109 Pioneer Avenue

Woodland, CA 95776

Toll Free = (800) 242-1442

Phone = (530) 666-1442

Fax = (530) 666-1486

General E-mail = fwc@fourwh.com

I believe that Four Wheel is in Colorado. I'm sure a lookup of their website would yield a lot if info. I spent time last week with Tom Hanagan, president of the company, at Overland Expo. I was impressed that the founders of Overland are shipping a Tacoma fitted with Four Wheel to Africa for their next expedition. They told a story of giving locals a ride during a previous trip. At one point they had 12 Masai herders onboard as they lurched across the veldt.

Pretty amazing combo for ultimate overland.

you probably will have trouble finding one of the tiny palominos on anybody's lot. the salesman said that the regional Palomino guy suggested not carrying one, said they had built 20 of them when first came out and took a long time to unload them. I would think however that you could look at a bigger model and get a sense as to construction/quality.
bumpy

AS I recall it, Fourwheelcampers bought Six-pac years ago (2006 or so) and moved it to Woodland CA.

Six-pac built some compact models at that time - and had a made2order lightweight camper with mini-features but it looks like FWC does not make them anymore.

You might give them a call directly and see ... Six-pac was a well-built camper, was once in Texas as I remember it.

It's now in Woodland, with FWC ... maybe has been absorbed. I'd call them.

redtailhawk wrote:
Newbie on your site; looking for a fairly light weight camper with a footprint that's 42" wide and up to 92" long. I'd like to use it with the tailgate down for the extra space. Long ago, I had a SixPack that was built for a Toy long bed truck and liked it well. Does anyone know if such a creature is still made? I can't afford a new custom build one. Thanks for any ideas.

As has been posted elsewhere on this forum, length of the truck bed is not as important as where the center of gravity falls in relation to the rear axle.

Having the tailgate down does not make a short bed truck into a long bed when it comes to carrying a camper. While it would allow you to physically carry a longer TC, if the center of gravity of the camper is substantially behind the rear axle handling would become odd at the least, or possibly dangerous.

that camplite looks nice but starting at 1,200 lbs. with NO extras might get a little heavy when you add AC, etc. no stove ?
bumpy

Do it yourself plans can modify the plans to get what you want/need.

Hallmark Laveta is another option.



All Terrain Campers another option in pop-up world.

Four Wheel Campers Also owns six-pac which is not currently in production. They offer a hard top version on their pop-ups.



Overland Expo Owner's Rig



Camplite



Adventurer used to make a small hard-side for the Tacoma you may find used ones out there.

That's all I can think of right now.

Boy, thank you all for the various advice and suggestions. I surely will check them all out. It's been a bumpy re-entry to traveling. A couple of years ago, I bought a Toyota/Winnebago 21 footer and it just wasn't the way for me and my partner. So, sold it at a loss and while licking my wounds, decided to return to my experiences with a slide in camper. Sounding like I might have to build my own, though. Hope to see some folks on the road.