The Lightest & Least Expensive Production Truck Camper

[Travels_with_Yo]

Picked up our new truck camper this week and getting ready to customize much of the interior. At 1220 lbs on the Cat scale and a base model price of about $7500 it opens lots of door in a specialized niche market.

The Lightest and Least Expensive Production Truck Camper on the Planet !

[Travels_with_Yo]

azrving wrote:
Thanks for posting this. My son is looking for a lightweight TC. I remember how nice it was to go from a tent to a pickup cap so that eureka certainly has it's place in the market.

They make even less expensive ones without the cab over but still much of the same equipment and comfort. They Make:

8 FT Special ..... $5500
8 Ft Deluxe 60" Sleeper Dinette .... $6000
8 FT with Shower .... $7000
6 FT (for short bed trucks) .... $5800

[azrving]

Thanks for posting this. My son is looking for a lightweight TC. I remember how nice it was to go from a tent to a pickup cap so that eureka certainly has it's place in the market.

[Travels_with_Yo]

Eric&Lisa wrote:
Okay, I'll bite.... Anyone remember Clint Eastwood in a couple of late 70's flicks with Clyde? 'Any which way but loose' and 'Any which way you can'? In one of those movies they hit the road with a bare bones camper on the back of truck. They head out on their adventures chasing a chippie across country. They cook over a campfire by a stream, and do their 'business' in the woods. Every time I watch those shows I notice how rustic & simple the camper looks.

My point... Having a simple shelter on the back of a pickup truck is how truck camping used to be. We seem to have gotten all big & fancy, but there is no reason a basic format won't still work.
-Eric

I remember the movie and now am going to have to watch it again soon. When I was in high school (early to mid 60s) I read John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley" and that book inspired me and stirred my nomadic nature. It was the inspiration for our YouTube channel. It tells the story of Steinbeck's desire to see America and mingle with the good people along the way. He built what may have been one of the earliest home built truck campers in 1959 and set out on his journey with his poodle named Charley. My favorite quote from the book .....

“When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from here seems broad, straight and sweet, the victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going. Next he must plan his trip in time and space, chose a direction and a destination. And last, he must implement his journey. How to go, what to take, how long to stay. This part of the process is invariable and immortal. I set it down only that newcomers to bumdum, like teenagers in new-hatched sin, will not think that they invented it.”

[woodhog]

I may have missed it, but did anyone see how the floor is constructed.

Is there any wood in the floor to rot out ???

[Eric_Lisa]

Okay, I'll bite.... Anyone remember Clint Eastwood in a couple of late 70's flicks with Clyde? 'Any which way but loose' and 'Any which way you can'? In one of those movies they hit the road with a bare bones camper on the back of truck. They head out on their adventures chasing a chippie across country. They cook over a campfire by a stream, and do their 'business' in the woods. Every time I watch those shows I notice how rustic & simple the camper looks.

My point... Having a simple shelter on the back of a pickup truck is how truck camping used to be. We seem to have gotten all big & fancy, but there is no reason a basic format won't still work.

-Eric

[Travels_with_Yo]

Powerdude wrote:
I think this is great.

Having a lower price allows people to get into truck camping at a much lower entry point. Some people prefer new and simpler, because they may be intimidated by a used, more complex item that may require extra maintenance that they may not be familiar with.

Definitely a plus to have more choices in the market.

You definitely get it Powerdude 🙂 We also like the fact that much of the interior detail is somewhat custom built by the owner to suit their needs and also the peace of mind knowing exactly how something is put together .... as an example, I just finished installing this today ....

[Travels_with_Yo]

free radical wrote:

Travels with Yoly wrote:
Picked up our new truck camper this week and getting ready to customize much of the interior. At 1220 lbs on the Cat scale and a base model price of about $7500 it opens lots of door in a specialized niche market.

The Lightest and Least Expensive Production Truck Camper on the Planet !

Looks nice,,but the cabover could be bit longer for more room up there..

Yes I agree completely. I think it could be wider also but the material they use for the exterior skin only comes in rolls with a maximum width of 6 feet. The intended concept of the short 48 inch cab-over is that 2 people can sleep "east/west" or crosswise in it. We don't like to do that so they have a slide out option to extend the bed to a short queen but it takes up a lot of cabin space when extended. It's one of those pros and cons things 🙂

[Powerdude]

I think this is great.

Having a lower price allows people to get into truck camping at a much lower entry point. Some people prefer new and simpler, because they may be intimidated by a used, more complex item that may require extra maintenance that they may not be familiar with.

Definitely a plus to have more choices in the market.

[free_radical]

Travels with Yoly wrote:
Picked up our new truck camper this week and getting ready to customize much of the interior. At 1220 lbs on the Cat scale and a base model price of about $7500 it opens lots of door in a specialized niche market.

The Lightest and Least Expensive Production Truck Camper on the Planet !

Looks nice,,but the cabover could be bit longer for more room up there..

[3_tons]

Travels with Yoly wrote:

3 tons wrote:
A ‘not too many frills’ approach, but very well concieved, well executed and includes most of the basic necessaries and essentials...Personalizing to one’s remaining needs (e.g. a buddy heater, or extra water tank) should complete the bill for a happy get away camper!!...I’m certain a solid market niche exist for this offering...

3 tons

An extra jug for fresh water brings the capacity to 10 gallons for an additional $14. This is the same capacity as the fresh water tank on our previous $25K Adventurer 80RB. We bought a portable toilet with a 5.3 gallon capacity, larger than the black tank on the Adventurer. We have a great compressor fridge that is much more reliable and doesn't require level to function and deals with high altitudes just fine. It gets down to temperature (32* and 0* in the separate freezer) in less than 30 minutes. We've added a 1500 watt inverter and 100 AH AGM battery, a 24 inch LED flat screen, a PS4, a 5 inch short queen memory foam mattress, a 10 inch single burner induction cook top and I'm building a large sliding dinette/work table. With the Honda EU2000 we should be good to go comfortably for some time. All together now, including the toilet, we've invested $9.1K and it's quite deluxe, if just a bit small.

Sounds like you gained for yourselves a true bargain package!...Thanks for the extra details, indeed well thought out and a true viable choice for the half-ton folks...

3 tons

[jimh406]

Travels with Yoly wrote:
I'm not sure what you mean by a "text version" ? After researching truck campers and owning 3 previously I'm simply stating what I found. The cheapest non cab-over truck camper is the Rayzr series and we owned one. They run around $8.6K to $9.9K. The Eureka equivalent starts at $5.5K and $6K with dinette and sleeper. The add on cab-over on the Eureka is $1.5K extra making the cab-over truck camper $7.5K. We weighed ours on a Cat scale on the way home and it was 1220 lbs.
So, if you know of a new production cab-over truck camper costing less than $7500 and weighing less than 1220 lbs, please let us know.

This is perfect. I wasn't able to follow that from the video.

[Travels_with_Yo]

K Mac wrote:
Any concerns about cab clearance ? Nice Camper, I can see myself going this route down the road. Congrats and Enjoy.

By "cab clearance" do you mean the distance from the bottom of the cab-over to the top of the roof ? If so, I'm not at all worried. The gap on our previous Adventurer was about the same if not less and it rocked a bit on rough roads and separation joints. The Eureka rides like it isn't there. I hardly notice it at all and I can't detect any fore and aft rocking. I will admit, it's harder to tell since the cab-over is well behind my peripheral vision now, unlike the Adventurer that extended out to the windshield line.

[Travels_with_Yo]

3 tons wrote:
A ‘not too many frills’ approach, but very well concieved, well executed and includes most of the basic necessaries and essentials...Personalizing to one’s remaining needs (e.g. a buddy heater, or extra water tank) should complete the bill for a happy get away camper!!...I’m certain a solid market niche exist for this offering...

3 tons

An extra jug for fresh water brings the capacity to 10 gallons for an additional $14. This is the same capacity as the fresh water tank on our previous $25K Adventurer 80RB. We bought a portable toilet with a 5.3 gallon capacity, larger than the black tank on the Adventurer. We have a great compressor fridge that is much more reliable and doesn't require level to function and deals with high altitudes just fine. It gets down to temperature (32* and 0* in the separate freezer) in less than 30 minutes. We've added a 1500 watt inverter and 100 AH AGM battery, a 24 inch LED flat screen, a PS4, a 5 inch short queen memory foam mattress, a 10 inch single burner induction cook top and I'm building a large sliding dinette/work table. With the Honda EU2000 we should be good to go comfortably for some time. All together now, including the toilet, we've invested $9.1K and it's quite deluxe, if just a bit small.

[Travels_with_Yo]

jimh425 wrote:
Do you have a text version of why it is the lightest and least expensive and what you are comparing it to?

I'm not sure what you mean by a "text version" ? After researching truck campers and owning 3 previously I'm simply stating what I found. The cheapest non cab-over truck camper is the Rayzr series and we owned one. They run around $8.6K to $9.9K. The Eureka equivalent starts at $5.5K and $6K with dinette and sleeper. The add on cab-over on the Eureka is $1.5K extra making the cab-over truck camper $7.5K. We weighed ours on a Cat scale on the way home and it was 1220 lbs.
So, if you know of a new production cab-over truck camper costing less than $7500 and weighing less than 1220 lbs, please let us know.