Thinking about getting a TC, but seems to be more costly???

Yep, TC is more costly per sq ft, but they call it 'versatile'for a reason.

Genie and I have camped in ours for five or six months at a time with no issues. We have 8'6" Lance on a SB truck. With a long-bed, you have more options for the length. Altho' I'm not sure an extra thirty inches means much for the privacy/activity part, but does allow more storage.

We can go anywhere our truck can go, we don't have to "go back and get it" after some exploring.

A TC is probably the most expensive RV around on a dollar/ square foot basis. Then, you have to factory in a really heavy duty truck to tote around what amounts to not very much living space.
I have one because I pull a boat, and some times other things, behind it. VA doesn't allow two trailers so my options are MH or TC. Since I already have the dually truck for work it makes sense to use it for a TC. Plus, it gets me 4wd.
If I didn't already own the truck or need to pull a boat there's no way I'd have one. I'd have a FW or TT instead.

Truck campers do tend to be more costly than many other types of rvs but the convienence and versatility is hard to beat, although you do sacrifice living space substantially. We had a truck camper in 05 and ended up selling it for a new 2010 32' 5th wheel, as much as I liked the living space once setup at a campground with the 5th, I hated the overall inconvience of not being able to stop in small places easily while traveling through. We ended up trading it in at a considerable loss on an 05 Lance truck camper to regain our freedom back. We tend to "travel camp" rather than just picking one area and staying long term so it made more sense to have the flexibility to stop on the fly and have quick and easy camp setup/breakdown times. With the trailer we always had to find a campground first to drop it at before we can stop and enjoy some areas. Now we flat tow a jeep behind us with the truck camper most of the time, so even though we are towing something again it's much smaller than a trailer and can be detached in less than 5 minutes for use. We can take the jeep and park the truck camper anywhere legally because it's a motor vehicle, unlike a trailer that your stuck with until you reach the campground. Also, gives you extra places to store stuff and you got a spare vehicle in the event the truck breaks down LOL! It's basically like a small motorhome/toad arrangement. When we don't take the jeep I've towed a job trailer to work sites, our boat when we had it and sometimes nothing and just take the camper off the truck at the campsite and use the truck. Plus with 4wd we beach camp every year. Gotta figure out how you like to camp/travel to know what's best for you and those are always subject to change over time. Just try not to make the costly mistake did!
Sticky

Your decision depends on what you want and need to do. If you don't need to pull a boat or toys, I'd go with a small TT. I went from a small TC 8' to under 20' TT. The TC took an hour to set up or take down (off oe on truck with manual jacks & a drill), the TT takes 10 min.

Beware that truck campers have extremely rapid depreciation, even more than TT or 5th wheel Rv's. I've owned 4 truck campers and dealers in my area do not like to take them on trade because the demand for them is so low. They are hard to sell on your own especially if you are trying to sell a large heavy one. Most people don't have dual wheel trucks!! If you do purchase a truck camper get a small soft side or light 8' model that can be carried on a short bed truck. Here you would have more opportunity for resale because so many people have short bed trucks! Nothing beats the utility or ease of travel like a truck camper. We were NEVER turned down at a campground, they can always find a place to put you. Once we pulled up beside the office and were told we could plug into the side of the building.

However, once you put the wife into a 5th wheel or large TT it's over. They won't consider moving back to a truck camper.

The actual box doesn't cost much to build (TT, 5th, TC)...it's the facilities (fridge, stove, furnace, electricals, etc...)

The facilities are pretty much the same for each. If anything the TC suffers as they may use smaller versions to save space but that results in less economy of scale.

We were looking at them before plans changed a couple years ago (planed to do the PanAmerican Highway). You get a TC because you need the capabilities of a TC. If you are staying on smooth roads and staying in regular campgrounds, there better options. If you need to tow a large boat or want to go into the back country where you need 4x4, TC make a lot of sense (I'm sure others can come up with other use cases).

Since you already have the truck a big part of the cost is already taken care of.

Thanks for the feedback guys! I know there is no one size fits all solutions here. There are times when I can see myself towing a trailer with my motorcycle or maybe our honda civic...I guess that's why maybe I have started thinking about a TC.

Then I have also considered that if I got a TC I would have the option to even load it on my 18' flatbed car trailer and use the open truck bed.

Just thinking to think it thru!

As was mentioned above, towing a boat or other trailer is where a TC shines. I tow kayaks and boat trailers with mine and have the convenience of not being restricted to one or the other, or towing a train. Cuts down on potential bumber of blown tires too! Plus, I've always liked the way TC's look. Much nicer to my eye than a trailer being dragged behind with a living space that's largely unnecessary for the types of trips my wife and I take.

The other place a TC shine is traveling solo without anything in tow. So easy to turn around or just back out of a dead end.

TC value depends on what you are looking for. A bare bones older unit in very good condition can be had for about $10k or less. I purchased my 2004 815 in 2009 for $6k. Today it's worth about $6k. Not bad for over 400 nights of camping.

Yes your trailers are too big for exploring or easy towing. Vehicles of that size are for base camps and exploring from there. However if you went with a reasonable 30-32' FW, it would not be bad for doing light sight seeing between destinations. I towed a 35' FW for six years and over 25k miles with my average stay being 2 nights per location, more than half the miles were non-interstates. I would not want to tow a longer one.

For me it comes down to towing ability. I use a truck camper because I want to be able to to a pretty heavy trailer, so a TT or 5th wheel is out of the question.

However, "Likes to tow" is correct about the wife; I took mine to some RV dealers and looked at some 5th wheels just for fun one day... she went right for the 40-footers! I've been trying to get her to understand that the ones that are huge on the inside are also huge on the OUTSIDE!! Tow it? I don't even want to think about washing it!
I may be doomed.