All About Truck Campers

One lesser known type of RV is the truck camper. These versatile, portable, and underestimated RVs deserve their time in the spotlight too. Have you ever seen a truck camper sitting atop the bed of a truck while driving down the road or at a campground and wanted to know more about them? Harvest Hosts has your back. Get ready we explore everything you wanted to know and more about truck campers. 

What are Truck Campers?

A truck camper is a specially-built camper that is either hard-sided or pop-up and mounts into the bed of a truck. Some truck campers specifically fit a short or long bed truck, while other truck campers can fit on either. Truck campers provide unique capabilities in that they can go anywhere that the truck can go. This opens up a tremendous amount of campsite options. Many truck camper owners are huge fans of boondocking, or dry camping, and these campers allow them to find spots that most motorhomes and fifth wheels can only dream of visiting.

Pros and Cons

There are pros and cons to hard-sided truck campers versus pop-up truck campers. Hard-sided truck campers have solid walls and, typically, a larger floor plan. These campers are more insulated, feature more storage space, and have slide-outs, which allow for more features, such as a dry bathroom, instead of a wet bath, where the toilet is located inside the shower. Hard-sided truck campers usually have separate black and gray tanks, but not all models allow for that.

Pop-up campers have a roof that raises and lowers the upper third of the camper. It only takes a few minutes to raise and lower the roof, and the roof must be in the lowered position while driving. These campers have a lower clearance, which can take stress off the driver and allow them to go more places. They are also more lightweight, and occasionally have slide-outs. On the other hand, they are smaller than hard-sided campers and do not typically have dry bathrooms. Instead, they require a separate or dry toilet and often do not have black or gray tanks. There are portable gray tanks that can be hooked up to the camper, and these require either manual dumping or hookups at a campground. 

Can these be used at Harvest Hosts locations?

Truck campers can absolutely be used at Harvest Hosts locations. While these are not typical drivable or towable RVs, certain ones can fit the criteria for use at Harvest Hosts locations. Any RV that stays at a Harvest Hosts location needs to be self-contained with an interior restroom. They also need to have holding tanks or a portable toilet that can be disposed of off property at an appropriate location. As long as your truck camper is entirely self-contained, it is suitable for use at a Harvest Hosts location.