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Four Wheel Campers popup might be your best bet if you want a truck camper and not a towable, they aren't super common but people do use them in WA, I just saw one on Friday.
They are pretty common here in Montana, and their smaller campers are specifically designed for the LT's, Tacoma specifically. Aluminum frame, composite materials.. They start with a shell and you spec it. The one really great thing about them? They don't BS their dry and wet weights. A lot of camper manufacturers boast low weights, when in fact they are far from accurate. Palomino and some others come to mind.
I've posted this before, but I will post it again. I have a nice rig made by Hallmark. It's a pop-up truck camper, 8' bed model. Base weight is 1,262 pounds Hallmark Guanella - 8 foot Pop-Up Truck Camper. I have a 30gal water tank, a 3 gal water heater, solar on the roof, furnace, electric auto-llift, happy-jacs.. When I load it with food, water, clothing, gear and people and go through the scale- my set up weighs over 2,000lbs. My truck is a 3/4 ton Dodge 24V diesel, xtd cab.
I know that puppy is back there, and I have a big truck.
Just be wise- you really don't want to overtax a light truck. Like said- it can be disastrous.
Threerun, you offered some wise advice. Your truck-camper is what I think of as a safe, compact, lightweight unit because your 2000# payload is well below the maximum rating of the truck.
I owned a Nissan compact pickup in the 1980s with a 4 cyl engine, and it had nothing more than a light fiberglass camper shell on the back. It could carry 500 - 600 pounds of firewood in the pickup bed, but not much more. with that modest load, it really handled different and felt HEAVY! I could not imagine having a 1000+ lb pop up camper like a 4 Wheel camper in the bed of a compact Nissan truck and drive it any distance other than down a flat, straight road with no wind.
In the late 1990s I visited the 4 wheel camper factory in Woodland, CA (1/2 hour west of Sacramento) and was considering getting one of their stripped down models to put on the back of a full sized Chevy 3/4 ton pickup 8' bed. I remember seeing some of the models made for compact pickups like Nissan or Toy Tacoma, but even the people at 4 Wheel Camper said that with small trucks there are a lot of limitations to their use and there are a lot more possible handling problems than with a regular sized pickup. Small pickups have a short and narrow wheel base compared to regular pickups, and that is the reason for a lot of safety concerns.
Threerun, you offered some wise advice. Your truck-camper is what I think of as a safe, compact, lightweight unit because your 2000# payload is well below the maximum rating of the truck.
I owned a Nissan compact pickup in the 1980s with a 4 cyl engine, and it had nothing more than a light fiberglass camper shell on the back. It could carry 500 - 600 pounds of firewood in the pickup bed, but not much more. with that modest load, it really handled different and felt HEAVY! I could not imagine having a 1000+ lb pop up camper like a 4 Wheel camper in the bed of a compact Nissan truck and drive it any distance other than down a flat, straight road with no wind.
In the late 1990s I visited the 4 wheel camper factory in Woodland, CA (1/2 hour west of Sacramento) and was considering getting one of their stripped down models to put on the back of a full sized Chevy 3/4 ton pickup 8' bed. I remember seeing some of the models made for compact pickups like Nissan or Toy Tacoma, but even the people at 4 Wheel Camper said that with small trucks there are a lot of limitations to their use and there are a lot more possible handling problems than with a regular sized pickup. Small pickups have a short and narrow wheel base compared to regular pickups, and that is the reason for a lot of safety concerns.
Actually my truck is only rated to 2,000 lb payload, so am exceeding my rated capacity (for all intent and purposes).
I agree with you 100%. I have no working knowledge with the smaller pick-ups, but I can imagine it can get hairy really quickly. I drove my rig in downtown L.A. and freeway traffic a few years back. Let me tell you I was white knuckling the whole way. I tried to maintain a 15-20 car length, people would cut right in- at speed. If there was an emergency stop I WOULD HAVE smashed someone to bits.
Loading such a small truck to it's maximum rated capacity with a slide-in camper is a recipe for problems.
Despite installing improved suspension and higher capacity rated tires, the basic structure, brakes, engine, and transmission are still the limiting factor in performance, durability, and safety. This will be a very tedious rig to drive for any distance, and you may even find that it's incapable of maintaining posted freeway speed in a lot of situations. In surface traffic driving conditions, you may find that it's remarkably slow to accelerate and keep up with traffic.
As you acknowledge, it may be very difficult to even stay within that max rated capacity when fully set up for the road. Driving such a load may be seriously lacking in being able to keep up with traffic, climb grades, and fuel economy is going to be very low from the truck engine struggling to just get down the road. It's not only a matter of weight, but of windage with the camper. Then, when you are on descents you will find the brakes very marginally adequate for normal driving; in an emergency situation, they will likely be inadequate for the task. Prudence will dictate leaving a significantly longer distance between you and the next vehicle then you'd normally need in traffic.
For reference, looking at a slide-in camper designed specifically for these smaller capacity trucks, I looked at an Alaskan, a well built and thought out unit for a 6' small truck bed. The Alaskan comes in at 1,030 lbs with a 2 gallon Propane tank and a minimal amount of water on board. They advise that with passengers, clothing, food, and a frugal amount of gear on board that you should expect the camper to be at the max capacity of the truck. Think about it, you're asking the truck to work to it's maximum capacity all the time it's in motion. My guess is that you'll not see much better than 10-12 mpg with one of these rigs on the road. Don't expect much longevity for the engine, transmission, or brakes on this rig.
In addition to the suspension upgrade, you'd want to upgrade the transmission oil cooler capacity to keep the transmission from cooking itself. With a 1993 vehicle, if it's got a normal amount of miles on it, don't expect that the transmission will have much useable service life remaining to begin with and now you're asking it to work at it's rated maximum all the time? Again, it's not just the weight that will be a factor, but the windage of the slide-in camper that will be a major factor on the load going down the highway. This will not be an easy rig to drive much of the time, you'll be constantly having to pay close attention to keeping it in your lane and trying to keep up with traffic.
IMO, your better option will be to find a lightweight camping trailer well within the towing weight and max trailer tongue weight rating of your truck. You'll still have very modest performance under this load, but at least you'll not be pushing the truck to it's maximum performance and braking capability all the time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Threerun
Actually my truck is only rated to 2,000 lb payload, so am exceeding my rated capacity (for all intent and purposes).
I agree with you 100%. I have no working knowledge with the smaller pick-ups, but I can imagine it can get hairy really quickly. I drove my rig in downtown L.A. and freeway traffic a few years back. Let me tell you I was white knuckling the whole way. I tried to maintain a 15-20 car length, people would cut right in- at speed. If there was an emergency stop I WOULD HAVE smashed someone to bits.
This is really interesting information. Let me ask you this, then - if you were me, and you were going to just buy a small camping trailer, do you think the extra suspension and special shocks would be necessary?
Ideally, I wanted a small camper on the truck, for two reasons: 1) because I have physical limitations as far as long drives to go to towns that have good shopping - closest is about 2 hours away and I'd like to be able to just stay overnight either in the Walmart parking lot or at a local campground; and 2) because I want to join some camping groups.
For the camping group events, towing a trailer would work, although I really hate towing trailers, too.
But, if I could tow a small trailer without having to beef up the suspension and shocks on the Nissan, that would save me a ton of money.
This is really interesting information. Let me ask you this, then - if you were me, and you were going to just buy a small camping trailer, do you think the extra suspension and special shocks would be necessary?
Ideally, I wanted a small camper on the truck, for two reasons: 1) because I have physical limitations as far as long drives to go to towns that have good shopping - closest is about 2 hours away and I'd like to be able to just stay overnight either in the Walmart parking lot or at a local campground; and 2) because I want to join some camping groups.
For the camping group events, towing a trailer would work, although I really hate towing trailers, too.
But, if I could tow a small trailer without having to beef up the suspension and shocks on the Nissan, that would save me a ton of money.
What do you think?
A small camping trailer well within the rated towing capacity of your truck makes a lot more sense for your application.
WalMart parking lots are a good resource for RV'ers (of any Class or trailers) and campgrounds are very accomodating for your small RV trailer.
If your truck has original shocks and suspension in good condition, then they will be suitable for towing a small trailer well within the rated capacity of the truck.
The key qualifiers here are "good condition" and "well within the rated capacity". Best to stay below loads of 75% of the rated capacity of the truck. This will be much safer and easier to drive than a maximum loaded truck. With your 20+ year old truck, IMO you'd be well advised to take the truck to an independent service shop (not a chain tire store) that can inspect and properly evaluate your vehicle for safe towing use ... with a view towards worn suspension components and brakes.
Do keep in mind that most "trailer" rated tires are at their max speed capacity at 60-65 mph. Keep your cruise speed at that and you'll get the best service life out of your tires and also make the load on the truck much more manageable.
PS: you wrote: "A 1993 Nissan King Cab SE model with extended cab, automatic, RWD:". The automatic transmission trucks have a much lower rated towing capacity than the manual transmission equipped truck. If your truck has the 4-cylinder engine, than it's max rated trailer load is 2,000 lbs, so I'd be looking at a small trailer not to exceed 1,500 lbs wt on the road.
If your truck has the 6-cylinder engine, I'd not want to exceed a 2,500 lb wt. although the maximum rating is 3,500 lbs. Your truck owner's manual has the maximum trailer load rating chart in it for your reference.
I sat down with the owner's manual today, which was in the glove box of the truck. There is a section on towing trailers and also for putting a slide-in camper on the truck. And I saw the charts you were referring to. Thank you! The manual is actually really detailed about where the weight should sit on the truck, and suggests going to a weigh station and weighing just the front tires, and just the rear tires (or axels, I guess), so you can see if the weight is acceptable. It also says that the total weight of the camper, plus everything in it, and the weight of any people that might be in it, should not total more than 1400 pounds.
And yes, I also saw that the automatic transmission needs a lighter load, too.
This truck has the 4 cylinder motor. My 92 Corolla has more power than this little truck ha ha. But, I'm a slow driver in my advancing years. I don't mind driving slow. But, I do want to eventually make it up the hill :-)
So, it's all a compromise from my ideal camper, of course. But, I've learned a lot here and thank everyone who gave advice. I will be getting the truck smog-tested by a local mechanic, and will ask him to look at the truck's suspension, etc., too, as you suggested.
I would also look into the pop up camper, I had a Nissan truck and put a non overhead slide in camper on it and I felt that was as far as I would go.
Thank you. I'm leaning toward a camper shell made by a company in southern california, where they make them to order. They have an aluminum shell that's 40 inches tall, and I can get a cabover area that I could use for extra storage, cargo doors and windows, and the whole thing is only about 300 pounds!
Then, I could put a bed rug in the bed, and throw in a bed and stove or whatever. They can even match the paint on the Nissan if I want to spend an extra $400.
It's a compromise, but I think it's the best option for this truck.
I don't want a pop-up camper, even though I know they are light and there are a lot of positives. I will be camping alone and have physical limitations. I don't want to have to put it up and down, tucking in canvas, repairing canvas, etc., etc. Plus, I live in a very wet part of the world and can only imagine the issues I'd have with mold, etc., putting away a wet pop-up canvas/vinyl that I may not be able to dry out for half a year. I don't have a garage or anything to dry it out in.
Anyway, with this camper shell, I may not even need to beef up the suspension. This is it. Scroll down to the cabover model:
It's a compromise, but I think it might be the ticket. I wouldn't be able to stand up completely (I'm 5' 6"), but it wouldn't be as crammed as a mini-van, which was my first idea for a camper. Plus, I didn't want to drive a mini-van around, listening to pots and pans rattling in the van all day.
Thank you. I'm leaning toward a camper shell made by a company in southern california, where they make them to order. They have an aluminum shell that's 40 inches tall, and I can get a cabover area that I could use for extra storage, cargo doors and windows, and the whole thing is only about 300 pounds!
Then, I could put a bed rug in the bed, and throw in a bed and stove or whatever.(snip)
It's a compromise, but I think it might be the ticket. I wouldn't be able to stand up completely (I'm 5' 6"), but it wouldn't be as crammed as a mini-van, which was my first idea for a camper. Plus, I didn't want to drive a mini-van around, listening to pots and pans rattling in the van all day.
This is only a truck bed cover, even if it's 40" high. It's really designed and built as a utility storage area, unfinished space.
You'll find that camping with such a rig will be a hard-core experience.
You'll be missing all of the amenities of a true camper rig. Setting up a bed out of the weather is one thing, but missing all the rest of the facilities in place will be very obvious. You'll not have organized cabinetry, hanging locker, drawers for your clothing/equipment.
What will you do for refrigeration/food storage, ventilation, cooking, sanitary/washing, heating or cooling this rig? Interior lighting system? Electrical system? Entertainment system? Simply having portable stuff tossed in there will not be a good solution when it comes to setting up camp or spending time in the shell. Consider, too, that a stove or heater in such a space could be problematic, if not dangerous without proper ventilation and make-up air available. Do you really want to do all your food prep, cooking, clean-up, washing, getting dressed, or any of all the rest of your camping activities confined to a hunched over space? What about water tankage, fresh or gray or black water? House battery for electrical needs in the shell (and associated charging system for it?)
The defects in such a shell for your planned camping trips will be very apparent the first time you use it.
Camping in this rig will not be anything like traveling and camping with an RV rig, especially during inclement weather when you find yourself spending your time in a cave without the amenities that make RV travels comfortable and enjoyable. You might as well go back to tent camping and plan on setting up camp where you travel.
PS: you might want to check out Class B RV's. Roadtrek's or Coachmen might fit your needs very well, and you'll have a much more comfortable and self-contained RV lifestyle with such a rig. I'd venture that these can maintain road speed better than your 4-cylinder truck and deliver better fuel economy when you've got the load in your truck.
Last edited by sunsprit; 09-21-2015 at 03:12 AM..
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