Best Truck Bed Campers

The COVID pandemic sparked a camping craze. As people looked for things to do while maintaining social distance, thousands bought RVs and headed for the open air of campgrounds. The craze became so popular that manufacturers had a hard time keeping up with demand. Prices went up as inventories were tested and, according to some, quality dropped. But the run on campers has eased and if you were waiting to buy until the market normalized, now could be the right time.

Many look for travel trailers or motorhomes when buying campers, but if you already own a pickup, there’s another option worth considering; the truck bed camper.

What is a Truck Bed Camper?

Truck bed campers are often full-featured RVs, but instead of towing them behind the truck, you slide them right into the bed. Styles range from the very-simple - essentially a fiberglass cover with a mattress, to the ultra-fancy, home-away-from-home with all the luxury features you’d usually find in expensive motorhomes.

The main advantage to a truck bed camper over other RV styles is convenience. First, there’s nothing to tow. You don’t have to carefully back a trailer between trees into a campsite; just park your truck. Plus, motorhome drivers often tow cars with them to campsites so they have access to a vehicle without having to secure everything in their camper. But that can get complicated - only certain vehicles can be flat-towed. Others need to be dollied or trailered, which adds complexity. And you have to spend time attaching and detaching the towed car from your rig every time you arrive and depart a campground, even if you aren’t planning to use the car for that stay.

With a truck bed camper, you simply lower the jacks, detach the camper from the truck bed, and drive off.

Another advantage is cost; even the most expensive truck bed campers cost less than a comparable 5th-wheel camper or motorhome. The range-topping, ultra-luxury camper we’ll talk about later costs around $80,000. By contrast, a motorhome with similar features would likely cost you six-figures, and finding motorhomes that top $1 million isn’t a rare occurrence.

Of course, there are disadvantages as well. Most truck bed campers are limited in floor width to the width of your truck’s bed. Even a small camper such as a Scamp will often have a wider floor than a truck bed camper. But over the years, camper designers have compensated for the floor constraints with clever designs and strategic use of overhang space to give campers more room.

How Do Truck Bed Campers Work?

Truck bed campers sit on four tall jacks, one at each corner. When you want to camp, you back the pickup under the camper, lower the jacks and secure the camper with tie-downs. Once at the campsite, you can keep the camper mounted to the truck or, if you prefer, raise it back onto the jacks.

While this isn’t quite as easy as simply attaching a trailer to a ball-hitch, once the camper is mounted, driving with a truck bed camper is easier than towing a trailer. Plus, you can squeeze your rig into tighter spaces than a travel trailer or motorhome is likely to fit.

Truck bed campers are of particular interest to people who want to camp off the beaten path. While there are few options for trailers and motorhomes if you want an off road-capable camping setup, when your camper is attached to your truck bed, it can go anywhere your truck can manage.

Truck Bed Camper Types

There are four main styles of truck bed camper:

• Hard Sides
• Pop Ups
• Bed Toppers
• Roof Top Tents

Hard Side Truck Bed Campers

At the most luxurious, hard-side campers require little to no setup once you arrive at the campground. Some even have a full suite of appliances, bathrooms and even slideouts like you’d find on motorhomes. Expect to pay premium prices for this style of truck bed camper. But even in more pedestrian models, the hard sides mean a sleeker look at the campground, as well as less noise transmission than fabric which is nice when you find yourself camped next to late night noisy neighbors.

Pop Up Truck Bed Campers

Pop up truck bed campers work much like pop up tent trailers. When you’re ready to camp, you crank up the top, which locks the tent walls into place. This style often costs less than hard side, and also weighs less and is more aerodynamic. However, you’ll sacrifice niceties like insulation and the option for slideouts.

Bed Topper Truck Bed Campers

Bed topper-style truck bed campers sit on top of the bed. Usually with this type, the bare truck bed is exposed inside the camper. Throw an air mattress inside and you’ll have a sheltered, if not terribly luxurious, place to sleep. Some bed topper campers have pop up tent sections to give you extra headroom. In general, you’ll miss out on amenities such as appliances, sinks and toilets if you choose a bed topper.

Roof top Tent Truck Bed Campers

Finally, there’s roof top tents. These can mount to the top of the truck bed or even the roof of the cab. They’re an interesting option for people who want an easy setup and a lower cost than many traditional truck bed campers.

Roof top tents come in two main flavors themselves; hardshell and softshell. Hardshells are the most expensive, costing $3,000 and up. However, they’re also the quickest to set up and take down - some taking just one minute from start to finish. Softshells are usually cheaper, but also more prone to damage while you’re driving. Unlike a regular ground tent, roof top tents often include mattresses which enhances comfort and reduces setup time. And as anyone who has ever been caught in a rainstorm and woken up to a soggy tent floor will tell you, a roof top tent’s elevation is a distinct advantage when the weather turns sour.

What are the Best Truck Bed Campers?

Arguably, the best truck bed campers are the high-end, hard-sided style. With a full suite of luxuries found in well-equipped travel trailers or motorhomes, if you want to camp in style in a truck bed camper, the hard-sided type is for you. But they’re also quite expensive. Host Campers sells models with triple slideouts, sofas, king-sized beds, washer-dryer sets and even an available fireplace. But you’ll pay for it! Topping out around $80,000, Host Campers are not for the faint of heart, or wallet.

Plus, keep in mind that the larger, heavier truck bed campers often require a larger, beefier truck to haul them. With weights sometimes north of 4,000 pounds, a standard pickup would strain, to say the least, under the heavy load. Once you factor in the cost of upgrading your truck to something capable of hauling those beasts, you’ll have spent as much or more than you would on a regular pull-behind camper or motorhome.

Because each person’s needs are different, it’s difficult to rank truck bed campers from best to worst; some would consider anything less than that Host Camper to be entirely too spartan. Others such as Gianluca Boncompagni would gaze at those rolling palaces from their rooftop tents and know such luxury isn’t for them.

“I have always been one to travel, camp and hike,” says Boncompagni. “After a road trip around Australia and New Zealand with my business partner and best friend, we had a chance to sleep in one for a few weeks, we loved it.” They loved it so much, they started a business called Off Road Tents to sell them!

Whether you consider “roughing it” to mean a glamping setup from Host Campers, or a roof top tent from Off Road Tents, if you own a pickup truck and want to get into the great outdoors, a truck bed camper might be just what you’re looking for.

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