Why a Truck Camper?

Like many of our best and craziest ideas (such as putting an inflatable hot tub in the living room), the truck camper scheme was conceived in the coldest, darkest days of the New England winter.

As rock climbers AND mountain bikers, we're doubly susceptible to the allures of van life, although we’ve always insisted that we’re perfectly comfortable sleeping on a mattress in the back of Ben’s Prius V.  But all through the long, cold winter nights, the YouTube algorithm fed our sun-starved souls a constant stream of attractive, carefree couples (most of them twenty years younger or older than us) and their suspiciously well behaved pets (what drugs are they on?) traveling from one hidden gem and best kept secret to another in their boutique capsule hotels on wheels.

But why not an RV? They’ve come a long way since our grandparents’ day; with proper maintenance they are now capable of reaching highway speeds greater than 50 mph.

And why not a sprinter van, like our mountain biker/rock climber friends; why not deck it out in shiplap and macrame and whimsical cushions from Anthropologie?

There are a lot of sensible reasons we choose a truck camper; relative compactness, off-road, off-grid and,  more importantly, on-beach, capability, and  affordability (a 4-wheel drive sprinter van cost twice what we paid for our entire setup).

But to be honest, the main reason we went with a truck camper, specifically a pop truck camper, is this:

Three-hundred-and-sixty-degree views from our queen size loft bed, the screen panels letting in the salt breeze and sound of the waves. Ten feet off the pavement, we watch the world go by, and it can’t watch us back (at least not without a stepladder).

Not just a truck, nor entirely an RV, the truck camper slips through the cracks of vehicle classifications. It can go places RVs are prohibited, like Daytona Beach, and stealth park in a residential neighborhood overnight.

At least until you put a boat on it..