I have always love nature and being outside. In my younger years I used to camp with my brothers in tents. As I got older it was nothing to see us out in the woods in our old trucks and a bed topper camped out in the back. We just needed a place to sleep, the living was being done around the camp. I soon found myself doing less and less until it got to a point where life just got in the way and family came first.
I’m a simple kind of guy and it doesn’t take much to make me happy. But I was getting older and life was getting shorter. I was starting to develop a few health issues and I still had a whole lot more living I wanted to do. Well while laying in a hospital bed and two stints later ( I dodged a bullet there) I got to thinking if I had any life regrets and the one thing that stuck in my mind was I sure did miss camping and travelling to different places. So on that night I decided whatever life I had left i was going to enjoy it to the fullest. I was going to start camping again!
I soon started to look at different ways I could achieve this without breaking the bank because I was now in my 60’s and life has been hard on my body to the point I was now disabled and on a very tight budget. But I had my mind set and someway somehow I was going to do this. I started to look at vans but the prices were crazy and then to build it out was far out of reach for me. I didn’t want a travel trailer because I am the kinda guy that likes to go deep into the woods away from people and have some peace with just me and my pups. I never could understand why people would leave a busy city just to go stay in a crowded campground.
It’s then when it hit me Truck Camper! Oh sure I could have went a little cheaper and just got a truck topper throwed a bunk in it and called it a day, but that’s a younger man’s game. I didn’t want to have to crawl in and out of it and be all hunched over if it rained and i was stuck inside. So a truck camper it was. I started to look around at prices of truck campers and boy was I shocked at the prices of those things. It almost killed my dream until one day while looking on FB Marketplace I was seeing lots of used truck campers.
I’ve been a pretty handy guy and thought if i could find one cheap enough, maybe I could make a few minor repairs and have something somewhat decent that would serve my purpose. But then I remembered I don’t have a truck. Might be a good ideal to take care of that first don’t you think.
If you have ever looked at truck campers you will soon learn they don’t make many for light trucks so I have to at least find a 3/4 ton truck if I expected to get any decent size camper. So off to FB Marketplace again I went, wondering how much this truck was going to cost me and could I even find one within my budget.
Truck Quest
I have always favored GMC Trucks, why I don’t know I just like the looks of them, but not the newer ones I liked the older models 95-98 was my favorite and that is what i started my search with. After searching for sometime I noticed there weren’t too many out there and if there was most were rust buckets due to living in Michigan where they salt the roads. I looked at many trucks and 90% were rusted out.
Then one day while searching I found my truck! It was a 98 GMC 3/4 ton and the body looked fairly good for what it was. At this point I was close to just giving up and hoped that when i went to go see it that it was as good as it looked and described on FB Marketplace because if any of you have every shopped there people tend to stretch the truth just a little bit.
I sent the guy a message and told him I was interested and ask him please to hold it for me. He agreed and off I went hoping my search was over. When I got there I was truly surprised at how good of shape this truck was in. Then I look at the mileage and my dreams we’re almost killed again when I seen it had 245000 miles on it. I told the guy that was too many miles for what I needed it for. He then started telling me he just replaced the motor and it only had 80,000 miles on it. Well now that changes everything. I began looking under it to make sure the rust hasn’t taken it over and to my surprise it looked very clean underneath. I told him my story and my plans for it and he said it had been a good truck but he was retiring and didn’t need it anymore. I ask what he did and he said he worked with concrete and oh by the way he told me he beefed up the back because he haul heavy equipment and cinder blocks. I thought to myself well now I am two too the good. He also said it had two batteries in it because he had a seperate battery for his trailer. Now I am three to the good. Needless to say I couldn’t get this man paid fast enough and drove off in my new to me truck. I was halfway to my dream. Below is a picture I took when I went to go look at the truck. The price was $2,000.
Truck Camper In a Haystack
Hopefully your still with me. My quest for finding a decent truck camper was a little bit harder, so much so it took almost a full year after buying the truck to find it. It didn’t have to be luxury, just fungsional, after all I just needed a place to sleep and be able to spend time in there during bad weather.
I wanted it to have the main stuff like a bathroom a bed and a place to put my coffee pot. A stove would be nice but not a necessity. I had a coleman stove I could use if needed and i was pretty good at cooking over a campfire. While waiting to find a camper I took a little of my budget to do a few things to the truck so my money was a little tight and I hoped I hadn’t spent to much and could still find something. So off again as I had done every morning for almost a year I started my day with a cup of jo and searching FB Marketplace for the elusive truck camper. I had looked at some real doozies that were way overpriced and junk but I could feel it in my heart I was getting close.
It was very close to almost a full year and I was really beginning to lose hope on finding something. One night I was stressing and couldn’t sleep so I went onto the interweb just to see what was out there and low and behold I found her. She wasn’t the prettiest girl at the party but she had good bones or I was so blinded with wanting to get this done I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Anyway I sent the guy a message and I sat around and waited for a response. Two days later the guy got back to me, I had already lost hope. And told me he still had it and i was welcome to come look at it. Needless to say I was on the way before I even hung up the phone. When I tell you the price you will understand why.
I showed up at his place and this is what I seen. Keep in mind she is no beauty queen but to me she was all I needed.
I give you my 94 Challenger. She came with all the comforts of home which includes a full bathroom, stove, sink, refrigerator and a 32 inch smart tv, water heater, furnace and a queen size bed to lay my head. All for the unbelievable price of just $1,500. I know I couldn’t believe it either! Considering what I had looked at this was a real jewel.
By the time I was done looking and gathering the pieces summer was on it’s way out and so I decided to spend what days I had left before winter sat in. I began to get things fixed up so when spring came back around I would be ready to hit the road and start my dream.
Let The Dream Begin
I got the camper home and started making a list to what I wanted to do. I backed up to my garage and took it off the truck and started to dream about all the things i wanted to do and hoped I had enough money left to get them done. Here is what it looked like when I first got it on the inside. She was looking her age but I knew if I took my time and watched my pennies I could do this.
The first thing I did was paint the inside just to freshen it up a bit. I also added some wallpaper.
I think it turned out rather nice. And the wallpaper matches the seats perfect. The sink area was in a real need of a facelift. So I stripped it out and painted the stove and vent and added a nice backsplash.
I added 300 watts of solar and a couple more batteries. Papered the rest of the camper and I think I have me a 5 star hotel on wheels.
I have slept many comfortable nights here. All in all I spent about $1,500 more dollars on the camper and so I have all in around $5,000 dollars in the camper & truck combo. It just goes to show if you set your mind to it you can do it also.
Present day. I have added many upgrades to the camper and the truck and have drove many miles in it. But most of all I have upgraded my life and can honestly say I am a happier man today.
