What would you do? Slide in camper

[zachcrosby [Veteran Member]]

My wife and I were given an old slide in truck camper. It obviously won't fit my Tacoma so we bought a long bed dodge single cab for $2,000 to be able to move it. We may upgrade trucks depending if we keep the camper. Here's the camper:



And the truck:



I went to mount it up and one of the side walls holding one of the jacks collapsed, bending the exterior wall and breaking the interior paneling. Upon further inspection that wall was rotten as well as the majority of the walls near Windows.

So it would basically need to be rebuilt completely to be back to mint. My wife loves the idea of having a bathroom and shower while camping and not having to go outside in the night to use it but the majority of the bathroom is rotten as well. It comes down to a ton of work and time to get this camper up to par so a few things have crossed my mind to do

1. Rebuild as is keeping same form.

2. Pull all appliances and "good" parts and build a small bumper pull using the good parts.

3. Part out and sell and get out of it, even though it was given by my wife's grand father

4. Figure out some way to build a compact offroad trailer with it.

So what would you do? Trying to weigh options and keeping in mind that my time is a bit scarce at the moment with work and other projects going on. And would love to hear other options. We have never had a camper so it's all new to us. Thank y'all!


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[Reserector [Veteran Member]]

Let it sit.
Look for a bumper pull camper that is a suitable size, knowing you can use some of the appliances from the pickup camper to fix or improve it.
Sell off what's left, and scrap the shell.

I say that, because when they get that bad, they need to be built all over again.
It's not worth it, value-wise.
It has very little sentimental value.
You have to have a dedicated truck to use it. (One that will get little use, and therefore not be reliable.)
A bumper-pull can be towed with just about anything, if it is a small one.
You can park a bumper pull and go wheeling, visiting, touring, etc. You can set a bed-mount off, and do the same, but not as easily. Plus, you lose the convenience of the bed.

[fun in dirt [Veteran Member]]

Yuck, sorry that happened! I'm with Res; not worth trying to rebuild.
I vote for #2 ... you can find a used, small (like 8 to 10ft) enclosed trailer for around $1500 and put the interior slide-in parts you want in it; build your own camper. Sell the Dodge to pay for trailer & you can pull it with the Tacoma! Yes this takes time, which you said was scarce right now, but hey parts will keep til you get time. I've been studying this enclosed trailer conversion myself the last few days, some cool builds out there!

[MarkyB [Veteran Member]]

Watch a few episodes of the TV show 'Flippin' RVs' to get an idea of what you'd be getting into on a rebuild.
No, it will never be worth what you'll put into it. But that might not be the goal....
A hybrid may meet your needs...


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