If you want a truck camper to get you through the most intense terrain, consider the Four Wheel Campers line. The leading pop-up truck camper company in the world is famous for being lightweight, low-profile, and durable.
Imagine visiting Baja, California, traveling to the start of the Pan-American highway in Deadhorse, Alaska, or offroading the trails of Death Valley. You can see these locations and more with these bad boys.
Want to know more about Four Wheel Campers? Read on because we’re just getting started!
Table of contents
Who Is Four Wheel Campers?
Dave Rowe started Four Wheel Campers in 1972 when he wanted a hardy but super lightweight camper. He developed a pop-up-style truck camper, so it would weigh less while being ultra-durable with its aluminum frame. And that it did. It weighed significantly less than its hard-sided peers and was lower in height, too, thanks to its pop-up feature.
The company has changed ownership over the years and moved its office from Colorado to Woodland, California, in 1989, but much of the company has remained the same. For example, they still have a solid commitment to their customers and use only upgraded parts for most of their products.
Source: fourwheelcampers.com
What Kind of Campers Do They Make?
Four Wheel Campers has several lines of truck campers. They offer slide-in models, models that fit in flatbed trucks, and their newest, the Project M. The slide-in truck campers do just that: slide into your truck bed. Slide-in models include Fleet, Swift, Grandby, Hawk, and Raven.
Grandby
The Grandby model is one of their most popular and works with long-bed, full-size trucks. It comes in five floor plans: a rollover couch, side dinette, front dinette, shell model, and a flatbed model.
Three to four adults can sleep in the space with 6ft 6in headroom while popped up. It comes with several optional upgrades, like a king-size bed slide-out for the cabover bed, a 3-way refrigerator, a dinette, a cassette toilet, and inside and outside showers.
Project M
Four Wheel Campers’s newest line is the Project M truck topper. It’s made for mid-size, full-size, and gladiator trucks. It’s also ultra-light and super rugged with a much lower price tag than their other lines. The topper clamps or bolts to the bed rails of your truck.
According to Truck Camper Magazine, “Project M is 19 percent less in cost and 49 percent lighter in weight than Four Wheel Campers’s previously most affordable and lightest weight offering.”
This design utilizes your truck bed as the floor, which you can build to suit your tastes. You could install cabinets or a small kitchenette or keep it open to haul your bikes and toys. Add the GearTrac on the outside to carry cargo, and indoor wall tracks to hold your equipment. This model comes with room for a queen-size RV mattress.
Who Are These Campers Made For?
Four Wheel Campers first started building these truck campers for off-road camping enthusiasts. In fact, the Overlanding community was the company’s first specific market. According to the Overland Journal, overlanding is “self-reliant adventure travel to remote destinations where the journey is the primary goal…often spanning international boundaries.”
But anyone who wants to travel in rough or remote terrain easily may find these a great fit. And, if you have a midsize, full-size, or even a flatbed truck, Four Wheel Campers can build these to fit your truck model. This customization ensures an excellent fit for your vehicle and the lowest profile.
→Check out the 5 Best Off-Road Truck Campers (hint: A Four Wheel Camper is one of them!)
5 Special Features of Four Wheel Campers
There’s a lot to impress you about these campers, but we think these are the top things.
Lightweight – Can Fit on Toyota Tacoma!
Four Wheel Campers fit on a wide range of trucks, including high clearance vehicles.
The lightest model in weight, the Project M, adds just over 350 pounds to a midsize truck short-bed model. Project M is a good fit for a Toyota Tacoma, which is a popular offroading vehicle. It can also fit on a Ford Ranger short-bed, Chevy Colorado, or GMC Canyon. For a full-size truck with a long bed in this model, you’re looking at an added 465 pounds. This includes trucks like Toyota Tundras, Ford F150-F350, and Nissan Titans.
The Grandby model fits full-size trucks with long beds, and the dry weight is an added 1,200 pounds. This is a great option for trucks like F-150/250s, Dodge RAMs, Chevy/GMC 1500s, and Toyota Tundras.
Pro Tip: Find out What is the Best Truck for a Truck Camper?
Aerodynamic
The company builds its campers to fit specific truck models and designs them with a low profile. This means they have excellent weight and balance characteristics. Less height means less wind. And, less weight means less gas needed for traveling.
All in all, the pop-up truck camper design means trucks can carry the campers safely and efficiently.
Durability
You might think a pop-up camper won’t be durable, but that’s not true. You won’t find any particle board in these campers, and they weld their frame and roof with aluminum construction. These things are durable to the max!
The roof can withstand 1,000 pounds when it’s evenly distributed, so you can camp through that heavy snowfall in the mountains, no problem. For carrying cargo on top of the roof, you’re looking at a 100-pound limit.
According to Four Wheel Campers, “though the side liner (the soft side material that raises with roof) is guaranteed for five years, campers are used for decades before the liner is replaced. It is made of marine-grade material that resists degradation from sunlight and moisture.”
Aside from the liner warranty, the campers have a one-year warranty on materials, workmanship, and structural integrity. It also includes a five-year warranty on the aluminum sidewalls, framework, floor, and roof. You can have peace of mind knowing this company stands behind its product.
4 Season + Thermal Pack Option
Four Wheel Campers keep you comfortable in almost any climate. Since the company started in Colorado, they built a product to use during their harsh winters.
→Learn more about what a “4 Season Camper” means.
Add a Thermal Pack as an upgrade, which comes with an insulated layer of fabric that attaches to your existing canvas pop-top. It’s removable, but you can leave it in place when raising and lowering the top.
Depending on your model, you can also add other features to keep you comfortable in extreme temperatures. Many choose to include the rear wall air conditioner, and a 12,000 BTU forced air furnace with a thermostat.
Adventurous Overland Community
When buying a Four Wheel camper, you’re also joining a network of people who love traveling the outdoors. Whether traveling on a weekend backcountry adventure or a multi-week overland excursion, you’ll find many other adventurous souls in this community.
Join the community for off-road tours around the continent. Or join their Facebook group to see other rigs in action and to schedule meet-ups. You’ll also likely find many Four Wheel Campers owners at the expos, events, and owners rallies.
Source: fourwheelcampers.com
This company is all about its customers, and they desire to learn from them. From hearing from customers at rallies and on social media to talking with them at factory tours, the company seeks their customers’ wants and needs to better their products.
Things to Consider Before Buying
Several things make a pop-up truck camper different from other RVs, so there are a few things to consider before buying a Four Wheel Camper model. You’ll likely have to modify your truck to get it ready for the camper. You’ll have to remove your tailgate for most models, upgrade suspension (and maybe even your tires), and remove your plastic bed liner if you have one.
Need to Raise the Roof/Lower Each Travel Day
A pop-up truck camper requires setup too. Fortunately, it’s easy to do. It takes one person and about two minutes to raise and lower the roof. You won’t need any electronics, either–it’s just good, old-fashioned manual lifting with the company’s Easy Lift roof system. One person, two minutes–simple as that!
And if you need to remove the camper from your truck, it only takes about 30 minutes, and putting it back on takes another 30 minutes—piece of cake.
No Separate Bathroom Space
Although you can get a king-sized bed in a Four Wheel pop-up camper (gasp!), you won’t find separate bathroom space. Still, there are toilet and shower options.
You can add a cassette toilet inside the main living area, which stores the waste in an unseen cassette cartridge under the toilet. You then access the waste from the outside and unscrew the cap to dump the contents into a toilet or waste station.
They also have portable toilet options as well as indoor and outdoor shower options. This space may be small, but it’s mighty!
Comfort Options Add Up In Dollars
All of these upgrades do add up. On full-size camper models, solar power upgrades start at $595, while a second 12V deep cell battery add-on is $395. The Thermal Pack upgrade is $750, and the furnace costs $725 extra, while a rear wall air conditioner will set you back $1,195. Want to add in a 6-gallon water heater? That’ll cost $1,000 more. Or a king bed slide? That’ll be another $500.
For the Project M model, you can add a top-load refrigerator for $1,099 or a roof vent for $200. Extra windows start at $335, a porta potty for $135, and the Thermal Pack for $750. If you want better storage, add on Roof Tracks for $450 and GearTrac for exterior sidewall storage starting at $330. Six feet of interior sidewall track storage costs $535.
It all adds up, but you might justify the expense of having these creature comforts at your fingertips.
How Much Is A Four Wheel Camper?
The least expensive model, Project M, starts at $9,295. For the Grandby model that we discussed earlier, you’re looking at a price tag of $20,795 with standard features. Flatbed options start at $28,995 with standard features.
The company offers most of its slide-in models for sale in a “shell” floor plan. These are essentially empty shells that you can make your own and, at a lower cost, they start at $13,295. The shells come with a few things, like linoleum, small storage compartments, interior walls, lights and windows, and a queen cabover bed.
One thing to note is that Four Wheel Campers’s prices don’t change much from their published prices. In fact, the company chooses to reduce any price fluctuations to help with resale value and for their company integrity. The only (small) discount you can expect to find is by ordering yours through a trade show.
Is Buying a Four Wheel Camper Pop Up Truck Camper Worth It?
We think the better question to ask yourself might be, “What do you want to do with your camper?”
If you seek straightforward travel to remote locations plus offroading, a Four Wheel Camper might be an ideal vehicle to get you where you want to go. It provides many of the luxuries you could want while allowing you to see amazing destinations.
But wouldn’t it be great to try it before you buy it? Well, you can!
With two rental locations in the U.S., you can rent a Four Wheel Camper. With your rental, you’ll receive training on using and operating the camper and rental of a fully maintained truck.
If you’d like to go straight to buying, visit your closest showroom to learn more. There are several dealers throughout the U.S., Canada, and even in other countries.
At the very least, take an online tour of Four Wheel Campers’s showroom to learn more about these impressive campers!
Is A Four Wheel Camper For You?
Ultimately, if you’re ready to get off the beaten path and explore the rough and tumble of the world, a Four Wheel Camper could help you get there. With its low-profile and lightweight design, you might find easier travel to any destination.
Plus, minutes after arriving, you’ll have an inside area where you can relax and unwind after a full day of adventuring and exploring.
Not convinced a Four Wheel Pop Up Truck Camper is for you? Check out these other truck camper brands to aid your search.
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