New truck build: RTT vs Wedge vs Pop-up camper?

[TexasSixSeven]

I do agree. Same feedback as @OVRLNDFX4 as well. The tapered LP reduces indoor livability.

However, this is why if we go LP we will build a slide out fridge and drawer. LP also allows for a Decked with extra storage under the living space because it’s so high when poped up. I can stand from front to back on a Decked in a LP but not in a Tune (I am 6’6). This would give me effectively more storage than in the tune (the tune width essentially gives you more at the sleeping area, not at the floor width, and doesn’t let me do a Decked ). The Tune is wider but the LP has more vertical volume, and that vertical space is useless (dead air) unless you put a Decked, then it increases your useful vertical volume.
Specifically I would have more storage accessible outside than the Tune.
Park at camp, you open the tailgate and the drawer, pull chairs and table, then start cooking taking food from the fridge and stove from drawer. All without having to crawl in the camper once.

Tune, well, you crawl in to grab all the outdoor stuff. Then you constantly crawl in and out of the bed to get cooking gear to set it up on a table outside, and to get food and when you forgot the butter in the fridge etc.
Since our goal camping is being outside where the view is, and not hangout inside and cook inside, a « outside » oriented build would work better for 90% of days.

Granted 1) for 10% of the days in bad weather the Tune would be miles better (indoor kitchen and space to hang out)
Granted 2) the Tune lets you sleep the family upstairs and it’s not an option at all in the LP. If a year from now I figure out that what works for us is having the kid sleeping with us, then I am screwed if we chose the LP.
Granted 3) nothing prevents you from building an « outside oriented » build on the Tune with fridge slide etc. But A) what’s the point in having a Tune if you build it to be outside oriented (you just pay so much extra for a king size bed then) and B) I still can’t do a Decked and loose that vertical space.

All of this to say, if we could garage we would order the camper today. If we were sure we didn’t need the king size bed up there or if we had no kid on the way we would go LP. The issue is we can’t garage (we might change our house in the next 2Y and at least have a driveway if not be lucky and score a 8ft garage door but who knows), and we don’t know if we truly need the big bed of the Tune.

Because a few of those parameters are unknown, it makes this equation hard to resolve. The RTT is the easiest option short term due to cost, availability and house situation, the LP is maybe the most logical choice for the use, the Tune is the less risky choice (it’s hard to regret having too much space).

There are a lot of easy things and choices in life, even choosing the truck model was fairly easy and chosen and bought quickly but damn that camper situation is a hard choice.

Decked in the bed of my 250 with a Lone Peak. I’m 6’0” and can sit on my butt inside, but not sitting on anything with the top down. Had it 7 months now, and overall I’m happy with it.

 

[TexasSixSeven]

You mean a small offroad trailer with a RTT on top? In many ways it would be the best choice:

- We have one vehicle and daily it. Having a trailer is perfect for that because I could just do a 2025 4Runner (arguably a good daily driver, with 24 mpg, smaller size than the f-150, etc) and then still have enough to bring gear when camping thanks to the trailer
- The trailer stays fully packed and ready to go. Add food and water and clothes and drive for the weekend.
- I have a standard 2 car garage. Technically, if I made room in my garage I could park the trailer inside, and obviously the Bronco/4Runner/whatever vehicle as well.
- I can park the trailer at the camp spot and then leave it

So we thought about this. Then reality caught us up:

- a small offroad trailer + a good RTT costs as much as a Tune, yet offers the same experience as a RTT (you can‘t stand up, can’t live inside in bad weather) therefore why not just buy a F-150 with a tonneau cover and put a RTT? Enough room for us, same sleeping experience as the trailer, for much less money and much less hassle (no trailer to pull). Plus with the tonneau cover, we can leave the camping gear in the trunk anyway after the weekend.
- If you want to stand up in it, then you are looking at Boreas 12 or similar, $50-80K trailers. Too much money.
- It’s a hassle to pull everywhee. Low MPG and lower range. Last Friday night we arrived at midnight with our new F-150 in a remote off road camp I found on google earth. Did not know what to expect. Had to turn around on a small trail twice. It was already a hassle at night not seing anything, with the F-150, my wife guiding me in the dark from outside. Would have been an absolute PITA with a trailer.
- We almost never camp at the same place twice in a row, so leaving a trailer in place is not that useful. We have a cheap auto-deploy ground tent that we can setup to “save our spot” if we ever want to stay extra days at the same spot. We have done that exactly twice in the last few years.

At the end of the day, it’s not surprising but just like the 3 options I presented in the OP, a trailer would have pros and cons. At this point we think that it has more cons than pros VS other options for us, but we could be wrong.
As I said, some elements are unknown (such as will we want to spend more time inside with kids than we do now when camping, will we want an actual indoor usable space? If yes then the Tune wins. If not then maybe the LP or RTT is sufficient…).

Some will say, well then wait to have kid one for a few months, see your needs and then decide. But the issue is that seeing what life is with a 3 months old won’t tell us anything about what life is with a 1YO and 2YO etc. So we will never truly know what the actual need and at some point we just must anticipate and make a decision.

Unless someone can borrow me a newborn, a 1YO and a 3YO to go camping next weekend?

If we remained a couple, it would have been as easy as just keeping the Bronco and tent, and when it was time to change then go for a mid size truck and LP. We bought the full size purely in anticipation on kid 1 arriving in a few months, and are trying to make the best decision purely on that and on having eventually a 2nd kid later and make sure we have a good setup for the few years to come. Not trying to change our setup every year…
Congrats to anyone who made it reading this far.

I’ve got a 2 yr old and a 4 yr old you can borrow 😂

Thank you.
And yeah you are right. Although I am confident in my wife because she is more adventurous and ************ than me. If anything, she will push more than me for camping.
But I am not confident at all in my vision of what kids will be like. Just like you say, it might be totally different or even a nightmare to spend a few hours in the car.

I guess there is only one way to find out.

mama bear instinct is a **********. Kids will change her entire perception and outlook on life. My wife was extremely adventurous before hand. Last minute cross country trips to back pack in bear country, Kayaking 20-50 miles with multiple overnights in unknown waters, Following me blindly through brush wearing NODs and a suppressed rifle chasing hogs for 5+ miles at a time. Yeah momma doesn’t do that stuff anymore lol The LonePeak was our compromise of adventurous and hard walls.

 

[OVRLNDFX4]

All your options are great options. I guess at the end of the day it will ultimately on what your needs/wants are. every option has its pros and cons. Heck I know someone who camps quite frequently with a family of 5 in a Jeep JT (truck version) with a wedge camper (SUPER PACIFIC) and i always wonder how he does it. His kids are not toddlers either! Smaller but still. Ive done almost all minus a trailer. I actually liked the experience each and every setup i went through. They all had their place

 

[simple]

I’ve got a 2 yr old and a 4 yr old you can borrow 😂

mama bear instinct is a **********. Kids will change her entire perception and outlook on life. My wife was extremely adventurous before hand. Last minute cross country trips to back pack in bear country, Kayaking 20-50 miles with multiple overnights in unknown waters, Following me blindly through brush wearing NODs and a suppressed rifle chasing hogs for 5+ miles at a time. Yeah momma doesn’t do that stuff anymore lol The LonePeak was our compromise of adventurous and hard walls.

Funny how the rewire never comes up in conversation.

 

[jaywo]

All your options are great options. I guess at the end of the day it will ultimately on what your needs/wants are. every option has its pros and cons. Heck I know someone who camps quite frequently with a family of 5 in a Jeep JT (truck version) with a wedge camper (SUPER PACIFIC) and i always wonder how he does it. His kids are not toddlers either! Smaller but still. Ive done almost all minus a trailer. I actually liked the experience each and every setup i went through. They all had their place

Yeah ultimately I think the real question is how long your trips are.
If you camp only weekends in good weather you don’t need solar. You don’t need interior kitchen, etc. You just need room for the gear and a comfortable bed, and an easy setup. Therefore a RTT works great.

If you camp for a week at a time you are going to need solar, more power because your battery needs to hold the entire week, interior space because bad weather can be here a day or 2. You need a bigger water tank, you need possibly an outdoor shower because who does not shower once in 10 days, etc.
If you are going to work remote, then you need starlink and even more power.

That stays true the longer the trips. If you live full time in it, then a van makes even more sense.

So the real question to this problem is how long of trips are we gonna take?

The answer to that, is if we did not have kids then what we wanted to do was to take longer trips, including work remotely for 1-2 weeks at a time. There we need lots of power and comfort and interior space.
This is still the idea, thus why we looked at truck campers initially, but I am not sure it’s realistic to work a corporate job remote camping with a 6 months old with you. In fact it probably isn’t. And if we don’t work remote camping, then it limits our longer trips to vacation time, once or twice a year (1 to 2 weeks each). Everything else is weekends. Is it worth it to sacrifice garaging all year long to allow interior livability and extra comfort for 1-2 trips per year? Maybe, or maybe not. I would say it all depends on how it goes with the kid.

Our dream is to have a fully built out camper, that I can bring to Alaska for 1 month, Baja for one month in the winter, etc. The best way to support that is definitely a built out Tune. But our reality is that with corporate jobs, it might just be a dream and not realistic. We work remote, and so we should have done that in the past few years when we had the chance. When wife got pregnant, we thought some people do it (work remote camping and have kids) but the more I think about it the more is does not sound manageable to both work remote yet take care of the baby at the same time. And building out a camper just to try and find out seems like an expensive risk.

 

[TexasSixSeven]

Funny how the rewire never comes up in conversation.

It absolutely rewires them. Every single one of them.

 

[jaywo]

One thing I did not think about is we ski all winter during weekends. You have to get to parking lot 1H before opening time to avoid traffic. Having a heated LP or Tune would be beneficial (I am always jealous of people in their van having breakfast and warm in their vehicle at 7am on the parking lot). This will be especially nice with kids.
But I don’t know that it‘s enough of a perk to justify.

 

[TexasSixSeven]

Yeah ultimately I think the real question is how long your trips are.
If you camp only weekends in good weather you don’t need solar. You don’t need interior kitchen, etc. You just need room for the gear and a comfortable bed, and an easy setup. Therefore a RTT works great.

If you camp for a week at a time you are going to need solar, more power because your battery needs to hold the entire week, interior space because bad weather can be here a day or 2. You need a bigger water tank, you need possibly an outdoor shower because who does not shower once in 10 days, etc.
If you are going to work remote, then you need starlink and even more power.

That stays true the longer the trips. If you live full time in it, then a van makes even more sense.

So the real question to this problem is how long of trips are we gonna take?

The answer to that, is if we did not have kids then what we wanted to do was to take longer trips, including work remotely for 1-2 weeks at a time. There we need lots of power and comfort and interior space.
This is still the idea, thus why we looked at truck campers initially, but I am not sure it’s realistic to work a corporate job remote camping with a 6 months old with you. In fact it probably isn’t. And if we don’t work remote camping, then it limits our longer trips to vacation time, once or twice a year (1 to 2 weeks each). Everything else is weekends. Is it worth it to sacrifice garaging all year long to allow interior livability and extra comfort for 1-2 trips per year? Maybe, or maybe not. I would say it all depends on how it goes with the kid.

Our dream is to have a fully built out camper, that I can bring to Alaska for 1 month, Baja for one month in the winter, etc. The best way to support that is definitely a built out Tune. But our reality is that with corporate jobs, it might just be a dream and not realistic. We work remote, and so we should have done that in the past few years when we had the chance. When wife got pregnant, we thought some people do it (work remote camping and have kids) but the more I think about it the more is does not sound manageable to both work remote yet take care of the baby at the same time. And building out a camper just to try and find out seems like an expensive risk.

Have you ever considered a topper with a RTT? Something like the smart cap that can be set up for camping, and left ready to go. Then mount a RTT on it when ready to go. That way the hard part (gear loading, setup, etc) is done. I could have my RTT on in about 15 minutes when I was running one. Mount it right before the trip, and unmount it for daily use. Still fits in the garage.

 

[TexasSixSeven]

Also with a topper it’ll be sufficient for quick solo weekend trips or trips for just you and the wife. You can sleep inside of it, and still hangout/cool around it. Only throw the tent on when the whole family is going.

 

[jaywo]

Have you ever considered a topper with a RTT? Something like the smart cap that can be set up for camping, and left ready to go. Then mount a RTT on it when ready to go. That way the hard part (gear loading, setup, etc) is done. I could have my RTT on in about 15 minutes when I was running one. Mount it right before the trip, and unmount it for daily use. Still fits in the garage.

If I buy a toper the tent doesn’t clear the garage anymore so might as well buy a LP which really is a topper + a tent with the added benefit of pass through .

Our current tent is the only one my wife can help carry on the roof (100lbs) and it’s too small for kids. A new larger one we wouldn’t be able to lift it out before parking the car in the garage.

Not to mention a good toper and tent is more expensive than the LP.

That’s why it’s either a tonneau cover + large tent always on (clears garage thanks to low cross bars), or a camper.

 

[OVRLNDFX4]

LP for the win then! it checks off the boxes. light weigh, low introductory price and will be a potential shelter when you go out with the family. Besides, once you have the camper, whichever it may be, it will be a blank slate for you to build around what your needs are.

 

[Spencer for Hire]

Decked in the bed of my 250 with a Lone Peak. I’m 6’0” and can sit on my butt inside, but not sitting on anything with the top down. Had it 7 months now, and overall I’m happy with it.

What does that red line delineate. Thank You.

 

[TexasSixSeven]

If I buy a toper the tent doesn’t clear the garage anymore so might as well buy a LP which really is a topper + a tent with the added benefit of pass through .

Our current tent is the only one my wife can help carry on the roof (100lbs) and it’s too small for kids. A new larger one we wouldn’t be able to lift it out before parking the car in the garage.

Not to mention a good toper and tent is more expensive than the LP.

That’s why it’s either a tonneau cover + large tent always on (clears garage thanks to low cross bars), or a camper.

edited lol just read the rest

 

[TexasSixSeven]

What does that red line delineate. Thank You.

I forgot that was on the pic. I was showing someone the space my fridge takes up.