Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Motor home, Toy hauler or slide in truck camper?

Trying to decide what is the best choice to travel the country, including Alaska and Canada. I'm planning on taking a Gheenoe type boat, small outboard engine and my Samurai with us. What's the pro's and cons to each type of rig?

Many for each.. BUT - IMHO if you're also towing a boat, get the slide-in camper.. Just make sure you have enough truck under it.. I just have no idea how you're going to tow a boat AND a car behind - safely/legally.. Others need to chime in..

Morning gang, my two cents. Ditch the samari, buy a 4wheeler atv 4x4. Put a camper on a good truck, put the 4 wheeler in a trailer & put the boat on a rack on the trailer. Or put the 4wheeler in the truck, tow a camper trailer, put boat or large canoe on trailer roof. Or get a toy hauler trailer, put boat on its trailer inside the camper, atv in the truck, & go!!! No mater which you chose the boat is kind of a compromise. Also you could get a motor home with an extended bed for the atv, tow the boat on a trailer & go in style. Hopefully you got more money than I to do all this, but on the way through Canada stop & pick me up.!! Sounds like a cool trip, enjoy!!! Bill out. 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦

Get a porta- boat over the Gheenoe. https://www.porta-bote.com/

I have had one and they work well. Put mine on side of travel trailer. I have had the Gheenoe also, and for what you want the porta boat is better.

IMO go with the toy hauler unless you plan on getting off road much and 4x4 ATV or UTV. It has more room and comfortable. Assume you are not by yourself so the slide in is just cramped for anything over a week or so.

Motor home & a double decker trailer with a 12 volt hydraulic lift for the upper deck. Heck, a winch w/cable & pulley system could accomplish the task.

A larger boat on a trailer if you wish, backed on the lowered top deck.

Raise up the deck & drive the Sammie, or even bigger vehicle, if you wish, on the bottom deck.

I saw an outfit like this in the Keys a few years ago & it blew me away. It was a high dollar outfit, but the concept could fit most budgets that are allowing this type of traveling.

I have a 14' portabote. They do work very well. I have a 10 hp motor on it and it'll run about 15 mph with 2 people according to my gps.
To be honest, an inflatable boat is probably easier to set up and can handle a larger motor. Portabotes newer than mine are easier to set up but they aren't perfect. If you're towing a car put a roof rack on it and cartop the Porta set up. They're very easy to load when set up. My 14 only weighs 105lb and I can can load it easily by myself at 71.

The nice thing about a truck camper is you can drop the camper and be on your way in your pickup quite fast these days with the electric jacks..The bad is room..A small Class C has more room..I just sold a 21ft bumper to bumper Class C..Basically the same thing as a truck camper but with more room but you can't drop the camper part..Pulling a small trailer works and you have the pickup bed for gear,fifth wheels are usually nicer and bigger but you give up part of the bed for stuff...Class A's just don't make sense for an outdoorsman anymore IMHO because there just to big and low to the ground...

As mentioned above,if you get a truck camper make sure you get enough truck under it,most of these new truck campers will put you over weight even in a 1-ton single rear wheel(SRW) with 4000# of payload once your loaded and ready to camp..Dual rear wheels(DRW) are better and much more stable..

In my opinion,there is not a better way to travel than with a small Class C and i have owned every RV type..

It's a lot easier to locate shops that work on pickups than motorhomes.

Tons cheaper too..

We had an 8 1/2' slidein camper for a while, it had its advantages but the disadvantages outweighed them as far as we were concerned. Climbing in and out of the bed was sort of a pain, especially for those of us who have to get up 3-4 times during the night. There is absolutely no place to sit that is relaxing, the little dinette area is the only place and it gets cramped up pretty quickly. We finally sold it after my wife tripped on the top step and fell to the ground breaking her wrist. Little motor home sounds like it would be much more to your liking.

I thought that when I had a Class A but when I got a 21ft Class C,that was not the case..Les Schwab had no issues putting it up on the hoist for brakes/rotors and other minor repairs..I remember my water pump going out on the mighty Dodge 440 in one Class C I had..No biggie..Just unhooked the Mazda pickup in tow/went and got parts and worked on it in the woods and camped in place....

The total weight (GVWR) of my 21ft Class C and my currant Lance 9.6 on a Ford DRW loaded-ready to camp..Class C/10,800#..TC and pickup/9800#

I see people with slide-ins, the truck squatting down like they’re getting ready to launch the off in the space shuttle. Lol

That might have been me.

Those are old school redneck RV'ers..Modern RV'ers use airbags/helper springs/sway bars/adjustable shocks and the rich ones use Torklift everything..It ain't cheap to setup a pickup for a heavy truck camper..

But it's an option for those that want a pickup and a camper that tow boats and big toys..

It all depends on what you want to do. Everything is a compromise in an RV.
For me I like boondocking, that means getting away from campgrounds. I chose a truck camper.
Mine is a 9.5' Bigfoot camper on a Ram 3500 srw, swb 4x4,
The camper weighs 2200lb empty. By the time you add all your gear, water, batteries etc... the weight is approximately 3200lbs.
My truck is rated for 4100lb of payload. When I tow my boat the tongue weight is 450lbs. so all loaded it comes close to my max. it's very important to stay at or better yet under max on a truck camper payload.
The electric jacks are worth the cost.
The Bigfoot and Northern lite campers are molded fiberglass. They are much less prone to leaking and the structural integrity is hard to beat.

Pro's
I can access remote sights,
I can tow my boat
I can drop the camper and launch my boat daily.
I can take the truck exploring or into town for supplies. The truck camper is easy to park and maneuver. 4x4
I can tow a trailer with my sidexside and extra gear.


Cons
Limited room and gear storage.
Need a substantial truck
Good campers are expensive

A slide in camper will never be big enough for an extended trip.

I prefer a travel trailer, but no longer than a 24 foot bumper pull. If get you get one longer you will be limited to where you camp. Walk into campgrounds before you pull in or you might get stuck.

A boat will fit on a good 4x4, 1 ton pickup with a rack. With a long bed, a quad or something will fit.

You are not alone trying to figure this out.

Forget the boat and take up fly fishing.

Leave the Samurai at home. Tow a smallish travel trailer behind a 4x4 pickup with work shell storing an inflatable boat and outboard.

That

Truck camper has plenty of room if your idea of camping is being outdoors. I have a screened gazebo I set up for bug free outdoor living space.

If a rain storm comes through wife and I can sit inside and even watch a movie..... pretty darn fancy for a redneck....

I haven't convinced my wife yet that a winter trip would be fun. I have done it myself and it was fine..... my camper is a 4 season unit.

Thanks folks, that's some good advice and things to consider. I have the heavy duty 4x4 dually truck part covered. The room and accessibility to the sleeping quarters made me question the slide-in camper. Our original plan was to buy a slide-in camper, pull our enclosed car trailer with the boat on top, the Samurai, outboard and other stuff inside and hit the road. My wife did some research on used slide-in campers and didn't like a lot of the reviews and that has rethinking our options.