"Did you build that yourself?" - The story of how the Skamper came to be

For the last 4 years our camper situation has been in a state of flux. For our first trip, we had no idea what we even wanted from a camper, but it turns out we actually got it close to right. Starting with a Four Wheel Camper in the back of the Tacoma, we've moved to trailers, roof tents, camper shells, and have concluded that the pop-up style of the Four Wheel Camper was the way to go. Unfortunately, due to their great reputation and origins in CA, they are virtually impossible to find this side of the Mississippi.

About this time last year, we decided we wanted to get back into a truck camper, and began searching once again. Anyone who knows me knows that my Craigslisting abilities know no bounds, but that didn't seem to make a difference in our search at all. In the end I stumbled across a wood-framed popup in the great state of Ohio. I was a little hesitant to go wood framed after the aluminum framed FWC, but hours of scouring confirmed that the Skampers were stout little campers, so after a couple phone calls, we hit the road one Friday evening. The next day we returned home with our prize, a sub-$1000 camper that's older than I....

All in all it was in pretty good shape, save for being in desperate need of some updating. After a brief cleaning it was once again in the back of the truck, headed to WV for a 24 Hours of Lemons race. Things went fairly well, and it proved to be a good trial run.

Once home the credit card came out, and Amazon Prime was fired up. We located a 12V Fridge/Freezer on craigslist that had only been used once to replace the ancient ice box, and opened up a huge can of worms in the process. I sourced a skeezy boat trailer from the woods, and stripped it enough to make a mobile stand/cart for the trailer in our driveway. I don't know how it made the 15-mile trip, and I had already decided if things went wrong to just abandon it on the side of the road, but it bounced its way all the way through the backroads of Stafford complete with Farm Use plate back to T-Town.

The 3 weeks leading up to our trip saw a flurry of activity in our driveway as we scrambled to prepare our home on wheels. The truck received a fresh set of air bags in the rear to carry the extra load, and even though it did OK with the add-a-leaf on its inaugural run, safety first. The truck also received a cheaply-sourced chinese-made back up camera setup, and a USA-made Warn battery isolator with second battery to improve charging and allow us more time off the grid if necessary. The camper received revised electrical, LED lighting, a new door knob/lock, indoor/outdoor carpet, and a 12V power port for the fridge. The icebox went the way of the Dodo, and a bungee net was installed to covert the space into a cabinet (tip, $5 bungee nets from Amazon meant for motorcycle cargo are sweet),  as well as a second bungee net ($1 from the trunk of a Hyundai) on the passenger side wall for miscellaneous loose cargo. The biggest hurdle was the re-caulking of the 25 year old roof, and the repair of subsequent mild water damage on the inside. The original roof interior was of particle board covered with vinyl, which after getting wet shrinks and separates. Peeling back the layers revealed a slight bit of mold and mildew. Fortunately it was relatively simple to kill off, but this left us with a tattered unfinished interior ceiling. A couple rolls of contact paper provided an expedient fix that looks pretty good for the near term.

For the exterior we also picked up an ARB touring 8ft awning which required us to melt some metal and weld up some quick brackets, and up it went. Hopefully this will provide a much better solution for wet weather days than our improvised tarp/tent poles last year, and the awesome Ozzie construction should allow it to serve for years to come.

Here she is loaded up and on the road. We don't fit in at most campgrounds, as it seems that most Americans these days prefer trailers and RVs the size of our house, but it never fails to bring attention and questions at gas stations everywhere. This morning we actually had a [blonde] lady ask us if we had built it ourselves... Not really sure what that says about the little Skamper, but we like it.