Opinions on truck/camper needed.

[Bayou Boy]

I've always found Bigfoot, Lance, Northern Lite, etc. type campers with the rear overhangs, to be more spacious. But it's a useless waste of space and weight. If I want to stretch out, I can do that outside. That's the point of camping. The camper is just sleep and shower to me. Bit of a bummer that more zero overhang models aren't out there.

It's all fun and games until you get a couple of days of constant rain, then the ability to stretch out somewhere other than the cabover is nice.

 

[ulyist]

You can make it work in a short box camper, weight will be the issue not space. If you need to stretch out when it rains you can bring a screen room tent. Or go to the local recreation center and spend some time in the pool with the kid. You will be doing lots of measurements to get to where the camper weight, gear weight, trailer tongue are all within legal. There are light campers they just don’t have all the features. People run them on Tacoma’s and 1/2 tons. (Probably illegally though). My 2006 ram Cummins could legally carry a 8 foot camper and tow my boat but it was close. Now the 3/4 tons are comparable to that generation of 1 tons for payload if they are optioned right. Figure out your actual payload and go from there.

 

[AbleGuy]

If you can find one, maybe consider the older 6Pac 6’ campers, with a front dinette (sleeps 4) they are cheap and very lightweight (comparatively). I had one on an older Chevy k2500 once....no problems.

Or, perhaps consider having someone like Callen Campers in SoCal affordability custom build you a full length, stand up height, cabover bolt on insulated shell (super lightweight) that you can then minimally customize yourself with the simple basics you want.