2.7L 4cyl truck slide in camper?

Hi

I'm thinking of getting a 2nd gen Tacoma and putting a slide in truck camper on it.

The Tacoma I'm thinking of getting is a 2 wheel drive access cab 6 ft box.
It has the 2.7L 4 cyl engine.

The slide in truck camper will weigh about 1,100 lbs.

My question is, has anyone put a slide in truck camper in a 4 banger Taco?
Is this a bad idea?

 

I think it's a little too heavy especially once it's loaded up with shit. Nice idea, though.

 

That will be too much for any Tacoma.

 

Those old U-Haul Toyota dually v6 cube trucks could work well and I ALMOST bought one (and still regret it) before buying my Taco.

 

Back in the 70's and early 80's they had Toyota RV's

Todays Taco is way more robust than those.



They're doing it overseas
Are they built different over there???

 

^^ There you go.

 

https://us.napieroutdoors.com/store/catalogue/details/1/1/product_id:19/

David

 

I've had enough of tent camping.
I'm too old for that shit

 

And those were build for the weight, looks like duelies on the first one with beefy front wheels too.


Look at the payload for a Tacoma, 5-lug = 1143 lb. Pre-runner = 1271.

1100 plus your weight exceeds the payload. Throw in some gear and it only gets worse.

 

I've seen a few Tacoma's set up with a slide in camper...but never a 4 cylinder. You'd be working the drivetrain way too hard to keep all that weight moving. Get the V6.

 

Had a 4 banger 1st gen and stayed just under max weight rating. I understand it is harder to do with the composite bed in the 2nd gens.

 

Not exactly.

Those RVs were duallies, the truck was rated 1-ton. WAY over today's rating.

Most likely, yes.

 

Go check out expedition portal forum or wander the west for this question. TW is great but maybe not the best source of info for campers. Plenty of 2nd gens running around with campers like you want. The 4cylinder may get tiresome.

 

http://www.livinlite.com/5_7-gallery.php

 

Its been done, and once I have $$ I'll be doing the same. For the 4 banger I personally would opt for the FWC finch shell model because of the weight. But if you have one already, I'd drop as much weight as I could by removing stuff I didn't use or rebuilding the inside to be lighter. You won't win any races, but the 4 banger will ramble on just fine. Add an aftermarket suspension and/or airbags and the truck will handle the load a lot better. There are tie down brackets designed for our composite beds to hold the slide-in campers. You'll have to keep a close eye on your overall weight, and be mindful in the mountains, but the slower you go the more you see haha.

Here's a few links:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...-a-2013-Tacoma-regular-cab-Looking-for-advice

http://www.truckcampermagazine.com/camper-reviews/first-look-2012-four-wheel-camper-sc

Google: Tacoma FWC Finch or the like and you'll see a number of threads

 

Here Is my 1983 Sunlite pop-top.

 

Very nice,wish I could find one!

 

I put an old six-pac slide in camper in my 94 pickup 4cyl and it just about crushed the truck. Looked like I was about to pop a wheelie. That said, the truck carried it all over Colorado and Utah, albeit a bit slowly, and I only paid $600 for it. But it was really no fun to drive and it reduced my gas mileage by more than half. With the extra money spent on gas you could just stay at a motel, or, if out in the wild, in a tent or under a nice fiberglass topper.

It sounds like your going to put a lot of money into this set up with a new truck and the cost of the camper. I'd wouldn't do it. Not sure what your current vehicle situation is, but now that I have a v6 tacoma, I'd rather get a 10-16 foot travel trailer. Way more room in the trialers than the slide-ins.

If you don't currently have a vehicle, then you could also look at vans, which are quite nice to camp out of.

 

Yah, I went with the travel trailer, a short little guy, Kodiak 166E hybrid. 14 ft actual length, 18'9" if you include hitch and rear tire in the total length. The foldouts fore and aft are queen beds so it folds out to the equivalent of a 24' trailer. Of course the foldouts are canvas tops, but there's these things http://www.popupgizmos.com/bunkcoverpage.htm that are nice from what I hear.


It's nice to de-trailer once you find a good spot, and yeah the room inside is nice. Also storage inside the trailer so it's not in the bed of the truck. An 8-foot wide trailer is better than a 6-foot wide popup. Plus an enclosed shower and toilet, giant refrigerator/freezer, two 20lb propane tanks, two batteries.


It's actually not bad offroad, see my lamentations here http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/arizona/306460-trailer-camping-spots-az-winter-4wd.html


I'll add to that I put the Timbren bumpstops on the rear so the rear end doesn't sag so bad with the straight hitch. They're alright for a cheap fix, airbags probably better, but being a cheapskate I went with the Timbrens.


So, in summary I like the trailer vs. slide in. The problem with a trailer is if you go down too bad of a road you gotta be able to find a spot to TURN AROUND! That can be a pain, and has been. The WDH was a large part of the problem trying to turn around, it doesn't take well to torqueing the trailer to weird angles, it got tore up pretty good.


But I can see this trailer being a capable offroader with the one crucial mod, 15" wheels.

 

Anybody know if regearing the truck would work for what he wants?
The trucks rated payload capacity 1400Lbs or so. So wouldn't it handle the weight ok? even with a reasonable amount of gear?
My dog drops my capacity down to 1260 Lbs. LoL He's a fin Yeti