Scout Yoho Camper in 1st Gen... Thoughts?

I have a FWC pop-up on my '98 and whenever I see a Scout, the height of that thing assaults my sense of balance and proportion. It just looks like a huge wind block. I've never seen one on a first gen and based on my 5 years of owning this pop-up I would never, ever consider a Scout on this size of truck. My pop-up dry weight but with frig, stove, furnace, sink, etc weighs 875 pounds when I had some upgrades at the factory about 3 years ago. I'm post #10 in this string: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/gen-1-slide-in-camper.678458/#post-23886695
I'm running Firestone airbags because I keep the rig in a low-clearance garage and I air down to squeeze through the door. I also remove the camper occasionally and at those times I don't need the rock-hard support of heavy-duty leafs in the back. You are correct that used FWC's are hard to find and you have be ready to pull the trigger if something comes up near you. They quit making my model (Eagle) around 2015 because truck beds got deeper, and the next size up (Fleet model) is about 6 inches wider (3" on each side), which makes it harder to use the stock rear-view mirrors on the truck.
I've driven about 20k miles with the camper, and I really need to upgrade to Tundra front disc brakes. But I'm still running 15" rims and would need to upgrade those to 16". Probably will be doing that in 2022. And I'm calculating that I'm over GVW by about 500-600 pounds with passenger and fully stocked camper. I need to stop at a CAT scale sometime to verify that. I'd be very concerned about the wind resistance of the Scout. In addition to the height of a Scout the vacant space between the top of the cab and the camper is like a giant air-dam that creates a lot of noise and resistance.

 

Sick camper you have! Ya, it's looking like the Scout will not be an option. Just heard back from FWC and they don't recommend putting any new models on the first gen tacoma, they said their are mounting issues, and in some cases they just won't fit.

 

Is a camper really necessary? This is in an 84 toyo pickup

 

That's a nice build, but it wouldn't be suited for what I'm looking for--something to live full time out of, year round, in temps as low as -22

 

I won't ramble like I normally do, but If you want to live full time out of a vehicle I recommend selling your truck and getting a van.. don't look for interior build inspiration from the internet.. its become such a fad there's alot of misinformation out there.

Sincerely,
A guy that has lived out of numerous different vans (and this truck) year round for multiple years

 

I spoke to the guy at Belaircampers and he told me they dont make a model that one can stand in cus he said its just not safe. I believe him cus even in my fiberglass shell I can feel the wind pushing it on the highway. Fwc or like someone else said get a sprinter 4x4.

 

"necessary?", is anything really necessary? lol. Previous build, was great, but stepped up to a camper since I wasn't offroading as much as originally planned and wanted the added comfort of hard sides.