Truck Camper Options for 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD 4x4 Off Road!

I am a first time Truck Owner and most everyone said to buy a Toyota, after I had considered a Nissan and a Dodge Ram. Initially, the main reason was for going to College and NFL Football games and tailgating. I was going to buy an Air Stream or similar camper, but now I have more interest in a Truck Camper. A number of the Truck Campers say they are good for 3/4 ton short-bed, but some of the message boards claim the Toyota has trouble due to the V6 engine. Not really knowing what I was buying, the truck had most of the options including the tow package which was good for 6000 pounds and the salesman said to not worry about towing. We moved from Fayetteville, AR to Kansas City, MO in APril and I rented UHAUL trailer and even when full it seemed to tow well, but gas mileage went down to 11-13 miles per gallon from about 21 miles per gallon.

I have not seen many Toyota Tacoma's with Truck Campers and I suspect I should have shopped around more and probably purchased the Tundra or the Ram, but they did cut the price by $6000 for buying the Tacoma and the Tundra was around $12,000 more.

I have not tried going off road yet and it has all the off road options including if I ever get stuck an option to get unstruck via the truck computer commands sequencing or moving wheels seperately somehow. I was second guessing if I needed all of these options, but everyone I know that are experienced truck owners, say to get all the 4x4 options as when I need them I will need them.

I have had the truck now for about 18 months and Toyota is sending me information about trading in for another Tacoma or upgrade to a Tundra and my monthly payment will not change much, but I really want to keep the Tacoma if I can find an acceptable Truck Camper or similar tow from behind RV for tailgating and weekend camping.

I would appreciated any information to a somewhat novice to the Truck life? I almost now believe I would have been better off buying a Class C RV but the new ones are very expensive and I have heard people buy these and discover they don't use them as much as they thought they would. I was looking on EBAY for Toyota RV from the 80 and 90, but they seem relatively expensive.

Is there a Toyota Tacoma group near KC? I was in Fayetteville, AR when I bought the Truck and Toyota were everywhere, but don't see nearly as much up here in Kansas City. Even the Toyota Dealers have limited Truck Inventory up here in Kansas City.

 

Welcome to TW!!

 

Thanks, I always wanted to have a truck and now I have one finally and I don't have to borrow or rent a truck when I need one. I was a Subaru owner having three prior Subaru's with the continuous all wheel drive system which allows for getting through snow fairly easily when it did snow in Texas or Arkansas. KC gets more snow so I will probably get to use the 4X4 some this winter.

 

WELCOME and congrats on the truck. A friend of mine has a 2016 Tundra TRD. He often mentioned that if he were to do it all over again, he would have gone to a Tacoma -- Even now he finds it unnecessary in size. However, he wanted it for mountain and desert trails not so much towing trailers or campers. The towing capacity between the Tacoma and Tundra is massive (at least IMO). I believe the Tacoma was around 3.5k-6.4k? and the Tundra was 6.4k-10.5k towing capacity. Either way-- the Tacoma / Tundra is going to out live most of us ENJOY!

 

Welcome to TW!!

 

Do you have the 6' bed? Here are some truck campers I found. The lightest camper is 800 pounds, like having 4 big guys riding in the back. You might have to beef up the suspension a bit. https://www.savagecamper.com/toyota-tacoma-camper/

 

Welcome to TW

 

Welcome to TW!

 

I can relate to what you're saying. I bought my first new Toyota pickup in 1986 and loved it for years until we outgrew it. Then moved on to a couple of 4Runners which were both awesome.. Then I too owned 2 Subaru WRXs. My '17 DCSB OR with an automatic trans is a whole new ballgame. The 4Runners with manual transmissions were much more fun to drive.