Living in RTT vs Camper?

Hey guys, lil backstory. I’m gonna be leaving this spring/summer for a month or two to live in my Tundra full time and travel out west. Ideally I’d have a sequoia instead, but I’m not going to get rid of a perfectly good Tundra that is one owner.

My question is this though. I’ve been pretty set on using a bed rack/hardtop RTT for sleeping. But I’ve got a friend who could help me build a custom shell instead, with cabinets and other customizations. Does anyone have any experience with either living in an RTT or shell? I just need some advice on choosing which route.

 

If you get a hard top shell, Okay, that’ll work. But if you’re buddy can help you build something custom that’s lightweight, I’d do that! Because if you do a shell, you can leave stuff stowed, and move the truck without having to do as much packing every time.

RTT’s are cool, and most are lightweight, but there’s definitely a requirement for take down that could get old real quick when it’s an every day— or several times a day— thing. Plus, putting them away wet isn’t good if you’ll potentially not have a place to get out of the weather and dry it out completely.

Also— except for hard tops that lift straight up into a box (James Baroud)— many RTT’s fold in on themselves... so the “outside” of the fabric goes “inside”, touching interior surfaces and bedding stored inside. Which brings up a another consideration... if you go with an RTT, get one with room to store bedding inside. It would suck rolling bags and folding bedding every day... plus that’d be more to store somewhere else when you’re not set up to camp.

 

If you are living on the road / out of your truck, one thing to consider is how often you’ll be changing location and what you’ll do during inclement weather. Setup and pack down time is often overlooked and can have a huge impact on the enjoyment of your trip. RTT setup and pack down times can vary widely. What do you do when its raining?

I’ve got the AT Habitat on my truck. It’s about 2 minutes to setup, 5 to pack down. When it rains, its no big deal as theres still tons of room inside and covered space outside. A day or two of being cooped up in a RTT or wet standing outside, is not going to be a lot of fun.

When you start adding up the cost of rack, RTT, awnings, etc you can easily end up in the same price range as the habitat (or other campers)

 

I should’ve clarified. I would be using a hardtop RTT. I have a friend who lived in a Tepui Hybox with his wife for a few months, I would use the same tent.
The alternative is me and my friend building a shell out of fiberglass. Whole 9 yards. Definitely doable, probably less expensive. Just not sure how comfortable it would be to live the bed as opposed to a tent.

 

meant to quote you above too

 

If it’s just you I think the benefit of the shell is that it allows you to sleep in more places being stealth.

 

And you have more room in a shell to run around neeked.

 

I would rather have something fixed and hard sided even if smaller than a tent solution.
Everything about this points me to the Camper over a Tent for all of the reasons already mentioned and more.

I have spent more nights than I ever want to being wet and cold and so I would pick a camper where I can get out of that no matter what else the tent might offer.

But the thing is that we each have our own idea about what is OK for us and where we draw the line so you need to decide for yourself where that is probably.

There are no wrong ways to camp but only what works for the way we want to camp.

 

How tall are you?

Have you seen these slide out things?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cifmm424s2M

 

Thanks for the link. Looks interesting. Thing is I don’t wanna put too much work into the truck because I will probably be getting a different truck/sequoia to build into a permanent home. This is kinda a temporary solution until then.

 

I have a Four Wheel Camper. The reason I went this route is inclement weather. You can spend time in here and feel comfortable in bad weather. Plenty of head room, space to move around, and comfortable seating. I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time in an RTT in bad weather. Being out on the road, especially in the spring, you'll get some bad weather days. Instead of dreading them, I choose to embrace them and deal them in a comfortable environment. A trip to NZ in a campervan with lots of rainy days made me understand the importance of this.