Our Truck Camper Remodel

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Truck Camper Purchase

At this point I am pretty sure that I have said "I can't believe I am the type of person who owns a camper" at least 30 times. However, here we are. And I own a camper.

Load Error

We first became interested in the whole concept of vanlife after our trip to New Zealand in 2019. Of our three weeks spent in New Zealand, about 10 days were spent in a van on the South Island. We had a lot of fun on this trip and it is consistently Austin's overall favorite (mine depends on my mood, haha).

Fast forward to coming back home to Utah from New Zealand and Austin was getting close to the end of residency. There was a pretty strong chance we could move somewhere for his fellowship training that was not particularly van-friendly (think Minneapolis or St Louis). Therefore we decided not to make any decisions until he matched.

Austin matched at OHSU in Portland, Oregon. We felt like this was a perfect location to have a camper and felt comfortable going ahead with a purchase while we were still in Utah for the last 6 months. In order to decide between a trailer and a truck camper, we spent a lot of time at the local RV stores looking at different options.

We also looked online via the KSL Classifieds (similar to Craigslist) for options as well and we toured about 8 different camper options before finding one in Montana online. We took a day trip up to Bozeman, Montana to check out the camper. Then, we made our decision to come back for it in a few weeks after the were a few exterior fixes completed that we requested.

Truck Camper Logistics

After deciding to go for a truck camper instead of a trailer (or a van), now we had to work out the logistics.

The first step was to buy a truck. We sold our Jeep Wrangler and purchased a 2006 Ford F-350. Was this size truck absolutely necessary?

Yes and no. While the camper people state that the smaller truck campers can fit on the half ton trucks, there are actually very few that support the payload, unless you get a pop up camper. I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say I learned way more about this than I ever wanted to.

Getting the F-350 allowed us wiggle room to get virtually whatever camper that we wanted. Another additional factor to consider for cost is that the camper has to attach to the truck with turnbuckles and tie downs. The camper you purchase could come with turnbuckles from the seller.

But if it does not, keep in mind these are not very cheap. The tie downs are attached to the truck and the turnbuckles make the connection between the truck and the camper. You can figure out what setup you need by looking at this link.

We ended up choosing the Torklift frame mounted tie downs. What you choose will be specific to your truck. However they cost between £300-400 per pair (and you need two pairs).

Additionally the turnbuckles are around £300 for the set. We purchased ours via KSL (the Utah version of Craigslist) for £50. In addition to attaching the truck physically, we also had to get the truck wired so that it would charge the camper battery from the truck battery.

This was done at the RV center.

Truck Camper Renovation

Now to get to the exciting part: the truck camper remodel. I decided pretty quickly that I didn't like much of anything in the interior. As you can see it was incredibly outdated.

I decided I basically wanted to change everything and got Austin on board with the plan slowly.

He wanted to keep a lot of the features saying "he liked the wood" and the cornices "weren't that bad". Probably not surprisingly I won those arguments haha.

Preparing to renovate

The first step of the truck camper remodel was to basically take everything out. This meant all the cabinets, carpet, cushions, mattress, cornices, blinds, fixtures, etc.

Since painting the cabinets was important for the truck camper remodel look that I was going for, I used a Deglosser in order to make sure that the primer and paint would stick to the cabinets.

I used this in lieu of sanding. The cabinets were very shiny and glossy. However using the deglosser ended up working really well and was probably a cheaper and easier option.

Renovating

Cabinets and Walls

The first step was to prime the cabinets.

We did one coat of primer - Kilz2. Then we went back and painted all of the cabinets with a Cabinet Paint which is supposed to be more durable. These we did with two coats.

We then went through and cleaned the wallpaper that was in the camper using TSP.

A special note - this wallpaper was not very removable and it must be different than regular wallpaper in your house. Then we primed the wallpaper with Kilz and painted the walls that were previously wallpaper (except the accent wall) grey. The color was Silverstone by Behr.

We did two coats of the grey.

The fixtures were also spray painted a darker grey to make them pop against the white cabinets.

Refrigerator

We decided to mix up the refigerator a bit. Austin found someone online that did a chalkboard paint refrigerator and we thought that was really cute. So he primed the refigerator and put two coats of Chalkboard paint on the front of the refigerator.

Backsplash

After painting was done (and we celebrated!) the next step was the backsplash.

We purchased the peel & stick backsplash off of Amazon as it was cheaper than Lowes/Home Depot and had better ratings than the brands found there. Full disclosure, I didn't help with the backsplash. It is a small space so Austin did it on his own.

Wallpaper

Next was the wallpaper.

We went back and forth on the wallpaper between trying to not make it too feminine and just not wanting it to dominate the space in general. However, we finally found one we loved from Wayfair that was peel & stick and I think it turned out great!

We liked the wallpaper so we also decided to add it into the cabinets by the bed as they were previously fabric in the center. Our original plan was actually to use extra wallpaper by the head of the bed but we changed our mind so we actually ordered too much.

Keep that in mind when it comes time to discuss cost.

Countertops

The counters we covered with contact paper that we ordered from Amazon to give them an upgraded look. This step requires a substantial amount of patience and lots of careful planning because of the small space and plethora of corners. Austin got so frustrated with the contact paper that I ended up doing the whole thing.

Fortunately, contact paper is forgiving so if it doesn't look right, you can usually peel it back and re-apply. However it is also pretty inexpensive. We would have had the perfect amount with one roll but after a few messed up sections, we ended up needing to order another one - luckily they are cheap!

Flooring

We replaced the previously gross carpet that was in a few sections such as the step going up to the bed with industrial grade carpet.

Lastly we put down peel and stick vinyl flooring which (in my opinion) took the truck camper remodel from looking nice to looking fancy. We went with a darker color for the floors as we plan to use this camper when exploring the outdoors and are anticipating some dirt. The actual floor color is called Old World Oak and is linked here.

Finishing Touches

Cushions

Putting the final finishing touches on the camper really made it come together.

Since our cushions were in great shape, I ordered cushion covers online, although I have seen many options for DIY.

Window Treaments

The curtains are made out of pillowcases that I ordered from Amazon. These hang on the curtain rods with drapery clips purchased from Amazon. We found some great ribbon to tie them when not in use at Walmart.

The curtain rods themselves are glued on Command Hooks.