In February 2018 I was drinking a bottle of wine in New Zealand when I found a 2002 Toyota Tacoma on Craigslist in Colorado. A few hours later my brother drove across Denver, bought the truck, and I flew home to pick it up. In November 2018 I was drinking cheap beer in an apartment on the coast in Spain when I found a 1989 SunLite slide-in pop-up truck camper on Craigslist in New York. I called the owners, asked them to hold it for me, and booked a flight home to pick it up. That’s how I ended up spending a frigid winter in Indiana, remodeling a slide-in pop-up truck camper.
Note to self: For my next international trip, block Craigslist from my web browser…
I landed in the United States, disassembled the truck canopy home that I lived in over the summer, drove straight to Rochester and bought the camper, crashed my buddy’s wedding, and after an epic weekend with my RAAM friends, made the long drive back to Indiana to start the camper renovation project.
Editor’s Note: If you don’t like reading, you can skip the story and watch the truck & camper tour film on YouTube HERE. Or, scroll through the photos of remodeling a slide-in pop-up truck camper and play the video from the bottom of the page!
Once in Indiana I set to work in the unheated warehouse of my Uncle’s wood shop. I wasn’t too worried, I’d watched plenty of renovation shows on HGTV and figured the entire project would take about 5 weeks. I’d be able to spend the Christmas holiday with my family, and then take my new slide-in pop-up truck camper home out west and start adventuring.
I was ooooohhhhhh sooooo wrong.
Luckily, I had help. My step-dad Tom who helped me build my Tacoma home the year before was ready and willing to dive into this camper remodel project. If he knew how much work it would turn out to be he might have decided against it, but we started by removing pretty much everything and getting the camper down to bare bones for rebuilding.
Before Interior Photos
The HGTV fixer upper shows make demo day look fast and fun, but in reality, removing all the components and planning the rebuild took much much longer than anticipated. Most of the stock components would end up being reused, but we wanted to replace the utility lines, move a few parts, and add some new accessories to update the living space.
The rear mounted A/C unit needed to go, as I rarely plug into shore power. Once it was gone we constructed a wall where the hole had been cut, re-skined the camper with aluminum siding, and sealed the outer trim before painting.
Inside Tom built a custom cabinet at the rear of the couch to specifically hold my pots and pans, and I sanded and primed the walls and cabinets, painstakingly installed a peel-and-stick faux tile backsplash in the kitchen, replaced the 12 gallon water tank with a custom molded 22 gallon tank, ran new propane and water lines, and rewired the electrical, adding a new inverter for onboard power.
One of the most stressful projects was redoing the copper propane lines to install an inline water heater on the rear of the camper for outdoor hot showers. I did a lot of testing and checking for gas leaks and was pleasantly surprised when the propane system worked and nothing exploded!
We mounted two 160 watt solar panels on the roof, I stripped the decals from the aluminum siding, coated the camper with several gallons of roll on Herculiner bed-liner, painted the accessory panels, installed hasp padlocks on the utility doors and mounted 5 flood lights on the roof for security. We also added custom steel weather strips and locking doors to the sides of the truck bed and rear end that would seal the bed once the camper was installed, making the bed access storage weather-tight and secure. I also installed a battery isolater and connected the camper to the truck’s electrical system.
Ultimately, the entire remodel took nearly 5 months, a little longer than my anticipated 5 weeks, and there were ups and downs… lots of downs. It was the first winter that I’d spent in Indiana since moving to California 12 years prior, and the few days of -40° F with the windchill were Fahrenheitingly cold. I regularly spent $25 a day on kerosene to heat the warehouse and after months of challenges, I was absolutely ready to get out west for sunshine, warmth, and wilderness camping.
As the project wrapped up as the last few parts were reinstalled, the list of to-do’s got smaller, and I started to feel excited again. I spent the final few days working inside the heated wood shop, attaching the camper to the truck through custom mounting brackets, plugging everything in, and making sure it all worked.
My mom helped by sewing a custom couch cushion and some really awesome window curtains and accent pieces. I pulled up the old linoleum floor and replaced it with a vinyl peel-and-stick floor. The only thing left to do was move all of my stuff into my new home on wheels!
And with that, I was finally ready to hit the road. I tightened the camper tie downs, checked the air pressure in the Firestone air bags (those would be replaced soon with a custom rear suspension), and drove to the scales to check my overall weight. The Tacoma had gained a lot of pounds over the winter in Indiana (I might have too, due to mom’s delicious Midwest home cooking!), and though the rig was heavy, it felt good to be out on the open road. I thanked my family for all of their help, aimed west to test out my new rig in Utah, then a quick stop in Southern California before heading to Alaska for a summer under the midnight sun!
A huge thank you to my step-dad Tom for helping me with this truck camper renovation! I’d like to promise that I won’t do that to us again, but, I know myself too well…
Interior After Photos
Remodeling A Slide-In Pop-Up Truck Camper Film
For more information on remodeling a slide-in pop-up truck camper, check out The Pop Up Princess website. I referred to her posts over and over during m renovation process!
Hi – I really enjoy your posts and I am hoping to duplicate part of your trip this summer if things level out. I am wondering I am in the middle of remodeling a pop up camper and I think I will be about 400 lbs over my max payload, I am hoping that by changing the tires and adding air shocks I will be ok. How close were you to your max payload and what did you do to compensate for the weight? Thanks
Hi James, I just sent you an email about the custom suspension work on the truck. Thanks!
Hey Chris Awesome build, I have an 88 Sunlite but it appears that my dinette only has one pole support, also interested in your suspension set up.Thanks!
That’s great! I’m actually thinking about redesigning my table, but I’m not sure yet. For the suspension, I really had no idea what to do, but I took the truck to a suspension shop in Phoenix, on more stock work they use manufactured leaf springs, but for my special project, and the fact that half of the camper’s weight seems to be on the driver’s side, they custom arched leaf spring packs, even adding 1 additional leaf on the driver’s side to carry the extra weight. All in all I think it cost me $1,000 and it was no big deal for them. I hope that helps!
Hey Chris! I love your blog and find it so helpful for the remodeling I’m about to do on our 2000 Sun Lite camper! Thanks for being so awesome!
Also, I’m curious what kind of cord you used for the wrap around the top to make sure the pop up portion closes inside when bringing it down? Thanks!
Hi Sami, thank you! I bought a long bungee cord from Amazon, I forget the size, but it goes all the way around the canvas and I tied knots around carabiners and when I’m ready to lower the top I clip them together and the cord puts pressure on all corners and sides. Once I raise the top I un-clip them and the cord hangs loose around the canvas until I’m ready to lower to roof again. I hope this helps!
Nice work. I just began a 1986 Viking 8′ remodel. Awesome ideas here!
Awesome! If you have any questions about what to do, or more, what not to do, just send me a message! Cheers!
Hey Chris,
I am looking at getting very similar set up. Is this an 8′ sunlite camper or is there a shorter version that you purchased?
Also do you know the length of your Tacoma bed?
Awesome build, thanks for the info!
I would also like to know what work you did to the suspension and if you had any issues with payload capacity on the Gen 1 Tacoma.
I went to a shop and they arched custom leaf packs. Before that I just had an add-a-leaf and the Firestone Ride-Rite air suspension, but that wasn’t enough to carry the extra weight. With the custom leaf packs the back-end is more ridged and the truck feels more stable. It’s heavy for sure, but now it feels better!
I think I’m is the SunLite SkyHawk, a bit more narrow to fit into a pickup truck’s wheelbase, and shorter. My Tacoma’s bed is 6 feet, and the camper hangs about a foot or a bit more over the tailgate. Thanks!
Hey love the camper! I have an 89 Sunline and I’ve done many of the same things and just found your build today. How did you make the covers for the openings on the side of the truck bed? Much more secure storage!
That’s great! For the openings between the truck bed and camper we had the local Amish shop bend and weld metal sheets that we screwed to the bedrails, went straight up to the level of the bottom of the camper, and bent inward toward the center. On top I put foam strips as a weather seal and lowered the camper onto them. At the back my step-dad tacked together more bent metal pieces and we essentially built door frames for the stock swinging doors that came on the camper and put hasp locks on them. It was a lot of custom work, and trial and error, but great to have more “weather-proof” and locking storage!