Step 2: Find the right fit

For 3,000 dollars, my aunt sold us her a-frame camper, which had been used for hunting and camping trips, and had been sitting unmoved for two years beside their house, covered with a tarp because of roof leaks. Now, did we get the friends and family discount? Hell yes we did. But to be fair, most of the A122s campers you see on RVtrader are probably not riddled with roof leaks with windows outlined in sealant tape, so I doubt you’re looking at a 10k sticker price for the condition ours was in.

It needed love. It needed a new floor, a paint job, new cushion covers and some quaint funkiness to make it ours, but it was a good deal, and it had all we needed to get started.

There were other reasons, besides the price tag, that led us to the pop-up. The vehicle towing the trailer would be a 2015 Tacoma Sport 4x4. It had the tow package, but even then, there’s only so much weight we could pull. Buying a bigger truck to haul a bigger camper was not in the budget. We also wanted a rig that we could easily boondock with, so the smaller, the better.

Before you pull the trigger on that awesome deal you found on marketplace, think about what you’ll need to get it rolling and the kind of camping you want to do. During our trips, we’ve seen all sorts of awesome setups from truck campers to semis towing 5th wheels. Only one of those is going to get you into the backwoods.