When I sold my house and bought a camper, I thought the slide in truck camper would be perfect. This article is the story of the process I went through in finding my new camper and a highlight of some of cool features it has!

The pitfalls of the truck camper

I quickly realized the pop-up truck camper wasn't going to work for long trips with two dogs. It was initially appealing for various reasons, but I found some downfalls that I couldn't work with.

• The pop-up roof
  • Good for reducing drag while going down the road, but bad for storage
• No more truck bed
  • When the camper itself takes up all the space in the truck bed, there's no room to store any additional gear.
• Living space
  • With dogs on the floor that could only make it up to bed if I put them there, it was a constant shuffle trying to move around inside.
• Poor craftsmanship
  • I already started to see some things coming apart in the first couple months, appeared to be a sign of poor quality materials and assembly.

The search for a better camper

Already knowing I needed to upgrade to a travel trailer to get the space I needed, I went to a few different RV dealers to look at what was available. What I saw didn't impress me. A lot of them are made by the same parent company, and have the same level of craftsmanship. I wanted the nimbleness of a small travel trailer that would give me the flexibility to stay anywhere from a remote camping site on BLM property, to a national park or at a comfortable campground.

I stumbled upon Ember RV after searching for what I found is called an "overland" camper. Overland campers are popular in Australia for camping in the outback, but Ember makes theirs in Elkhart, Indiana. After reading about their construction, features, and reviews, I decided to go check one out at the closest dealer in Syracuse, New York.

The Overland 171FB

Ember has a handful of models in their Overland series, but I liked the 171FB the most. On the inside, it has a full bathroom with a shower and vanity sink, a couch across from a 32" TV, a large sink and cooking area, a massive apartment sized fridge, and a full queen bed. It's heated by an efficient German-designed combination furnace and water heater, has a full black out shades, a large skylight window, and lots of storage compartments. On the outside it has a 12' awning with LED lighting, an outside cooking griddle and mini-fridge, pass-through storage underneath, and three 190 watt solar panels on the roof. The belly is fully insulated and has thermostatically controlled heated tanks to keep everything working in cold temps. Unlike most travel trailers, the Ember has true independent suspension with torsion springs and full light truck tires.

Impressions

After 6 weeks, it's good. There's been a few small issues I've had to work out, but overall it's been a enormous improvement in comfort and style.