A slide-in pickup-bed camper was good enough for John Steinbeck, but sometimes you need a little more space. That’s what happened with this custom installation mounted on a 2001 Ford F-550 Super Duty. Its owner remodeled and expanded it the way most people do with their stable homes. And it made this mega camper internet famous.
Looking like it’s slowly eating the pickup truck it’s attached to, the camper has been a typical parking lot for years. But so far only quick glimpses have been received by anyone. Andrew Steele finally tracked down the rig and its owner for an in-depth video named after him Youtube channel. As he explains in the video, Steele first saw the RV in a Costco parking lot a few years ago. After posting a short video, which received over seven million views, he knew he had to find out more.
In the video, RV owner Tom explains that it started out as a Super Duty-equipped 12-foot Lance camper that he purchased from a retired Northwest Airlines pilot in 2003. He kept everything in stock, using the camper and pickup for vacations, but gradually began spending more time in the camper after the deaths of his partner and mother. At one point he decided to spend an entire winter in Florida, but he didn’t want to do it in the cramped space of a 12-foot camper.
Tom is also an engineer, and after driving Super Duty for so many years, he knew the truck and its capabilities inside and out. So they began a six-and-a-half-year project to convert the camper into a more permanent living space. First, he built a wooden frame that raised the roof and extended the front of the camper significantly beyond the leading edge of the truck’s hood. To help with aerodynamics, Tom gave the front end a tapered shape similar to the Class C motorhomes the rig would soon compete in space.
A large rear overhang, made of timber frame, includes storage areas and a verandah. The walls are three inches thick and made of diamond-plate steel, with foam insulation inside. Everything is held together with glue, screws, and neoprene washers. The original Lance interior was gutted and remodelled, to match the newly added extension, but Tom retained the electrical box, hatch and kitchen vent fan, among other parts.
Inside there is a full kitchen, a dining room/living room with a fold-down table, a bathroom with a flushing toilet, and a bedroom with two large closets and a king-size bed. Everything is wood paneled and there are storage spaces located everywhere. A 400-watt solar installation helps provide electricity.
An inside tour of the most unique RV on the road for the first time – it’s now for sale.
In the video, Tom says the camper weighs about 17,000 pounds, which probably includes the weight of the truck carrying it. The F-550 has the unmistakable 7.3-liter Power Stroke V8, which was rated at 250 horsepower and 505 pound-feet of torque when new. The pickup now has about 265,000 miles on it, but in the video, Tom claims it’s rust-free, and he averages 7.4 mpg.
Watch the full video for all the details, and if you like what you see, this camper could be yours. The asking price is $20,000, which doesn’t sound too bad considering all the work that went into it. After all, someone in 2025 was asking $69,000 for an F-350 Super Duty RV with a 6.0-liter Power Stroke. Be prepared to attract lots of attention wherever you take this unique camper.