Poof! The ioCamper Truck Turns the Bed of Your Truck Into a Family Home

If the name ioCamper rings a bell with you, you're in rather select company because it's not an established manufacturer. The name first started making the rounds in 2016, when Hungarian engineer Tamas Laczko created the first prototype for the ioCamper RV, a self-contained box that could slide inside the back of a van for easy transport and then expand into a full-size apartment at camp.

The idea was to offer a module that was basically a compact apartment with minimal modifications to the transporting vehicle so it could still be used on its own for work stuff. The idea was also to pack the biggest footprint inside the most compact package so that, when deployed, the ioCamper would be better than any other RV option on the market.

We covered the second iteration of the ioCamper in 2021 when Laczko had secured an investor and was, as such, able to further improve the first prototype. The biggest modification was that the RV would no longer travel inside a van to camp; instead, it sat on a trailer you could tow with your daily driver.

Sadly, by that point, Laczko had already tried – and failed – to bring it into production through crowdfunding. The campaign hoped to raise at least $200,000 to bring the expandable trailer into production but offered only thanks and t-shirts in return.

Despite the very underwhelming reception, Laczko went ahead and opened the pre-order books for the ioCamper in the trailer-based version. We reckon that didn't pan out either: ioCamper is shifting focus again, replacing the trailer-based RV with a new model simply called ioCamper Truck. The name hints at the main difference between the two: this time, the offer is for an add-on that fits snugly in the bed of your truck – and then expands into a full-size habitat once you reach camp.

Unlike its infinitely more awesome predecessor, the ioCamper Truck only expands in one direction, adding the living room slash guest or kids' bedroom to the space already available. The conversion happens with the unit fixed to the truck in a few minutes' time and offers sleeping for four people – so a couple and at least a couple of kids.

Dubbed "an openable RV body," the ioCamper Truck is offered either as a complete solution or a shell. In the former case, it comes with everything, including the kitchen sink, and tips the scales at 650 kg (1,433 lbs); in the latter, you only get the walls and the folding sections, with a total weight of 450 kg (992 lbs). The shell is made of fiberglass-reinforced PE material with high-density insulation. Laczko promises durability and comfort all year round.

In travel mode, the ioCamper Truck is 14 feet long and 7 feet wide (4.2 by 2.1 meters)1, but it expands to more than 19 feet (5.8 meters) in length in camp mode, adding 30% more living space. It's decently appointed, too, so it offers a relatively comfortable stay at camp, though not necessarily an extended one.

There's a living room that becomes a bedroom with two single-person beds, a compact kitchen, an equally compact bathroom, and a sleeping area with a queen-size bed and only enough headroom to sit up in it.

Appliances are basic, too: a hotplate and a very small refrigerator in the kitchen, and no mention of anything else. Everything is scaled down to size: the sink is small, storage is minimal, and the bathroom is wet. You get a 50-liter (13.2-gallon) freshwater tank, leveling legs, a porta-potty or a cassette toilet, USB and power outlets, and LED lighting.

It sure beats sleeping in a tent on the ground, and it's the closest thing to an actual mobile home. You even get blinds and insect screens on the windows.

Laczko says a fifth bed can be added optionally, though he makes no mention of its potential location. Neither is it very clear where or how you should transport the pieces of furniture that go inside the expansion. Even worse, there's no mention of pricing, despite the fact that both options (full spec and shell) are available for pre-orders.

Germany-based Richter-Manufactury is an ioCamper partner for distribution in the country and will also handle inquiries on the possibility of shipping one such unit worldwide.

Not to put negativity into the universe, but do take all of this with a grain of salt. ioCamper got off to a very rough start, not once or twice but thrice, for reasons that were never made public. The product they hope will put them on the map, the ioCamper Truck, seems very promising. Then again, everyone thought the same about its predecessor, and still, nothing ever came out of it.