- 6 weeks ago
Kong’s 2021 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road proves that a lightweight truck camper can deliver real comfort without the bulk of a Sprinter van. Built around a Dirtbox Overland canopy camper, this Tacoma setup keeps the bed made, deploys fast, and still works as a daily driver for weekend camping and overlanding.
Patrick tours the rig with Kong, who explains how the 400 lb all-aluminum camper, upgraded suspension, 33-inch tires, and carefully planned storage make the truck practical for travel with his son. Inside, the canopy camper has standing room, a full-size bed, a flip-down table, a diesel heater, fridge, induction cooktop, water tanks, and a smart electrical system with solar, battery power, and DC-to-DC charging. The walkthrough also covers the awning, privacy setup, lighting, and removable camper design.
It’s a detailed truck camper tour for anyone comparing Tacoma camper builds, overland rigs, pickup truck campers, and budget-friendly alternatives to a van conversion. The focus is on fast setup, weather-ready camping, and keeping everything organized for quick weekend getaways.
SEO: Tacoma camper tour, Dirtbox Overland canopy, truck camper build, overlanding setup, Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road, pickup truck camping, van life alternative, and lightweight camper conversion. Great for viewers searching for truck camping ideas, overland vehicle builds, and practical camping setups for family trips and outdoor adventures.
Patrick tours the rig with Kong, who explains how the 400 lb all-aluminum camper, upgraded suspension, 33-inch tires, and carefully planned storage make the truck practical for travel with his son. Inside, the canopy camper has standing room, a full-size bed, a flip-down table, a diesel heater, fridge, induction cooktop, water tanks, and a smart electrical system with solar, battery power, and DC-to-DC charging. The walkthrough also covers the awning, privacy setup, lighting, and removable camper design.
It’s a detailed truck camper tour for anyone comparing Tacoma camper builds, overland rigs, pickup truck campers, and budget-friendly alternatives to a van conversion. The focus is on fast setup, weather-ready camping, and keeping everything organized for quick weekend getaways.
SEO: Tacoma camper tour, Dirtbox Overland canopy, truck camper build, overlanding setup, Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road, pickup truck camping, van life alternative, and lightweight camper conversion. Great for viewers searching for truck camping ideas, overland vehicle builds, and practical camping setups for family trips and outdoor adventures.
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TravelTranscript
00:00Before I got this camper, I have to have a dedicated area in my garage for all my camping gears.
00:05Now everything just sits in there organized and I'm ready to go whenever my son finishes school at Friday afternoon.
00:11This is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel.
00:15On today's show, I met up with Kong.
00:17Kong has a really cool Toyota Tacoma truck camper.
00:20And this thing is extremely easy to set up.
00:22It's lightweight and it's got a lot going on inside.
00:26He's going to give us a full tour inside now.
00:28So join us.
00:30Hey Pat, thanks for having me.
00:31This is Kong and I have a 2021 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road.
00:36And I'm just going to walk you around the truck before we go into the camper.
00:40Because you can't really have a truck that, you know, you have to have a good suspension to support the
00:45camper itself.
00:46Alright, so first off, I think the most important part to support the camper, which weighs around 400 pounds, is
00:52the suspension.
00:52So I beefed up the rear suspension with a OME MT64 shocks and the O-PRO's 500 pound leaf springs.
01:01And the tire is E-rated.
01:03It's 255, 80, 17 pizza cutter.
01:06It's around 33 inches.
01:08And let's move forward.
01:10Here's a rock slider.
01:11This is made by Green Lane Off-Road.
01:13It's all aluminum, no rust, which is awesome.
01:16And it's bolt-on.
01:18And let me show you where my son used to sit, or sits here, with a fridge over there.
01:24And this is my Starlink.
01:25Normally, I put a suction cup in front of my windshield when the camp is set.
01:30And this is a very good space for my son and his stuff.
01:34Alright, and then for the roof rack, this is a half-length roof rack that fits kind of perfectly underneath
01:40the front section of the camper.
01:42And I have some lights up there, Morimoto, Big Banger, and then the Arkham Warrior roof storage box for some
01:50tools.
01:52Alright, this is kind of my favorite part of the cabin so far.
01:56There's like a little trunk storage unit.
01:59I can easily grab my kitchenware, cookware, and all the utility stuff from here, just in case my son needs
02:08to wipe his nose or face.
02:10And then here, I can have some walkie-talkie, tick-check, and then sunscreen, bug screen, radio, there's another bug
02:20screen, and then there's some more lights.
02:22And it serves as a good solid top.
02:25You can put your stuff on top momentarily.
02:28And I got a DC to DC charger over there.
02:31It's made by eTaker.
02:33It charges my battery in the back real quick at around 500 watts.
02:39And then here is my rigid ditch lights.
02:42That really works well because it has a side shooter on one side only.
02:47So that when you're taking a turn, really dark forest roads and stuff, you can see what's coming up on
02:53the 45 degrees.
02:57And then this is the Morimoto headlight, Morimoto fog light.
03:02They're really, really bright in terms of putting the lights down the road.
03:05And here, as you can see, there's four different brands of light.
03:09On my YouTube channel, I do a lot of light testing.
03:12So I have like a really simple setup that can quickly remove lights and put a mount more lights on
03:18for testing products on my YouTube channel.
03:23And this vinyl, first of all, I like the color contrast, black and army green.
03:27Second of all, I'm preparing my hood for a solar panel.
03:30It's going to be made, I think I'm getting the lens on solar panel.
03:34So this one, in this way, the solar panel is going to be able to trickle charge the starting battery.
03:40So it will never run out of battery.
03:45All right.
03:46So the front suspension is completely stock as of now.
03:49It's a TRD off-road Bill Stein shocks coming from Toyota.
03:52However, I am planning to put on a set of TRD Pro Fox shocks up front to give it another
03:58inch of lift.
03:59Because I put the 33-inch tall tires, I think that aesthetically, it just looks a little more proper with
04:06a little lift.
04:08And this is a super rare, and this is a super rare Rock Warrior 6-Lug Toyota OEM wheels.
04:18I found a set used from somewhere else.
04:20I paid a lot of money, but I think it's worth it because it, yeah, it's lightweight and it fits
04:26the offside is proper.
04:31And this is the wire that's made by a KC Highlight.
04:34This is a wire hider that just sticks to the windshield so that I can run the wire up to
04:38the roof for any power.
04:41Oh, and this is the wind fairing.
04:44I think it's really effective in terms of killing the wind noise.
04:49And also, it's MPG-friendly.
04:55Here's my driver's side.
04:57First, I have a Primo Works armrest.
05:00It helps you a lot in terms of keeping your arm comfortable.
05:03And then we have an aux beam control panel that's kind of stick to the left side of the steering
05:08wheel.
05:09It powers, it controls all my lights and accessories.
05:12And this is like a little dash mount I can put my phone on like really easily and quickly like
05:18this.
05:23All right, I'm coming to the back.
05:26This is my little power corner.
05:28I got an EcoFlow little 1kWh battery there being charged DC to DC.
05:34And this is my icicle fridge that I, you know, put all my food and drinks and stuff.
05:40Fridge and freezer.
05:42All right, so now let's get back to the Dirtbox Overland Canopy Camper.
05:47So, this is the side door.
05:49As you see here first, I got a 7-gallon water port storage, fresh water, and then a 2-gallon
05:56diesel tank on the side.
05:58This is my intake and exhaust for my diesel heater that you will see in a second that I built
06:04in right here.
06:06So, this is a diesel heater made by LF Bros.
06:08That's a 2-kilowatt power diesel heater.
06:11I kind of rigged it to have the diesel heater mounted on the moly panel and then which mounted to
06:19the side track.
06:21And it's kind of getting fuel from the pass-through here and then the intake, the exhaust.
06:29Yeah, so I like it because it's out of the way.
06:32And I don't really want to carry like a whole huge box of diesel heater accessories and stuff.
06:38And it's super efficient and it's able to, as you see here, I've made this.
06:43It's able to direct air up and down.
06:46So, now I'm having it down to the battery when it's closed.
06:49And then here forward and backwards just in case, you know, wherever I need heat.
06:54And these are some small attachments like for my lights, quick grab lights and gloves and stuff to the moly
07:01panel.
07:02And this is like a saw that you really need for, you know, for your firewoods.
07:05And I definitely upgraded the struts because now you can see I'm holding almost 100 pounds of stuff on the
07:12side door.
07:13And it doesn't flex at all.
07:15It's super solid and it goes up and down super easy.
07:19And that's my controller for the diesel heater.
07:24All right, so here in the back, of course, I put a Toyota logo.
07:27I'm a huge Toyota fanboy.
07:29And this is a little trash bag that I put in the back.
07:33As you can see, it's super easy to throw some trash from campsites and stuff, you know, trying to leave
07:39no trace.
07:40And just a little recovery shackle in the back.
07:44All right.
07:45And here is a back door of the camper.
07:51I optioned for a graded, like a panel in the back for theft prevention.
07:58That's the only window in the back.
07:59I don't have any side windows.
08:00I think it's very safe.
08:02And here I made some Velcroed Reflectix for some privacy.
08:07And as I open here, you can see there's a great wide flat panel.
08:14Easy getting in and out or putting your stuff on here to work on.
08:17And I put some friction tape here so that I don't trip or I don't slip.
08:22All right.
08:23Let me get the stuff out of my camper.
08:26Let me have a sit here.
08:29This is my little giant step.
08:32I really like it.
08:33It's solid enough to hold my 200 plus pound weight.
08:36And, yeah, it's the perfect height.
08:40And as we get to here, I made this from my RV sewage port.
08:44That's a three-inch.
08:45See how theft prevention I'm thinking of?
08:48So let me open the side door first to open that site prevention little screen.
08:55So that's the water, two-gallon, fresh water.
08:58I need a lot of water because I like to go to the beach.
09:01It opens up.
09:03See here, it's got a handle here.
09:06I can open it.
09:07It works perfectly to feed your, you know, diesel heater duct or air-conditioner duct.
09:11And here we have a quick disconnect fire extinguisher from Dirtbox.
09:18And here is my central storage compartment.
09:22So first, let me start from here.
09:24That's my 12-volt DC power control.
09:27So every wire goes from the battery to this control panel.
09:31And then the actual control panel is over here.
09:33It's a 12-gang from Oxbeam.
09:36It can be controlled wirelessly through Bluetooth.
09:41And now we have a little air fryer.
09:43I really like it because it fits in perfectly.
09:45I got it from Amazon.
09:48Camping with my son, you know, I need some food quickly.
09:51Because kids don't wait, right?
09:53Like, I need it when they need it.
09:55So that comes in really handy.
09:57And this is just like a made by Step 22.
10:00It's a soft storage box.
10:02It's that for this one, I put a lot of, you know, air deflator, diesel heater parts, and some charging
10:09wires in this one.
10:12Let me show you another one.
10:15I have my name kind of put on the Velcro.
10:20So this one, I have all my kitchenware, all my kettle.
10:23I'm a huge electrical guy or electricity guy.
10:25I kind of trying to use the battery as much as possible.
10:28So, yeah.
10:29So that's my, and I have an induction cooktop underneath it.
10:35And on top of the second, on the second floor, second level, this is my charging command.
10:40Like, command center, I charge all my accessories here.
10:44And as you see here, if I turn this on, and the lights light up in here, and it's going
10:49to be charging 12 volt to whatever accessories I need.
10:53And this is my toiletry bag.
10:55I have all the bags and, you know, powders and stuff in there.
10:59And then this is my water tank nozzle that I can spray, especially when my son's hands are full of
11:06sands and stuff.
11:07I just wash it off.
11:08That's my first aid kit.
11:10Definitely need a first aid to have the, to have it for your trip.
11:15And that's Goldflux.
11:16So, I really like Goldflux because it's tricolor, white, red, and amber, and it's dimmable.
11:22And now it's at the brightest mode.
11:25So, that's really handy because I just, I need a lot of light when it's dark at night at the
11:30campsite.
11:33Yeah, and that's just a 270 awning up there.
11:35And I have a 400 watt power solar panel made by Renogy.
11:40It's just one solid panel.
11:46All right, so let's talk about the electrical board.
11:49So, here I have a battery first.
11:51I'm going to start with the battery.
11:55So, now I'm using a Li-Time 200 amp hour 12 volt battery here.
12:00This one is self-heated.
12:01So, it's, it's winter friendly, especially, you know, when it gets down to really cold temperature.
12:06So, that goes to the power disconnect and then goes to a positive bus bar terminal and then the negative
12:12bus bar terminal.
12:13And I also have a wireless monitor from the Victron.
12:17And also, the solar panels, the solar controller is a Victron MPPT-150.
12:23And then from the, from the battery, it also goes into here.
12:27That's a 12 volt controller that have a higher DC rating output.
12:31And that's my 2,000 watt inverter that I use to power my induction cooktop.
12:38All right, so here's the other side of this storage box, which serves as a bench.
12:43So, I have my recovery gear, my leveling block, my AC cable, and all the, you know, accessories.
12:51And being extruded aluminum, I think it's really advantageous to have, to being able to mount accessories to all the
13:01slots and stuff.
13:02That can do a lot of tie downs.
13:04Oh, and this whole entire system is sit on top of a plastic, I forgot the exact term for this,
13:10but it's made by plastic, not plywood.
13:13I personally dislike plywood, because being a truck camper, you're prone to having elements, water, and stuff leak.
13:19And I don't want to have some water trapped underneath it, and kind of make the wood rutted.
13:24So, this is perfect.
13:25This was made for this section of the hatch, and I kind of just used it for a seat cushion.
13:31So, for this one, I have the bad stiffener on either side.
13:34So, this is made by Total Chaos, it fits perfectly.
13:38Being a Tacoma, the bed wobbles a little bit, due to the C-channel frame design.
13:42A little bit more, it wobbles a little bit more than other trucks, so it's safer to have reinforcements on
13:48the rear two corners, being an open frame.
13:52And these two control panel, or the control button, are for the second floor lights.
13:59And then there's another power hub on the second floor over there, being able to control them.
14:06This is my five-gallon water tank.
14:09It's powered, being able to, you know, give you water whenever you need, and it's strapped down, no problem.
14:16All right, now here's the moment you guys want to see this thing to be popped up.
14:19And this is like a two-person sleeper, three-four, have a small kid that's less than five feet long,
14:25or height.
14:26Here, let me open this up.
14:33Let me real quick.
14:34There's two latches in the back, all aluminum parts, no rust.
14:47And in the back, there's a rear hatch that's providing an access to the inside.
14:53Now it's already set up.
14:57So one thing about Dirtbox Overland Camper is, you can have your bed made, and still have a living space.
15:08See how I'm able to, hi again.
15:14See how I'm able to stand up, no problem, I'm 5'9".
15:18This is like just a bed, and this is the underneath of the bed.
15:22I would say one thing for this design is, there's no condensation, because normally when you sleep in a rooftop
15:29tent, the bottom of your bed panel is the outside.
15:33But this one, the bottom of your bed panel is still inside, while another layer underneath.
15:37So there is no temperature shock to create condensation.
15:41Here's two huge side windows on either side with mash.
15:46And yeah, so I'll show you this flip-down table.
15:53I'll show you this flip-down table here.
15:56You know, when I'm with my son, you know, when it's raining and stuff, my son will sit here, I'll
16:00sit here.
16:01We'll have a cooktop with space to cook on, have lunch, have meal on, right?
16:08And I think that's like a really good setup, especially for a Tacoma at this size.
16:13And this is like a really neat thing that I bring always with me.
16:17This is a port-a-potty made by Thetford.
16:21When I need it, I just pull it out a little bit like this, and do a business.
16:26There's like a great black water tank on the bottom, and then fresh water on top.
16:32When I don't need it, I push it back, I strap it in.
16:37Just like that.
16:38I'm going to do that later.
16:41Yeah, so let's talk about the bed.
16:43So see here, right now it's up position.
16:46All I need to do is to press this little lever here.
16:49That's a lock.
16:51And it comes down.
16:54And your full-size bed is made.
16:59So here I have a...
17:02That's about a three-inch mattress.
17:03I put two extra one-inch thick yoga mat underneath on both sides so that, you know, it's more comfortable
17:11and it's still good enough for the hatch to close.
17:16And for the ceiling, it's insulated with one-inch styrofoam sandwiched in with some finish, upholstery finish on the outside.
17:25So you don't see a lot of bare metal surfaces, which creates condensation easily.
17:29This one won't.
17:31All right, now let's...
17:32I'll meet you outside to talk about the awning.
17:34Before that, I want to show you this rear hatch.
17:37Because normally, normally, say, if I'm camping with my son, he goes to bed really early, like 9 o'clock,
17:45while I'm still on the campfire to enjoy the camping life.
17:48He will sleep there.
17:49And I'm able to get access in and out without disrupting his sleep.
17:56So this is like a really good add-on.
17:59And that's what it looks like closing now.
18:03Yep.
18:07Which also serves an additional length if you're taller than 6 feet.
18:12All right, now let's show you the awning.
18:18All right, first off, I always put a zipper in the back to not catch the wind.
18:24Speaking of the zipper, I changed out all the zippers on the side window and the walls.
18:29It's because the zipper will flap in the wind and it's so quiet when you're sleeping in without being, you
18:36know, interrupted by the noise if you're a light sleeper.
18:39It's getting so muddy out here.
18:43So that's my awning.
18:45So that's a 270 freestanding.
18:49I think they all say freestanding.
18:51However, they're only freestanding to like maybe 25 to 30 miles an hour wind.
18:54Anything other than that, it's safer to stick them down.
18:57All right, so now...
19:00I'll show you how quick it is to set that up.
19:08So this is a 270 square back.
19:12That goes all the way around.
19:15It creates a real nice shelter.
19:20I need to close this down to strap that in.
19:23So here, I made this little hook.
19:28Being extruded aluminum, you have a lot of T-tracks on the side which you can mount stuff in.
19:33And it's 270, it has lights, it has legs if you need, you can easily stick them down.
19:42And also, there's a Velcro here, if you see here, they also make an awning room that you can Velcro
19:48the entire size to be a kind of semi-enclosed area for you to camp in to get away from
19:54the sun.
19:54Well, Kong, I really appreciate you taking the time today to give us a demo of your overlanding truck.
20:02Now, before this, did you have any other type of camper?
20:06Yeah, I had a Toyota Tundra with a soft top topper.
20:09Me and my son sleeps in the back.
20:11However, you know, once I get, since I'm only getting older, I kind of need a little more comfort out
20:15of the camping setup.
20:17And I don't really want a full-out, like a hard-sided or, you know, it's not going to be
20:23for Tacoma.
20:24So I kind of ended up with the Dirtbox because they're really small in size and they're solid just in
20:29case if you do any off-roading and stuff.
20:31And I like being able to not unmake your bed when you get in and out.
20:38So that's like one of the key factors.
20:39And it's lightweight, so it's aluminum and you're never going to see rust on this.
20:43Exactly.
20:43So it's 400 pounds, all aluminum construction.
20:45There won't be any rust at all.
20:48Yeah, it's only 400 pounds.
20:49For Tacoma, you can't get away without modifying your suspension comfortably or safely.
20:53I actually weight my truck.
20:54I think it's on a cash scale.
20:57The truck is about stock way up front and maybe like 700, 800 pounds in the back.
21:04And that's with all the water and power and stuff.
21:07That's not bad.
21:08And this, like, say if you wanted to trade in your truck, this could come off?
21:12Yes.
21:13So this comes off really easily.
21:14This just clamps down to the side of the bed, as you can see here.
21:20Maybe over there.
21:21Yep.
21:23So originally they had two clamps on each side.
21:27Being me, I overthink.
21:29I added another clamp in the middle on both sides and another clamp on the front bulkhead.
21:34So this thing is solid and removable if needed.
21:38And this is somewhat all weather, right?
21:40It doesn't matter if it's raining.
21:41Yeah.
21:41I camp in the snow.
21:42I camp in the rain, especially with the awning and stuff.
21:45It's weather tight.
21:47It's weather tight.
21:47And then say if you just wanted to hang out in this back part without the awning out, with everything
21:52closed up.
21:53I think there's a decent amount of space for two people to hang out.
21:55Yeah, especially me and my son.
21:56Yeah.
21:57That's cool.
21:58And then is there, like, overall, like, to invest in something like this, like a full camping setup, what were
22:04you talking about?
22:04A $20,000 investment?
22:06Much less than that.
22:07I think this camper starts at around a little over $10,000.
22:10And then I just did everything else myself.
22:12Maybe a total is, like, $13,000, $14,000 all in, which is very reasonable in nowadays market.
22:19And the most reasonable thing about it is that this is a daily driver truck.
22:22Oh, yeah.
22:23So it's not, like, a special camper just for that type of trip.
22:26You could drive this around.
22:27Oh, yeah.
22:27You could still go to parking garages.
22:29Exactly.
22:29You're not paying extra for tolls.
22:31Right.
22:32Yeah, this is lightweight.
22:33And it's probably at 7 feet tall.
22:36With my solar panel.
22:37However, it's not, like, a huge, full-out hardside camper height.
22:42And it's certainly shorter than a sprinter van.
22:45And so you're a YouTuber for lights and accessories?
22:49Yes.
22:49So I have a channel called 4WD is Life.
22:52So in my channel, I mainly do off-road lighting comparison videos.
22:56I also put a lot of information on how I modded my truck, like camper accessories, power, and stuff there.
23:02So if you're interested, feel free to go.
23:05Maybe Pat will be putting a link in the description and check it out.
23:09Yeah, I definitely will.
23:10It's nice to be able to showcase something different like this, right?
23:16Because I do a lot of camper vans and, like, regular truck campers.
23:18Right.
23:18I've done several of different, like, pickup truck, cap campers, I guess you would call this.
23:24And people really like them.
23:26It's just another way and option to travel.
23:28It allows your overall cost much lower to get into this lifestyle.
23:33And how has this changed your life?
23:36100%.
23:36So nowadays, before I got this camper, I have to have a dedicated area in my garage for all my
23:42camping gears.
23:43Now everything just sits in there organized.
23:45I'm ready to go whenever my son finishes school at, you know, Friday afternoon.
23:50I pick him up.
23:51I just go to a campground.
23:52And, yeah, we're just camping.
23:54Easy is key, right?
23:55Yes.
23:55Camping is work.
23:56Fast deployment is definitely key.
23:59Yeah.
23:59Quick decision.
24:00Weather's going to be good this weekend.
24:02We're going camping.
24:02Yes.
24:03Well, this is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel.
24:07Thank you, Kong, for bringing over your 2021 Toyota Tacoma truck camper, man.
24:12This thing is really cool.
24:14Thanks for joining us.