Back in 2024, I wrote about an interesting camper concept. The Tusca HitchHiker Camper was a 190-pound box that could be strapped to a trailer, a truck bed, or just about any flat surface to create a dry, hard-walled place to sleep. Since then, this camper got a name change and some awesome upgrades, and it’s gotten even lighter at 180 pounds. This is the Freedom Camper, and it’s an affordable box that can still turns countless vehicles into a fun little mobile hideout.
RV ownership usually comes with the downside of having to maintain, register, and store a trailer, a van, or an entire motorhome. That can be a bit much if you’re a weekend camper, or don’t actually have a need for an entire other vehicle just to sleep in. If this sounds like you, there are portable solutions out there, like the rooftop tent or the pickup truck slide-in camper.
I have discovered another demographic of potential RV buyers. These people want something more substantial than a tent. They want a clean, secure place with hard walls that they can sleep in for a night or two. But they also want this camper to be nearly as mobile as a tent. An example of this kind of buyer would be a hotshot driver (someone who specializes in time-sensitive delivery). Cruise down America’s highways long enough, and you’ll eventually see a heavy-duty pickup truck towing a car hauler. If you look closely, you might even notice a little camper sitting atop the trailer, or a custom sleeper on the back of a chassis cab rig.
Other folks want to be able to use what they already have at home. If you own a utility trailer, that could be used as the base of a camper for a nice weekend at a state park. Then it can be instantly converted back into a utility trailer when you get home. If you find yourself wanting a little space to sleep in, but not actually wanting to commit to getting a full-fledged RV, Freedom Campers says it has the solution, as you can just buy one of its super lightweight cubes and slap it on basically any vehicle or trailer with a bed.
A Rebrand And A Refresh
Freedom Campers, which was originally founded as Tusca Outdoors, says it was created to solve a simple problem. One of the company’s co-founders, Josh Good, wanted to buy a small, hard-sided camper for an annual trip to Ohio. He just wanted a warm and dry place to sleep without any frills. Yet he found nothing on the new RV market that was under $10,000 that didn’t require giving up hard walls.
So, in 2019, he and college baseball teammate Adam Janney decided to make their own camper. At the time, Good was a metal fabricator, and Janney was a youth pastor. They also had an idea to serve the hunting community with an improved hunting blind design. In 2022, Tusca Outdoors was opened as the brand for Good’s and Janney’s ideas.
Since then, Tusca Outdoors has been marketing EPS-based hunting blinds of various sizes. The company also makes a cooler boat out of EPS foam, so you can bring the cold snacks with you to the lake. Tusca markets its hunting blinds as structures that won’t rot and are so well-insulated that you could raise the inside temperature a bit with just a burning candle.
It wasn’t long before Adam and Josh figured that they could do more with their polyurea-coated EPS foam construction. The men took their families on a yearly hunting trip and began thinking about how to safely sleep themselves and their families. Adam and Josh decided to make a tiny camper that could be used to make a cheap truck topper or turn an inexpensive 5×8 trailer into an instant teardrop trailer.
Six months later, Tusca Outdoors emerged with the HitchHiker Camper. That was just last week, and it’s now on display at the Great American Outdoor Show in Pennsylvania. Don’t worry, you haven’t missed a new camper show. The Great American Outdoor Show is focused on guns, hunting, and fishing, not really campers.
Since I covered this company two years ago, it has made some waves. National coverage from sites like The Autopian and other blogs helped get Tusca’s name out there, and it sold over 1,000 campers. Then, the company got bought out, and the new owners went all-in on campers, rebranding it as Freedom Campers. Now, it’s taken the original idea of a sub-$4,000 hard-sided camper and gone crazy with it.
Same Idea, Four Different Sizes
Two years ago, the HitchHiker Camper was a very simple concept. Freedom Campers took expanded polystyrene foam, formed it into the shape of a camper, and slathered it in polyurea synthetic polymer material (better known as truck bed liner). This construction made the HitchHiker Camper a single, uninterrupted block of camper shell. There’s no wood to rot, and the only holes are for the windows, door, and vent.
The makers of the HitchHiker Camper also boasted about the insulating properties of the foam. They said that if you camped in a HitchHiker Camper at 20 degrees and used nothing but a candle for heat, the camper’s interior would warm to around 55 degrees in an hour. The camper, which measured 7.5 feet long by 4.8 feet wide by 4.4 feet tall, made it small enough to fit in so many truck beds and also small enough to fit on cheap 5-foot by 8-foot utility trailers. It was also only 190 pounds, making it light enough to be dragged by a single strong person, or carried by two people.
That was it. No electrical system, no plumbing, and not even any lights. You had a queen mattress, some windows, a door, and a passthrough for an extension cord.
The Freedom Campers line is now much bigger than it used to be. The smallest camper in the lineup is just 6.6 feet long by 4 feet wide, even smaller than the original design. There are three other sizes joining it, including 6.6 feet by 4.4 feet, 7.4 feet by 4.8 feet, and 7.4 feet by 6 feet.
The smallest camper, pictured below, is said to be tiny enough to fit in the bed of a Ford Maverick with the tailgate down, or in the bed of a Kei truck.
Here’s what the little guy looks like on the inside:
The campers can be ordered with a trailer mounting kit, a truck bed mounting kit, or both. Or you can just strap the camper down to a trailer or truck bed. The three smaller campers weigh 180 pounds each, while the big one weighs 270 pounds. One notable upgrade is that each camper now ships with a roof that has composite rails that you’re supposed to mount an awning, solar panels, or gear onto.
Each camper ships with the same feature set as the old HitchHiker Camper, which is to say that you get a bed, windows, a door, and a passthrough for an extension cord. This is intentional, as Freedom Campers says that its sleeping blocks are supposed to be a blank slate for you to modify any way you want.
This time, however, the camper does come with an option list. You can get your Freedom Camper with a vent fan and a 12-volt air conditioner. These options don’t come installed; instead, you’re given instructions on how to install them anywhere you want on your camper. Of course, you can also just buy your own parts from the aftermarket.
Freedom Campers says that its little camping modules have been a hit with hotshot drivers and people who would rather build out their own camper rather than spend tens of thousands of dollars on a factory build. The hotshot driver use case is something echoed by the reader who tipped me off to Freedom Campers, Ian.
The Entire Lineup Is Under $5,000
The cheapest and smallest Freedom Camper is $3,499.99, while the largest is $4,599.99. The pricing includes a mounting kit for either a truck or a trailer. The three smaller sizes can be shipped right to your door, while the largest is shipped to a local freight depot, where you have to pick it up. Or, if you happen to have a business address and your own forklift, the big one can be shipped right to you.
I’m just happy that I can even write an update about this company. The ever-changing RV market has taken down a number of startups, and I’m always saddened to look up a camper I’ve written about just to learn that it’s gone. It’s also great news that this company has plenty of proof that people are actually buying its products.
If you fit into the niche of folks that this camper is made for, it seems like you’ll enjoy it. Freedom Camper units have largely positive reviews, and owners seem to be getting creative with them. Of course, you could probably get a fully-featured used travel trailer for about the price of one of these, so whether the price is a value to you will depend on your view. But it’s still nice to see an option out there that’s under $4,000.
Top graphic image: Freedom Campers
Looks like a walk-in dumpster.