This New Camper Is Basically Just The Bed Of A Toyota Pickup Truck With A Living Room In It

Countless travelers all around the world are used to camping out in purpose-built travel trailers, motorhomes, and expedition trucks. These vehicles are often like hotel rooms with wheels. But what happens when you take a bunch of parts that technically aren’t about camping, and you slap them into one rig? This is the Carryboy 840 Caravan, and it’s basically the bed of a Toyota Hilux with a living room shoved into a fiberglass cap, all attached to a trailer frame. Yes, this really is a factory-built camper!

One of the greatest joys of the custom RV is seeing what builders use as their base. Many people build their rigs out of durable vehicles like school buses, ambulances, or work vans. Some folks get creative and turn unexpected cargo vehicles into campers, like box trucks, airport catering trucks, cargo trailers, or truck beds. That last one is fascinating, as some builders will turn the bed of a pickup truck into a trailer and then build a camper on top of it.

I have seen truck bed trailer campers countless times over the years. I’ve also seen people chop up cars or SUVs and turn those into camper trailers, too. Then there are people who plop truck bed campers or pop-up campers onto cargo trailers. But I cannot say I’ve ever seen this done by a company before. Well, Carryboy of Thailand has genuinely surprised me with its new 840 Caravan. This camper is basically just a Toyota Hilux Vigo J truck bed with a cap and a bed in it, but built by a factory.

From Thailand

I found the Carryboy 840 Caravan over on Autoevolution, but amazingly, the writer over there somehow missed just how silly this camper really is. When I saw photos of the thing, its bizarre shape, amber turn signals, and reverse lights tipped me off to this not being any mere fiberglass camper, as that article says. Instead, it’s a smart combination of products that Carryboy already makes.

If the Carryboy name sounds familiar to you, it could be because you read my article from 2024 about how Carryboy made an affordable motorhome out of the $13,000 Toyota Hilux Champ pickup. Here’s what I wrote about Carryboy’s history back then:

Carryboy is a company founded in 1969 as T.R.K. Bangkok Industry & Exporter Co.,ltd. That original company was a parts wholesaler. In 1982, the company began production of the Carryboy fiberglass pickup truck cap. Within years, sales spread outside of Thailand and the company’s cap got TÜV certification in Germany in 1986. Over time, Carryboy’s product line has expanded to include commercial truck boxes, ambulances, service trucks, minibuses, and now campers.

The company says that, today, it exports its products to more than 150 countries on all continents. Apparently, Carryboy’s most popular products are car accessories, which the company produces more than 150,000 examples of each month. Second to that would be 6,000 fiberglass caps for pickup trucks each month. The company’s RV division is a bit newer and currently produces about two campers a month.

That RV lineup is expansive and currently has 11 variations, of which three are camper trailers. Most of these RVs look exactly as you’d expect every camper to. Then you land on the odd one out, the 840 Caravan “teardrop trailer.” What the heck? Why does it look like this?

It’s Even Weirder Than It Looks

Annoyingly, Carryboy’s site doesn’t offer much of an explanation whatsoever. The product listing just says:

The 840 teardrop trailer is an upgraded model crafted for maximum comfort and convenience. Fully customizable to suit your needs, it is ideal for use as a towable office or for an enhanced camping experience.

This trailer’s design and construction allow you to embrace the joys of camping while enjoying maximum comfort. Its versatility makes it suitable for tourism, work outings, hosting gatherings, or spending quality time with family on your travels.

The interior features modern furnishings while retaining the distinctive charm of the series, creating a warm atmosphere enhanced by high-quality upholstery. It is fully customizable to meet your needs.

Well, that was unhelpful. But the odd shape of this camper and its lighting make it clear that this is a truck bed. A little more digging through the images reveals Toyota Hilux Vigo J badging. Alright, now we’re getting somewhere. But why? Why is Carryboy building a camper out of a truck bed? Surely, wouldn’t making a fiberglass egg camper be easier?

The likely reason why Carryboy made this camper out of a truck bed is that it’s a parts-bin special. Carryboy operates a division called Carryboy Trailer, and its specialty is building custom trailers and, important for the 840 Caravan, converting pickup truck beds into cargo trailers. Here’s how they start:

Here’s what they look like on the other side:

Carryboy Trailer calls its pickup bed conversion the “pick-up load bin trailer,” and it’s pretty much just a Toyota truck bed with a custom frame underneath and the fuel door deleted.

There are three enclosed variants of the trailer: the 840, the 1050, and the SX. The 840 and 1050 are supposed to be mobile offices, while the SX is just a truck bed trailer with a hard tonneau cover.

While not important for the camper trailer, I also want to point out that Carryboy also makes concession trailers and bizarre dog washing trailers.

Now, there’s one more product involved here, and it’s a truck cap. I wondered where the “840” in 840 Caravan came from, and it comes from the fact that the camper’s upper shell is just the Carryboy Canopy Cityboy 840 truck topper. This is the same kind of cap that people buy for trucks here in America, but it is meant to be slapped onto common pickups in Thailand.

The cap is made out of two shells of molded fiberglass bonded to make a single piece. Standard features include a rotary lock, screened tinted windows, and a PVC liner.

Honestly, this is pretty brilliant. The Carryboy 840 Caravan is just two existing Carryboy products mashed together. The interior is then filled out with a dinette that turns into a bed plus lights and an electrical system. Carryboy also added a fiberglass front cap for storage.

Sadly, the company doesn’t say anything about weight, additional features, or even price. However, the interior length is around 7.5 feet. Add on the front cap and the tongue, and I would not be surprised if the total length from coupler to bumper is under 13 feet.

Usually, I try to keep my RV content roughly limited to campers that most of our readers could buy. Unless you got clever with the American authorities, the Carryboy 840 Caravan is not that. It’s also unlikely you’ll see one of these in America after they turn 25 years old. However, it’s so weird and so delightful that I just couldn’t pass up on it.

Much of the world is full of campers that are little more than white boxes with a hotel room inside. I love highlighting the strange and weird campers that aren’t that. I love how this thing is pretty much what people build DIY, but from a company. Suddenly, I would love to see what a company like Ford could do by turning a Super Duty’s bed into a camper.