A Man Built A Camper So Stealthy It Looks Like A Random Stack Of Pallets

There is a movement of people out there who live in an RV, but don’t really want to advertise it. But how do you live in an RV and somehow make it look like you’re not living in an RV? For many crafty builders, the solution is to build a stealthy camper that looks like something most people will easily ignore. I’ve seen it done with vans painted as trade machines and box trucks made to look like rental movers, but I think I may have found the final boss of stealth campers: this man built a cheap camper that hides under what appears to be a random stack of pallets.

There are some valid reasons that someone might want to build a stealth camper. Living in an RV still has a negative stigma attached to it, and these people don’t really want to bring any attention to themselves. Building a stealth camper may also allow someone to park their camper in a place where a typical RV might not be welcome. Parking an RV outside of a neighborhood for too long might result in a cop knocking on your door. Some cities even have RV parking bans in place. But, park a plain white van in the same place, and it might be several days before anyone even notices. Add ladders, and it’ll blend in even more as you just look like another contractor.

There’s plenty of debate out there about the efficacy of the stealth camper concept. Some love it, some think it’s a waste of time. I’m not here to litigate that. Instead, I just want to show you the most interesting stealth camper I’ve seen in a long time. This one was built by Steve Wallis, a YouTuber who loves to challenge himself to camp in the weirdest possible places:

The Pallet Camper

Steve starts off the video with a tour, and this will be one of the quickest build descriptions I’ve ever written. His build starts with a regular flatbed trailer. On top of that trailer is a simple plywood box. On top of the box is a tall stack of pallets that have been cut so that the box fits inside. That’s it. There’s no insulation or anything like that. The only thing separating the weather from the box is plastic house wrap on the inside of the box, and Steve shows that the plastic isn’t even keeping water out. Somehow, this is technically a solid-wall camper that has less weather protection than a mediocre tent!

The interior is ridiculously minimalist. Steve has a cot to sleep on and a TV screen to look at. That TV is receiving a feed from four cameras, which function as a 360-degree surveillance system. The idea here is that Steve can watch out for any weird happenings, but also to see if there’s nobody outside so he could leave the camper without blowing his cover.

The cheapness of the camper is charming. The rear door is just a pallet on a hinge that stays closed using a magnet and a ratchet strap. Heck, Steve even says that while the camper is screwed together, more ratchet straps hold it onto the trailer.

Steve then demonstrates the supposed effectiveness of a camper like this by taking it to the parking lot of a Peavey Mart hardware store. For our U.S. readers, that’s your clue that this is going down in the lands of our friendly northern neighbors.

Anyway, this is sort of the brilliance of a stealth camper like this. Nobody’s going to care about a stack of pallets parked out front of a hardware store. Yet, this particular store was near a pet store, a gas station, a convenience store, and a restaurant.

As for power, Steve is using a “Fllyrower” (yes, that’s the real brand name) 12.8-volt, 100 Ah lithium iron phosphate battery with a battery management system and a Black and Decker 500-watt inverter. Steve said he chose the battery because the BMS makes the battery safer. As I wrote before in my lithium motorcycle battery piece, a BMS can prevent damage from charging, discharging, temperature swings, and more.

Steve was also pretty upfront about the downsides. He said the video embedded above took three tries to get right. In one previous attempt, the inverter shorted out and overvolted the battery. The BMS responded by shutting the battery down to protect itself, which ruined the whole experiment. We aren’t told what happened the other two times.

That battery also isn’t doing much. It’s powering a slow cooker and the interior lights, and that’s it. The cameras have their own battery backup. Steve’s only “luxury” is a skylight made out of an old window. There’s no heat, no HVAC, not even a cassette toilet.

Steve also notes that he did screw up in some ways because the wiring for the lights was potentially so shoddy that he didn’t want to chance leaving the battery hooked up all night. He also didn’t make a cover for the skylight, which means turning on the lights at night causes light to bleed out of the top of the camper. Thankfully, that wasn’t a problem this time because the parking lot lights were so bright that using the trailer’s lights made no impact.

Is This The Future Of Camping?

Steve then sleeps in the camper and wakes up seemingly refreshed. He concludes that this pallet rig needs some big refinements, but Steve thinks it’s the way of the future. Steve notes that a lot of vanlifers like taking work vans and covering them in solar panels, but that people can tell that’s a camper. I mean, he has a point there. When was the last time your plumber had a bunch of solar panels on his van?

I’m not entirely sure that a pallet camper is the future. I mean, it was extremely cool, yes. But this camper leaked so much water that it was somehow worse than a tent, which is actually sort of impressive. Also, the lack of heating or air-conditioning would be a non-starter in many regions. Still, I like the concept and the creativity. Now, the next time I see a stack of pallets on a trailer, I’m going to stare at them for just a little longer.

Hat tip to the Drive.

Top graphic images: Steve Wallis; Wayfair