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Part of my downsizing plan for retirement was to replace my customized 20 foot trailer with a truck camper. I also wanted a popup camper to help reduce drag and help with fuel mileage with diesel hovering around the $4.50-$5.00 mark.
If you’re not familiar with a popup truck camper, basically the top of the camper “pops up” and uses a canvas material for the upper walls. It also has full 360 degree wrap around windows. When you’re not using the camper, the roof is lowered and the canvas folds back inside. The result is a much lower profile and lighter camper.
My first hope was to find a good used older model. As you probably know, any factory RV’s or campers made recently are built cheaply and the quality of workmanship is terrible. As hard as I looked, I couldn’t find anything decent used that would meet my standards. So I finally decided I would buy a brand new 2023 Palimino 1240. The going rate was about $24K for one of these. So I went to my credit union and got a loan for the camper. I had a check in hand and just needed to travel to Jerome, ID to pick it up.
As luck would have it, even though I had pretty much stopped looking at this point, a few days before I would leave to get the new camper, I happened to be checking Facebook marketplace and to my surprise, I found an ad for a 2007 Sunvalley Apache at Rodeo RV in Ellensburg, WA. I knew right away from the pictures this was the camper I had been waiting to find. It was the biggest popup they made that year and it would only fit a truck with an 8 foot bed. BINGO! My Dodge has an 8 foot bed. It was like it was meant to be ; )
I called the dealer and spoke with the manager and it turns out the camper was owned by an older gentleman who was meticulous in the care of the camper. It had been stored under cover it’s whole life and inside and out it looked brand new. I couldn’t believe it! So needless to say, I cancelled the order for the new camper, did the deal for this one and went and picked it up.
While I may have paid a little more than I should have for it, it was less than 1/2 of what the new camper cost. In my mind, not only did I save a ton of money, but the quality and workmanship of this 2007 model far exceeded the cheaply built Palimino I had been looking at. I couldn’t be happier with the way things worked out!
My popup camper along with my small trailer to haul my quad and gear should really help improve my fuel mileage and save me some money.
Here are some pictures of this beautiful camper. Click any of the pictures to enlarge them. Then you can scroll through each one by one.
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